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Credit: UNICEF/Michele Sibilon

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury
NEW YORK, Aug 21 2025 (IPS)

After taking oath of office in December 2016 as Secretary-General, Mr. Antonio Guterres described the eradication of sexual offenses by UN peacekeeping and all other UN personnel as the first item on his reform agenda.

During his first year in office in 2017, he convened a high-level meeting on combatting sexual exploitation and abuse and established a task force to address sexual harassment within the UN system.

But the saga of inaction continues and the situation on the SEA, as the phenomenon of the Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) is acronymized by the UN to avoid saying clearly what it stands for, remains totally appalling and unacceptable, eroding the credibility of the world’s most universal global body.

The UN’s so-called new approach to sexual offenses by UN personnel has proven to be little more than a public relations campaign marked by cosmetic adjustments that fail to address the systemic flaws that sustain a culture of impunity.

Helplessness of the UN is pitifully described in its latest report covering the year 2024 when it says that “Since 2017, we have continued to devote considerable attention and effort to improving the way to addresses the issue … However, challenges persist, and we remain committed to addressing these.” Nearly a decade has gone by and still there is no perceptible result in putting its own house in order by punishing the perpetrators and compensating the victims.

The latest UN report helplessly admits that “Since 2017, there has been an increase in the number of incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse reported …” It continues to share the bad news informing that “In 2024 alone, 675 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse were reported in connection with United Nations staff and related personnel (292) and implementing partners (383), with 27 per cent of those allegations involving child victims.”

It is shocking that more than one-fourth of the victims are children. What kind of child-abuser staff the UN authorities are recruiting, supervising and monitoring?

The UN report says, “Since 2017, senior United Nations officials have reported on their personal responsibility to address sexual exploitation and abuse through annual attestations in their compacts or management letters.”

And, unfortunately, the same report shockingly admits that “However, alarmingly, in 2024, the survey on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse revealed a significant rise in distrust towards leadership, with 6 per cent respondents in the United Nations system (approximately 3,700 individuals) expressing a lack of confidence in the ability of leaders to address sexual exploitation and abuse, doubling from 3 per cent in 2023.”

It is so hugely embarrassing for the leadership of the UN!

Its much-touted zero-tolerance and no-impunity policies have not improved the situation, according to longtime UN watchers. Zero-tolerance has become synonymous with zero-effectiveness. Zero-tolerance policy is applied by the UN system entities as if they are using a zebra-crossing on a street which does not have any traffic lights.

The labyrinthine rules, regulations, procedures, channels of communication of the UN make the mockery of the due-process and timely justice. These have been taken advantage of by the perpetrators time and again.

Unjust UN policies and practices have, over decades, resulted in a culture of impunity for sexual “misconduct” ranging from breaches of UN rules to grave crimes. As most of the SEA incidents happen at the field levels, nationalities and personal equations play a big role in delaying or denying justice.

The UN takes credit by underscoring that “Our approach, which prioritizes the rights and dignity of victims, remains a key objective of the Secretary General’s strategy. Efforts are ongoing to ensure victims have a voice and better access to assistance and support.” How about victims’ access to justice and due process?

The victim-centred approach of the UN in handling SEA cases has been manipulated by the perpetrators and their organizational colleagues to detract attention from their seriousness. Not only should the victims get the utmost attention, so should the abusers because upholding of the justice is also UN’s responsibility.

Also, UN watchers become curious whenever media publish such SEA related reports, the UN authorities invariably mentions the concerned staff is on leave or administrative leave. When these cases are in the public domain, the abusers are merrily enjoying the leave with full pay, even during the world body’s on-going dire liquidity crisis.

It is also known that during the leave the abusers have tried to settle the matter with the victims or their families with lucrative temptations. The leave has also been used to wipe off the evidence of the crime. These have happened in several cases with the full knowledge of the supervisors.

What a travesty of the victim-centred approach!

The head of the UN peace operations where the SEA cases take place should be asked by the Secretary-General to explain the occurrence as a part of his or her direct responsibility. Unless such drastic measures are taken the SEA will continue in the UN system.

Another unexpectable dimension of the victim-centred approach is that the abuser-peacekeepers are sent back home for dispensation of justice as per the agreement between the troops contributing countries (TCC) and the UN. Sending the perpetrators home for action by national authorities is one of the biggest reasons for the continuation of SEA in the peace operations.

The victim is not present in that kind of varied national military justice situation, and no evidence are available except UN-cleared reports to show or suppress the extent of abuse.

Again, a travesty of justice supported by the upholder of the global rule of law!

The UN Secretary-General would be well advised to propose to the Security Council a change in the clause of the agreement that UN signs with the TCCs which incorporates for repatriation of abuser-peacekeepers to their home countries. If a TCC refuse to do so, the agreement will not be signed.

A functional, quick-justice global tribunal should be set up with the mandate to try the peacekeepers as decided by the UN. If the International Criminal Court (ICC) can try heads of state or government for crimes against humanity, why can’t the UN peacekeepers be tried for SEA?

That would be a true victim-centred approach!

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury is former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations; Initiator of the UNSCR 1325 as the President of the UN Security Council in March 2000; Chairman of the UN General Assembly’s Main Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Matters and Founder of the Global Movement for The Culture of Peace (GMCoP)

IPS UN Bureau

 

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On August 7, a tar-like slurry glistened on the roads leading up to the gate of the Palais Des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. For fear of sticky substances sticking to tires, no vehicles were allowed to go inside for a while, forcing officials arriving from different parts of the world to disembark and walk through […]

Zimbabwe experienced a drought in 2019 and livestock farmers were hit hard. Cattle crossing a dry river in Nkayi District, Nov. 2019. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Aug 20 2025 (IPS)

My family lost six herds of cattle during the devastating El Niño-driven drought that swept Zimbabwe in 2024. The loss was as emotional as it was financial. Guilt gnawed at me.

Drought was nothing new—the past three years had made it painfully clear that I needed to supplement the cows’ feed and ferry water from kilometers away just to keep them alive. But I was fighting a losing battle, desperately trying to sustain emaciated, skeletal animals. Eventually, I had to accept the inevitable: climate change had killed our cattle, and I had been complicit in their suffering.

Have I moved on? Not really. At first, I told myself my distress was an overreaction. After all, countless farmers lost hundreds of livestock and watched their crops wither to nothing. They had suffered more and lost more than I was crying over. Stress, I reasoned, was simply part of the job.

Journalists report on climate change without being personally affected—or so I thought. I was wrong.

Climate change doesn’t just destroy landscapes and livelihoods; it takes a psychological toll on journalists who highlight its horrors.

A groundbreaking study by Dr. Antony Feinstein, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, reveals a hidden crisis: journalists covering the climate crisis are suffering profound emotional and mental health consequences. The research presented during a discussion organized by the Oxford Climate Journalists Network (OCJN) surveyed 268 journalists across 90 countries, spanning Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

The findings are staggering and spoke to me. Forty percent of journalists reported experiencing depression, while one in five exhibited symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), often linked to the “moral injury” of bearing witness to environmental destruction. More than half (55 percent) of the journalists said they lacked access to psychological support, and 16 percent had taken time off work for mental health reasons as a result of covering climate change stories.

The numbers grow even grimmer: nearly half of the journalists surveyed reported moderate to severe anxiety (48%) and depression (42%). Around 22% showed prominent PTSD symptoms. Worse still, 30% had been directly impacted by climate change—losing family, friends, or homes to the crisis. I counted myself in that statistic. I may not have lost a family member, a friend or a home but if cattle count as part of my life, I was affected.

As a journalist reporting on climate change in Zimbabwe—one of the world’s most vulnerable nations—these findings hit close to home. They exposed a fragility I had long dismissed as just part of the job.

Journalists need psychological support. Stigma about mental health runs deep and how do I tell friends and family that I am not okay reporting a story on the impacts of droughts, worse that I have witnessed the loss of six cattle because I could not save them when the drought decimated pastures and dried water supplies? So what? negative events are normal and feeling bad is, I guess, normal too? I have had a lingering question. Surely I can be unsettled by the deaths of cattle and listening to the desperate narratives of farmers about how climate change has upended their lives?

I was depressed, sad, and guilty. I could not do anything to stop cattle dying nor could I pacify farmers in pain. The trauma in covering catastrophe after catastrophe is numbing. Journalists who report on climate change are witnessing a global crisis of our time, and they need support to deliver the news without sacrificing their mental health.

Witnessing tragic events carries a heavy burden for journalists who report on them. I recall covering a story about the impact of drought on livestock farmers in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe’s northern province, where farmers were sharing their staple maize with their cows to keep them alive. Many lost more, some three, five and six cattle between them, but they did give up, though despair was scrawled on their faces. I was shocked and numbed by listening to their sad narrations, but I had to get the story out. I felt hopeless.

Getting a “good” story out of bad experiences means I have to make a tough choice of putting my feelings aside and getting the job done. I have not acknowledged the mental load of witnessing the trauma of covering disasters, yet journalists are supposedly resilient to disturbing news and they soldier on. But no. I have experienced depression at the thought of how people bounce back from personal loss when climate change hits. It is a horror movie that continuously plays in my mind as I go about reporting.

Journalists would benefit from a comprehensive support programme to help them step away from the pressure of being witnesses to catastrophic events. The trauma is beyond comprehension; there is no justification to suffer in silence, especially when mental stress is not talked about in public but endured in private. As a journalist, I have been a victim.

How do I separate myself, my mind and my emotions from the sad stories I cover? I do not have an answer. I am convinced that journalists should tell climate change stories but not be forced to live the reality, although that is almost impossible. Many like me are living the stories they tell with deep scars of mental fatigue and regret.

I believe that newsrooms can offer support in terms of preparing journalists to have the mental agility to report on crises without taking strain from reporting them. Moreover, the impacts of climate change, which is a defining story of the century, affect everyone. Those who say so are at the forefront of agitation, anguish, and hopelessness.

The climate crisis is breaking more than just ecosystems—it’s breaking the journalists who tell its story.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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IPS UN Bureau Report

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Rescuers carry children away from their flood-devastated village in the Buner region in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. The region Credit: Al Khidmat Foundation

By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Aug 20 2025 (IPS)

Intense rainfall over small areas in Pakistan’s mountainous regions caused massive destruction, sweeping away entire villages.

On August 15, the district of Buner in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province experienced a weather anomaly in which glacier melt and intense monsoon rains caused floods that buried villages under mud and rock.

“I’ll never forget what we saw as we crested the last hill—no life, no homes, no trees—just grey sludge and massive boulders,” recalled Amjad Ali, a 31-year-old rescuer from Al-Khidmat Foundation, the charitable arm of the Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami, and the first to reach the village of Bishonai, 90 percent of which had been washed away.

It took Ali and his team of 15 volunteers, including two paramedics, four hours to reach the once-forested village—now buried under mud and rock.

Since June, northern valleys across Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir, and KP have faced repeated climate disasters. Between June 26 and August 19, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) reported over 695 deaths—53 percent from flash floods, 31 percent from house collapses, and nearly 8 percent from drowning.

Villagers, including women and children, led to safety. Credit: Al Khidmat Foundation

More Extreme Weather is Expected

“The weather is on a rampage—it’s not going to improve,” warned Sahibzad Khan, Director General of the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

He explained that delayed and reduced snowfall until March left little time for accumulation of snow.

“Temperatures rose steadily from April, with northern regions seeing a 7°–9°C spike in August,” he said.

Khan cautioned against labeling the recent events as “cloudbursts,” noting that these typically involve over 100 mm of rain in an hour. For him, what stood out in Buner was the unusual collapse of massive boulders—a sign of glacial disintegration.

“This was inevitable,” said Khan. “Rising temperatures are wreaking havoc on glaciers. Huge boulders falling from the mountains suggest ancient glaciers are breaking apart.”

He warned that warming of the Third Pole (mountainous region located in the west and south of the Tibetan Plateau) could lead to loss of the ice towers—the lifeline of the Indus Basin.

As scientists warned of long-term consequences, communities on the ground are grappling with the immediate aftermath.

Rescue workers pray during evacuation and rescue operations in the district of Buner, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, Pakistan. Al Khidmat Foundation

 

Rescue trucks line up to enter the district of Buner, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, Pakistan devastated by floods. Al Khidmat Foundation

Rescuer’s Tale

“People were in a state of shock but from what little we learned, it had been raining gently all through Thursday night (Aug 14). Then around 8:30 am on Friday (Aug 15), a ferocious torrent swept through, destroying everything in its path,” said rescuer Ali, speaking from Sawari Bazar, 30-minutes from Bishonai village.

