(Human Rights Watch) – First the bad news: the United Nations secretary-general’s annual report on children and armed conflict found a 35 percent increase in violence against children compared to the year before. But there’s good news too: incidents of armed groups – be they government forces or rebel groups – using schools for military purposes are down 14 percent […]
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(UN ECOSOC) – Prompt and effective action was key to addressing the sweeping impact of armed conflict on children as well as the myriad effects of climate change on the most vulnerable sectors of society, speakers said today as the Economic and Social Council continued its humanitarian affairs segment. Held under the theme “Restoring Humanity, Respecting […]
(Human Rights Watch) – The United Nations Security Council should ensure that its peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s Darfur region continues to conduct human rights monitoring and public reporting in all of Darfur. The mandate of the joint African Union-United Nations mission in Darfur (UNAMID) is due for renewal by the end of June 2018. The Security Council […]
(UN News) – The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) new Crop Prospects and Food Situation reveals that since its last report in March, the number of countries requiring external food assistance has jumped by two, namely Cabo Verde and Senegal, to 39. According to the report, civil war and insecurity in Africa and the Middle East have displaced […]
(Human Rights Watch) – Three years ago today, representatives from countries from around the globe came together in Oslo to declare their support for the protection of students, teachers, schools, and universities during times of war. Three years later, an incredible 75 countries have joined the Safe Schools Declaration. Support for the declaration has come from the highest […]
(OSRSG-CAAC) – The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Children and Armed Conflict expressed her satisfaction at the progress made in the implementation of the Action Plan to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict signed in March 2016 by the Government of Sudan, but noted that more needs to […]
(OCHA) – A real surprise greeted children attending the Um Algean school in a small mountain village of Nertiti in Darfur at the beginning of the school year. After years in temporary spaces, the old straw and clay had been replaced by eight spanking new classrooms, complete with chalk boards, chairs and desks, boy and girl […]
(Thomson Reuters Foundation) – In western Uganda’s Kyangwali refugee settlement, Tamari Mutesi teaches tailoring to young women who do not go to school. The initiative she works with aims to combat violence against young single mothers and other refugee girls, including those mistreated by their husbands, by helping them gain economic independence. Link
(The Guardian) – A stark warning from the UN in mid-December that genocide may be taking place in Myanmar has been met by an awkward silence around the world, indicating a limited appetite for forceful humanitarian intervention, even in the most extreme cases. The persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority is beginning to resemble the plight […]
(The Huffington Post) – The unspeakable atrocities that are happening in South Sudan are unfathomable, not only because of the scope of savagery in the war between the Dinka and Nuer peoples, but also because it defies every tenet of our civilized being in which we take so much pride. Civilization, however, has hardly penetrated […]
