(UN News)* — Independent UN human rights experts castigated Malaysia on Wednesday [24 February 2021] over its decision to deport more than1,000 detained migrants back to crisis-ridden Myanmar – despite a court order to suspend their return, pending a judicial review.
Unsplash/Alex Hudson | A food market in Kelantan, Malaysia.
Malaysian immigration authorities returned 1,086 migrants, including unaccompanied minors and toddlers as young as three, the UN experts said in a statement on Wednesday.
In defiance of the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s order, the Malaysian authorities “breached the principle of non-refoulement, a rule of jus cogens, which absolutely prohibits the collective deportation of migrants without an objective risk assessment being conducted in each individual case”, they said.
24 February 2021 (UN News)* — The United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) has called on the military in Myanmar to end harassment and intimidation of workers, and ensure that they can exercise their rights to freedom of expression, in a climate free of violence and fear.
Unsplash/Alexander Schimmeck | The street leading to the Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon, Myanmar. (file photo)
In a statement on Tuesday [23 February 2021], the agency said it received allegations that police and military are conducting door to door searches for trade unionists at their dormitories and hostels in the Hlaingtharyar industrial township, in the country’s largest city, Yangon.
It is alleged that the acts of harassment and intimidation “largely targeted” young female workers working in the private sector industries of Yangon, who are living far away from their families in the rural areas, ILO said.
GENEVA, (OHCHR)* – UN experts* on 23 February 2021said the US Administration’s review of how to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre should also address ongoing violations of human rights being committed against the 40 remaining detainees, including torture and other ill- treatment.
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Unsplash/Hédi Benyounes | Barbed wire fencing surrounds a detention centre.
“We welcome the goal of closing the detention facility, consistent with our previous calls to end impunity for the human rights and humanitarian law violations committed during the ‘war on terror’. As the 20thanniversary of 9/11 looms, we urge a transparent, comprehensive, and accountability-focused review of the operation and legacy of the prison and the military commissions,” the experts said.
US President Joe Biden announced this month that his Administration would study how it could shut down Guantanamo, as was first promised by former president Barack Obama.
23 February 2021 (UN News)* — People living in low-income countries are at least four times more likely to be displaced by extreme weather compared to people in rich countries, despite being the least responsible for climate change, that’s according to the UN’s humanitarian office, OCHA.
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IRIN/Jacob Zocherman | The most vulnerable people in the world, like these displaced persons in South Sudan, are more likely to suffer from the effects of climate change.
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The UN is warning that much more needs to be done to anticipate, and plan for, the extreme weather events that put millions in need of urgent assistance.
Ankara, 20 February 2021 (IOM)* – Turkey, host to almost four million refugees and migrants, has established a dedicated United Nations Network on Migration (UNNM). The initiative flows from the 2018 Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), the first cooperative framework addressing international migration.
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As GCM convenor, IOM hosted a gathering in the Turkish capital Ankara on 18 February 2021, which brought together United Nations representatives to formally bring the country’s UNNM into being.
The world we live in has been built around an economic system that prioritises never-ending growth over the welfare of people and the planet. This system plunders our planet’s resources while oppressing our most vulnerable. It perpetuates structural inequalities and deepens the climate crisis and fossil fuels are at its core and is known as “Fossil Capital”.
20 February 2021 (UNEP)* — The COVID-19 pandemic is drawing young people around the world into the fight against climate change, as witnessed this week during the Youth Environment Assembly.
Photo: IISD/19 Feb 2021
The gathering, which is being held virtually, as part of the UN Environment Assembly, is the planet’s largest youth-led environmental event. It has zeroed in on climate change, which participants described as a dire threat to the planet.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19 2021 (IPS)* – Yemen is heading towards the worst famine the world has seen in decades, the United Nations Security Council was warned in a briefing yesterday [18 February 2021].
Volunteers teach people living in settlements about COVID-19. This photo was taken in Sana’a, Yemen. At a Security Council briefing yesterday UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator said people in Yemen are more worried about hunger than the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Dhia Al-Adimi/UNICEF
Computer stations in the renovated Delegates’ Lounge at United Nations Headquarters. PHOTO:UN Photo/Mark Garten
20 February 2021 (United Nations)* — The digital economy is transforming the world of work. Over the past decade, expansion in broadband connectivity, cloud computing, and data have led to the proliferation of digital platforms, which have penetrated several sectors of the economy and societies.
Since early 2020, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to remote working arrangements and allowed for the continuation of many business activities, further reinforcing the growth and impact of the digital economy.
KINSHASA/DAKAR/GENEVA/NEW YORK (UNICEF)* — The lives and futures of more than 3 million displaced children are at risk in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) while the world is looking the other way, a report released by the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, on 19 February 2021 said.
UNICEF DRC 2020
In the east of the country, a succession of brutal attacks by fighters using machetes and heavy weapons have forced whole communities to flee with only the barest of possessions. Entire families — including children – have been hacked to death. Health centres and schools have been ransacked, and whole villages set ablaze.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 