10/01/2017.

Today, the legitimacy and efficacy of the humanitarian system is eroding.

Humanitarian needs have grown, the number of displaced people worldwide is higher than ever before, the effects of climate change are increasingly being felt and conflicts are lasting longer.

In the past, when the humanitarian system has been in crisis, unable to adequately respond to needs, there has been an evolution in terms of programmatic approach and the appearance of new humanitarian actors.

We are on the threshold of a major shift. It is both a challenge for traditional actors and an opportunity for humanitarian leaders to create a more inclusive and effective humanitarian ecosystem that better reflects those within it and those it serves.

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10/20/2017 by David Gelles. Step aside, Rockefeller. Move over, Carnegie. Out of the way, Ford.For the better part of a century, a few Gilded Age names dominated the ranks of big philanthropy.
In a matter of years, a new crop of ultra-wealthy Americans has eclipsed the old guard of philanthropic titans. With names like Soros, Gates, Bloomberg, Mercer, Koch and Zuckerberg, these new megadonors are upending long-established norms in the staid world of big philanthropy.
They have accumulated vast fortunes early in their lives. They are spending it faster and writing bigger checks. And they are increasingly willing to take on hot-button social and political issues — on the right and left — that thrust them into the center of contentious debates.

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09/27/2017.

With tens of millions of human trafficking victims worldwide, “now is the time to stand together and stamp out this abominable practice,” Secretary-General António Guterres today told a high-level meeting at which Member States adopted a political Declaration reaffirming their commitment to implement a United Nations action plan to end the scourge.

“Human trafficking is all around us, in all regions of the world,” said Mr. Guterres, referring to such practices as forced labour, sexual servitude, recruitment of child soldiers and other forms of exploitation and abuse.

The Assembly’s high-level meeting, convened to examine progress achieved and challenges remaining in the implementation of the seven-year-old Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, opened today and closes tomorrow.

In the Declaration, adopted without a vote, UN Member States demonstrated their strong political will to take decisive concerted action to end the heinous crime.

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Article published on UN women.

Violence against women is one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world, rooted in gender inequality, discrimination and harmful cultural and social norms. It is also increasingly recognized as a public health issue that adversely affects the health of women. It is estimated that approximately 35 per cent of women worldwide have experienced intimate partner physical and/or sexual violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime (WHO, 2013). The prevalence and serious impacts of this violence make it one of the most significant issues to be addressed in our time.

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10/05/2017. Recently appointed head of the GCSP Crisis Management Cluster, David Horobin has a lifetime of experience on the frontlines of complex emergencies. After 25 years in operations with the Red Cross/Crescent he’s bringing a unique lesson into the GCSP classroom: managing a crisis effectively is all about teamwork. Could you give us the backstory as to how you came into crisis management? I’m a logistician by profession. Out of university, armed with a Masters in Transport I started my professional life moving lettuce, burgers and perishables around London with a large fleet of trucks working triple shifts. This was the early days of time critical logistics. Every day something would go wrong and I quickly learned to think on my feet. One day my boss asked me if I might like to go to Angola – as the Red Cross were looking for specialist logisticians.

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10/02/2017. The number of those needing humanitarian assistance is at its highest since the end of the Second World War – some 145 million people. Several protracted crises in Africa and the Middle East are deteriorating and climate-induced emergencies, sometimes combined with violent conflict, continue to wreak havoc on vulnerable communities. Amid all this, United Nations-coordinated response plans remain severely underfunded.

It is against this backdrop that Mark Lowcock began his tenure as the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. The British national brings to the position more than 30 years of experience leading and managing responses to humanitarian crises across the globe.

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10/04/2017 by John L. Allen Jr.

Look around at the lineup at an Oct. 3-6 summit at Rome’s Gregorian University on “Child Dignity in the Digital World,” and it’s a host of experts from the biggest outfits in their various fields — Harvard, Interpol, Facebook, UNICEF, Microsoft, and so on. It’s the cream of the crop, and it’s another illustration of the Vatican’s unique power to convene, since basically nobody can say no to an invite from the pope.

Ever since the collapse of the Papal States in 1870, the Vatican has had to make its way in the world as a “soft power,” relying on moral authority and the pope’s massive bully pulpit to move the ball on matters it perceives as priorities. That soft power takes many forms, but one is on especially clear display this week at Rome’s Jesuit-sponsored Gregorian University: The power to convene.

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10/05/2017 by Andrew Dobbie. Some politicians cast aside humanity in favour of short-term political gains, says UNHCR’s international protection chief Volker Türk.

Violations of international refugee law, such as attacks by troops and families being driven back across borders, jeopardized the safety of people fleeing for their lives in 2017, UNHCR’s international protection chief said today.
In a key annual address to the UN Refugee Agency’s Executive Committee meeting in Geneva, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Volker Türk – the UN’s leading expert on international protection – said such breaches are “wide-ranging and occur in all parts of the world”.

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10/05/2017 by Mehwish Akram.

The human rights are directly related to environmental security. According to experts, the natural resources and their fair distributions are essential to ensure the human rights. Humans are dependent on the suitable environment for their survival.

The UN and other international donor agencies are working together to decrease loss of the biodiversity and achieve a significant improvement in the lives of people across the globe. The sustainable environment is required for ensuring human rights as every human has right to live in a safe and secure environment. The linkage between human rights and environmental security are closely related. According to the environmentalist, sustainable environment is needed for human existence.

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10/23/2017. Rohingya crisis: Donors pledge $344 million at UN-backed conference to support aid efforts. A United Nations-supported humanitarian conference today raised more than $344 million to fund critical relief programmes for Rohingya refugees and host communities in Bangladesh.

The exodus – which began in late August – continues unabated, making the crisis the fastest growing refugee emergency in the world today. As of Sunday, some 603,000 refugees are estimated to have arrived in Bangladesh and thousands more reportedly remain stranded in Myanmar without the means to cross the border.

“Humanitarian donors have today expressed their solidarity and compassion with the families and communities in need,” said Mark Lowcock, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.

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