Every survivor shared the same story—it struck suddenly, leaving no time to save anyone.

“I pulled a man from the sludge with a broken leg and one eye missing,” said Ali. “He was the sole survivor of 14 family members. Their three storey home was gone.”

He adds, “Everyone who survived had a dozen or so family members missing that day.”

Though he had led rescue teams for five years, Ali said he had never witnessed such horror. It wasn’t the eight-hour trek to and from Bishonai that drained them, but the emotional toll of retrieving bodies and injured survivors buried in the sludge.

With help from over 100 volunteers, they were able to bury over 200 men, women and children – some headless, others with limbs missing. Over 470 missing villagers were presumed dead. They returned home at 2 am, but the work was far from over.

The official death toll across Pakistan stands at 695: 425 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 164 in Punjab, 32 in G-B, 29 in Sindh, 22 in Balochistan, 15 in Kashmir and 8 in Islamabad—and the number continues to rise.

Nearly 958 injuries have been recorded until Aug 19 by the NDMA with 582 in Punjab, 267 in KP, 40 in Sindh, 37 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 24 in Kashmir, 5 in Balochistan and 3 in Islamabad.

Official figures report 17,917 people rescued—over 14,000 from KP alone.

The floods damaged 451 km of roads, 152 bridges, and 2,707 homes—833 completely destroyed—mostly in KP and G-B. Floods also claimed 1,023 livestock, with KP the worst hit.

The KP government has released PKR 800 million in relief funds for the affected districts and an additional PKR 500 million for Buner, the worst-hit area.

Gilgit-Baltistan in Ruins

Gilgit-Baltistan, like KP, is reeling from similar climate disaster of flash floods

“Not a single part of G-B has been spared,” said Khadim Hussain, head of the region’s Environmental Protection Agency. He reported widespread destruction of farmland, homes, hotels, restaurants, and entire riverbank hamlets. Several villages remain cut off due to collapsed bridges and face critical drinking water shortages.

The situation turns critical when the Karakoram Highway—G-B’s link to the rest of the country—is blocked. “It’s been flooded multiple times in just 10 days,” he said. Glacier collapse and district-wide floods submerged sections, stranding travelers for up to 12 hours.

Essential services have also collapsed. Gilgit, the region’s capital, has had no electricity for three days. “The main hydropower station is severely damaged; smaller micro-hydro units were washed away,” added Hussain. Communication networks are also down.

Rescue workers in a house wrecked by floods in the district of Buner, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, Pakistan. The water rages below them. Credit: Al Khidmat Foundation

Cloudburst Crises

Hamid Mir, coordinator with WWF Pakistan, who has been studying weather patterns for over a decade, explained that warmer air holds more moisture.

“With every 1°C rise in temperature, air holds 7 percent more water vapor, increasing rainfall intensity.”

Rapid glacier melt adds humidity to local microclimates, feeding convective clouds, which are responsible for short, intense rainfall events, including cloudbursts, he said.

“What we are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg!” warned Mir, explaining that G-B’s steep terrain accelerates condensation and torrential downpours

A weather map for August 15 shows the cloud cover. Credit: National Emergency Operation Centre

Pakistan’s Climate Wake-Up Call

Mir also pointed to deforestation as a major factor. Native pine and oak trees at high altitudes have been replaced with moisture-releasing broadleaf species, altering weather patterns. Northern Pakistan holds 45 percent of the country’s forests and 60 percent of its coniferous cover, but deforestation has reduced natural carbon and moisture sinks.

“If we can put an end to the timber mafia stripping our mountain slopes, there’s still hope,” said PMD’s Khan.

Babajan, president of the Awami Workers Party’s G-B chapter, said illegal timber trade continued with “tacit support from government and security agencies.” He urged regional climate action: promoting electric vehicles, reducing fossil fuel use, and rethinking environmentally harmful construction practices.

He also blamed excessive mining and mountain blasting for resource depletion. “These are finite resources—we must take only what we truly need.”

Mir supported Babajan’s concerns, citing Buner’s transformation: once known for its stream fish, it now lacks clean drinking water due to marble industry expansion. “It’s a stark example of how ruthless development and unchecked industrialization can destroy once-pristine landscapes,” he said.

Absence of Local Leadership

Dr. Ghulam Rasul, former Director General of the PMD, emphasized the urgent need for improved early warning systems, stronger district-level disaster management, and greater community awareness around climate disasters, drawing on not just regional but global best practices.

“We urgently need an elected and functioning local government in place, which was dismantled two decades ago,” said 60-year-old Safiullah Baig, a member of the Progressive Gilgit Baltistan, a popular progressive social media page on G-B, which raises common people’s issues, human rights violations, and gender discrimination, as well as matters related to colonial governance, climate change and land capture.

“The bureaucrats ruling us are not from here, don’t understand our geography or culture, and have no empathy,” he said.

“As always, the floods will once again give them a perfect opportunity to profit—appealing for funds locally and internationally by showcasing our suffering,” he said. “The aid rarely reaches those who need it the most.”

With events such as cloudbursts and their increased intensities, Sobia Kapadia, a climate resilience expert, said it was unfair to put the blame on climate alone.

“From siloed development strategies to weak management, lapses in governance, myopic vision, and persistent corruption are intensifying the fragility,” she said, speaking to IPS over the phone from London.

Kapadia, who has worked extensively in Pakistan post-2010 ‘super’ floods, said the land-use management plans were ignoring the health of ecosystems, and large-scale infrastructure projects were leaving the most at-risk vulnerable communities dangerously exposed.

These events highlight an urgent opportunity to transform crisis into resilience, she said, giving “us a chance to safeguard our future” against increasingly intense climate shocks.

Endorsing Kapadia, EPA-GB’s Hussain said the toughest yet most crucial decision for the provincial governments is to remove encroachments along the rivers. “Illegally built structures must be dismantled to allow floodwaters a natural path and protect lives and property,” he said, stressing the need for coordinated multi-agency action and, above all, a strong political will.

“The solution goes beyond technical fixes; Pakistan needs deep systemic change and transformative adaptation to effectively confront these growing climate crises and termed it a whole-of-society approach integrating policy reforms, cross-sectoral collaboration and locally led adaptation, rooted in the context of indigenous knowledge,” agreed Kapdia.

Babajan agreed the crisis is man-made and fixable. “We must focus on prevention—finding local solutions before the damage occurs. We must draw on the wisdom and technologies of our elders to build resilience.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The Trusteeship Council Chamber at UN Headquarters. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

By Ingeborg Breines
OSLO, Norway, Aug 20 2025 (IPS)

Many feel desperation and anger that the genocide of the Palestinians is not being stopped. How can the US, Germany and others continue to pour funds and weapons into Israel despite decisions in the UN’s highest bodies indicating complicity in accordance with the Convention against Genocide?

How can countries maintain trade agreements with Israel and allow big funds to continue investing in a country that violates all international law and normal decency? How can the countries of the world accept giving the great powers, in this case the US, so much power also in the UN that UN decisions are blocked by veto?

Could the solution be to revitalize the UN Trusteeship Council, with a mandate to help former colonies or trust territories achieve independence and thereby also contribute to peace and security?

The Trusteeship Council is one of the central organs of the UN, with a mandate and representation enshrined in Chapter 13 of the UN Charter. The Council has been inactive since 1994 when the last trust territory, Palau, became a member of the UN.

The Council has accumulated many years of experience in helping colonies/trustees to function independently after that the colonial powers have had to let go of them. The Council can and should use expertise and experience from the rest of UN system in its work, not least from the specialized agencies. In this case, it will also be necessary to involve a larger contingent of the UN peacekeeping forces.

The situation in Palestine is different from that in the old colonies, but not so different. When the UN in 1947, after strong pressure from England and under doubt, decided to divide Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state (resolution 181), the Trusteeship Council was given responsibility for dealing with the difficult questions surrounding Jerusalem, which was seen as a corpus separatum.

The Trusteeship Council was to ensure that the situation was reassessed after a 10-year trial period and the people were to be allowed to express their views via referendum.

The current and intolerable situation in the area, the many wars that followed the decision in the UN, the brutal displacement of Palestinians and the violations of a number of agreements have fully demonstrated that the partition of the old Palestine was an untenable decision.

The so-called two-state solution is also no longer a possible solution to the problem, given the overall situation on the ground. Could the Trusteeship Council be The Body, that last hope to help end the atrocities and the genocide and also contribute to creating peace and security in the area?

The most effective would be to establish a UN protectorate for the entire area, with both Israel and Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, for example for a 10-year period. If the experiences after the trial period will result in a new Palestine with equal democratic rights for Jews, Muslims, Christians and others, only time will tell.

Israel will of course protest being placed under UN control and will be supported by the USA and probably some US allies. However, the decision to establish a protectorate/trusteeship area does not necessarily have to be taken by the Security Council where a US veto must be expected, but by the General Assembly.

People around the world cannot bear to see more suffering and destruction in Gaza and the West Bank. To get out of this terrible situation and avoid someone choosing to use military force to stop the madness, it is worth trying such a drastic diplomatic solution as soon as possible.

The UN is the only body that can end this situation. The intelligent and far-sighted people who established the UN Charter 80 years ago have given us the tools we need. It is up to the international community to use them.

Ingeborg Breines is a former director UNESCO, and a former president of the International Peace Bureau.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa during an interview with IPS in Bilbao (Spain). Recently returned from Gaza, this Basque aid worker has spent three decades in the field of humanitarian work. Credit: Andoni Lubaki/IPS

By Karlos Zurutuza
BILBAO, Spain, Aug 19 2025 (IPS)

It’s 8am when Nasser Hospital in Gaza opens its doors. Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, Doctors Without Borders’ emergency coordinator in the besieged territory, has already been at work for more than three hours.

“The first thing is to check online where the explosions or gunfire I heard overnight actually took place. That’s when we start organising the day,” says the 61-year-old MSF staffer, during an interview with IPS in Bilbao —400 kilometres north of Madrid. He has just returned home after two months in Gaza.

“By half past eight, the hospital has already reached its daily capacity. Children, women, the wounded… many are left outside because the system is overwhelmed. It’s incredibly hard to manage,” Zabalgogeazkoa explains.

That has been the reality since October 2023, when Israel launched its military offensive on the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave bordering Egypt but cut off from the West Bank, where most Palestinians live.

 

Gazans living in tents set up on the beach fetch water in jerrycans. Access to even the most basic supplies has become a daily ordeal during the war. Credit: MSF

 

According to Gaza’s health ministry, the campaign has so far left more than 60,000 dead and 145,000 injured. The vast majority are civilians, including thousands of women and children.

Israel argues its operation is aimed at destroying Hamas’s military capacity — the Palestinian militia and governing authority in Gaza — following the 7 October 2023 attack in which around 1,200 people were killed in Israel and more than 240 taken hostage. Fifty remain in captivity, though only about 20 are thought to be alive.

The UN has warned of an “unprecedented humanitarian crisis,” with more than 90% of the population displaced and swathes of the enclave reduced to rubble. Numerous governments, international organisations and UN human rights experts have called it “genocide.”

“It’s two million people trapped between bombs and hunger, in 365 square kilometres where conditions deteriorate by the day,” says Zabalgogeazkoa.

“Other than the war injuries, the most ordinary things can kill”: if you’re diabetic you’ll lose your foot because there’s no insulin; if you’re malnourished you can’t care for your children… Even being coeliac can kill you.”

 

A healthcare worker tends to a newborn in an incubator. The lack of fuel also affects hospitals, which rely on generators for electricity. Credit: MSF

 

“An orchestrated massacre”

The MSF coordinator notes that only two of the four food distribution points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) — an organisation backed by the US and Israel but heavily criticised — are still operating.

“Other than the war injuries, the most ordinary things can kill”: if you’re diabetic you’ll lose your foot because there’s no insulin; if you’re malnourished you can’t care for your children… Even being coeliac can kill you.”
“People have to cross war zones to get there, and then chaos breaks out. Many are injured in the stampedes of desperation. In the end, it’s thousands fighting for a few sacks of flour,” he recalls.

A Doctors Without Borders investigation published on 7 August, titled This is not aid, this is an orchestrated massacre, described the centres as “death traps”, called for the programme to be scrapped, demanded the reinstatement of the UN-coordinated mechanism, and urged governments and donors to cut support for GHF.

“Distributions start at nine, but two hours earlier you already hear the gunfire. Israel says there’s no other way to control the crowds, but we come across people with bullets in the head or chest,” explains Zabalgogeazkoa.

