Voicing concern over tensions in Cameroon, the United Nations human rights wing has urged the Government and dissatisfied groups to engage in a meaningful political dialogue to fully address long standing grievances.
Rape and sexual slavery have been used as weapons of war across Central Africa Republic, with armed groups carrying out brutal attacks with impunity, human rights campaigners have warned.
“Peace is not a one-day affair or event, it requires our collective effort,” said South Sudan’s Vice President, General Taban Deng Gai, while addressing the General Assembly at the UN.
Source:UN Women
Opening Remarks by UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, at the plenary session of the Five Days of Violence Prevention Conference at Johannesburg, South Africa
Source: The New Yorker
The Mbeubeuss landfill, on the outskirts of the Senegalese capital, Dakar, feels almost volcanic to visitors. Mountainous piles of waste encircle wide craters, where trash fires spew smoke and spit ash into the sky. The odor is nauseating: decaying foods and clothes, burnt plastic and tires. Sporadically, the scent of decomposing human flesh emerges from the fetor.
3 October 2017 – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today appointed Natalia Kanem of Panama to head the UN’s women’s health agency.
In a legal first for Botswana, the country’s High Court has ruled that a transgender man should be allowed to hold official documents that reflect his gender identity. The judgment is a huge victory for transgender people in Botswana, who face considerable challenges when their gender identity is not reflected in official papers.
Thirty three people have been arrested by the Egyptian authorities as part of a crackdown on gays after a rainbow flag was raised at a recent concert, according to activists and rights group, Reuters reported yesterday.
So where’s the sexual and reproductive health in emergency response?
Millions of people around the world have been displaced from their homes this year. They are running from natural disasters – hurricanes, mudslides, floods, wildfires, drought – and some that are at least partially man-made – violence, famine, epidemics. As theses crises continue to increase in frequency and severity, we must be prepared.When an emergency occurs, aid agencies spring into action, providing clean water, food, and temporary shelter to those who are affected. Some may also provide urgent medical care, treating physical injuries caused by the disaster. These efforts are obviously critical, and must continue – but they are not enough.
Source: AllAfrica
The Democratic Republic of the Congo's Personal Representative on Sexual Violence and Child Recruitment, Madam Jeanine Mabunda, launched the Principles for Global Action to tackle the stigma of sexual violence in conflict at the 72nd United Nations General Assembly in New York, at a program organized by the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative. "This launch gives us confidence that the world is stepping up to tackle these issues and we stand in solidarity with everyone here today," Madam Mabunda said.
Source: UN News Center
With tens of millions of human trafficking victims worldwide, “now is the time to stand together and stamp out this abominable practice,” Secretary-GeneralAntónio Guterres today told a high-level meeting at which Member States adopted a political Declaration reaffirming their commitment to implement a United Nations action plan to end the scourge.
Source: UNFPA
Maiduguri, NIGERIA – Yana, 25, was three months pregnant when she fell sick with cholera just days ago. “I was already suffering, but then I started bleeding, and the baby is gone now,” she told UNFPA in one of the tent wards for cholera patients at a displacement camp outside Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s conflict-scarred Borno State.
Rwandan authorities have arrested, forcibly disappeared, and threatened political opponents since the August 2017 presidential elections, Human Rights Watch said today. The incumbent, Paul Kagame, won the election with a reported 98.79 percent of the vote.
8 September 2017 – The scale up of international assistance to the Lake Chad Basin this year has averted a famine in north-east Nigeria, even though millions of people are still suffering, according to the United Nations aid chief.
28 September 2017 – About 25 million unsafe abortions, accounting for 45 per cent of all abortions, occurred every year from 2010 to 2014 worldwide, with 97 per cent of those unsafe procedures occurring in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, a new United Nations study has found.
26 September 2017 – Large-scale displacement and a health system in tatters as a result of persistent violence by the Boko Haram terrorist group have left many – most worryingly, pregnant women and their unborn babies – vulnerable to cholera in the wake of an outbreak in August, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has warned.
(Abuja) – Cameroon’s military has carried out a mass forced return of 100,000 Nigerian asylum seekers in an effort to stem the spread of Boko Haram, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The deportations defy the UN refugee agency’s plea not to return anyone to northeast Nigeria “until the security and human rights situation has improved considerably,” and leaves deportees facing spiralling violence, displacement and destitution.
The gender pay gap doesn’t just reflect men’s dominance in the workplace, it parallels a hidden oppression in the home. As the Trump administration moves to slash social-welfare programs and roll back workplace anti-discrimination protections, the economic war on women is manifested not only through the pain of deprivation but, often, through the violence of abusers.
The energy in the room was palpable, as the African Women Leaders Network, launched in June 2017, reconvened under the leadership of Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat today at the 72nd UN General Assembly, on 21 September 2017. The discussions focused on mobilizing support for women’s leadership in the transformation of Africa towards a peaceful, stable and prosperous continent.