The war in Gaza has taken a catastrophic toll on women and girls. They have lost homes and loved ones and lack access to food, water, protection and health care. Many have been displaced at least once, moving from one unsafe place to another.
Shelters are overcrowded, and sanitation conditions are dire, exposing women and girls to violence, infection and disease.
(UN News)* — Between 2006 and 2024, over 1,700 journalists have been killed around the world, and around 85 percent of the cases did not make it to court, according to a report by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The dangers faced by journalists, including risks to their lives, are highlighted each year on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, which falls on November 2.
(UN News)* — In a landmark move towards ending statelessness, Thailand’s cabinet has approved an accelerated pathway to permanent residency and nationality for nearly half a million stateless people, marking one of the region’s most significant citizenship initiatives.
The decision announced on Friday [] will benefit 335,000 longtime residents and members of officially recognized minority ethnic groups, along with approximately 142,000 of their children born in Thailand.
Rome, 31 October 2024(FAO/WFP)*– Acute food insecurity is set to increase in both magnitude and severity across 22 countries and territories, according to a new United Nations report.
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 1 2024 (IPS)* – The United Nations continues to be virtually paralyzed – and remains politically impotent amidst two raging conflicts—as Russia and Israel keep defying the world body.
Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías
The killings of civilians and the destruction of cities, particularly by Israel, are devastating and continue despite repeated warnings from the UN, its humanitarian agencies, the International Criminal Court (ICC), UN human right experts and the Security Council.
Which prompts the question: has the UN outlived its usefulness –even as it commemorated its 79th anniversary on the annual UN Day on October 24?
The UN General Assembly on Wednesday [] once again urged the United States to end its economic, commercial, and financial embargo on Cuba, renewing a demand it has made annually since 1992.
UN Photo/Evan Schneider | UN General Assembly votes on the draft resolution on the necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba.
The resolution, titled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba,” passed with 187 votes in favor, two against (Israel and the US), and one abstention (Moldova).
CALI, Columbia, Oct 31 2024 (IPS)* – José Aruna, a forest defender from Sud Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), remembers the night in September 2019 when a group of heavily armed men barged into his house in the middle of the night.
Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General at COP16, sent a message that peace with nature was only possible if there was a political solution to conflicts. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS
Aruna and his wife—6 months pregnant at the time—were in bed when he heard sounds of boots on the front yard and quickly knew something was about to happen.
He silently slipped out of the bed and hid behind a tree at the back of the house.
Care responsibilities are excluding and holding back millions of women worldwide from taking paid employment, and with climate and demographic changes on course to increase the demand for care, measures to support the care economy are urgently needed, according to a new ILO brief. Open the brief
.
.
An estimated 708 million women worldwide are outside the labour force because of unpaid care responsibilities, according to new ILO global estimates, released on Tuesday [], on the occasion of the International Day of Care and Support.
There are high hopes that artificial intelligence (AI) can help tackle some of the world’s biggest environmental emergencies. Among other things, the technology is already being used to map the destructive dredging of sand and chart emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Close-up of an electronic circuit board showing microchips and components. (Photo by TEK IMAGE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / ABO / Science Photo Library via AFP)
But when it comes to the environment, there is a negative side to the explosion of AI and its associated infrastructure, according to a growing body of research.
By Amy E. Pope, Director General, International Organization for Migration*
Port Sudan, 29 October (IOM)* – Good morning, I am glad to be able to speak with you this morning live from Port Sudan.
I arrived here yesterday on a four-day visit, into a deteriorating security situation with alarming reports of new atrocities.
IOM Director General interacts with some of those who have been displaced by the ongoing conflict in Sudan. Photo: IOM/Philippa Lowe
I have heard distressing detail from our teams on the ground of the conditions faced by ordinary Sudanese people whose lives have been thrown into turmoil by this conflict.
Livestock-holding farmers and herders receive animal fodder distributed by FAO to support local food production in Rafah, Gaza Strip. ©FAO/Yousef Alrozzi
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 