This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Myanmar: Military’s obstruction of humanitarian aid could be international crime

Myanmar’s military is killing civilians, destroying food and homes, and keeping the most vulnerable from receiving lifesaving aid, according to a new report by the UN human rights office (OHCHR).

The chief of OHCHR’s Myanmar team, James Rodehaver, explained that since their February 2021 coup, the country’s military rulers have been instilling a “climate of fear” to subjugate the civilian population, restricting aid access and using “all means” at their disposal to clamp down on civil society.

Here’s Mr. Rodehaver detailing some of their tactics:

“The use of heavy weaponry on civilian areas, the use of airstrikes, the burning of villages, the use of landmines to prevent people that flee conflict from coming back to their homes. Another thing that they have done regularly has been to burn food stores, crops and seed stores, to destroy medical facilities and to target medical workers.”

The military imposed further restrictions on humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of deadly Cyclone Mocha in May, Mr. Rodehaver said.

Over 17.6 million people, or a third of the overall population of Myanmar, are in need of aid.

OHCHR stressed that intentional obstruction or denial of humanitarian assistance may amount to serious violations of international law.

Cholera and measles rampant in eastern DRC as health system nears collapse

Armed violence and displacement in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are driving a massive health crisis, adding to the suffering of millions, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

Speaking from DRC’s capital Kinshasa, Dr Jorge Castilla, Senior Emergency Officer at WHO, told reporters that the country’s health system was under “extreme pressure” due to concurrent outbreaks of COVID-19, measles, polio and mpox but also yellow fever, cholera and malaria, “on the rise due to recurrent natural disasters and lack of access to safe water and sanitation”.

In eastern DRC, 2.8 million people have fled their homes since March 2022. Close to 25,000 cholera cases and more than 136,000 measles cases have been reported in the region since the end of last year, Dr Castilla said.

The combination of measles and malnutrition is a deadly threat to children under five. Overall, a total of 7.4 million people in the country need health assistance, he said.

Last week, the entire UN system launched an immediate scale-up of all of its humanitarian operations in eastern DRC. 

Job guarantee programmes needed to end poverty: top rights expert

Governments should guarantee a secure job at a living wage to anyone who wants one.

That’s the message from the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, who briefed the Human Rights Council on Friday about the benefits of job guarantee programmes.

The independent rights expert said that “with miserable working conditions and low pay affecting the majority of the world’s workers, and disruptions and job losses in labour markets we can expect to see from the rise of AI, it is clear that the world of work needs an urgent rethink.” 

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), over 190 million people are expected to be unemployed in 2023.

Mr. De Schutter insisted that job guarantee programmes could help fill “alarming” workforce gaps in the care, education and health sectors.

He said that such programmes could prove “hugely important” in ending unemployment and the “race to the bottom on working conditions”, while providing the income security and social inclusion which millions of people need to break free from poverty.

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.