Citizens for Justice and Peace
US funding cuts imperilling millions of Palestinian refugees: UN official
23-Feb-2018
Pierre Krähenbühl, commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRW), the main UN agency aiding Palestinian refugees, told the Guardian that the agency is confronted with its worst-ever funding shortage. The UNRWA lacks nearly one-third of its budget, mostly due to the move by US President Donald Trump’s administration to withhold funding. According to Krähenbühl,…
Religious exemption laws attack LGBT rights: Human Rights Watch
21-Feb-2018
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a report outlining how a slew of new “religious exemption” laws passed in several states in the United States are a “thinly-veiled assault agaisnt the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.” Ryan Thoreson, an LGBT rights researcher at HRW, said that calling the laws “exemptions” is “misleading,” adding, “Given…
UN releases blank statement on atrocities in Syria
21-Feb-2018
The United Nations’ children’s agency, UNICEF, issued a blank statement in response to widespread casualties among Syrian children in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta and capital Damascus, Reuters reported. The statement was from Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and Africa. It said, “No words will do justice to the children killed, their mothers, their fathers and their…
“We are failing the world’s poorest babies,” UNICEF head says
21-Feb-2018
UNICEF has released a new report on newborn mortality, saying that newborn babies are still dying at high rates across the world, especially in the poorest countries. Worldwide, in low-income countries, the average mortality rate for newborns is 27 deaths for 1,000 births, compared to high-income countries that see 3 deaths for 1,000 births. Newborns in the world’s most…
Increased risk of sexual violence towards women and children on Greek migrant hotspots
15-Feb-2018
According to Cécile Pouilly, spokesperson for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the agency “received reports from 622 survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) on the Greek Aegean islands, out of which at least 28 per cent experienced SGBV after arriving in Greece.” Pouilly, at a Geneva press briefing, noted that UNHCR was “very concerned by reports…
Progress on global goals leaving women behind: UN Women
15-Feb-2018
The Thomson Reuters Foundation reported that, according to a newly published report from the United Nations’ women’s agency, progress under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were outlined in 2015 remains “unacceptably slow” for women and girls. “Even where progress has been made, it has been highly uneven,” Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director, UN Women, said in the…
Report: Canadians cut back on heating, food to pay for prescription drugs
15-Feb-2018
A newly published report estimated that in 2017, 968,000 people in Canada reduced their expenses so that they could pay for prescription drugs, according to the Guardian. This included 730,000 who reduced food expenses and 238,000 who cut heating expenses. Although Canada has universal healthcare, Canada is still the world’s only developed country lacking a universal…
UN refugees chief addresses Security Council on Rohingya crisis
14-Feb-2018
Filippo Grand, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, addressed the Security Council on February 13, 2018 regarding the Rohingya crisis. He said that although the numbers are significantly reduced, Rohingya continue to flee Myanmar for Bangladesh; around 1,500 have already reached in Bangladesh this month. He said that despite a large-scale humanitarian response, conditions in…
Many young women in Africa unaware they have HIV
14-Feb-2018
A large-scale study across seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa has found that less than half of young women who have HIV know that they have been infected, according to the Guardian. The incidence of HIV among women aged 15-24 in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Swaziland, Malawi, and Lesotho is about 3.6%, around 1.5 million young and…
UN: Child soldier recruitment still increasing in South Sudan
14-Feb-2018
Al Jazeera reported that South Sudan’s civil war, which is currently in its fifth year, has seen almost all armed groups drafting children to be soldiers, according to rights organisations. According to UNICEF, the number of child soldiers in the country has been swelling since the beginning of the war, in 2013, in spite of all parties…