NEWSLETTER Week of June 26th 2017

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NEWSLETTER
Week of June 26th 2017
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UNITAR and OHCHR Set the Stage for More Satellite to Protect Human Rights

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and UNITAR signed a milestone MoU that will allow greater use of UNOSAT imagery analysis and technical assistance in support to the Office’s human rights work. Through the agreement OHCHR will benefit from the latest geographic information technologies and the entire suite of geo-spatial solutions provided by UNITAR’s Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT), including rush satellite imagery analysis, field data collection, mapping, data management and training.

Under the agreement UNOSAT will provide its technical expertise and services to support ongoing emergencies, as well as preparedness, early warning and early action. The MoU paves the way for further mainstreaming satellite imagery analysis into the work of OHCHR, as well as Commissions of Inquiry and Fact-Finding Missions, and comes after years of active collaboration between UNOSAT and OHCHR.

Malteser International | Syria’s War Children | No lost generation

06/20/2017. Yasmine is only 9 years old, but has lost so much in her life – her father, her home, and the sight in one eye. Born in the Syrian city of Homs, she has lived through war and has been on the run for most of her young life. She was seven years old when she survived a bombing which killed her father. Along with her mother and two brothers, she fled to neighboring Turkey.

She now lives in Istanbul with her family under difficult conditions. For almost a year, however, she has received lessons at a temporary school for Syrian refugee children. She is being prepared for entry into a public school in Turkey. After only a short period of time, Yasmine’s showed impressive academic talent, and was able to catch up on all the school topics she had missed due to the years of war in her home country.

Memo to Congress: Don’t Cut Foreign Aid

06/15/2017 by John McCain and Tim Kaine. The security of the United States and its people is the first priority of government, and imposes numerous responsibilities on Congress and the executive branch. We are responsible for ensuring that our armed services are the best-equipped, best-trained and best-led military in the world. And we are responsible for assigning them missions that have clear, achievable objectives and are worth their service and sacrifice.

We are also responsible for making good use of government’s other resources to help protect America’s vital interests in the world, and share the burden carried by our servicemen and women. Smart intelligence operations are essential to our security. So is adroit diplomacy and U.S. assistance — including humanitarian relief, democracy promotion and economic development — to further our goals.

Forced displacement worldwide at its highest in decades

06/19/2017 by Adrian Edwards. UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report says an unprecedented 65.6 million people were uprooted from their homes by conflict and persecution at the end of 2016.

War, violence and persecution have uprooted more men, women and children around the world than at any time in the seven-decade history of UNHCR according to a report published today.

The UN Refugee Agency’s annual Global Trends study found that 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide at the end of 2016 – a total bigger than the population of the United Kingdom and about 300,000 more than last year.

It noted that the pace at which people are becoming displaced remains very high. On average, 20 people were driven from their homes every minute last year, or one every three seconds – less than the time it takes to read this sentence.

“ICOMOS Guidance on Post Trauma Recovery and Reconstruction for World Heritage Cultural Properties”

23/03/2017. The background for issuing this document is set by the scale, persistence and nature of destructive events of recent times. These dramatic losses, the results of natural processes and human action, have renewed
awareness of the vulnerability of our cultural inheritance – heritage which includes places whose attributes
are of ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ (OUV) – and awareness of the commitment of the overall international
community to the common purpose of preserving and transmitting it to future generations. The magnitude of
natural disasters such as those that have affected Nepal, Cuba or Italy, and the destruction, whether
intentional or not, caused by armed conflicts on sites in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, the former Yugoslavia and Mali
among many others, create unprecedented challenges for recovery and possible restoration.

Macron pledges pragmatism and cooperation with post-Brexit Britain

06/21/2017 by Angelique Chrisafis.

In his first interview since he was elected as French president, Emmanuel Macron sets out his international agenda on Syria, Trump, and European integration

Emmanuel Macron has promised that France will have a strong and pragmatic relationship with a post-Brexit Britain, working together on defence and counter-terrorism because of the two countries’ “linked destinies”.

In his first interview since he was elected as French president last month, Macron told the Guardian and seven other European papers: “Pragmatism will determine our new relationship” with Britain.

Are NGOs responsible for the migration crisis in the Mediterranean?

06/20/2017 by Antoine Pécoud and Marta Esperti. 2016 was an extraordinarily deadly year for migrants: 5,000 people perished in the Mediterranean Sea, vastly exceeding the death toll of 3,700 in 2015. And in the first six months of 2017, more than 1,000 deaths have been recorded.

Year after year, we see the same dynamics at work. Migrants flee conflict and instability in the Middle East and Africa trying to reach Europe. In order to avoid the land checkpoints established by European governments, they take their lives into their hands, setting off across the Mediterranean in makeshift boats, often operated by unscrupulous people smugglers.

Efforts to Rescue Migrants Caused Deadly, Unexpected Consequences

06/14/2017 by Stuart A. Thompson and Anjali Singhvi.

Strategies to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean Sea and disrupt smuggling networks have had deadly, unexpected consequences, according to aid groups monitoring the crisis.

It is part of a wrenching Catch-22: Any effort to lessen the migrant crisis can backfire as smuggling networks devise even more dangerous strategies in response. Here is how those strategies have pushed desperate migrants into even more desperate situations.

Malteser International : Over five million people face starvation in South Sudan

06/21/2017. The number of people estimated in need of humanitarian assistance has increased to over 5 million – almost half of the population of South Sudan – out of which 100,000 are facing famine conditions due to civil conflict and a collapsing economy in South Sudan. Following a fact finding tour last week to assess the current situation and needs, president of Malteser International Europe Douglas Saurma-Jeltsch announced increased funding for the stricken populations of the region, where Malteser International, the Order of Malta’s worldwide relief agency, has been working for 20 years.