Archive for ‘War Lords’

25/06/2022

Nuclear-Armed Powers Squander $156.000 Per Minute on Their MAD Policy

Human Wrongs Watch

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With more than 13,000 nuclear weapons still held across the globe, “the once unthinkable prospect of nuclear conflict is now back within the realm of possibility.”

Credit: US government

According to their MAD doctrine a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by an attacker on a nuclear-armed defender, with second-strike capabilities, would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender. In short: destruction.

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25/06/2022

Horror Behind Closed Doors of Polish Residential Institution

Human Wrongs Watch

Women and Girls with Intellectual Disabilities Beaten, Tied, and Locked in Caged Bed

“My child’s nightmare lasted around a year and a half. She was beaten and locked in a caged bed, sometimes for the entire day or even two days.”

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Women hold banners during a Supermothers Day protest in Warsaw on May 26, 2018. © 2018 Luczniewski/NurPhoto via Getty Images

This is how a mother described the ordeal her daughter Kasia (pseudonym) went through in a residential institution for girls and women with intellectual disabilities in Jordanów, a small town in southern Poland.

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25/06/2022

Sexual Violence in Conflict: Overlooked, Under-reported and in Danger of Being “Normalized”

Human Wrongs Watch

UNITED NATIONS, New York, 19 June 2022 (UNFPA)* – As militants boasted about how they would divide the girls among themselves, Khetam*, a Syrian refugee in Iraq, feared for her life. “Two commanders had chosen me and my friend as their brides,” she recalled to UNFPA. The so-called “marriage” would mean rape and control for as long as the militants desired.

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Sexual violence in conflict: Overlooked, under-reported and in danger of being “normalized”
Accompanied by a mobile medical team, a UNFPA health care worker carries out regular visits to Homs, Syria. © UNFPA Syria
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“When we objected that we were too young to wed, they beat us and tortured us for most of that night, until we had no choice but to relent.”

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25/06/2022

Forced Displacement Hit Record High in 2021 with Too Few Able to Go Home

Human Wrongs Watch

The number of people forced to flee violence, war and persecution, is outpacing the available solutions. Español   |  Français   |  عربي

Nine-year-old Fauzia* and her three-year-old sister Aseela* in their temporary accommodation in Kabul. *Names have been changed.

Two internally displaced sisters from Jalalabad pictured in their temporary accommodation in Kabul, Afghanistan. © UNHCR/Andrew McConnell

GENEVA (UNHCR)* – The number of people displaced by conflict, violence, persecution and human rights abuses rose for the tenth straight year in 2021 to reach the highest level since records began, according to the latest Global Trends report released on 16 June 2022 by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

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24/06/2022

UN Agencies Rush to Aid Afghanistan Following Deadly Quake

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — The UN and partners have rushed to support Afghanistan following a devastating earthquake that hit two provinces in the east of the country early on Wednesday [22 June 2022] morning.

WHO Afghanistan | WHO teams are supporting local health workers in saving lives and taking care of people affected by the earthquake in Afghanistan.

At least 1,000 people have been killed, according to media reports, and numbers are expected to rise.  Nearly 2,000 homes reportedly were also destroyed and scores of people displaced.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was saddened to learn about the tragic loss of life, noting that Afghans were already reeling from the impact of years of conflict, economic hardship and hunger.

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24/06/2022

Global Hunger Crisis Pushing One Child Per Minute into Severe Malnutrition

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Because of the global hunger crisis, every single minute, one child is pushed into life-threatening, severe malnutrition.

© UNICEF/Ismail Taxta | A one-year-old boy suffering from severe malnutrition gets his upper arm circumference measured at a hospital in Dolow, Ethiopia.

That’s the alarming message on Thursday [23 June 2022] from UN Children’s Fund UNICEF, which issued the alert for 15 countries in crisis where the situation is worsening.

UNICEF has called for $1.2 billion to meet urgent needs of eight million children at risk of death from severe wasting, in 15 mainly African nations, such as Burkina Faso, Chad, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan, but also Afghanistan and Haiti.

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22/06/2022

Urgent Global Call to Save 222 Million Dreams for Children Impacted by Crises

Human Wrongs Watch

“We speak of the 222 million dreams representing each 222 million children and adolescents sustaining the extreme hardship of emergencies and protracted crises. Their dreams are profoundly driven by their experience of wars and forced displacement. This is our moment to empower them to turn their dreams into reality.” Yasmine Sherif, Director, ECW

Students attending class at the Souza Gare school in the Littoral region, Cameroon. The school hosts displaced children who have fled the violence in the North-West and South-West regions. Photo credits: ECW/Daniel Beloumou

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21/06/2022

War in Ukraine Triggers New International Non-Alignment Trend

Human Wrongs Watch

CARACAS, Jun 20 2022 (IPS)* – Numerous countries of the developing South are distancing themselves from the contenders in the war in Ukraine, using the debate on the conflict to underscore their independence and pave the way for a kind of new de facto non-alignment with regard to the main axes of world power.  | En español
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View of the United Nations General Assembly, which on three occasions this year has censured the invasion of Russian forces in Ukraine and where many countries have expressed non-alignment with the positions taken by the contenders. CREDIT: Manuel Elias/UN

View of the United Nations General Assembly, which on three occasions this year has censured the invasion of Russian forces in Ukraine and where many countries have expressed non-alignment with the positions taken by the contenders. CREDIT: Manuel Elias/UN

Meetings and votes on the conflict at the United Nations and in other forums, the search for support or neutrality, and negotiations to cushion the impact of the economic crisis accentuated by the war are the spaces where the process of new alignment is taking place, according to analysts consulted by IPS.

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20/06/2022

Amidst Escalating Needs and Soaring Hunger, Refugees Caught in the Eye of the Perfect Storm  

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Further food ration cuts are imminent for refugees as humanitarian needs multiply around the world while funding struggles to keep pace, the UN food relief agency warned on Monday [20 June 2022], World Refugee Day.

©WFP | The World Food Programme (WFP) distributes high energy biscuits to more than 900 Ethiopian refugees in Sudan after fleeing conflict in Basunga village.

“As global hunger soars way beyond the resources available to feed all the families who desperately need WFP’s help, we are being forced to make the heart-breaking decision to cut food rations for refugees who rely on us for their survival,” said David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP).

The sombre warning comes as WFP has already been forced to significantly reduce rations to refugees across its operations.

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20/06/2022

Sexual Violence in Conflict ‘Terrorizes Populations, Destroys Lives and Fractures Communities’

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Sexual violence has become a brutal tactic of warfare and repression that “terrorizes populations, destroys lives and fractures communities,” the UN chief said on Friday [17 June 2022].

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© UN Women/Khaled Arafat Ahmed | A women’s empowerment awareness session is held at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh.
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In his message for the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, commemorated on Sunday, Secretary-General António Guterres also observed that perpetrators rarely face the consequences of their actions.
“It is the survivors who carry the burden of stigma and trauma throughout their lives, often doubly brutalized by harmful social norms and victim-blaming”.