Since the offensive began, at least eight health facilities in Gaza have been targeted by the Israeli army, most of them bombed from the air.

“At Nasser Hospital they killed patients by firing a missile through a window on two occasions. Soldiers also stormed the building and we had to evacuate. We couldn’t return for weeks. It was one of the hospitals where babies were left in incubators, and nothing more was ever heard of them,” he laments.

Fuel shortages to power hospital generators have forced doctors in Gaza to take extreme measures, such as placing several babies in a single incubator. MSF staff have reported cases of up to six infants in one unit.

Even water supply is a major struggle. Zabalgogeazkoa notes that 70% of the urban network is destroyed, so much of the water never reaches its destination.

Israel maintains that Gaza’s hospitals often conceal military targets, including “Hamas command centres” and “tunnel networks.”

The MSF staffer rejects this outright: “They always use the same narrative, also when they kill journalists living in tents set up inside hospitals. For Israel, everyone is Hamas. Were all the journalists they killed Hamas too?”

 

Gaza residents in a district bombed by the Israeli army. After nearly two years of offensive, the territory has been reduced to rubble. Credit: MSF

 

“Inconvenient witnesses”

The UN reports that at least 242 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the offensive began — the highest number ever recorded in a conflict. The vast majority were Palestinian, as Israel has barred international press access. The few foreign correspondents who entered did so embedded with Israeli troops and were unable to work independently.

Nothing seems to stem the chain of attacks on local journalists, who bear the responsibility of documenting the horror.

On 30 June this year, an Israeli airstrike destroyed the al-Baqa café, killing at least 41 people, among them Palestinian photographer and filmmaker Ismail Abu Hatab. The café had been a popular meeting place for young people, journalists and artists, and one of the few places where residents could access the internet and charge their phones during the war.

On 11 August, four Al Jazeera reporters and a local fixer were killed when a bomb struck al-Shifa Hospital. The head of UNRWA accused Israel of “silencing the voices exposing atrocities in Gaza.”

“They’re killing journalists one by one. Now almost everything is left to 16-year-olds posting videos on social media with their phones,” says Zabalgogeazkoa, describing it as a “systematic elimination of inconvenient witnesses.”

With Hamas’s leadership decimated and no local government to manage resources or administer justice, the Strip is descending into chaos. “Israel is doing everything it can to bring about the complete breakdown of Gazan society,” he warns.

“Besides, medicines, food, fuel… they are manipulated in a cruel game. Just when supplies are about to run out, Israel allows enough for another three or four days. People are so consumed with survival that they cannot think about anything else,” adds the MSF staffer.

He is due to return to Gaza in mid-September, though he fears conditions will have worsened by then.

On 10 August, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the approval of a plan for a full takeover of Gaza as “the fastest way to end the war, eliminate Hamas and free the hostages.”

The announcement drew widespread international condemnation. Few doubt the already dire humanitarian situation will deteriorate even further.

 

Fishermen in the LNG rich Afungi Peninsula in the Palma District of Cabo Delgado Province, northern Mozambique. The area is the site of major LNG projects, including the Mozambique LNG project. Credit: Justica Ambential

By Maina Waruru
NAIROBI, Aug 19 2025 (IPS)

Environmental campaign groups are confident that a suit filed in the United States, seeking to stop the country’s Export-Import Bank (EXIM) from the ‘unlawful’ lending of nearly USD 5 billion to the controversial Mozambique Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project, will succeed.

The groups, including Friends of the Earth U.S. and Justiça Ambiental/Friends of the Earth Mozambique, with representation from EarthRights International, filed a lawsuit and believe the financial transaction in March in a deal with the project owners, TotalEnergies, was rushed through to avoid going through requisite requirements.

It alleges that EXIM rushed through approval without conducting required “environmental reviews, economic assessments, and the required input by the public and US Congress.

“EXIM failed to follow its own Charter and federal law, setting a dangerous precedent for future decisions,” they said in papers filed on 14 July.

They allege that in February, President Donald Trump ‘illegally’ constituted EXIM’s acting Board of Directors without the US Senate’s consent, and weeks later, in March, EXIM’s improperly constituted “acting” board of directors announced final approval of the massive USD 4.7 billion loan.

The bank, they charged, entered the transaction despite the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in Mozambique and the fact that the project operator, TotalEnergies, declared force majeure more than four years ago after a violent uprising.

The French oil giant has been unable to resume operations since.

“EXIM’s Board charged ahead with subsidizing the project, without considering the conflict and the harms the project will inflict on the environment and local communities, and despite multiple nations’ open investigations into allegations of serious human rights violations at the project site,” they added.

An EXIM spokesperson would not comment on the ongoing legal proceedings.

“The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is aware of recent reports, letters, and inquiries regarding ongoing legal proceedings. As a matter of longstanding policy, EXIM does not comment on pending litigation,” the spokesperson said in an email. “EXIM remains committed to its mission of supporting American jobs by facilitating the export of U.S. goods and services. The Bank continues to operate in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”

According to Hallie Templeton, Legal Director of Friends of the Earth, EXIM is bound by a number of different federal laws that govern its actions and financing, including the Export-Import Bank Act, which is its charter.

“The US Congress placed a number of important limitations and procedural protections on EXIM’s activities, given the sensitive foreign policy, economic, and human rights issues that lending to foreign corporations for foreign projects can entail,” he explained.

“Among other things, this includes numerous notice and comment procedures, particular economic considerations to ensure EXIM isn’t harming the US economy, limitations on over-subsidization, the requirement that a quorum of Senate-confirmed members of the Board approve major transactions, and consideration of environmental and social impacts,” he told IPS News.

At the direction of Congress, EXIM also has put in place a number of important policies and procedures that govern the projects it finances and the conditions on which it does so. These include compliance with a number of important environmental and social standards and other safeguards.

“The acting board lacked legal authority to approve this loan. EXIM also failed to conduct mandated procedures and analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act and overall acted contrary to multiple provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act’s requirements on process and sound decision-making in the federal government,” Templeton explained.

Exim’s Act is clear as to how members of the Board are to be appointed. Those procedures weren’t followed in appointing the acting board, he said, adding that it was not clear whether President Trump’s intention for the appointments was so as to approve the loan.

“We cannot speak to the intent behind the way the President proceeded or the individuals he selected, but it was unlawful to bypass the Senate and appoint ‘acting’ members to the Board,” he noted.

He observed, “Likewise, rushing through the loan without federally mandated notice and comment or complying with the other legal requirements for final approval of a loan of this size was unlawful. EXIM should have taken these steps in any scenario.”

The financier’s “disregard of the law,” he said, is worsened by the ongoing conflict, allegations of grave human rights violations, and the numerous pending investigations, some of which specifically concern forces providing security to the project and the role of the project operator itself.

Friends of the Earth-US has the utmost confidence in the case’s success, especially given that EXIM has “violated multiple federal laws, with the board acting contrary to the ‘plain text’ of its Charter and other federal laws, ‘acting as if they are above the law.’”

“We are confident that they will be held accountable,” he added.

Through the US’s Freedom of Information Acts, it has been revealed that EXIM ignored the risks of Mozambique LNG when they approved the project in 2019/2020, and in 2025, they have not only ignored the risks but have also failed to follow the proper process, Kate DeAngelis, Economic Policy Deputy Director for Friends of the Earth US told IPS News.

Exim bank, she complained, did not want to provide the Congress or the public the time to comment because they know that this is a bad deal for American taxpayers.

“There are legal procedures and processes in place to ensure the U.S. Export-Import Bank does not waste taxpayer dollars on risky projects plagued by violent insurgencies.”

“Yet Exim—like the rest of the Trump administration—believes that it can operate outside the law. We will not stand by while it cuts health care and disaster aid so that it can give handouts to fossil fuel companies,” the official added.

“Exim’s Board’s illegal decision to subsidize this project, without even considering the risks to local people, let alone the serious allegations that project security committed a massacre at the project site, is beyond reckless. EXIM needs to do its job and actually consider the harms this project will inflict on local people,” said Richard Herz of EarthRights International

An Islamist insurgency in the Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique since 2017 has led to thousands of deaths and displacement of the civilian population in one of the bloodiest conflicts in Africa in the recent past.

While the Jihadist violence has diminished after intervention by regional forces, an attack was reported in the Meluco district of the gas region last March, indicating a province that is far from safe.

TotalEnergies suspended operations in the Mozambique LNG project in April 2021 due to the insecurity, leading to the withdrawal of personnel and a halt to construction, a decision directly linked to the escalating attacks by the militants in the province.

Last December, climate and environmental activists from Japan criticized the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) for financing the LNG project to the tune of USD 3 billion in a loan signed in July 2024.

The groups, in a report, revealed that the bank supports the Mozambique LNG project directly with a USD 3 billion loan and through a loan of USD 536 million to Mitsui, a Japanese corporate group that is involved in the development.

“The Mozambique LNG Project is linked to violent conflict, has resulted in social injustices among Mozambican citizens, and is a potential source of massive carbon emissions,” the report noted.

It concluded that if it proceeded, despite becoming the biggest gas project in Africa, it would deliver low revenues to its host country and place the country at risk of liability if it failed.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Nang, 28, a mother of three, is pictured with her son, Tun Lin, at their home in Namsang Township, Shan State. Credit: UNICEF/Nyan Zay Htet

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 19 2025 (IPS)

Myanmar’s security situation has deteriorated significantly, with the nation still reeling from the devastating earthquake in March last year, and continued military offensives driven by the ongoing civil war. In 2025, the humanitarian crisis reached a critical turning point, with the United Nations (UN) underscoring a litany of severe human rights abuses inflicted on civilians by the military and armed groups.

On August 12, the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) released its annual UN-mandated report, stating that it had made significant progress in documenting human rights violations and identifying perpetrators. The report details ongoing atrocities, including the torture of civilians in military-run detention facilities, coordinated aerial strikes on schools, hospitals and homes, and the continued ethnic-cleansing of Rohingya refugees.

“We have uncovered significant evidence, including eyewitness testimony, showing systematic torture in Myanmar detention facilities,” said Nicholas Koumjian, Head of the Mechanism. “We have made headway in identifying the perpetrators, including the commanders who oversee these facilities, and we stand ready to support any jurisdictions willing and able to prosecute these crimes. Our Report highlights a continued increase in the frequency and brutality of atrocities committed in Myanmar.”

The report covers developments in Myanmar from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, drawing on more than 1,300 sources—including 600 eyewitness testimonies, substantial photographic and video evidence, as well as forensic material. Since the 2021 coup, the Myanmar military has detained a large number of civilians, many of whom were arbitrarily arrested on suspicion of opposing the regime, and subjected them to brutal, systematic torture.

According to 2024 figures from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), since 2021, there have been approximately 6,000 civilian deaths as a result of violence, including nearly 2,000 civilians who died in military custody. Humanitarian experts have expressed alarm over the military’s use of enforced disappearance, arbitrary arrests, and physical torture to silence opposition.

“Thousands of Myanmar detainees are suffering in silence in interrogation facilities and prisons across the country, where health care, access to legal services, and food are inadequate,” said Joe Freeman, a Myanmar researcher at Amnesty International. “Torture and other ill-treatment in Myanmar detention facilities is common, but few people have a way to lodge complaints or stop the abuse without risking serious retribution, from beatings to solitary confinement to sexual violence.”
Eyewitnesses have described several of these detainees as children, some as young as two years old, with many acting as “proxies” for their parents. Detainees have experienced varying forms of physical torture, such as beatings, electric shocks, strangulations, killings, and even the removal of fingernails with pliers, particularly during the interrogation process.

Numerous detainees have also endured sexual and gender-based violence, including rape—both individual and gang assaults—forced insertion of objects into orifices, burning of sexual body parts with cigarettes or heated objects, forced nudity, invasive body searches, sexualized touching, and denial of access to menstrual hygiene and postnatal care products. Eyewitness accounts also describe detainees being targeted with homophobic and misogynistic slurs, as well as threats of physical violence.

In the report, the Mechanism confirmed that the list of perpetrators include many high-level commanders. Myanmar’s military responded to the international criticism by reaffirming its priorities of ensuring peace and stability while blaming “terrorists” for the recent hostilities.

Additionally, the Mechanism underscores a significant rise in hostilities in the Rakhine State as a result of clashes between the military and the Arakan army ethnic armed group. According to the report, the Mechanism has found evidence linking Arakan army members to a host of human rights abuses targeting the Rakhine, Rohingya, and other civilian communities, including summary executions, beheadings, and torture.

