Month: January 2023
Home, belonging, and the Holocaust
In 1933, Hitler began putting the party’s core racist and nationalist ideology into practice, identifying who could claim Germany as home and who in their view, really belonged in the country. This process went way beyond enacting legislation to define and exclude Jews from society: the Nazis launched misinformation and hate speech campaigns vilifying and…
Read MoreTwo-thirds of Yemenis need humanitarian support and protection
The UN humanitarian affairs office OCHA is calling for $4.3 billion to reach the 17.3 million most vulnerable people in need, whose lives have been turned upside down because of protracted war, displacement and economic collapse, compounded by recurrent natural disasters. Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when Houthi rebels took the capital, Sana’a, forcing…
Read MoreOdesa added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List amid threats of destruction
This decision recognizes the outstanding universal value of the site and the duty of all humanity to protect it. ‘Reinforced protection’ “Odesa, a free city, a world city, a legendary port that has left its mark on cinema, literature and the arts, is thus placed under the reinforced protection of the international community,” said Audrey…
Read MoreSecurity Council: 12 years of war, leaves 70 per cent of Syrians needing aid
“As we move into 2023, the Syrian people remain trapped in a profound humanitarian, political, military, security, economic and human rights crisis of great complexity and almost unimaginable scale,” said Geir Pedersen, UN Special Envoy for Syria. Outlining recent developments, he reiterated his previous calls for calm on the ground, good faith engagement in Syria’s stalled Constitutional Committee…
Read MoreGlobal growth forecast to slow to 1.9% in 2023, warn UN economists
This will be one of the lowest growth rates in recent decades, apart from during the 2007-8 financial crisis and the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “In most countries we expect that private consumption and investment will weaken due to incomes and higher income rates”, said Ingo Pitterle, Senior Economist at the UN Department of…
Read MoreMali: WHO doctor seized by ‘unidentified assailants’, as UNHCR raises alarm over continuing violence
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a tweet posted on Tuesday that WHO was working with local authorities to investigate the abduction of Dr. Mahamadou Diawara, who had worked for the agency in the town for around three years, “and ensure our colleague’s quick return to his family.” WHO said in a statement that he had…
Read MoreCandlenuts, chilli and chickens: Transforming Indonesia’s rural economy
Wilfridus Ngala, the mayor of Inegena, a village nestled amidst the central hills of Ngada district, on Flores Island, had a vision – to turn his community of 1,100 people, most of them subsistence farmers, into an agricultural powerhouse with its own food processing industry and exports. Mayor Ngala’s idea might sound far-fetched but, a…
Read MorePolice overwhelmed, development stalled, as gang violence spirals in Haiti
“Years of hard-fought recovery gains are being undone, and Haitians are grappling with setting the country back on a path to democracy,” said Helen La Lime, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Haiti. Turf wars Briefing the 15-member Council, Ms. La Lime said more than 2,100 murders and some 1,300 kidnappings were reported in 2022,…
Read MorePalestinian refugees face hitting ‘rock bottom’, warns UNRWA in $1.6 billion appeal
Head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, told journalists in Geneva that competing global crises, and skyrocketing levels of poverty and unemployment among Palestine refugees, have put immense strain on them – and the agency – which started the year some $70 million in arrears. “On the one hand we are asked to deliver public-like services to…
Read MoreWHO calls for action to totally eliminate trans fat, ‘a toxic chemical that kills’
Industrially produced trans fat – commonly found in packaged foods, baked goods, cooking oils and spreads – is responsible for up to 500,000 premature deaths from coronary heart disease each year, the UN agency said. WHO has released a status report that follows up on its 2018 call for the substance to be totally eliminated…
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