Americas

Dennis Francis, a veteran diplomat from Trinidad and Tobago, said he had returned from a visit to Haiti at the end of last month “with hope and the full knowledge that while Haiti is facing extraordinary challenges, its future holds indomitable promise.” The country has seen almost 4,000 killed and 3,000 kidnapped in gang-related violence just this year, following a political, economic and security crisis that has left much of the country descend into lawlessness. Driving in the streets of...

18 November 2023Health Innovation abounds in the race to broaden access to clean water and sanitation around the world on World Toilet Day, marked on 19 November. In line with this year’s theme of accelerating change, innovators have been part of ongoing efforts to address the needs of some of the world’s 3.5 billion people living without safe toilets. From a Nepalese woman who prompted her village to improve hygiene to a fresh game plan launched in 2022 by the UN Children’s Fund...

She travelled across the US between 31 October and 14 November, from Detroit in Michigan to the Louisiana coast, also visiting Los Angeles, Atlanta and Washington DC. Ashwini K.P., UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance, said following her 14-day fact finding mission that mainstream America was now more aware of systemic racism following the large scale racial protests of 2020 and the positive response from the Biden-Harris administration...

“Displacement severely risks the health, food and economic security of people, exposes them to gender-based violence, and puts pressure on local infrastructure and social cohesion within host communities,” Philippe Branchat, IOM Chief of Mission in Haiti said on Tuesday. Surging gang violence Surging gang violence in Carrefour-Feuilles and Savanes Pistaches neighbourhoods in Port-au-Prince, have led many to flee their homes. Increasingly, they are settling in improvised sites rather than...

Montserrat Xilotl, a Regional Technical Advisor in Climate Change Adaptation for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), explains why. Montserrat Xilotl, Regional Technical Advisor in Climate Change Adaptation for the UN Development Programme (UNDP). “Forests are nature’s water filters and storage systems. When rain falls, the trees, and vegetation capture and absorb it, allowing it to seep into the ground, replenishing aquifers, supplying drinking water to communities, and supporting...

Over five million Haitians, including a record three million children, need humanitarian support in 2023. Nearly five million are acutely hungry, UNICEF said, adding the dire situation is “terrorizing children and families and destroying livelihoods amid unprecedented hunger, malnutrition and a resurgent cholera epidemic.” Haiti was among the top five countries globally in terms of recorded cholera cases between 20 July and 31 August, and Artibonite has been worst area affected overall...

In a statement concluding a 12-day visit there, the UN expert group said that reforms including the transition to an accusatory criminal procedure, adherence to international human rights laws and introduction of a National Registry of Detentions, and an increasingly human-rights centred legal system are significant achievements. ‘Catalyst for ill-treatment’ However, they noted that “these steps should be consolidated for the benefit of all people living or transiting through Mexico.”...

“Costa Rican society does not teach us that there are indigenous people in this country,” she said. “It is a form of discrimination, making the existence of indigenous peoples invisible.” Faustina Torres belongs to the Bribri indigenous community in Costa Rica. Amid an alarming trend of spiraling hate speech and discrimination online platforms, Costa Rica, with UN support, has been designing Latin America’s first ever strategy to fight back, Poised to unveil the powerful tool by the...

The Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry reiterated his call for an international force in his speech to the UN General Assembly on Friday 22 September. “In the name of the women and girls raped every day, the thousands of families driven from their homes, the children and young people of Haiti, who have been denied the right to education and instruction, in the name of all a people who are victims of the barbarity of gangs, I urge the international community to act quickly.” Here’s what...

27 September 2023Human Rights The United States must end “the prolonged pre-trial detention” of Alex Nain Saab Morán, a Venezuelan Special Envoy who was arrested in 2020 and extradited to the US on money laundering charges, UN independent human rights experts said on Wednesday. They called for his immediate release and for the US “to comply with its obligations under international law…and drop all charges against him.” Allegations Mr. Saab was appointed as a Special Envoy by the...