While the world economy continues to show broad-based momentum, a new report released on 17 April 2018 by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is warning that there may be choppy seas ahead, caused by increasing protectionism or tit-for-tat trade wars.
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Dominic Sansoni/World Bank | Quay cranes on docks in Sri Lanka. The global economy is critically dependent on the international merchant fleet of carriers and tankers to keep commodities moving swiftly, safely and efficiently. ” Source: UN News Centre
Hundreds of migrants in Germany are reporting themselves as members of terrorist organizations in an apparent bid to avoid deportation, according to state officials.
**Photo: Police intercepts refugees and potential illegal immigrants at Munich Central Station | Wikiolo | derivative work: MagentaGreen | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
More than 450 asylum seekers in the cities of Stuttgart and Karlsruhe in the southwest state of Baden Wurttemberg have declared an affiliation with terrorist groups since the start of 2017.
18 April 2018 — Two hundred and seven child soldiers have been released by armed groups in South Sudan, part of a series of planned discharges that should see nearly 1,000 children return home over the coming months.
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UNICEF/Rich | Firearms laid down by child soldiers associated with armed groups in South Sudan. The formal discharge ceremony saw the release of 207 child soldiers, some of whom are in the background.
“No child should ever have to pick up a weapon and fight” said Mahimbo Mdoe, the head of UNICEF programmes in the country. “For every child released, today [18 April 2018] marks the start of a new life,” he said.
17 April, 2018 (UN Women)*— Indigenous peoples live across 90 countries, represent 5,000 different communities and speak a majority of the worlds languages. They account for less than 6 per cent of the world’s population, but make up 15 per cent of the poorest worldwide.
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Photos: UN Women/Ryan Brown
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As more than 1,000 indigenous representatives come together in New York for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, this year focusing on the theme “Indigenous peoples’ collective rights to lands, territories and resources”, we’re highlighting some of the groundbreaking women activists from indigenous communities around the world.
18 April 2018 — With multiple crises forcing millions of people away from their homes, United Nations agencies, Governments and partners have launched a set of measures to strengthen protection of internally displaced persons as well as find solutions to address their problems.
UNAMID/Hamid Abdulsalam | Displaced persons, mostly women and children, seek refuge at a safe zone in Um Baru, north Darfur. By the end of 2016, conflict and rights abuses displaced over 40 million globally. The same year, disasters forced another 24 million from their homes.
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“Addressing the protection needs of the forcibly displaced and seeking solutions to their plight contribute to greater stability for countries and whole regions,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in a news release announcing the three-year Plan of Action.
A senior United Nations humanitarian official on 18 April 2018 called on Israeli authorities to halt plans to demolish Palestinian-owned structures and cease plans for the relocation of Palestinian Bedouin communities in the West Bank.
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UNRWA/Alaa Ghosheh | Many Bedouin and herding communities in Area C of the West Bank are prevented from improving or building shelters by the Israeli authorities.(file)
“We are monitoring the situation in Khan al Ahmar closely and are deeply concerned by what we see here, and in the scores of other vulnerable Bedouin communities,” UN Humanitarian Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick said.
Around the globe, over one million individuals have signed petitions, taken to stores and restaurants, and posted photos of ridiculous packaging on social media to call out corporations like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestlé, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s, and Starbucks for their massive single-use plastic footprints.
SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 16 April 2018 (UNFPA)* – On the surface, child marriage seems to affect few girls in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But dig a little deeper, and a pattern emerges among the most marginalized, impoverished girls.
Young actors perform a scene from “Ruža,” an interactive play about the harms of child marriage. Photo by Almir Panjeta for UNICEF/UNFPA BiH
UNITED NATIONS, New York, 9 April 2018 (UNFPA)* – Today, international leaders are convening at United Nations Headquarters, New York, to discuss the critical issue of migration and human mobility, a megatrend that is reshaping the global landscape.
An estimated one billion people around the world are migrants – one in every seven people.
10 April 2018 (UNRWA)* — Sitting at the front of the classroom, 11-year-old Tala Al-Masri, is bright-eyed and attentive as she pursues her dream of an education at the UNRWA Zaytoun Elementary Co-Ed B School in Gaza.
In spite of being born with a severe visual impairment, leaving her with little light in her eyes, Tala’s passion for learning has been clear since she was a child. “Tala is one of the most active and wonderful students in the school,” her school principal Itaf Adel Hadi describes her.
