HUMAN RIGHTS

Photo: IOM Office to the United Nations.

Photo Exhibit at UN Focuses on Vulnerabilities of Migrants

NEW YORK (IDN) - A photo exhibit launched at United Nations Headquarters in New York on January 16 by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations TOGETHER initiative seeks to draw attention to the plight of migrants in vulnerable situations around the world.

“The photo exhibit serves to highlight how crisis-related migration flows are growing in scale and complexity and inducing new forms of migration-related humanitarian challenges both internally and across borders,” said Ashraf El Nour, Director of IOM’s Office to the UN in New York. “Migrants need protection as their vulnerability to exploitation, trafficking, and violence heightens during crises,” he added.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 17 January 2017

Photo: UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants on September 19, 2016. Credit: UN

UN Prepares for Global Compact on Migration with UNU Backing

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) - UN Member States will engage in broad consultations throughout 2017 to inform negotiations on a global compact on safe, regular, and orderly migration in 2018. In this, the Global Migration Group (GMG), headed by United Nations University (UNU) Rector and UN Under-Secretary-General Dr David M. Malone since January 1 will play a crucial role.

GMG, a forum of 21 agencies and entities from the United Nations system, promotes norms relating to international migration so as to work towards improved global governance of this issue. UNU formally joined the GMG in 2014, placing UNU’s expertise on migration at its service.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 15 January 2017

Image: Trump reality check. Credit: Medium.com

Trump Presidency Might Herald Reality Check On 'Liberal' Media

By Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) - Donald Trump calls the so-called ‘liberal media’ the “bad guys” and since he was elected President two months ago – in fact even before that with the Brexit vote in June 2016 – the “Liberals” in the West have been chest-beating complaining about misleading social media messages to unfairness of the electoral systems as their preferred candidates or platforms are defeated by grassroots voter revolts.

It is interesting that the ‘liberal’ media has made such a big issue of Trump having lost the popular vote but winning the Presidency, without looking at how the so-called Westminster system of democracy, which many former British colonies have inherited, often reflects such results as it is grounded on an electorate based first-past-the-post system not dissimilar to the U.S. Electoral College system.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 13 January 2017

Photo: Repairing the water network in Jabalia camp, northern Gaza. Credit: UNRWA/Khalil Adwan

UN Agency Seeks $813 Million to Support Palestine Refugees

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) - In the face of humanitarian crisis plaguing Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory – including East Jerusalem – and those who have fled the conflict in Syria, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has launched an $813 million emergency aid appeal.

Speaking to UN News, Pierre Krähenbühl, the Commissioner General for UNRWA said: “Palestine refugees are among the worst affected by the conflict. Over 95 per cent of those who have remained in Syria – 430,000 – are in critical need of sustained humanitarian assistance.”

: Jamshed Baruah; UN INSIDER; 09 January 2017

Photo: Senegalese street sellers in Fez. Credit: Fabiola Ortiz | IDN-INPS

Moroccan Campaign Not Dampening Some Migrants' Dreams

By Fabíola Ortiz

FEZ, OUJDA and NADOR, Morocco (IDN) – Morocco, traditionally a pathway for sub-Saharan Africans wanting to reach Europe, is now enforcing a national strategy to contain the flow of migrants towards the EU and stifle the aspirations of those still wanting to cross.

There are many reasons that lead people to depart from their countries and become a migrant, often risking their lives on dangerous routes in search of a better life.

Abdoul Karime is a 19-year-old Ivorian who first came to Morocco in 2013 when he was still a teenager and since then has been living amid improvised tents in an informal settlement next to the main train station in the city of Fez.

: Fabiola Ortiz; THE WORLD; Africa; 08 January 2017

Photo: Myanmar State Counsellor and Foreign Affairs Minister Aung San Suu Kyi (centre) and foreign ministers from member states of the ASEAN pose for a group photo in Yangon, December 19, 2016. Photo courtesy of Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Suu Kyi's Astute Move On Rohingya Issue in Myanmar

Analysis by Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 13th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

BANGKOK (IDN) - With mounting demonstrations in support of Rohingyas in fellow ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Muslim majority countries Malaysia and Indonesia, Myanmar’s de-facto leader and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi made an astute move to summon Foreign Ministers of ASEAN for a one-day “retreat” to Yangoon on December 19 to brief them on the situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State where most Rohingyas live.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 27 December 2016

The Struggle To Get Dalit Voice Into Mainstream Indian Media

By Jeya Rani*

CHENNAI (IDN) - Even as you read this whever you are, somewhere in India someone is being killed or raped, humiliated or outraged, just because she or he was born in a lower caste (known as Dalit).

The ‘not so changing’ statistics of National Crime Records Bureau say that a Dalit is assaulted every two hours in India. At least three Dalit women are raped every 24 hours. Two Dalits are killed every 24 hours. Two Dalit houses are burnt down.

There is no dearth of breaking news or good TRP ratings in reporting atrocities against Dalits across India. But, why are these stories not getting the coverage it deserves in the country often touted as the world’s biggest democracy?.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; OPINION; 27 December 2016

Image: Enlarged and cropped image on Cover of 2016 UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons.

Children and Women Main Human Trafficking Targets, Says UN

By Jaya Ramachandran

BERLIN | VIENNA (IDN) – Almost a third of all humans traded around the world for the purpose of sexual slavery, forced labour, or commercial sexual exploitation are children, and women and girls comprise 71 per cent of the victims of "human trafficking", according to a new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The 2016 UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons is the third of its kind mandated by the General Assembly through the 2010 United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 23 December 2016

Photo: A home largely destroyed by the storm in Tailevu Province. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

South Pacific: Climatic Disaster Recovery a Rights Issue

By Neelam Prasad

This is the third in a series of features on the South Pacific produced in collaboration with Wansolwara, an independent student newspaper of the University of the South Pacific.

SUVA, Fiji (IDN) - Climatic change disasters are hitting Pacific Island nations at regular intervals in recent years, devastating communities and forcing people to move out to other areas, islands and even far away countries.

As such, there is a strong case for the peoples’ rights to recover from such climatic disasters to be included in the international human rights agenda, argue people and experts from the Pacific.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 19 December 2016

Image: Three of the major groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

South Pacific: ‘Sea-Level Rise’ Migrants Posing a Problem

By Henry Oritimae and Sonal Shivangani*

This is the second in a series of features on the South Pacific produced in collaboration with Wansolwara, an independent student newspaper of the University of the South Pacific.

SUVA, Fiji (IDN) - With sea levels rising rapidly across the South Pacific and the resulting movement of people within and across countries, the region is facing a new problem of a lack of proper migration policies to address the issue, according to experts.

Inhabitants of artificial islands in the Soloman Islands are migrating to settle in the bigger islands because of sea-level rise and coastal inundation.