The Mechanism has also linked the military and its affiliated groups to indiscriminate killings of civilians, including women, children, and the elderly. They have also documented incidents of indiscriminate aerial bombardments and shellings in Arakan-controlled areas in Southern and Northern Rakhine. Furthermore, the report states that the military has blocked critical entry points in Sittwe, severely restricting civilian movement and the flow of humanitarian aid and other essential supplies.

During the reporting period, the Mechanism also conducted a thorough investigation of crimes associated with the 2016 and 2017 clearance operations that resulted in the destruction of several Rohingya villages, the displacement of thousands of Rohingya civilians into Bangladesh, and widespread insecurity and gender-based violence in Rakhine State. According to the figures from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), recent hostilities have displaced over 150,000 Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh in 2025.

The Mechanism focused on interviewing members of the Rohingya population in displacement shelters and the most violence-affected villages, aiming to “canvass the entirety of a survivor’s experience” and gain more direct, witness-based evidence that links specific individuals to the crimes. Currently, the Mechanism is collaborating with civil society groups, non-governmental organizations, media outlets, and governments to identify perpetrators and end impunity for human rights violations. In an effort to promote ethical investigations, the Mechanism is only providing evidence to local authorities with informed consent from affected communities.

Investigators have warned of continued access challenges due to insecurity, as well as recent UN budget cuts threaten to undermine fact-finding operations. This year’s reduction of UN aid has slashed the Mechanism’s 2025 budget to 73 percent, requiring a 20 percent reduction of regular-budget staff in 2026 in order to continue operations. Koumjian states that funding for witness security and research on sexual violence and crimes against children is projected to run out by the end of the year.

“It’s very important that perpetrators believe that somebody is watching, somebody is collecting evidence,” said Koumjian. “All of this would have a very substantial effect on our ability to continue to document the crimes and provide evidence that will be useful to jurisdictions prosecuting these cases.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Credit: United Nations
 
On August 19, the UN commemorated World Humanitarian Day — a time to honor those who step into crises to help others, and to stand with the millions of people whose lives hang in the balance. This year the message is clear: the humanitarian system is stretched to its limits; underfunded, overwhelmed and under attack.
 
“Where bombs fall and disasters strike, humanitarian workers are the ones holding the line keeping people alive, often at great personal risk. But more and more those who help are becoming targets themselves. In 2024 alone over 380 humanitarian workers were killed. Some in the line of duty, others in their homes. Hundreds more have been injured, kidnapped or detained, and there is reason to fear 2025 could be worse,” warns the UN.

By Nathalie Meynet
GENEVA, Aug 19 2025 (IPS)

On this World Humanitarian Day, the members of CCISUA Staff Federation honour colleagues who dedicate their lives to protecting people in crisis, and we remember with sorrow the many who have fallen in the line of duty.

This year’s theme, “Act For Humanity” is a call to leaders and to the public to confront the normalization of attacks on civilians, including humanitarians, and the impunity that undermines International Humanitarian Law. It is a call to build public support that pressures parties to conflict and world leaders to act to protect civilians and humanitarian workers.

We pay special tribute to our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza, where more than 300 UN staff have been killed since October 2023, the highest toll in UN history. They continue to serve under unimaginable conditions, often while enduring the same loss, hunger, and insecurity as the communities they assist.

At the same time, the humanitarian space itself is under grave threat. Severe funding cuts are forcing agencies to scale back life-saving programmes and reduce their workforce. Structural reforms and discussions of mergers raise additional fears that humanitarian action may lose its independence, becoming subordinated to political or migration-management agendas. For staff on the ground, this translates into uncertainty, heavier risks, and the erosion of trust.

As the federation representing thousands of UN staff worldwide, including many humanitarians, CCISUA calls for stronger protection of humanitarian workers, accountability for attacks, adequate funding for principled action, and genuine consultation on reforms that affect the future of humanitarian response.

The future of humanitarian action is at stake. To protect it, we must Act For Humanity!

Nathalie Meynet is President CCISUA.

The Coordinating Committee for International Staff Unions and Associations of the United Nations System (CCISUA) is the umbrella federation for over 60,000 staff, comprised of UN common system staff unions and associations committed to an atmosphere of constructive cooperation in order to provide equitable and effective representation of staff at all levels. CCISUA primarily represents member interests in inter-agency bodies that make decisions and recommendations on conditions of service.

https://www.ccisua.org/about-us/

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh. Credit: Unsplash/Youssef Abdelwahab

By Maximilian Malawista
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 18 2025 (IPS)

In the Arab region, a thought-to-be oil oasis, green jobs constitute 29 percent of energy sector roles, and 23 percent of the oil and gas sector. These numbers signify a push towards sustainable business and practices, with the Arab region striving to get away from oil, in their advancement towards the completion of the SDGs on time for 2030.

New primary data from the UNESCWA Skills Monitor shows that the entire region is on a steady upward trajectory in terms of the share of green jobs in the online job market space. According to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asis (UNESCWA), these postings only consist of 5.06 percent of postings as of 2024, but it represents significant growth from just around 3.5 percent in 2021.

The total share of green jobs by country in the Arab region, and the United States by comparison. Credit: Maximilian Malawista

Saudi Arabia has led this shift in sustainable energy roles with green jobs accounting for 6.22 percent of their job market. This movement reflects their significant investment into economic diversification and green initiatives in line with Saudi Vision 2030, which closely mirrors the UN 2030 agenda.

In Qatar and Oman the rates are lower, with green jobs comprising 4.59 percent and 3.53 percent of their respective job markets, followed by the rest of the region shortly behind. In contrast, a leading share of green jobs globally, the United States, features 11.40 percent, which is 7.55 percent higher than the average of 3.85 percent set by the Arab region. These numbers appear not to be linked by wealth as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt are below Qatar in energy roles, while the UAE has a 514 billion nominal GDP followed by Egypt with a 396 billion nominal GDP compared to Qatar’s 213 billion nominal GDP.

Green job integration

In the oil and gas sectors, Saudi Arabia leads again with 28 percent of their roles being green, followed by Oman (22.5 percent), Qatar (16 percent) and the UAE (15 percent). Data from UNESCWA shows that managerial and engineering positions account for the majority of occupations with the highest green demand in the Arab region. The top six jobs leading with the highest green shares are: project managers, health and safety engineers, health safety and environmental managers, electrical engineers, construction engineers, and civil engineers. The presence of engineering jobs with the highest combined share of green demand represents the Arab region’s full push to turn its infrastructure into a green oasis.

In the United States, the composition across specific industries is different, with technician roles for energy production and the environment being much higher in share than that of engineering roles. As UNESCWA noted in their brief: “These differences reflect diverse national approaches to sustainability, shaped by energy policies and strategic investments in green technologies.”

From only one year ago, green jobs within the energy sector in the Arab region represented 23.26 percent of the entire market of energy, however this number jumped up to 29.10 percent, marking a 5.93 percent jump in a very short amount of time.

The Arab region, as the report reiterates, leads in energy transformation across the oil and gas sectors. This push represents multiple nations — mostly Gulf Cooperation Council members — pushing for economic diversification away from majority oil-dominated economies, especially in Saudi Arabia. In these countries’ pursuits of further economic diversification, the result will be the creation of massive quantities of green energy roles, which will only increase at a faster rate to the point of a near carbon-zero future.

UNESCWA proposed four policy recommendations which seek to encourage green job growth:

• • Boost green investments and corporate sustainability – by expanding green bonds, medium and small sized enterprise funding, and sustainability linked loans for clean technology and renewable energy.

 

• • Enhance education and workforce development for green jobs – integrating sustainability into national curriculums, expand vocational and technical education and training programs, provide re-skilling initiatives for workers within high-carbon industries.

 

• • Integrate green jobs into national development strategies – strengthen regional cooperations for green job creation, climate action plans, economic recovery programs which align workforce planning with sustainability goals, and embedded green employment targets within industrial policies.

 

• Strengthen data and monitoring for green job growth – make data publicly available to help policymakers, businesses, and education institutions in shaping the green workforces.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Representatives from Denmark, France, Greece, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and Panama spoke to media ahead of the UN Security Council debate on Sudan. Credit: Jennifer Xin-Tsu Lin Levine/IPS

By Jennifer Xin-Tsu Lin Levine
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 18 2025 (IPS)

The UN Security Council convened today (August 18) to discuss South Sudan and the “interlinked challenges of climate change and conflict” affecting the region.

Security Council members who have joined the Joint Pledges on Climate, Peace and Security – Denmark, France, Greece, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and Panama – spoke at a media stakeout ahead of what the representative from Panama called a “compounding crisis” in South Sudan.

The representative for Panama noted the “interlinked challenges of climate change and conflict affecting South Sudan,” referring to climate crises causing flood, drought, minimal resources and famine, further straining peace and fostering inter-communal violence.

He highlighted worsening gender-based violence specifically, saying, “Women and girls are disproportionately and systematically affected by the intersection of climate shocks and insecurity… the breakdown of community support systems heightens the risk of gender-based violence, early marriage, abduction and exploitation, yet women and girls remain key actors in community resilience and peace-building.”

In the Security Council meeting, many other representatives echoed this concern for aid provisions. The Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, warned Security Council members of the risks caused by lack of funding, saying, “funding cuts are leaving millions without life-saving assistance.”

According to the latest UNICEF South Sudan Humanitarian Situation Report, the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan is only 28.5 percent funded over halfway through the year. Between April and July, approximately 7.7 million people faced high levels of acute food insecurity, including 83,000 at risk of catastrophic conditions. Approximately 9.3 million people are in dire need of various humanitarian assistance.

The primary conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the country’s official military, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, has fueled this humanitarian crisis.

Since clashes erupted in April 2023, the fighting has displaced millions internally and across borders – contributing to famine, widespread violence and food insecurity.

The conflict heightened further in March of 2025 when First Vice President Riek Machar was arrested on charges of stirring up rebellion. His arrest effectively ended the 2018 peace agreement which had ended the civil war and established a government – since then, political legitimacy across the country has grown steadily weaker. Many see the upcoming December elections as a chance to reinstate democracy and fair, representative governance.

Murithi Mutiga, Program Director for Africa at the International Crisis Group, said, “The immediate priority should be to prevent any escalation of violence.”

He encouraged UN member states with close ties to South Sudan like Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa and Tanzania to “call for opposing military actions to create an opportunity for dialogue between the government and opposition groups” and other Security Council members to amplify these discussions without overtaking them.

The representative from Somalia, speaking on behalf of the A3+, a group of African and Caribbean nations, echoed this statement. He said, “an African-led approach, grounded in partnership, inclusivity and respect for South Sudan’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity offers the most sustainable path to peace.”

The Pobee further emphasized the necessity of all stakeholders collaborating and acting in good faith to promote democracy in the upcoming elections in December.

She warned, “Failing this, the risk of a relapse into widespread violence will only grow against the background of an already unstable region. It is therefore our shared responsibility to work in close coordination and synergy to help the South Sudanese parties to avoid such an outcome. The people of South Sudan are counting on us.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Excerpt:

Security Council members discussed solutions to the climate crisis in South Sudan, advocating for more humanitarian aid and influence from international bodies to foster democracy and minimize violence.

UNFSS+4 delivered a clear message: solutions already exist. What’s missing is political will, adequate funding, and a willingness to challenge the status quo. Credit: UNFSS by kin creative-9555

By Stefanos Fotiou
ROME, Aug 18 2025 (IPS)

The global food system is under pressure from every direction – climate, conflict, inequality, and economic instability. But in Addis Ababa this July, something shifted. At the UN Food Systems Summit +4 Stocktake (UNFSS+4), over 3,500 people from 150 countries came together to confront the lack of progress and push forward solutions that can no longer wait.

Crucially, Africa wasn’t just a location for a global meeting. It led the conversation. Ethiopia showed what political commitment to transformation can deliver – investing in school feeding programmes, linking environmental restoration with jobs and food security, supporting local markets, and working across levels of government. These efforts are producing measurable outcomes under real-world conditions.

Governments that are serious about change now need to prove it. That proof depends on financing, coordination across sectors, and policies that support those making change happen

UNFSS+4 was also different in tone and structure. It didn’t rely solely on government declarations. Hundreds of civil society groups, farmers’ organizations, youth networks, research institutions, and private sector actors played an active role in shaping the Summit’s agenda and outcomes.

As Director of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub, I was tasked with leading the team that supported this process. What I saw behind the scenes was the real engine of the Summit: a team of people – from governments, NGOs, development partners, and grassroots coalitions – working together with urgency, arguing through difficult decisions, staying focused on what mattered. The energy behind the Summit came from people who were committed to getting things done.

