News headlines in August 2022, page 7

Twenty-four UN-appointed independent human rights experts condemned on Wednesday, Israel’s escalating attacks against Palestinian civil society in the occupied West Bank, describing it as “illegal and unacceptable”.

The “senseless war” in Ukraine is now six months old, with no end in sight, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Wednesday, repeating his ongoing appeal for peace. 

UN-appointed independent human rights experts called on Wednesday for stronger measures to prevent and penalize female genital mutilation in Sierra Leone.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday a new drive to find ways of revamping the African region’s health systems.

STOCKHOLM, Aug 24 (IPS) - When I was a child, a friend asked me: “How would you describe a tree to someone who has never seen one?” I looked at the trees surrounding us and realised it was impossible, considering their versatility, beauty and utter strangeness. Since that time, I have often wondered about trees, as well as I have been worried by the indiscriminate destruction of trees and forests.

FRANKFURT/BERLIN, Aug 24 (IPS) - This month, the Tenth Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is taking place in New York (and scheduled to conclude August 26). The meeting of states parties, postponed four times because of the Covid-19 pandemic, had originally been scheduled for April 2020.

United Nations, Aug 23 (IPS) - Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW) issued a wake-up call for the global community to support efforts on facilitating education in crisis areas. She was speaking at the United Nations at the launch of the global fund's annual report titled We Have Promises to Keep.

Six months after the Russian invasion, Ukraine is the scene of the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since the Second World War. Almost a third of those displaced by the conflict come from the region around the country’s second largest city of Kharkiv, in the east. Helping those in need is dangerous work.

United Nations, Aug 23 (IPS) - Syrian refugee children are among the most disadvantaged in Iraq. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, only 53 percent of school-aged Syrian refugee children in the country were enrolled.

Agreement is urgently needed to reestablish the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in Ukraine as purely civilian infrastructure and prevent a potentially “catastrophic” disaster amid the ongoing conflict, UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council on Tuesday.