More than 75 per cent of migrant and refugee children trying to reach Europe via the Central Mediterranean route face appalling levels of abuse, exploitation and trafficking, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said, calling on the continent to establish safe and regular pathways for migration. “The stark […]
The United Nations human rights chief today lashed out at the treatment of the Rohingya in Myanmar which has led to more than 300,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh in the past three weeks, as security forces and local militia reportedly burn villages and shoot civilians. “The situation seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” Zeid Ra‘ad […]
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today that an estimated 16 million children are in urgent need of life-saving support in the wake of torrential monsoon rains and catastrophic flooding in Nepal, India and Bangladesh. “Millions of children have seen their lives swept away by these devastating floods,” said Jean Gough, UNICEF Regional Director […]
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, on an official visit to Kuwait, expressed gratitude to not only the Gulf country’s leadership in humanitarian action, but the “dialogue […] and promotion of understanding Kuwait has shown in relation to all conflicts in the region.” Speaking to reporters after meetings with the Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, […]
A senior United Nations aid official today urged the international community to do whatever is needed to allow citizens to flee from Raqqa, describing the de facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh), the “worse place on earth.” Briefing journalists in Geneva, UN Special Adviser Jan Egeland said the five […]
Remembering the universal demand for freedom that led to the 1791 insurrection by slaves in what is now Haiti, the head of the United Nations cultural and educational agency yesterday marked the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition by underscoring the importance of teaching this history to young people. “We […]