HUMAN RIGHTS

Photo: View of the capital Addis Ababa from the Sheraton Hotel. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

UN Urges Independent Probe of Rights Violations in Ethiopia

By Ronald Joshua

GENEVA (IDN) - The United Nations human rights chief has voiced concern over serious human rights violations in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia early August, and urged the Government to ensure access for independent observers to affected areas.

At least 97 people were killed and hundreds more injured when Ethiopian security forces fired live bullets at peaceful protesters across Oromia region and in parts of Amhara over the weekend of August 6-8, according to credible sources who spoke to Amnesty International.

: Ronald Joshua; UN INSIDER; 22 August 2016

Photo: UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka received the Olympic Flame from Prince Albert of Monaco and carried it through the streets of Rio de Janeiro, celebrating women's and girl's empowerment. Credit: UN Women

One Win Leads to Another in Sports and Gender Equality

UN Women, IOC and Always join to celebrate the community-based sports programme to build leadership skills and confidence of adolescent girls as part of the 2016 Rio Olympic legacy.

Rio de Janeiro (IDN-INPS) - Coinciding with the beginning of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UN Women, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Always/Whisper celebrated on August 6 the ‘One Win Leads to Another’ initiative, a programme that empowers women and girls through sport.

: UN Women; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 06 August 2016

Photo: A portrayal entitled The Taking of the Children on the 1999 Great Australian Clock, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney, by artist Chris Cook. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Revelations of Australia’s Abu Ghraib Force Gov't to Act

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) - Screening of secretly filmed shocking footage of abuse of juvenile prisoners in a remote northern Australian prison by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC), renowned investigative reporting program ‘Four Corners’, has outraged thousands of Australians who took to the streets to protest and forced the government to act.

The video material filmed between 2010 and 2014 at the Don Dale youth detention centre in the Northern Territory in Australia and screened on July 25 has drawn comparisons to the treatment of prisoners in the notorious prisons run by the U.S. government in Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; HUMAN RIGHTS; Indigenous Peoples; 01 August 2016

Photo: Adrielle Alexandre, a young athlete from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, prepares for a ballet class. Credit: UNIC Brazil.

In Brazil, Girls Build Self-esteem Through Sport

What does being a winner mean? For 12-year old Adrielle Alexandre, who is carrying the Olympic torch, it’s not only about becoming an Olympic rhythmic gymnast, but to make her community a place free of violence and full of respect. She is among 400 girls who are participating in a programme in Brazil that empowers girls through sport and by creating safe spaces.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) - “I’ve learned from sport that we have to make efforts to succeed. We get nowhere if we stay at the same place doing nothing,” says Adrielle Alexandre, a 12-year old young athlete from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

: UN Women; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 29 July 2016

Photo: Syrian refugee and Jordanian girls participate in a mixed-nationality football camp in Jordan. Photo: UN Women/Christopher Herwig

Jordan: Football Camps Plant Seeds of Friendship

For Syrian refugees in Jordan, integration into the Jordanian society is fraught with challenges. Mistrust and rumours taint how each group perceives the other. A project by UN Women organized football camps for adolescent girls, where Jordanian and Syrian girls built friendships and social cohesion.

UN Women News Feature

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) - Rawan and Samah have much in common. They are about the same age; they live in the same city – Mafraq, in northern Jordan – just a short drive from the Syrian border. They are loving, dedicated mothers to daughters who go to the same school. They share similar responsibilities, joys, and struggles in their daily lives. But one crucial difference sets them a world apart.

: UN Women; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 28 July 2016

Photo: A young refugee and her family cross the border between South Sudan and Uganda. Photo: UNHCR/Will Swanson

UN Underfunded as South Sudanese Flee to Uganda

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) - The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR has expressed great concern about the precarious security situation in South Sudan, where some 4,000 people are currently fleeing every day to neighbouring Uganda. 90 percent are women and children.

South Sudan’s conflict erupted in December 2013, and it has produced one of the world’s worst displacement situations with immense suffering. Some 1.69 million people are displaced inside the country, while 831,582 South Sudanese refugees are abroad, mainly in Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda.

: Jamshed Baruah; UN INSIDER; 26 July 2016

Photo: Representatives of women's organizations and networks that were part of the first delegation of gender experts at the talks in Havana present their proposals for building a peace deal with the Government of Colombia and FARC-EP negotiators in December 2014. Photo courtesy of the Peace Talks, Havana, Cuba.

Historic Commitment at Havana Peace Talks Table on Colombia

By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Zainab Hawa Bangura

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, and Zainab Hawa Bangura, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict.

NEW YORK (IDN-UN Women) - On 24 July 2016, we celebrated with the people of Colombia the historic commitment by the Government and FARC-EP at the Havana Peace Talks Table to ensure that one of the agreement’s fundamental objectives is to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women.

The implementation of this commitment will be the critical test of whether peace will endure, and fulfil the highest aspirations of Colombians for a just, equitable, inclusive and democratic society.

: UN Women; OPINION; 26 July 2016

Committee to Protect Journalists Wins UN NGO Accreditation

By Rodney Reynolds

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – The New York-based Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ), an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) campaigning for press freedom worldwide, has been recognized as an UN-accredited civil society organization by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

The July 25 decision by the 54-member ECOSOC, the primary UN body which coordinates the social and economic agenda of the United Nations, overrides a decision by one of its own committees, the UN Committee on NGOs, to reject the CPJ application on May 26.

CPJ's application for NGO status was rejected by the committee with only 6 votes in favour of NGO status (Greece, Guinea, Israel, Mauritania, Uruguay and the United States) and 10 against (Azerbaijan, Burundi, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Sudan and Venezuela), with three abstentions (India, Iran and Turkey).

: Rodney Reynolds; UN INSIDER; 25 July 2016

Photo: United Nations Headquarters in New York City, view from Roosevelt Island. Credit: Neptuul | Wikimedia Commons.

UN Internal Oversight Criticises Gender Imbalance – and More

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) - The Department of Political Affairs plays a central role in the United Nations efforts to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts around the world. But it will not be on the radar screen of the Security Council when it opens on July 21 the first round of unofficial ‘straw polls’ to agree on one of the 12 candidates for the post of the Secretary-General.

A candidate who is acceptable to the five permanent members – USA, Russia, China, Britain and France – and is elected later by the General Assembly to succeed Ban Ki-moon, whose second five-year term expires on December 31, 2016, will however have to pay heed to the Evaluation of the United Nations Department of Political Affairs (DPA).

The reason: DPA’s latest evaluation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) published on May 31, 2016 is studded not only with praise for the accomplishments of the Department. It also carries a few brickbats.

: Ramesh Jaura; UN INSIDER; 15 July 2016

Image: LGBT pride flag. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

African Nations Split with UN over Gender Identity Vote

GENEVA (IDN | GIN) – The United Nations Human Rights Council has voted to appoint an independent monitor to help protect gay and transgender people around the world from violence and discrimination, but not without fierce resistance from African and Muslim countries.

The June 30 vote was called “a historic victory for the human rights of anyone at risk of discrimination and violence because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Human Rights Watch and other rights groups in a coalition.

The independent monitor will report annually to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly on best practices to minimise discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity. It will work with states, UN agencies and other organizations.