By Samata Biswas* KOLKATA. India | 24 February 2025 (IDN) — In January 2022, four members of a family, from the western Indian state of Gujarat, froze to death at the US-Canada border. The couple and their two children had paid a hefty amount to traffickers to be smuggled into the US for what they […]
Sudanese Refugees Imprisoned and Impoverished by Ethiopian Visa Policy
By Augustine Passilly* The writer is a freelance journalist based in Ethiopia, and previously in Sudan. This article is part of The New Humanitarian’s wider body of reporting on abuses against Sudanese refugees in Chad, Egypt, and South Sudan. ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia | 21 February 2025 (IDN) — Sudanese refugees living in Ethiopian cities are […]
Ukraine War Leads to Decline in Migrant Smuggling and Human Trafficking
By Jaya Ramachandran VIENNA | KYIV | 20 February 2025 (IDN) — The war in Ukraine has resulted in millions of people being displaced internally and outside the country since February 2022. The latest study, launched in Kyiv, by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), finds that visa-free entry, temporary protection and […]
Sharp Divides as Parliamentarians Debate the Future of SDGs
By J Nastranis NEW YORK | 19 February 225 (IDN) — Parliamentarians gathered at UN Headquarters in New York haveunderscored the pressing need to reboot the 2030 Agenda. Some called for renewed commitment; others questioned whether the goals should be replaced entirely. But there was little consensus on solutions. “We are far behind from where […]
Ukraine War Calls for A Scale-Up in Support to Women and Girls
By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK | 19 February 2025 (IDN) — Ahead of 24 February marking the third anniversary of Russia’s all-out assault on Ukraine, the United Nations has warned that the war is having a devastating effect on women and girls, with 1,869,000 internally displaced, almost 6.7 million women in need of humanitarian assistance, […]
BRICS Proves Increasingly Attractive for Middle Powers in The Region
By Marlies Linke* ALMATY, Kazakhstan | 17 February 2025 (IDN) — The sixteenth BRICS summit, held in Kazan, Russia from 22 to 24 October 2024, bore the slogan “Strengthening Multilateralism for Fair Global Development and Security”. According to its concluding statement, the summit was intended to demonstrate that the participating Global South countries are expanding […]
Was the AI Summit in Paris a Missed Opportunity?
By Simone Galimberti* KATHMANDU, Nepal | 16 February 2025 (IDN) — Since the start of the Paris AI Action Summit, held on the 10th and 11th of February, the expectations were minimal. Yet there was a trickle of hope that the gathering would succeed at maintaining a modicum focus on safety and security of artificial […]
The Need for U.S. Action in the Democratic Republic of Congo
By Kate Hixon* WASHINGTON DC | 16 February 2025 (IDN) — On 18 January, the M23, a Congolese Tutsi-led, Rwandan-backed rebel military group, launched a military operation to expand the territory it had gained over the past three years. The operation violated an August 2024 ceasefire agreement between Rwanda and the DRC established through the […]
Navigating a Low-Carbon Future: Maritime Decarbonisation on the 2025 Global Agenda
By Pascal Lamy and Geneviève Pons* BRUSSELS | 15 February 2025 (IDN) — Ten years ago, at COP21 the Paris Agreement was adopted as a global response to the threat of climate change, aiming at limiting the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. In the same year, world leaders also committed to thriving the […]
Realization Of Trump’s Gaza Plan Will be Crime of the Century
By James E. Jennings* ATLANTA, USA | 14 February 2025 (IDN) — The stark alternatives facing people in Gaza are both equally bad: stay in their little strip of Palestine and die or try to leave and die. It’s like choosing between the devil or the deep blue sea. They face death either way. Even […]