It is the third sentence the jailed Khan, 71, has received last week
Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra were sentenced to seven years in prison and fined by a court that ruled their 2018 marriage violated the law, Reuters reported, citing a party statement. Khan’s Justice Movement (“Pakistan Tehreek and Insaf”).
The fine imposed on the two is 500,000 rupees ($1,800), reports the Pakistani news channel ARY News, quoted by BTA.
It is the third sentence the jailed 71-year-old Khan has received this week, ahead of Pakistan’s Feb. 8 general election, in which he is barred from running.
On Tuesday, the former prime minister received a ten-year sentence for leaking state secrets, and on Wednesday, a Pakistani anti-corruption court sentenced him and his wife to 14 years in prison for withholding and selling state gifts he received as prime minister.
Bushra was accused of marrying Khan before the Islamic mandatory waiting period, called “iddat”, for her divorce to be finalized.
The Khans entered into their marriage contract, called a nikah, in January 2018 in a secret ceremony, seven months before the charming Khan, a cricket superstar in his homeland, took office for the first time as prime minister, according to Reuters.
There was a dispute as to whether they were married before the waiting period ended after Bushra’s divorce. After initially denying the two had married in January, Khan’s party confirmed it weeks later. Imran and Bushra denied breaking the rules.
Khan is in Adiala prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi while his wife has been granted permission to serve out her sentences at the family’s hilltop estate in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Reuters points out that it is currently unclear whether Khan’s sentences will run concurrently or consecutively.
Illustrative Photo by Donald Tong: https://www.pexels.com/photo/rear-view-of-a-silhouette-man-in-window-143580/
I have always stated that every belief, whatever it may be, is respectable. Of course, as long as it does not threaten the lives of others, or their fundamental rights, especially if these rights protect the little ones.
Children “mingi”They are children, children of superstition, condemned to death for being born to a single mother, suffering from malformations or having their upper teeth emerge first. and many other questions that the elderly always tend to decide. The previous words about “mingi”, I read them in an article in the newspaper La Verdad, in August 2013. And they impacted me.
The Karo are an ethnic group (tribe) established in an area of the Omo River, in Ethiopia, in a place known as the Southern Nations. This tribe lives in a privileged natural environment, they are sedentary, although they graze the few cattle they have. They fish for large catfish such as sirulos, grow millet and collect honey. The children are decorated with flowers, while the women prepare their daily chores and the elderly paint strange ritual symbols. For a tourist, who when he arrives is welcomed with open arms, that place is like paradise, although without electricity or running water, but nothing could be further from reality.
Until 2012, apparently, when night fell and they stopped counting the moons, observing the termite mounds and delighting in the acacias that populated the savannah, according to Mamush Eshetu, a young 43-year-old tour guide, who could not find the peculiar beliefs of that not at all positive tribe, he confessed to whoever would listen that Until recently they threw their children into the river, sacrificed them.
Until then, no one outside the few villages of the Karo ethnic group had demonstrated against the power of the elders to decide on the life and death of the people. “mingi”. These were children considered cursed upon whom the decision to be killed fell, no matter what the parents might say. Why were certain children considered cursed? Why were they condemned?
The traditions in that part of the planet, in the heart of Africa, remain a mystery and only by telling and retelling these stories can we scratch the surface of their beliefs, which, spread throughout the world as a result of the slave trade in times past, give us back stories of child sacrifice almost everywhere these kinds of ideas landed.
But returning to the cursed children of the Omo Valley, they were murdered for the most diverse reasons: for being born out of wedlock, because the parents had not communicated to the chief of the tribe that they wanted to have a child, because the child at birth suffered from some kind of illness. malformation, no matter how small it was, because the baby’s upper teeth came out in the first place, because there were twins… And so on, a long etcetera of contingencies that were left to the discretion of the witches, who, with the excuse that the bosses The tribe did not like cursed children, due to the superstition that if they became adults they could harm the tribe, bring bad luck. And that argument, in a place where famines and drought are continuous and constant, is incontestable.