The outcomes reflected that. The Summit’s Call to Action spelled out the scale of the crisis:

• As many as 720 million people still go hungry;
• 2.6 billion cannot afford a healthy diet, with the situation worsening in Africa;
• Farmers are dealing with increasingly volatile climate shocks, rising costs, and unfair market conditions.

On top of that, governments are scaling back humanitarian funding. Food systems are being hit by inflation, debt, war, and ecological breakdown. And while political leaders often speak about the urgency of transformation, most continue to act as if change can wait.

UNFSS+4 focused on practical steps. First, it called for a reversal of the decline in food-related aid. People living through conflict or crisis need access to food now – and humanitarian actors need resources to reach them.

Second, it demanded progress on National Pathways – the country-level plans created after the first Food Systems Summit in 2021. These plans are where real change happens, or doesn’t. But without domestic funding and political backing, they risk stalling.

Third, it challenged public and private investors – including development banks – to back smallholder farmers, food workers, and local food economies. This means shifting incentives away from industrial monocultures and toward approaches that protect ecosystems and livelihoods. It also means connecting food policy with land use, financial systems, and public procurement, instead of treating them as separate agendas.

Finally, the Summit emphasized one point that too often gets lost in global meetings: the role of youth. Young people are organizing, farming, creating food enterprises, shaping policy debates – and demanding space to lead. The UNFSS+4 Youth Declaration, developed through months of consultations and adopted at the Summit, is a clear signal that young people are no longer asking to be included. They are already doing the work, and they expect institutions to catch up.

The obstacles ahead are real. Many governments still make food policy behind closed doors, influenced more by political calculations than public needs. Agricultural subsidies often benefit those who already hold power, rather than those feeding communities or regenerating land.

The same dynamics play out at the international level – where trade rules, financial flows, and climate decisions frequently ignore the priorities of low- and middle-income countries.

If we want transformation, we have to deal with these structures directly. That means more transparency. It means real accountability – tracking how funds are spent, who benefits, and what results are achieved. It means recognizing that technical solutions – better seeds, smarter logistics, improved data – won’t deliver much if the underlying incentives still reward extraction and exclusion.

Africa’s leadership at the Summit was not a symbolic gesture. It was a political statement: that the region hardest hit by the current food crisis is also prepared to lead efforts to fix the system.

But global actors must respond accordingly. That means more than offering praise or short-term grants. It means shifting the terms of engagement – on finance, on trade, on governance – and recognizing that power imbalances are part of the problem.

Summits often generate headlines and then fade. This one shouldn’t. With only five years left to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, and with hunger rising rather than falling, we are moving in the wrong direction. If we continue to delay action, the consequences will be measured not in targets missed, but in lives lost.

UNFSS+4 delivered a clear message: solutions already exist. What’s missing is political will, adequate funding, and a willingness to challenge the status quo. Governments that are serious about change now need to prove it. That proof depends on financing, coordination across sectors, and policies that support those making change happen.

Food is not just an economic sector. It is the foundation of human survival and dignity. And it’s time we treated it that way.

Excerpt:

Dr. Stefanos Fotiou is Director, UN Food Systems Coordination Hub

Abortion is illegal in Uganda. Girls who get pregnant resort to deadly backstreet abortion providers. However, it is also criminal to provide safe abortion services. Credit: Wambi Michael/IPS

By Wambi Michael
KAMPALA, Aug 18 2025 (IPS)

Sarah Namukisa nearly missed her final year exams earlier this year. She was subjected to a mandatory pregnancy test—the 25-year-old student at the Medical Laboratory Training School in Jinja was then expelled because she was pregnant.

While Namukisa’s case sparked public criticism, activists say it was by no means an isolated incident.

Across Uganda and other East African countries, pregnant students continue to face expulsion, forced school dropout, and stigma in both public and private educational institutions.

Labila Sumaya Musoke, from the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER), told IPS that the widespread practice reflects deep-seated systemic discrimination and patriarchal control over young women’s bodies and futures

She said the expulsion mirrors systemic and institutional discrimination that international and regional human rights bodies have explicitly deemed unlawful and incompatible with human rights standards.

Namukisa was lucky that her case attracted the attention of the civil society and Uganda’s Equal Opportunities Commission. The commission ordered her school to rescind the expulsion. Many young women resort to deadly “backstreet” abortions in an effort to find ways to return to school or higher learning institutes. Abortion is still outlawed in Uganda and its neighbors—Kenya and Tanzania.

The most recent Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) datasets of the 12 East African countries found that the overall prevalence of adolescent pregnancy in East Africa was 54.6 percent. The survey concluded that it is vital to design public health interventions targeting higher-risk adolescent girls, particularly those from the poorest households, by enhancing maternal education and empowerment to reduce adolescent pregnancy and its complications.

Teenage pregnancy and motherhood rate in Kenya stands at 18 percent. This implies that about one in every five teenage girls between the ages of 15-19 years has either had a live birth or is pregnant with their first child.

The rate of teenage pregnancy has stagnated for over a decade in Uganda; it stood at 25 percent in 2006, at 24 percent in 2011 and now shows trends of rising at 25 percent. Teenage pregnancy in Tanzania is a significant public health issue, with 22 percent of women aged 15-19 having been pregnant, according to a 2022 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey.

Rosemary Kirui, the Legal Advisor at the Center for Reproductive Rights—which works in seven countries, including Uganda—said the enjoyment of the Sexual Reproductive Health rights has been limited by barriers related to the legal and policy framework.

“We have a legal environment that has restrictive laws that criminalize some SHRH services. Most of the laws were adopted or inherited from the colonialists. And most of the countries have not changed the laws. So you will find that the penal code is similar, giving a blanket criminalization of abortion. So you will find this is being interpreted narrowly in many African countries,” said Kirui.

She told IPS that the other aspect of restrictive laws is the age of consent, where there is a mandatory third-party requirement for adolescents seeking information and sexual reproduction health services.

Primer Kwagala, a Ugandan Lawyer whose organization, Women Pro Bono Initiative (WPI), has been litigating for access to SHR services, told IPS that the country maintains restrictions on abortion.

“We are saying that 16 women are dying each day due to lack of services in public health facilities. And there are those who are dying in communities due to unsafe abortion. We have on our law books outdated colonial policies preventing health workers from providing life-saving services.”

Uganda’s constitution says that no one can take the life of an unborn child except in exceptional circumstances.

“For many women to exercise autonomy over their bodies and to say, ‘I cannot carry this pregnancy; I need an abortion,’ they cannot go ahead and have that discussion. The first thing the health worker will say is, ‘I don’t want to go to prison,’” said Kwagala.

The Ministry of Health in Uganda has issued guidelines allowing safe abortions in cases of defilement, rape, and incest. But the guidelines, according to Kwagala, are more on paper than in practice.

In 2020, a ruling by the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) against the Republic of Tanzania found that Tanzania’s policy of expelling pregnant schoolgirls constituted a violation of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, particularly the rights to education, health, dignity, and non-discrimination.

Six girls who were pregnant were expelled from the school. The committee urged Tanzania to reform its education policies.

Dr. Godfrey Kangaude, an expert on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights based in Malawi, said there is a tussle between the gatekeepers who think the SHR issues are for the civil society to handle.

“But I think this is closest to us. Sex and reproduction are relevant to everyone,” said Kangaude while speaking to the East Africa Law Society on litigating for sexual health rights.

He said sexual and reproductive justice is closely interrelated with finance and labor justice and generally the overall well-being of humans.

Kagaunde explained that in Malawi and other countries in the region, there are anomalies when it comes to the age of consent.

“In Malawi, the law says an adult cannot have sex with a child. Okay, we want to protect children. Isn’t it? But the line has been so rigid that an 18-year-old boy can’t have sex with a 17-year-old girl, because a 17-year-old is a minor and an 18-year-old is an adult. We understand that we want to protect people from harmful sexual conduct, especially children, but the law shouldn’t just be arbitrary. It should take into account that the 17-year-old and 18-year-old are peers.”

Criminalization of Consensual Sex 

Kangaunde and others argue that rights-based reform is needed. Laws should be gender-neutral, orientation-neutral, and distinguish exploitative adult–child sex from non-exploitative peer sex. Kangaude points to alternatives like multi-stage consent and close-in-age (“Romeo & Juliet”) exemptions.

Kangaunde and others have been criticized over their stance on the age of consent to sex and access for individuals younger than 18 to access contraceptives and safe abortion services.

“But look, there is a 19-year-old boy who is being charged with the offense of having sex with a girlfriend of 17. I mean, for him, life just went crazy. He is at school, and he had to stop schooling,” said Kangaude, the director at Nyale Institute. His institute provides legal support and engages in strategic litigation to protect and promote sexual and reproductive health rights.

Activists have since 2017 been pushing for a regional Sexual Reproductive Health Rights law. They contend that across East Africa, sexual and reproductive health rights have been narrowly defined as standalone rights.

If enacted, it would require the EAC member states to harmonize provisions on sexual and reproductive health services and information.

The bill has, however, faced significant resistance based especially on social and cultural barriers. The resistance has focused on aspects of comprehensive sex education for teenagers and provisions regarding legal abortion.

Dr. Tom Mulisa, a human rights and constitutional law researcher based at the University of Rwanda, told IPS that sexual and reproductive health rights are broad.

“Constitutions have those rights, and national health laws and policies have those rights, we are talking about the right to health, which most constitutions have, and we are talking about the right to privacy, the right to information, and sexual and reproductive health rights,” he said.

The partner states have ratified the Maputo protocol, which allows for the termination of pregnancy. The protocol is the main regional instrument that advances women’s rights especially sexual and reproductive health rights. The protocol also provides for elimination of discrimination and prohibition of harmful practices, such as female genital cutting.

Within the region, some countries have ratified the protocol, others have not and others have ratified it with reservations. Enforcement of the protocol has been split, making it difficult for all to enjoy the broader rights therein.

Kenya made reservations about Article (14), which provides for safe and legal abortion. Kenya’s constitution, on the other hand, provides for a right to legal and safe abortion when the life of the mother or fetus is at threat.

Learning From Advances in Rwanda

Rwanda has made significant progress in improving the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of its population, especially young individuals. Like many countries in the region, it had post-colonial laws. It embarked on reform since 2009. The reforms laid the groundwork for what many describe as a flexible system.

Earlier this month, Rwanda’s Parliament passed a new law granting adolescent girls the right to access Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services—particularly family planning—without requiring parental consent. It lowered the legal age to access contraceptives from 18-15.

Mulisa stated that the country modified its new penal code by eliminating the court’s requirement for an abortion. The penal code also included sexual reproductive health rights.

“Previously, the government held the right to health, while individuals were obligated to comply with it. But now the constitution has an explicit right to health,” revealed Mulisa, the founder of the Great Lakes Initiative For Human Rights and Development, which does public interest litigation in Rwanda.

It is now a crime under the penal code in Rwanda if a woman is denied access to contraceptives. And there are fewer restrictions on safe abortion following the removal of the court order requirement.

Rwanda’s ministerial order on abortion defines the right to health more broadly, incorporating the scope outlined by the WHO.

According to the WHO, the right to health includes four essential, interrelated elements: availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality.

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The preambular words of the UN Charter displayed at the United Nations Headquarters, in New York. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 18 2025 (IPS)

When the 193-member General Assembly commemorates the UN’s 80th anniversary during a high-level meeting in mid-September, how many political leaders and delegates will be barred from entering the United States –despite the 1947 US-UN Host Country Agreement?

US President Donald Trump last June issued a Proclamation titled Restricting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.

This White House proclamation –a virtual black List –restricts travel into the U.S. by nationals from 19 countries who will be refused US visas.

The list includes Afghanistan, Myanmar, Burundi, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and Yemen. In addition, Egypt is under review.

But will this result in barring political leaders and UN delegates?

Any denial of visas will be a violation of Sections 11-14 of the Host Country agreement which ensures “that representatives of member states, UN officials, and others with legitimate business can access the headquarters district without significant impediments.”

But the agreement also stipulates the US will facilitate the issuance of visas for those with UN-related travel needs.

That Agreement, along with the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, outlines the legal framework for the UN’s presence and operations in the US. It covers aspects like the privileges and immunities of UN representatives, officials, and their families, as well as the handling of disputes and other practical matters.

So far, the US has imposed sanctions on UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory Francesca Albanese because of her critical report on Israel.

Reacting to the announcement, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters last month the imposition of sanctions on UN Special Rapporteurs sets a “dangerous precedent.”

“The use of unilateral sanctions against Special Rapporteurs or any other UN expert or official is unacceptable,” he told journalists.

