The Chagos Archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean comprises Diego Garcia and more than sixty other islands. The Archipelago has been under continuous UK sovereignty since 1814 and was for most of that time administered as part of “British Mauritius.” In 1965, three years before the UK granted independence to Mauritius, it detached [...]
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Urgent action required amid spiraling risk of all-out war in Yemen
Yemen is at risk of returning to full-scale war and the international community has a common interest and responsibility to stop this from happening, UN Special Envoy for the country Hans Grundberg warned the Security Council in July. For nearly a decade, Yemen has been gripped by one of the most severe humanitarian crises in [...]
Credo quia absurdum, “I believe because it is absurd.” Tertullian For conspicuous reasons, the likelihood of direct war between Israel and Iran is increasingly “high.” What remains inconspicuous is that such a war could quickly or incrementally involve North Korean military assets. Even if Israel were able to keep Iran pre-nuclear, an already nuclear North [...]
UN warns cross-border movements undermine efforts to end female genital mutilation
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) warned on Friday that global efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM) are undermined by the cross-border movements of girls to undergo FGM. FGM is a practice that involves altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons. It can lead to both immediate [...]
9 out of 10 Gaza children experiencing severe food poverty: UNICEF report
Nine out of 10 children in Gaza could not eat nutrients from enough food groups to ensure healthy growth and development, a United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report published on Thursday found. The report points out that localized conflicts are intensifying severe child food poverty. Children in extremely fragile contexts, such as in [...]
Global executions hit highest level since 2015: Amnesty International
Global executions hit the highest level since 2015, with serious increases mainly in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, Amnesty International said in its 2023 annual report on the global use of the death penalty on Wednesday 1,153 executions were recorded in 2023 globally, marking an increase of more than 30 per cent from 2022. [...]
Can MENA Nations Lead the Way in Refugee Aid and Peace Building?
One of the major global issues facing many nations in both the developing or developed categories is forced migration and displacement during crises. No matter which region, continent, or nation is the focus, every state, in addition to several other political players, has its own role to play in addressing this complex problem. Situational analysis [...]
UN officials say 2023 saw an 'alarming lack of compliance' with international humanitarian law
Senior UN Officials decried the “plight of civilians” resulting from conflict in 2023 as “resoundingly dire” on Tuesday, pointing out civilian suffering and disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law around the world. Their remarks coincide with the 75th anniversary of the 1949 Geneva Conventions (GC), which the international community created in the aftermath [...]
Finland parliament to vote on controversial Russia border migration law: PM
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced on Sunday plans to introduce a draft law introducing temporary measures to combat instrumentalized migration at the Finnish-Russian border, in an interview with Finnish media. The controversial law which potentially breaches international law commitments on asylum, will be proposed later this week. The draft law was initially proposed earlier [...]
A group affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is abducting boys in northern Mozambique and using them to fight against government forces, in violation of an international ban on the use of child soldiers, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Wednesday. HRW stated that an armed group known as Al-Shabab, an [...]