Andrea De Domenico, Head of OCHA‘s Office in the occupied Palestinian territory, recently spent three weeks in the enclave, where over one million people have fled the southern city of Rafah following the step-up in Israeli military operations, according to Palestine refugee agency UNRWA. Briefing journalists in New York, Mr. De Domenico added that the…
The experts said they have received allegations that migrants are being deceived about “working and living conditions and the nature of their agreements with employers in the agricultural or care sectors.” “This is unlawful and highlights the need for urgent reform of the current system governing labour migration, to ensure effective protection of the rights…
Jean-Martin Bauer, Country Director in Haiti for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), also said that the UN agency had managed to resume flights into Port-au-Prince international airport. ‘Exceptionally complex’ The security situation remains “exceptionally complex” but it has been possible to reach “the most difficult neighbourhoods” of the Haitian capital, Mr. Bauer said. According…
The city of Rafah on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt had been home to well over a million forcibly displaced by nearly eight months of daily bombardment by the Israeli military, in response to Hamas-led terror attack in southern Israel on 7 October. “Thousands of families now shelter in damaged and destroyed facilities in Khan…
Member countries of the UN World Health Organization (WHO), on the final day of the seventy-seventh World Health Assembly, adopted important amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR), including defining a “pandemic emergency” as well as pledging improved access to medical products and financing. These steps will help ensure comprehensive, robust systems are in place…
What exactly is a dignity kit? On the heels of Menstrual Hygiene Day, marked annually on 28 May, here are five fast facts: 1. What’s a dignity kit? Responding to emergencies, UN agencies act fast to reach people in need, including the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA. Part…
Right now, the UN observes 218 international days (and counting)! The tradition started long before the UN’s inception in 1945, but it didn’t take long for the Organization and its growing membership to embrace designated days as a powerful advocacy tool. Check out this classic video from 2017 on the occasion of the International Day of Happiness,…
Only three field hospitals are operating in Rafah in southern Gaza, one of which is only functioning partially, and all of these facilities are overwhelmed and undersupplied, OCHA said, with the seven-month-long war severely impacting civilians and the infrastructure they depend on for healthcare. The UN humanitarian aid agency said the Malnutrition Stabilisation Centre in…
Matthew Hollingsworth, WFP Country Director in Palestine, warned that with limited access to the south “we will no doubt see what we saw happen in the north in the first months of the war”. Mr. Hollingsworth recently spent 10 days in Gaza. Speaking from Jerusalem, he told journalists in New York that people in the…
In a bleak assessment of the dire situation in Sudan where conflict is in its second year, the heads of 19 global humanitarian organizations issued an alert that further obstacles to providing aid “rapidly and at scale” will mean that “more people will die”. UN aid coordination office OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke told reporters in…