He also highlighted the independent mandate and role of the Special Rapporteurs, noting that Member States “are perfectly entitled to their views and to disagree with” the experts’ reports.

“But we encourage them to engage with the UN’s human rights architecture,” he added.

Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, urged the US to reverse the sanctions and said that the attacks and threats against Albanese and other Human Rights Council mandate-holders “must stop.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. has also imposed sanctions on officials of the Palestinian Authority and members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) accusing them of undermining peace efforts with Israel —even as other Western powers moved toward recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Judging by the Trump administration’s track record, and its violations of federal rules and legislation, will the US adhere to the Host Country agreement or ignore it?

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU), told IPS “knowing Trump’s track record, he will find any way to tamper with any system or law just so that people will talk about it—good, bad, or in between, as long as he is front and center of what’s happening around him.”

He doesn’t only want to assert authoritarian governance here in the United States; he is also trying to project himself as the leader of the whole world, wanting foreign leaders to bow to him, said Dr Ben-Meir.

“Many of his actions, including his deeply misguided tariffs, are his attempt to use his power to show that he is above all other leaders in the world. I wouldn’t put it past him to try to create problems for the upcoming UN General Assembly meeting in September.”

Most likely, he will block any UNSC resolution critical of Israel and any resolution recognizing a Palestinian state.

Dr Ben-Meir also pointed out that Trump’s executive order, while reviving accusations of xenophobia and isolationism, provides exceptions for those traveling on diplomatic visas, which is intended for those traveling to and from the United Nations Headquarters District.

“Unless there is some sort of extraordinary interference from Trump, his travel ban on 19 countries should not impact those nations’ diplomats traveling to the United States for the General Assembly, or other United Nations business,” he pointed out.

Mandeep S. Tiwana, Secretary General, CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organizations (CSOs), told IPS the United States derives immense economic and political benefits from hosting the UN headquarters in New York. It would be highly unwise to restrict the entry of foreign government and civil society representatives to attend UN sessions and participate in UN related meetings.

“The United States Government has a legal responsibility to facilitate their entry to support the UN’s mission to secure peace, justice and sustainability in the world,” he said.

Norman Solomon, executive director, Institute for Public Accuracy and national director, RootsAction.org, told IPS contempt for the United Nations is nothing new coming from Washington, although it has varied in extent and candor over the decades.

“While U.S. administrations have always sought to bend the world body to its nationalistic will, some U.S. presidents have participated in the UN with an extent of good faith”.

The current Trump administration, he pointed out, is at the opposite end of the spectrum, making no effort to conceal its utter contempt for the precepts of the UN and making no effort to do anything but undermine it.

“Barring diplomats from entering the United States to participate in UN proceedings is beyond the pale – an expression of extreme arrogance that violates not only the basic principles of the UN but also conveys the global aspirations of U.S. foreign policy. The de facto approach is “Do as we say, not as we do.”

There is much to condemn in the human rights records of many of the governments that the Trump regime seeks to bar from entrance to the United States, he argued. At the same time, a country notably absent from the list is Israel, which is waging a genocidal war on Palestinian people made possible by massive nonstop arms shipments from the USA.

While the U.S. exercises veto power and leverage within the Security Council, the General Assembly is a venue where justified distrust and anger toward the United States can only grow, given the policies of the U.S government, declared Solomon, author, “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine.”

Meanwhile, the United States has, in the past. been accused of imposing unfair travel restrictions on U.N. diplomats in the country.

Back in August 2000, the Russian Federation, Iraq and Cuba protested the “discriminatory” treatment, which they say targets countries that displease the U.S.

Pleading national security concerns, Washington has long placed tight restrictions, in a bygone era, on diplomats from several “unfriendly” nations, including those deemed “terrorist states,” particularly Cuba, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and Libya.

U.N. diplomats from these countries, posted in New York, also have to obtain permission from the U.S. State Department to travel outside a 25-mile radius from New York City.

When former Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, accused of war crimes, was refused a US visa to attend the high-level segment of the General Assembly sessions in September 2013, Hassan Ali, a senior Sudanese diplomat, registered a strong protest with the UN’s Legal Committee.

“The democratically-elected president of Sudan had been deprived of the opportunity to participate in the General Assembly because the host country, the United States, had denied him a visa, in violation of the U.N.-U.S. Headquarters Agreement. It was a great and deliberate violation of the Headquarters Agreement,” he said.

The refusal of a visa for the Sudanese president was also a political landmine because al-Bashir had been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

But one question remained unanswered: Does the United States have a right to implicitly act on an ICC ruling when Washington is not a party to the Rome Statute that created the ICC?

When Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was denied a US visa to visit New York to address the United Nations back in 1988, the General Assembly defied the United States by temporarily moving the UN’s highest policy making body to Geneva-– perhaps for the first time in UN history–- providing a less-hostile political environment for the PLO leader.

Arafat, who first addressed the UN in 1974, took a swipe at Washington when he prefaced his statement by saying “it never occurred to me that my second meeting with this honorable Assembly, since 1974, would take place in the hospitable city of Geneva”.

This article contains excerpts from a book on the United Nations titled “No Comment – and Don’t Quote Me on That,” available on Amazon. The book is authored by Thalif Deen, Senior Editor at the UN Bureau of Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, who is also an ex-UN staffer and a former member of the Sri Lanka delegation to the General Assembly sessions. The link to Amazon via the author’s website follows: https://www.rodericgrigson.com/no-comment-by-thalif-deen/

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Plastic waste washes ashore in the Maldives archipelago. Credit: UNDP
 
"The vast majority of governments want a strong agreement, yet a handful of bad actors were allowed to use process to drive such ambition into the ground," said one environmentalist.

By Jake Johnson
NEW YORK, Aug 18 2025 (IPS)

Negotiators in Geneva adjourned what was expected to be the final round of plastics treaty negotiations on Friday without reaching an agreement, a failure that environmentalists blamed on the Trump-led United States, Saudi Arabia, and other powerful nations that opposed any effort to curb plastic production—the primary driver of a worsening global pollution crisis.

The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on Plastic Pollution agreed after 10 days of talks to resume negotiations at a yet-to-be-announced future date. Lobbyists from the fossil fuel industry swarmed the negotiations, working successfully to prevent a binding deal to slash plastic production. More than 99% of plastics are made from fossil fuel chemicals.

“The inability to reach an agreement in Geneva must be a wake-up call for the world: ending plastic pollution means confronting fossil fuel interests head-on,” said Graham Forbes, Greenpeace USA’s Global Plastics Campaign lead.

“The vast majority of governments want a strong agreement, yet a handful of bad actors were allowed to use process to drive such ambition into the ground. We cannot continue to do the same thing and expect a different result. The time for hesitation is over.”

The high-stakes talks marked the sixth time international negotiators have convened in an effort to craft a plastics treaty as production continues to grow and toxic pollution damages oceans, waterways, and communities across the globe. Talks in December similarly concluded without a deal.

The latest round of negotiations faltered after nations refused to rally around a pair of draft treaty documents—but for different reasons.

Supporters of a strong agreement—including Fiji, France, and Panama—objected to the exclusion of any binding plastic production cuts in the drafts, while the US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and others balked at the scope of the proposals and argued any treaty should focus primarily on waste management.

The proposal unveiled Friday in a last-ditch attempt to reach consensus acknowledged that “current levels of production and consumption of plastics are unsustainable” but did not include any binding limits.

Under the current process, every nation must agree on a proposal’s inclusion in treaty text.

Countries that want a treaty must now leave this process and form a treaty of the willing. And that process must include options for voting that deny the tyranny of consensus we have watched play out here.

Agnès Pannier-Runacher, France’s minister of ecological transition, didn’t attempt to hide her fury at the outcome of the latest round of talks, calling out the “handful of countries” that “blocked the adoption of an ambitious treaty against plastic pollution” because they were “guided by short-term financial interests rather than the health of their populations and the sustainability of their economies.”

“The scientific and medical evidence is overwhelming: plastic kills. It poisons our oceans, our soils, and ultimately, it contaminates our bodies,” said Pannier-Runacher. “I am angry because France, together with the European Union and a coalition of more than 100 countries from every continent—developed and developing, determined and ambitious—did everything possible to obtain an agreement that meets the urgency of the moment: to reduce plastic production, ban the most dangerous products, and finally protect the health of our populations.”

David Azoulay, who led the delegation for the Center for International Environmental Law in Geneva, called the talks “an abject failure” and warned that any future negotiations will end similarly “if the process does not change.”

“We need a restart, not a repeat performance,” said Azoulay. “Countries that want a treaty must now leave this process and form a treaty of the willing. And that process must include options for voting that deny the tyranny of consensus we have watched play out here.”

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

Source: Common Dreams

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“Litter Flourish”- A collage by New York-based artist Juno Lam that represents the “amalgamation of the negligence people have for the environment”. Credit: Juno Lam

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 15 2025 (IPS)

In the 1900s, global discussions around climate change and fossil fuel usage reached new heights, leading to the emergence of climate change art. Since then, it has remained a key theme in contemporary art, with artists and corporations alike continuing to push messages of climate reform to instill a sense of urgency, fear, and shared responsibility in viewers.

The climate crisis has severely escalated over the past few years, with 2024 and 2025 being marked by brutal natural disasters, environmental decay, and significant losses of human life around the world. Despite the vast amount of climate change data released since the 1970s, a significant portion of the world still denies the existence of climate change, particularly in the United States.

Oftentimes, the general public struggles to understand the scope of scientific and political developments due to their complexity or inaccessibility. Data surrounding the acceleration of the climate crisis is often rooted in complex terminology and shrouded by significant amounts of mis- and dis-information on popular social media platforms.

Historically, artists have relied on visual arts to convey messages to their audience, using tools such as symbolism, composition, and color to evoke specific emotions or draw attention to certain world issues. Many works in the climate change art movement use these tools to depict the destructive impact of human activity on the environment, the disproportionate effects on marginalized communities, and the growing threat of human extinction.

Large-Scale Impact Projects

One such project is Scaling Urban Nature-based Solutions for Climate Adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SUNCASA), a three-year project driven by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) that aims to empower marginalized communities, promote sustainable practices, and find environment-based solutions to benefit over 2.2 million people living in high-risk communities in sub-Saharan Africa.

On June 10, SUNCASA unveiled its transformative, new art project at the Nature, Climate, and Gender Symposium. The Litter Traps and Art Project, based in the Alexandra township of Johannesburg, South Africa, creates interactive art installations that act as tools to reduce flooding, clean up solid waste from rivers, strengthen biodiversity, and foster new conversations surrounding climate action.

“We’ve turned the detritus of urban life into guardians of the river,” said Hannelie Coetzee, an environment scientist and the lead artist on the project. “Each trap speaks to what has been discarded — physically and socially — and transforms it into a symbol of care. Art is not an add-on here; it is central to ecological restoration.”

David van Niekerk, CEO of the Johannesburg Inner City Partnership (JICP), noted that this installation stands out for its involvement from the local community and its role as an educational resource for both tourists and locals. Being more than just an aesthetic feature of the township, the installation symbolizes the importance of community-centered approaches, as well as sustainability and environmental protection.

In 2023, the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (CIMAM), the nonprofit arts organization Julie’s Bicycle, the Gallery Climate Coalition, and ART 2030 established the Art Charter for Climate Action (ACCA) in an effort to recognize the transformative role of visual art in the fight against the climate crisis.

ACCA currently contains over 1,000 members from 70 countries, including partners from museums, corporations, and nonprofit groups, as well as contemporary artists and arts sector stakeholders. In 2024, Julie’s Bicycle announced that ACCA would collaborate with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), aiming to achieve global net zero emissions by 2030.

“In order to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, it is essential that all sectors take transformative climate action now,” said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell. “In addition to reducing its global emissions, arts and culture play a critical role in inspiring people to imagine and realise a low carbon, just and climate-resilient future.”

The Individual Level

An IPS correspondent spoke with local artists in New York City that incorporate messages of climate reform and sustainability through their work. Among them is Oriel Ceballos, also known as OR1EL, a mixed-media artist based in Brooklyn.
“Throughout history, art has helped humanity bring greater attention to issues like colonialism, racism, police brutality, gender inequality, climate change, militarism, the prison industrial complex, poverty, global hunger, homelessness, and many others that plague our existence. Without the voice of artists, it is difficult to amplify issues and mobilize people. That’s why all art forms are crucial in raising important issues that impact people,” said Cellabos.

