Over the years, films have been used to inform, entertain, educate and provoke debate. It is in this spirit that IOM, the UN Migration Agency, launched The Global Migration Film Festival (GMFF) in 2016.
Cinema and migration have a magical bond stretching back over a century ago when film makers, many of whom were immigrants themselves, began making movies that depicted a world on the move.
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Their films brought the dramatic, poignant and comic stories of migrants to diverse audiences, through images that provoked feeling amongst people of every culture.
The mission of the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which enables humanitarian responders to deliver life-saving assistance whenever and wherever crises strike, is more critical than ever, said Secretary-General António Guterres on 7 December 2018, as a key pledging conference got underway at UN Headquarters in New York.
FAO/IFAD/WFP/Luis Tato | Several members of a family look from the windows of their house in the village of Dargué, Maradi region, Niger on August 16, 2018.
Looking back on his time as High Commissioner for Refugees, between 2005 and 2010, the UN chief described the CERF as the “most precious instrument” he had, to respond to new emergencies, and to address “forgotten” crises which the international community sometimes overlook.
6 December 2018 Pressenza New York*— On this show we speak with Pía Figueroa, co-director of Pressenza news agency, about the political situation in South America and the growing antihumanist unrest.
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Pía gives her perspective on this moment and offers proposals for what humanists can do in front of the current situation.
29 November 2018 (UNRWA)* – Khazneh Said is known as Um Qasem to all those around her. She lives in one of the modest shelters in Khan Dunoun camp in Rif Damascus. To reach the reception room of her house, a visitor has to avoid laundry lines laden with clothes of different colours.
Born in 1934 in al-Zwayeh, 23 km away from Safad in Palestine, Um Qasem believes it is not just the years that have left their mark, but also her difficult living conditions and displacement. But throughout her exile, UNRWA has been there to support her.
26 November 2018 (Wall Street International)* – Media has the power to transform societies through enhancing enlightenment and active citizenry. Observers occasionally refer to the media as the fourth estate owing to its influential role to further enhancing the plurality of opinions and ideas.
A free press is indispensable for facilitating good governance and transparency. It strengthens the accountability of governments as citizens can critically assess the activities of incumbents through information provided by the media. It is indispensable for facilitating good governance and transparent societies.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 5 2018 (IPS)*– The speculation that the Trump administration plans to reduce its mandatory assessed financial contributions to the UN’s regular budget was implicitly confirmed when the US president told delegates last September that Washington “is working to shift more of our funding, from assessed contributions to voluntary contributions, so that we can target American resources to the programs with the best record of success.”
The UN General Assembly will decide on any proposed cuts on US assessed contributions to the UN. Credit: UN Photo/Cia Pak
5 December 2018 — More than 17,000 children from around the globe have drawn pictures depicting their passion for human rights in an international art competition honoring the upcoming 70th anniversary of the ground-breaking Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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UNOG | 14-year-old finalist from Kazakhstan in “Kids 4 Human Rights” international art contest, 2018.
Refugees and Migrants – United Nations* — The global compact for migration is the first, intergovernmentally negotiated agreement, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations, to cover all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner.
IOM Photo 2017
Today, there are over 258 million migrants around the world living outside their country of birth.
This figure is expected to grow for a number of reasons including population growth, increasing connectivity, trade, rising inequality, demographic imbalances and climate change.
Migration provides immense opportunity and benefits – for the migrants, host communities and communities of origin.
However, when poorly regulated it can create significant challenges. These challenges include overwhelming social infrastructures with the unexpected arrival of large numbers of people and the deaths of migrants undertaking dangerous journeys.
Geneva/Djibouti City, 4 December 2018 (IOM)* – The International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) forecasts a 50 per cent year-on-year rise over 2017 in migrant arrivals to Yemen – with nearly 150,000 migrants expected to enter the country in 2018. This, despite the ongoing conflict in Yemen and deadly perils along migration routes across the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea.
Madina, an Ethiopian migrant, is one of the hundreds of thousands who travel within the Horn of Africa and the Gulf regions every year to find better opportunities. Photo: IOM/Muse Mohammed.
A new study launched on 5 December 2018 by the International Labour Organization (ILO) reveals that the number of migrant workers has jumped by millions, leaving some countries without “the most productive part of their workforce.”
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ILO/Marcel Crozet | Visa applicants at the Migration Resource Center in Nepal wishing go abroad.
According to the second edition of ILO’s Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers, approximately 164 million people left home in search of work between 2013 and 2017 – a nine per cent increase since 2013, when that number stood at 150 million.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 