Citizens for Justice and Peace
Condition of Syrian refugees in Lebanon deteriorated in 2017: UNHCR study
15-Jan-2018
William Spindler, spokesperson for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said at a Geneva press briefing this week that Syrian refugees in Lebanon “are more vulnerable than ever, with more than half now living in extreme poverty and over three quarters living below the poverty line according to the findings of a new survey by UNHCR, UNICEF…
UN Secretary General calls on nations to take positive approach to migration
13-Jan-2018
The Guardian reported that United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres is calling on member nations to create more avenues for migration, and promote and protect foreign workers. According to the Guardian, Guterres is “calling for a collective shift to celebrate the international benefits of migration as part of an ambitious plan to create a more humane global…
UN human rights chief condemns rise in civilian casualties in Syria’s eastern Ghouta, Idlib
12-Jan-2018
According to an announcement from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has “condemned” the rise in civilian casualties in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta (near Damascus) “amid the recent escalation in airstrikes and ground-based attacks by Government forces and their allies”. Zeid said Eastern Ghouta…
New York City to divest $5 billion in fossil fuel investments, sue oil companies
12-Jan-2018
The Guardian reported that New York City officials are aiming to divest the city’s pension funds from fossil fuel companies within the next five years, saying this would be “among the most significant divestment efforts in the world to date”. According to the Guardian, the city’s five, $189 billion pension funds have fossil fuel investments amounting to…
Myanmar army admits killing of Rohingya for the first time
12-Jan-2018
The BBC reported that Myanmar’s army has for the first time acknowledged that its personnel “were involved in the killing of Rohingya Muslims” in its Rakhine state. Myanmar’s army said that an enquiry had revealed that four members of Myanmar’s security forces “were involved in the killing of 10 people in Inn Din village near Maungdaw,” the…
LGBT people face violence, discrimination in Ghana: HRW report
11-Jan-2018
Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report, “‘No Choice but to Deny Who I am’: Violence and Discrimination against LGBT People in Ghana”. In its announcement on the report’s publication, HRW said that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Ghanaians face abuse and discrimination in both the public as well as family contexts. HRW said its report indicates…
Sharp increase in civilians killed by explosive weapons in 2017
11-Jan-2018
The Guardian reported that, according to a global survey it was able to access, explosive weapons killed more than 15,000 civilians in 2017, indicating a 42% spike in a year. According to the Guardian, the increase was spurred by airstrikes, “which killed almost double the number of civilians in 2017 compared with the previous year,” and corresponded…
US judge blocks Trump administration’s move to end ‘Dreamers’ program
11-Jan-2018
The Guardian reported that a judge barred United States President Donald Trump to from ending a programme authorised by former President Barack Obama that protected from deportation those who were brought to the country illegally as children. US district judge William Alsup ruled that the Trump administration must “maintain the Daca program on a nationwide basis” while…
60,000 children stranded, forgotten in camps in Rakhine, Myanmar
10-Jan-2018
UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado addressed the press at a briefing in Geneva after spending nearly a month in Myanmar, particularly its Rakhine state that is home the Rohingya minority, hundreds of thousands of whom have fled to Bangladesh following a military crackdown in late August 2017. Mercado said she travelled to central Rakhine, “where over 120,000 Rohngya…
Study: Over 25% of land will dry up if Paris climate goals aren’t achieved
10-Jan-2018
An article published on the United Nations’ Climate Change website spotlights a new study in Nature Climate Change, which indicates that “over a quarter of the world’s land will significantly dry up if the earth’s temperature rises by two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in the next three decades, the upper limit for the global average temperature…