The UN child rights committee on Friday commended Switzerland for swiftly granting asylum to four Kurdish children and their mother, who faced deportation after fleeing Syria, adding that it showed how controversial decisions could be effectively appealed.
A proposed new anti-terrorism law in Switzerland could set a dangerous precedent for the suppression of political dissent worldwide, a group of five independent UN human rights experts warned on Friday.
Our main stories today: Boko Haram terrorist survivors tell their stories; UNICEF speaks out for children adrift on the Mediterranean; UN health agency pushes to stem dengue fever in Yemen; Switzerland declines sponsorship deal with tobacco firm; new SDG Advocates on the job.
The suffering of millions of children across Yemen has become “invisible to the rest of the world” according to UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative in the war-ravaged country.
Merixtell Relaño said the impact of the fighting between coalition-backed government forces and so-called Houthi rebels, on children and families, has been “catastrophic”.
The conflict has fuelled what UN agencies are calling the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with 6.8 million on the brink of famine.
“Immediate and flexible resources” are need to help nearly 19 million people in Yemen, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
WFP Country Director, Stephen Anderson, was speaking ahead of High-Level pledging conference on 25 April, which hopes to provide emergency resources to alleviate Yemen’s humanitarian crisis.
The event is being organized by the UN together with the governments of Sweden and Switzerland in Geneva.
Gender parity for leadership roles in public life across the world is still “decades away,” according to the head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Helen Clark said that the slow pace of progress towards a position where top jobs are held equally between men and women was unacceptable.
An innovative campaign to promote sustainable development has been launched at Zurich airport: part of a bid to spread the word to two billion people between now and 2030.
Using the online hashtag #YouNeedToKnow, the initiative is one of the first things travellers see when they transit through the Swiss hub.
The idea has also taken off in Geneva and Heathrow airports, with help from international shopping chain Dufry, as the UN’s Aziyade Poltier-Mutal told Daniel Johnson.
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