This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.
Afghanistan aid and medical lifeline to millions must not be cut, warns WHO
The delivery of lifesaving aid and medical supplies to millions of Afghans must not be cut, the UN health agency said on Wednesday, citing a threefold rise in the number of trauma cases.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 70 of the health facilities it supports across Afghanistan treated nearly 14,000 conflict-related cases last month; that compares with only 4,057 cases seen a year ago.
“Sustained access to humanitarian assistance, including essential health services and medical supplies, is a critical lifeline for millions of Afghans, and must not be interrupted”, said Dr. Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean.
Dr. Al-Mandhari explained that months of violence has heavily impacted Afghanistan’s already fragile health system, which, in addition to the many challenges posed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, continues to face shortages in essential supplies.
The WHO senior official also insisted that the UN agency was “committed to staying” in Afghanistan, despite the uncertain situation following the Taliban takeover on Sunday.
His comments come a day after WHO dispatched trauma and burns kit equipment to Kabul’s Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital and enough basic medical kits to assist 10,000 people for three months.
Fuel crisis in Lebanon ‘a potential catastrophe for thousands’: UN
Reliable fuel and electricity are needed urgently in Lebanon to avert a potential humanitarian catastrophe, the top UN aid official in the country has warned.
Najat Rochdi, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, said that fuel shortages are threatening the provision of essential health and water services, putting thousands of families at risk.
The energy shortages have forced the country’s largest hospitals to reduce their activities further – which combined with the COVID-19 crisis – may affect the delivery of life-saving treatments, Ms. Rochdi said on Tuesday.
Public water supply and wastewater treatment systems that rely on fuel have also been cut back, leaving millions without access to water.
Nationwide, roughly four million people have been affected after the country’s chief electricity provider halted supply to water authorities.
In an appeal to restore the current, Ms. Rochdi called for all stakeholders to work together to find a sustainable and fair solution.
Defend trans community rights, Bachelet tells Copenhagen forum
A warning now from UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet that transgender people still lack protection from abuse around the world, amid an “alarming rise in hateful discourse” against them.
In her appeal to push back against proposals that “roll back protections” against the trans community, the High Commissioner for Human Rights insisted that wherever they live, their rights should be respected in law and in practice.
Speaking at the Copenhagen Human Rights Forum on Tuesday, Ms. Bachelet said that “every country in the world” should recognize trans people's gender “based on self-identification”.
Although there “have been advances” in legal protections of trans rights since Argentina’s “pioneering” law in 2012, only a “small minority of countries” have taken similar steps, the High Commissioner said.
She cautioned that where laws recognizing the gender of trans people do exist, they are often accompanied by “deeply abusive and humiliating requirements”, from forced sterilization to medical certification and divorce.
“That it is not by any means inclusive”, she said.
Ms. Bachelet urged both for freedom to “be who you are without fear of persecution...[and] to love”.
Katy Dartford, UN News.
