April 25, 2024 No comments
Recovery in Gaza ‘is not only physical’, UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator says
INTERNATIONAL, 25 April 2024, Humanitarian Aid - The international community has a duty and responsibility to work towards early recovery in Gaza, but “we cannot ask citizens to wait”, the UN official tasked with coordinating aid delivery into the besieged enclave has said. Sigrid Kaag, Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, said the immense suffering caused by months of bombardment must also be addressed. “I think it’s very hard for us, in the safety of the outside world, to even start to comprehend what people have been going through,” she told UN News. Nearly seven months have passed since Israel launched a military assault on Gaza in response to Hamas-led attacks on its territory that left some 1,200 people dead and another 250 taken as...
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April 25, 2024 No comments
Amid campus crackdowns, Gaza war triggers freedom of expression crisis
INTERNATIONAL, 25 April 2024, Human Rights - Across the United States, “heads are rolling” at the top of some Ivy League universities amid a campus-wide crackdown on students protesting Israel’s war in Gaza, shining a spotlight on the question of freedom of expression worldwide, said UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan. “The Gaza crisis is truly becoming a global crisis of the freedom of expression,” said Ms. Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. “This is going to have huge repercussions for a long time to come.” Demonstrations around the world have been roundly calling for an end to the war, which began in October following Hamas-led attacks on Israel that left 1,200 people dead...
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April 25, 2024 No comments
Debate at UN examines impact of Portugal’s ‘Carnation Revolution’
INTERNATIONAL, 25 April 2024, Peace and Security - On 25 April 1974, military officers overthrew the nearly 50-year dictatorship in Portugal in a largely peaceful coup known as the Carnation Revolution. Named after the flowers civilians stuffed in the muzzles of the soldiers’ guns, the revolution put Portugal on the path to democracy and led to the independence of its six remaining colonies, stretching from Africa to the Pacific, with ripple effects in Brazil – independent since 1822, but under military rule at the time. UN Secretary-General António Guterres, a former Portuguese Prime Minister, argues that from a historical perspective, the uprising “should have occurred decades earlier.” Reflection and analysis Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the revolution, which is also known as 25 April, Mr. Guterres and UN...
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April 25, 2024 No comments
Teen alcohol and nicotine use in Europe is up, WHO urges preventive measures
INTERNATIONAL, 25 April 2024, Health - Smoking and drinking is on the rise among teenagers in Europe, Central Asia and Canada, and girls now match or even exceed boys when it comes to substance use, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a new report on Thursday. Data covering all three areas revealed that more than one in two 15-year-olds experimented with alcohol, while one in five teenagers recently used e-cigarettes, the UN health agency said, in a call for urgent preventive measures. “The widespread use of harmful substances among children in many countries across the European Region – and beyond – is a serious public health threat,” said Dr Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe. “Considering that the brain continues to develop well into a person’s mid-20s, adolescents...
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April 25, 2024 No comments
Gender therapy review reveals devastating impacts on teens
INTERNATIONAL, 25 April 2024, Human Rights - A top Human Rights Council-appointed expert has welcomed the decision by all health authorities in the United Kingdom to halt the routine use of puberty-blockers offered to children as part of gender transition services, amid a sharp increase more widely in the number of teenage girls seeking such treatment and concerns that it might disrupt brain development. The development is in line with several western European countries that have reportedly reduced access to similar gender identity treatments whose benefits were found to be “remarkably weak”, according to a National Health Service (NHS) England-commissioned review, published on 10 April by consultant paediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass. UN Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem also welcomed the commitment by the UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care...
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