OR1EL elaborated on his artistic approach when addressing climate issues, stating that his recent pieces employ language and a minimal use of color to emphasize advocacy messages of advocacy. “I am known for doing pieces with figures wearing gas masks to highlight air pollution. In my work, you can see pieces where I address how factories or urban life destroys nature. Other works depict the juxtaposition between urban life and a life more in harmony with nature,” he said.

Juno Lam is an illustrator and collagist who advocates for sustainability by repurposing found objects and scraps to reimagine the world using man-made materials. “My work with collage is a response to climate change with the ephemera I find. Right now, we are considered to be living in the Anthropocene era, a time where humans are really a defining force on Earth,” Lam told IPS.

Lam continued: “One thing I feel we can take for granted is really being able to use everything you have around you. A lot of things that we use are used once and thrown away. A lot of these things end up in landfills or are incinerated, becoming trapped in our atmosphere. What would it mean to be able to give something discarded a place where it will be appreciated? To make use of a material, or item, time and time again until it breaks. The broken pieces I put together make an attempt to connect, whether it be glued or drawn together.”

IPS also spoke to Ripley Rice, a multimedia artist and sculptor who works in bio-art. Looking to evoke a sense of unease and inspire audiences to look further into science, Rice stated that bio-art can include studying biotechnology, genetic engineering, conducting surveys and research, and presenting this data in a visually striking way in an effort to spread awareness on humanity’s role in environmental degradation, and engage communities in science and ecology.

Wooden dolls carved by Rice, made with wood stained with a fungus (C. Aeruginescens) that’s present in Northeastern America more frequently as a result of climate change and rising temperatures. Credit: Ripley Rice

“When I make art, my goal is to create something visually interesting enough to get people to care about what I’m trying to say,” said Rice. “By engaging my audience with science and nature, I’m connecting them to the earth and trying to spark that love and fascination that I have…Something I talk about in my art a lot is humans’ impact and power over the organisms that we share this planet with.”

Rice also explained the messages of some of their newest ecology-inspired pieces, including a portrait of a deer that gazes confrontationally at a viewer, as though judging humans “for our sin of encroaching on their land”. Rice is currently working with biopolymers in the hopes of incorporating them into their newest works, as well as studying the mycelium of a fungus that stains wood blue as it digests decaying logs in forest ecosystems.

“There is a throughline of nature, biology, and power structures. We can only bring about change if we dismantle the power structures and relinquish some of our control over the Earth and its resources…If I think too hard about our destruction of nature, I feel hopeless and nihilistic. All you can do is try your hardest to shine your little light while the world gets darker and darker”.

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India is grappling with a pressing issue-a stray dog population that exceeds 62 million, leading to a severe public health toll. Credit: Hari Krishna Nibanupudi

By Hari Krishna Nibanupudi
HYDERABAD, India, Aug 15 2025 (IPS)

During a suo moto hearing, a Supreme Court (SC) of India judge startled the Solicitor General and Amicus Curiae with a line from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966): “When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.” For animal welfare advocates, it felt like a warning shot—not at criminals, but at India’s street dogs.

The two-judge bench questioned the rule requiring sterilised dogs to be returned to their original localities, ordered all strays rounded up and moved to shelters (that don’t exist), ordered immediate action over legal formalities, and asked pointedly, “Will animal lovers bring back children who died due to rabies?”

The Court warned that “so-called animal lovers, obstructing removals, would face contempt charges”. In the gallery, Gauri Maulekhi of People for Animals watched in disbelief as her counsel’s interventions were cut short.

When respected, street dogs become allies and guardians; when abused, they respond with fear and aggression, perpetuating conflict. India faces a choice between punitive crackdowns and humane, proactive management that protects both people and animals

The Court’s combative tone and disregard for due process sparked nationwide uproar. Police crackdowns on peaceful protests further inflamed emotions, as celebrities and civil society leaders joined a growing movement against what many saw as the criminalisation of compassion.

The Chief Justice of the SC intervened on time, transferring the case to a new three-judge bench, which thankfully heard all sides on 14th August, and reserved its verdict.

 

The Escalating Public Health Crisis and the backlash

India is grappling with a pressing issue-a stray dog population that exceeds 62 million, leading to a severe public health toll. In 2024 alone, there were 3.7 million animal bite cases and 54 confirmed rabies deaths, a nearly 70% rise in bite incidents since 2022.

Children under 15 accounted for 5,19,704 instances—20% of all victims. Chilling attacks underscore these numbers: a four-year-old in Hyderabad mauled on CCTV, a seven-month-old in Noida killed in a gated society, and multiple fatal incidents in Delhi, Telangana, and Rajasthan, including hospital premises. Such tragedies, even in supposedly safe spaces, have intensified demands for immediate and decisive action.

Public outrage has at times turned violent. In August 2025, a man in Rajasthan shot 25 dogs in two days (India Today), while a Karnataka legislator boasted of killing 2,800 dogs and being “ready to go to jail.” In Mumbai, a housing society hired bouncers to stop residents from feeding strays, prompting the Bombay High Court to protect feeders.

Judicial comments have also drawn criticism for lacking a scientific and ethical basis. The Delhi High Court claimed feeding strays makes them territorial, and a Kerala judge said human lives should take precedence. Such views ignore research showing that feeding with sterilisation and vaccination reduces aggression and stabilises populations, while root causes lie in human neglect and poor waste management.

Legally, animals are protected under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, safeguarding caregivers from harassment. A 2022 amendment bill seeks stronger protections but remains pending. The SC’s National Capital Region (NCR) order, however, alters the impact of existing provisions and effectively nullifies aspects of the proposed amendment in the region.

 

A Measured SC Directive, but Feasibility Remains in Doubt

The SC’s written order, in stark contrast to the aggressive tone of its hearing, offers a ray of hope. It replaces rhetoric with detailed operational measures, embedding public safety within a constitutional framework. The order mandates the complete removal of stray dogs from the NCR, links rabies control to public health services, and sets strict shelter standards.

As per the order, authorities must relocate all strays to shelters, suspending the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules 2023 “capture-and-release” clause. Dogs must be sterilised, vaccinated, and dewormed, with facilities for 5,000 animals ready in six to eight weeks, ensuring proper care, staffing, and CCTV oversight.

A helpline must be operational within a week, enabling pickups within four hours. The order also requires daily tracking of dogs, immediate medical aid for bite victims, public disclosure of vaccine stocks, and consideration of a dedicated animal-control force. Framed as an urgent public health mandate, the directive demands strict timelines and accountability.

Yet, feasibility remains in question. Maneka Gandhi, a leading animal rights activist and former environment minister, estimates Delhi alone would require $2 billion to establish such shelters, excluding costs for food, medicine, and sanitation. With no large-scale, functional shelter currently in place, developing the necessary infrastructure could take at least five years.

 

Choosing Co-Existence Over Conflict

India’s problem is not policy gaps but weak enforcement. Strict application of the ABC Rules 2023—sterilisation, vaccination, and responsible feeding—can stabilise stray populations.

Municipal bodies must partner with NGOs and trained feeders to ensure health monitoring, humane treatment, and rapid response. Scaling up sterilisation and vaccination through mobile clinics and sustained funding, as seen in Goa’s Mission Rabies, can eliminate rabies without mass confinement. Hostility toward street dogs is unethical and ineffective.

Humane, coordinated action—combining vaccination, sterilisation, trained community caretakers, and animal sensitivity education—is essential. Empowered NGOs and resident associations, supported with veterinary services and funding, can manage populations responsibly, ensuring safety, health, and harmonious co-existence between humans and animals.

Like abandoned children who flourish when nurtured, street dogs, too, thrive with care. Suresh and Hema, my neighbours in suburban Hyderabad, adopted two strays, feeding and treating them warmly.

They grew healthy, resembling Labradors, while their littermates perished or became aggressive. Similarly, Parnasri cares for four strays—feeding, medicating, and even educating dog-fearing neighbours. Now, these dogs are embraced by multiple households and protect homes from thieves.

When respected, street dogs become allies and guardians; when abused, they respond with fear and aggression, perpetuating conflict. India faces a choice between punitive crackdowns and humane, proactive management that protects both people and animals.

The SC’s NCR order tackles public health but demands scrutiny on cost, feasibility, and ethics. Success lies in creating safer streets and dignified animal lives—balancing compassion with science and law to set a global example.

Hari Krishna Nibanupudi is an India-based animal Rights Advocate and is associated with multiple animal welfare organisations

The OIC Group at an Aug. 12 press briefing to present their joint statement on recent developments in the Gaza Strip, following an OIC Group emergency meeting on Aug. 11 after Israel announced its plan to take complete military control of the Gaza Strip. Credit: Naomi Myint Breuer/IPS

By Naomi Myint Breuer
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 15 2025 (IPS)

The world is becoming increasingly outraged at Israel for its actions in the ongoing war against Hamas, particularly amid the recent killings of Palestinian journalists and Israel’s announcement of its plan to seize complete military control of the Gaza Strip.

The plan, which the Israeli Security Cabinet approved on August 8, includes disarming Hamas, returning all hostages, demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, implementing Israeli control of the Gaza Strip and establishing “an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority,” according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s posts on X.

“The [Israel Defence Forces (IDF)] will prepare for taking control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” Netanyahu posted on X.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation to the United Nations (OIC Group) released a joint statement condemning and rejecting the plan on August 12. The statement was released following an OIC Group emergency meeting on August 11.

“We consider this announcement a dangerous and unacceptable escalation, a flagrant violation of international law, and an attempt to entrench the illegal occupation and impose a fait accompli by force, in contravention of international law, international humanitarian law and relevant United Nations resolutions,” the statement said.

The Group demanded an immediate and complete end to Israel’s violence against the Gaza Strip and an end to the damages to civilians and civilian infrastructure. They also demanded that Israel permit humanitarian assistance to enter and work in the Gaza Strip at scale.

“The group reaffirms that this declared course of action by Israel constitutes a continuation of its grave violations, including killing and starvation, attempts at forced displacement, and annexation of Palestinian land, the settler terrorism, which are crimes that may amount to crimes against humanity,” the statement said.

In a statement on August 8, United Nations (UN) Human Rights Chief Volker Türk demanded the “immediate halt” of the plan. The plan, he said, conflicts with the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling that Israel must end its occupation and agree to a two-State solution and that Palestinians have the right to self-determination.

“Instead of intensifying this war, the Israeli Government should put all its efforts into saving the lives of Gaza’s civilians by allowing the full, unfettered flow of humanitarian aid,” he said.

Another major topic of discussion is the Aug. 10 targeted killing of six journalists, including four Al-Jazeera journalists, in Gaza City, which increased discussion about Israel’s human rights violations. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) reported that 238 journalists have been killed since the war began.

“The deliberate targeting of journalists by Israel in the Gaza Strip reveals how these crimes are beyond imagination, amid the inability of the int’l community & its laws to stop this tragedy,” Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani posted on X. “May God have mercy on journalists Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qraiqea, & their colleagues.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for an independent and impartial investigation into the killing.

“Journalists and media workers must be respected, they must be protected, and they must be allowed to carry out their work freely, free from fear and free from harassment,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the Secretary-General, said on August 11.

The OIC Group will be hosting a special meeting to discuss next steps following this tragedy, according to Deputy Permanent Representative of Türkiye to the UN Fikriye Asli Güven. Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN, said the OIC Group is also pressuring the Security Council to take action.

“This is a deliberate policy to silence the journalists, but we were all aware that the truth cannot be silenced,” Güven said.

Amid the developments in Gaza, Dr. Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine, said the OIC Group and the Security Council are observing a more unified front developing against Israel.

“There is a merging cohesion and unity and outrage of what is really happening, and they are exerting tremendous amounts of pressure in order to stop the killing, stop the military operations to have a permanent ceasefire, to force allowing humanitarian assistance to take place,” Mansour said.

This shift is also visible in the positions an increasing number of countries criticizing Israel’s plans.

The foreign ministers of Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom, as well as the High Representative of the European Union, released a joint statement on August 9 rejecting the Israeli plan for Gaza.

“The plans that the Government of Israel has announced risk violating international humanitarian law,” the statement said. “Any attempts at annexation or of settlement extension violate international law.”

The ministers urged for an end to the “terrible conflict” and for Israel to change its registration system of humanitarian organizations to allow humanitarian workers into the region.

“Their exclusion would be an egregious signal,” the statement said.

The ministers also asserted their support for a two-state solution.

Mansour praised the recent actions of European countries to pressure Israel, such as Spain’s reduction of arms sales to Israel and Germany’s arms export ban to Israel, which he called a “modest but it’s a very important step.”

