MADRID, Dec 11 2024 (IPS)* – The available data is self-explanatory: business-prompted human activities have already altered over 70% of the Earth’s lands, with 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil lost due to industrial agriculture, the excessive use of chemicals, overgrazing, deforestation, pollution and other major threats.
Human activity has degraded over 70% of Earth’s land, with 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil lost annually. It takes up to 1,000 years to produce just 2-3 cm of soil. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS
Border Guards Use Force, Deny Access to Asylum Procedures
(Budapest) – Polish law enforcement is unlawfully, and sometimes violently, forcing people trying to enter the country back to Belaruswithout considering their protection needs, Human Rights Watch said on 10 December 2024.
(UN News)* — Syria’s historic power reset coupled with the highly volatile situation there, has increased basic needs in a country where nearly 17 million people already depended on aid, UN aid teams insisted on Tuesday [].
For those forced to flee the country’s 13-year war, “they are considering how safe Syria is to return to, and how far their rights will be respected before they can make an informed, voluntary decision to return home; they must be given the space to do so without any pressure”, said Shabia Mantoo, a spokesperson from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
2 Dec 2024 – Racism is at the core of Western societies complicity in Israeli’s genocide against the Arab Palestinians. That is self-evident.
The United States and Britain are more than accomplices; they are co-belligerents. The behavior of all has been constant over 14 months of graphic depiction day-by-day of atrocities of the most heinous kinds.
Bremmer, Michael
Racism, though, is a multifaceted phenomenon. It encompasses a wide range of attitudes and actions.
They should be parsed as a precondition for analyzing which have been operative in this case, how they shaped policies and interventions, how reconciled with the values of liberal democracies, and how sustained in the face of such glaring criminal abuses of humanity.
(UN News)* — At least 184 people, including 127 elderly men and women, were killed in Haiti’s Wharf Jérémie neighbourhood of Cité Soleil over the weekend, prompting strong condemnation from Secretary-General António Guterres.
According to local reports, the elderly victims were massacred under the orders of a gang leader in the area who consulted a voodoo priest after his son fell ill and died, who pinned the blame for the mystery illness on elders using witchcraft.
CARACAS, Dec 9 2024 (IPS)* – Poverty, while declining in Latin America and the Caribbean so far this century, shows a new face, that of the looming vulnerability of the poor as they become less rural and more urban, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says in a new analysis. | En español
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The Altos de Florida neighbourhood in southwest Bogotá shows the shift from rural to urban landscapes. Credit: UNDP
UN galvanizes regional migrant and refugee response amid persistent challenges
IOM/Gema Cortés | A Venezuelan family makes the long journey from the southern border of Peru to capital Lima.
Migrants and refugees across Latin America and the Caribbean face profound challenges in accessing basic needs, formal employment and safe living conditions, UN agencies reported on Friday [], launching a $1.4 billion regional plan to address their urgent needs.
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The Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (R4V), co-led by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced the 2025-2026 regional response plan to support over 2.3 million vulnerable individuals, including host communities, in 17 countries.
(UN News)* —Haiti is facing one of the worst food crises in its history, with 5.4 million people in urgent need of assistance.
Recent escalations of violence and displacement have made an already difficult situation worse, further complicating the delivery of aid and pushing families to the brink of survival.
As 2034 FIFA World Cup Decision Looms, Dangers Are Clear
(Beirut, December 4, 2024) –Migrant workers in Saudi Arabia are facing widespread abuses across employment sectors and geographic regions, including at high-profile giga-projects funded by or linked to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on 4 December 2024.
(UN News)* — Migration is one of the defining issues of our time, with migrants accounting for 3.6 per cent of the global population, the UN Deputy Secretary-General said on Thursday [], urging coordinated action to find better solutions that prioritise safety, equity and opportunity for migrants.
“Migration is not just a statistic; it is the lived experience of women, men and children, each with unique identities and vulnerabilities – pursuing better lives and opportunities. But along their journeys, they face unimaginable violence, hardship and risk,” Amina J. Mohammed said, addressing an informal meeting of the General Assembly on the subject.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 