Armed Conflicts

U.N. Military Sanctions on Syria May Face Veto by Arms Supplier

By Thalif Deen
The staggering statistics emerging from the ongoing five-year-old military conflict in Syria – including over 220,000 killed, more than one million injured and about 7.6 million displaced – are prompting calls for a United Nations arms embargo on the beleaguered regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

U.N. Aid Agencies Launch Emergency Hotline for Displaced Iraqis

By Kanya D'Almeida
In the hopes of better responding to the needs of over three million displaced Iraqis, United Nations aid agencies today launched a national hotline to provide information on emergency humanitarian services like food distribution, healthcare and shelter.

Opinion: Children of the World – We are Standing Watch for You

By Oscar Arias Sanchez
Twenty-eight years ago this month, an indigenous woman stood in the plaza in Guatemala City, watching as the presidents of Central America walked out into the street after signing the Peace Accords that would end the civil wars in our region. When I reached her, she took both my hands in hers and said, “Thank you, Mr. President, for my child who is in the mountains fighting, and for the child I carry in my womb.”

U.S. Provides Cover for Use of Banned Weapons in Yemen

By Thalif Deen
The United States is providing a thinly-veiled cover virtually legitimising the use of cluster bombs – banned by an international convention – by Saudi Arabia and its allies in their heavy fighting against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

UK, France Agree to New Measures to Tackle Migration Crisis

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
In response to the rapidly growing numbers of refugees and asylum seekers flooding European shores, France and the UK have announced new measures to crack down on English Channel crossings.

U.N. Remains Helpless Watching Rising Deaths of Children in War Zones

By Thalif Deen
The rising death toll of civilians, specifically women and children, in ongoing military conflicts is generating strong messages of condemnation from international institutions and human rights organisations – with the United Nations remaining helpless as killings keep multiplying.

U.N. Official Says Human Suffering in Yemen ‘Almost Incomprehensible’

By Kanya D'Almeida
With a staggering four in five Yemenis now in need of immediate humanitarian aid, 1.5 million people displaced and a death toll that has surpassed 4,000 in just five months, a United Nations official told the Security Council Wednesday that the scale of human suffering is “almost incomprehensible”.

U.N. Relief Agency Pledges to Open Schools ‘On Time’ for Half a Million Palestinian Refugees

By Kanya D'Almeida
Overcoming a serious funding shortfall, and caught between numerous regional conflicts, the United Nation’s humanitarian agency for Palestinian refugees announced on Aug. 19 that it would nevertheless open schools on time for the roughly half-a-million children who rely on the international community for their education.

Opinion: The Writing on the Western Wall

By Joseph Chamie
The writing on the Western Wall is evident to most Israelis: “דמוגרפיה היא גורל” or “demography is destiny”. Those unwilling to acknowledge the prophetic message are either deceiving themselves or simply ignoring it in order to avoid facing the implications of demography for Israel’s future.

Humanitarian Response in Afghanistan Falters in the Face of Intensifying Conflict

By Kanya D'Almeida
As the number of civilians impacted by the intensifying conflict in Afghanistan rises along with the fighting, humanitarian agencies are struggling to meet the needs of the wounded, hungry and displaced.

U.N. Marks Humanitarian Day Battling Its Worst Refugee Crisis

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations is commemorating World Humanitarian Day with “inspiring” human interest stories of survival – even as the world body describes the current refugee crisis as the worst for almost a quarter of a century.

Prospects for Peace in South Sudan Fading Fast

By a Global Information Network correspondent
Dismissing efforts, including those of U.S. President Barack Obama, to sign off on a peace agreement and end the 20-month-long civil war in the world’s newest nation, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir declined to sign, saying he needed more time for consultations.

World’s Nuclear Facilities Vulnerable to Cyber-Attacks

By Thalif Deen
As hackers continue to rampage through closely-guarded information systems and databases with monotonous regularity, there is a tempting new target for cyber-attacks: the world’s nuclear facilities.

The U.N. at 70: Leading the Global Agenda on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality – Part Two

By Lakshmi Puri
The efforts of the United Nations and the global women’s movement to promote the women’s rights agenda and make it a top international priority saw its culmination in the creation of U.N. Women, by the General Assembly in 2010.

Designed to Fail: Gaza’s Reconstruction Plan

By Charlie Hoyle
The rubble of twisted concrete and metal bakes in the hot Mediterranean sun of a regional heat wave.

U.N. Chief, Seeking Accountability, Shatters Myth of Lifetime Jobs

By Thalif Deen
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stopped short of telling one his high-ranking Special Representatives: “You’re fired.”

Clan Wars Increase Displacement, Hinder Development in Papua New Guinea

By Catherine Wilson
The charred foundations are all that is left of the homes that made up Kenemote village in the mountainous Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea in the southwest Pacific Islands.

U.N. Launches Second Abuse Probe of Peacekeepers in CAR

By Aruna Dutt
It was two a.m. on Aug. 2 as peacekeeping forces from the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) searched for a criminal suspect in the PK5 Muslim enclave of the capital city of Bangui.

HRW to Honour Six Human Rights Defenders

By Jaya Ramachandran
Governments around the world are obliged to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, according to the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights.  But reality is far removed from international covenants.

Humanitarian Crisis Deepens in War-Torn Yemen

By Kitty Stapp
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières  (MSF) is warning that the violence in Yemen "has radically increased" since March, with the humanitarian group seeing mass casualties from bombings and thousands of severely injured.

U.N. to Unleash “Power of Education” to Fight Intolerance, Racism

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations is planning to launch a global campaign against the spread of intolerance, extremism, racism and xenophobia -- largely by harnessing the talents of the younger generation.
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