He also praised Norway’s withdrawal of assets in Israel, Colombia’s withdrawal of coal trade, and Australia’s recognition of the state of Palestine. He calls these steps “practical” and a fast way to pressure Israel.

The OIC Group called upon the international community, especially the permanent members of the Security Council, to stop Israel’s policies undermining peace and violating international and international humanitarian law.

They also pushed for a two-State solution and the implementation of the Arab-Islamic reconstruction plan of the Gaza strip, a plan led by Egypt to rebuild Gaza, and participation in the upcoming reconstruction conference in Cairo.

“We affirm that a just and lasting peace can only be achieved through the implementation of the two-State solution,” the Group’s statement said.

For Mansour, a united global front will be crucial to accelerating the pace at which countries decide to take action against Israel.

“There is nothing that we can do about those who are killed, but we can do a lot about saving the lives of those who are still alive, and it is our responsibility to do everything possible in order to save their lives,” he said.

By September, Mansour said he hopes to have 100 more counties sign the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State solution, which was created by France and Saudi Arabia at the High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution in July. The conference will resume on September 22, according to Mansour. He said the New York Declaration must become the “blueprint” and “global consensus.”

“It is not the destiny of the Palestinian people to have an eternal conflict with Israel and to keep losing thousands of our children and women and our people at the hand of this war machine by Israel,” Mansour said. “It is our duty to convince everyone that there is another alternative, the alternative of immediate ceasefire.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Strong health systems start with midwives. Credit: Unsplash

By Shreya Komar
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 15 2025 (IPS)

Asia-Pacific’s midwives are a healthcare lifeline capable of delivering nearly 90 percent of essential maternal and newborn services. Yet the region grapples with severe shortages, underinvestment, and systemic neglect.

The newly released State of Asia’s Midwifery 2024 Report, released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), reveals that despite midwives’ lifesaving potential, many countries lack enough workers, face poor training and support systems, and struggle with weak policy backing. The findings underscore an urgent need to elevate midwives from auxiliary roles to central pillars of health systems across the region.

Drawing on data from 21 countries in the UNFPA Asia-Pacific (AP) region, the report was intended to assist countries in the region to meet the challenges of the health-related SDGs and the Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere (EWENE) agenda, a global initiative focused on accelerating the reduction of preventable maternal and newborn deaths.

The report shows hundreds of thousands of maternal and newborn deaths in 2023 across the Asia-Pacific that timely midwife interventions could have largely prevented. The region faces a shortage of approximately 200,000 midwives, contributing to an annual toll of roughly 66,000 maternal deaths alone. These stark figures expose both the human cost and the systemic failure to invest in this essential healthcare workforce.

According to the report, at least five Asia-Pacific countries, including Lao PDR, Mongolia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Timor-Leste, are estimated to face needs-based midwife shortages, with Pakistan and PNG experiencing the most severe gaps.

The report projects that Pakistan and PNG will still face shortages by 2030, even if they maintain current rates of midwife graduation and full employment. Other countries, such as Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Viet Nam, are also likely to experience ongoing shortages; however, limited data prevents precise estimates of these shortages.

Beyond shortages, the report points to alarming gaps in education quality, regulatory frameworks, and leadership pathways for midwives. Many countries still struggle with limited pre-service training, scarce continuing education opportunities, weak licensing systems, and fragmented governance. Retention suffers as poor pay, inadequate infrastructure, and lack of professional recognition push midwives away, especially from rural and underserved areas.

The report also emphasizes how placing midwives in leadership roles can strengthen decision-making on policies that directly affect maternal and newborn health, improve supervision and mentoring, and ensure midwifery perspectives shape regulation, training, and service delivery.

Countries like Afghanistan, Iran, and Malaysia show how midwife-led governance can integrate professional expertise into national health strategies, ultimately enhancing the quality, reach, and effectiveness of sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health (SRMNAH) services.

Since 2021, nine countries have increased midwife availability (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Iran, Lao PDR, Maldives, Nepal, PNG, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam), four have seen decreases (Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and the Philippines), and two show no significant change (Mongolia and Timor-Leste). It shows that while some nations are making progress, regional gains are uneven, and shortages can worsen without sustained investment and retention strategies.

The WHO estimates that countries with fewer than 25 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 people will struggle to provide adequate primary healthcare, a threshold that, while general, offers a benchmark for minimum workforce density.

Acting on this information is imperative because midwives are the most cost-effective, accessible answer to achieving safe motherhood and newborn survival goals. As the World Health Organization notes, when well-trained and integrated, midwives can address roughly 90 percent of essential reproductive and newborn health needs. Still, the world faces a global shortfall of nearly 900,000 midwives, and many in Asia endure poor working conditions, low pay, and limited career paths. Thus, saving lives demands investing in midwifery education, fair compensation, regulation, leadership, and full integration into health systems.

Midwife supervisor Arafin Mim, who oversees a team serving over 32,500 Rohingya refugees on the remote island of Bhasan Char in Bangladesh, captures the importance of her work simply.

“I feel this profession from the corner of my heart. It’s about making a connection with a pregnant woman, building a relationship during her pregnancy.”

Mim’s dedication illustrates the commitment and resilience midwives bring to some of the world’s most challenging environments.

In UNFPA’s recent opinion piece, the Regional Director Pio Smith shares a vivid image of midwives delivering in remote Bangladesh during climate crises to describe their resilience.

“When non-stop rain caused flooding in her village, the maternity ward, pharmacy, and storage room were submerged by water. She still continued to deliver babies, without electricity, even supporting emergency cesarean sections as needed with the doctors on call.”

The report urges governments and partners to close needs-based midwife shortages by expanding education in line with ICM standards, improving faculty and curricula, and ensuring equitable deployment. It recommends updating policies so midwives can work to their full scope, using data-driven workforce planning to create sanctioned posts, and adopting fair recruitment, deployment, and retention strategies.

Finally, it calls for empowering midwives with leadership roles in SRMNAH governance, regulation, and service improvement.

UNFPA’s Executive Director, Dr. Natalia Kanem, reminds us in a statement that “midwives are instrumental to navigating these challenges: They can provide up to 90 percent of essential services for sexual and reproductive health and bring their expertise and counsel to women wherever they are.”

Country examples such as Bangladesh, Nepal, and Cambodia offer hopeful signs. Bangladesh’s midwife-led birthing centers, Nepal’s rural midwifery deployments, and Cambodia’s regulatory reforms are exemplary, but much more action and investment are needed.

Midwives must be valued and supported as key professionals with quality education, fair pay, robust licensing, leadership opportunities, and a seat at health policymaking tables. This will result in fewer maternal and infant deaths, stronger newborn health, and more resilient healthcare systems.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Morning after an Israeli attack in Tyre, Lebanon. Credit: Nour

By Eliane Eid
JNOUB, Lebanon, Aug 15 2025 (IPS)

“Special, targeted operations in southern Lebanon,” a phrase that has echoed repeatedly over the past two years in Israeli Defence Force (IDF) statements. But behind these clinical military terms lies a human cost that statistics cannot capture.

The residents of southern Lebanon—mothers, fathers, children, and elders—are the ones who face the daily reality of displacement, loss, and uncertainty. Their homes become coordinates on military maps; their neighborhoods, theaters of “operations.” Yet their stories of endurance, grief, and quiet acts of resilience rarely reach beyond the headlines.

Through interviews with residents of “Jnoub,” we examine how communities are navigating displacement, processing communal loss, and finding ways to grieve while continuing to live. These are voices from a region too often reduced to geopolitical analysis, voices that reveal the profound human dimension of conflict.

“Ironically, my workplace is close to my old house’s rubble. I see it, as well as the zone where my pet died, on a daily basis. I haven’t grieved as I should… haven’t cried as much as I should have.

“I hate the sound of phone calls, especially the landlines and my father’s good old Blackberry phone, as they remind me of the time we received the threat and people were calling to warn us,” said Sarah Soueidan when asked about her daily routine after her home was destroyed.

Having both her residential house and her family’s house bombed by the Israeli Defence Forces, she and her family had to move repeatedly throughout the past two years. Her hometown, Yater, located in South Lebanon, was directly affected by the war, leaving nothing but old memories and rubble.

The night they had to flee their house in Southern Beirut, Sara and her family woke up to a series of calls while listening to the sounds of ‘warning shots’ on the streets. These shootings were made to help draw attention to residents who did not receive the warning to leave their houses and find shelter before the attack.

As it was only 10 am, they had to act fast, so she and her mother left the house first to see what was going on and then realized that their building would be hit. Sarah had to go back home to warn her father and siblings. Since there was not enough time, and her father needed assistance in movement, they had to pick him up and leave the house with as few objects as possible.

They made sure to put Halloum (Sarah’s cat) in his cage, but due to the rush and many people in the house trying to help, Halloum got scared and jumped out of his cage. Sara and her siblings tried to look for him before leaving, but there was no more time; people were dragging them out of the house. On that day, Sarah took his toys and food, hoping to find him again, but she never did. The Israeli attack on Sarah’s house in Southern Beirut reduced it to rubble.

Sarah and her family had nowhere to go as their house in their hometown, Yater, was also bombed, and they had to leave the area until things settled down.

The interview took place a while after the attack, as Sarah was now ready to talk about what happened with her and her family, stating, “While I am not politically affiliated with anyone, nor would I discuss the reasons for escalation, as it is debatable, yet aggression and terrorism would always be so, without any reason. I was born and raised in these areas and streets. None of the allegations regarding ‘weapons, machinery, or drones under a three-story building’ are true. We need answers or proof.”

Halloum the cat, lying next to a Christmas tree. Credit: Sarah Soueidan

Many neighborhoods, streets, and buildings were targeted in the process; no one knew how or why, they only received images of their building with a warning that they needed to evacuate.

“The bomb was so close and I heard the sound of the missiles just before they reached the ground (and here you didn’t know if the missile would fall on you or no) and when I heard that, I ran toward my son and hugged him, then the missile exploded. This was repeated three or four times,” said Zaynab Yaghi, who is a resident in Ansar, a village in South Lebanon. Zaynab and her family had to leave South Lebanon under stress and fear of the unknown, all while trying to control the emotions of her son in order not to scare him even more.

Zaynab, like many others, had to live under stressful conditions, waiting for the unknown. Even after the ceasefire was agreed upon, residents in Southern Lebanon were still unable to go back home or live a normal life.

“Nearby buildings were struck after the ceasefire (one as far as 100m away from our own home). We were very surprised the first time it happened and scrambled to leave. It was very frightening,” said Mohammad Wehbe, who lost his home in Ainata and his apartment in the suburbs of Beirut, which was affected by the bombing of nearby buildings.

After talking to many people from different villages and areas in South Lebanon, there was one thing that made them feel a sense of hope, and that was community, traditions, and resistance. Resistance by choosing to go back, to have a future, present, and past within their grandparents’ land, and to grieve by holding on to what was left.

When asked, Nour described her village as a step back in time, a place of simplicity, serenity, and beauty. Nature all around and people who are warm and always have their doors open for strangers. Nour’s village, which is located within the Tyre district, was directly affected by the Israeli attacks. Her old neighborhood was completely demolished, and while the streets feel empty, she is trying to visit the area as much as possible to remember, to tell the story of those forgotten, and to belong to something greater than a title.

“The first time I went in winter, it felt strange: silence and destruction. But visit after visit, nature and the people of nature try to live again. That gives me hope. We’ll be fixing our home again. What matters is that we acknowledge this land is ours. And on our land, I can sense existence.”

While Nour gets her strength from people around her and her will to go back and build her home again, some have lost it completely, as it is not black or white; there is not a single way of grieving, existing, and living within times of chaos and displacement. “What beliefs I had before the war are long gone now. I don’t think I have processed what happened and I cope by ignoring everything and focusing on survival. Hope certainly feels like a big word these days,” Mohammad Wehbe said.

Compounding these challenges is the absence of government support. None of the interviewees have received any assistance from official channels, instead relying on their savings and help from family members to survive. This reality adds another layer of uncertainty to their daily struggles, as they navigate displacement and loss without institutional backing

These stories from Southern Lebanon reveal the complexity of human resilience in the face of displacement and loss. While some find strength in community and connection to their ancestral land, others struggle with the weight of survival itself. What remains constant is the need to bear witness to these experiences, to ensure that behind every military briefing and policy discussion, the human cost is neither forgotten nor reduced to mere statistics.

The residents of Jnoub continue to navigate an uncertain future, carrying with them the memories of what was lost and the fragile hope of what might be rebuilt. Their voices remind us that recovery is not just about reconstructing buildings but about healing communities and honoring the stories of those who endure.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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