Only the denunciations of some members of the Karo ethnic group, such as Lale Lakubo, have managed to modify customs, or at least make visible worldwide an atrocious tradition anchored in powerful beliefs as old as the tribe itself.
International cooperation or the protests of a corrupt government that receives funds to stop these practices and educate in human rights are of no use when it is so easy, due to superstition, to take the life of a child. The crocodiles of the Omo River, or the hyenas of the desert make sure that no trace of such a cruel practice remains.
Boys or girls are literally torn from the clutches of their parents without their parents being able to do anything for them. And if it began by collecting the words of a modest chronicle from the aforementioned newspaper, allow it to continue 10 years later, in March 2023, with the newspaper El País where, the aforementioned member of the Karo ethnic group, declared the following: “One day I was in my village and I saw an argument near the river. There were about five or six people fighting with a woman who was carrying a very small child. The boy and her mother cried while the others struggled with her. They managed to snatch her son from her and ran towards the river. “They threw the child into the water before she could do anything.” When these events occurred, Lale Lakubo was a teenager and felt scandalized, until his mother told him that two of his sisters, as children, were also murdered because the elders of the tribe considered them to be “mingis”, damn
Lale himself gives an approximate number of children murdered each year within this community for being “mingis”, around 300. Children to whom absolutely nothing happens, except living in a place where life and death are decided by a terrible balance hidden in the twisted hearts of the elders of the tribe, rooted in ancient and perverse ideas. It is as if the Karo ethnic group is still in an ancient era where the gods continue to demand blood rituals.
Some anthropologists place the beginning of these practices at the end of the last century, but this question is, honestly, according to other researchers, implausible, because this practice is related to famines and droughts, which have been devastating that area of the earth for some time. many decades. Furthermore, it is not only in this area of Ethiopia where some children are declared cursed. In my next article related to impossible beliefs, I will talk about the witch children of Nakayi. And later on albino children In short, atrocious beliefs that some people try to alleviate as best they can.
After living the experiences he had and seeking some small support, Lale Lakubo, now over 40 years old, started an orphanage school a few years ago in the nearby city of Jinka, called Omo Child, which welcomes currently around 50 children and adolescents between 2 and 19 years old. All of them declared “mingi”. Lale, after arduous conversations with the elders of the tribe, managed to get them to give him some of the children who were going to be sacrificed. He feels that he cannot help everyone, but it is like an island of peace in the midst of so much superstitious desolation. Their project is maintained thanks to the private donations of people who try to alleviate this tragedy, some of the parents of these children also collaborate and the meager fees of other children and adolescents who go to study at the school that takes place in the facilities. The fact is that the project, little by little, is growing slowly but in an increasingly visible way.
In 2015, produced and directed by John Rowe, with Tyler Rowe as director of photography and Matt Skow as editor, a documentary titled Omo Child: The River and The Busch. Based on the exciting journey of Lale Lakubo and the mingi, where you can follow the trajectory of this man, as well as what happens with the Karo ethnic group, and other people of the ethnic groups Hamer and Bannar, with whom they share unfortunate beliefs.
Miherit Belay, head of the Ministry of Health, Women, Children and Youth in the Omo Valley area, currently states: “We receive new cases every month, but most are never known. It is something that the villages keep secret. It must be taken into account that here families live in a very large space, sometimes separated by 50 or 60 kilometers, in areas that are difficult to access and without coverage, where it is very difficult to find out about things like a pregnancy and even less about something like a sacrifice.”
All these stories do not reach the media, except sporadically. They are not interested. Who is interested in Ethiopia? They are places where people die every day of hunger, where there is not the slightest possibility of getting ahead in the way we know it. Imagine then, as Miherit Belay says, how difficult it is for them to know if sacrifices occur.
The alleged massacre happened in Welingara village in the Nara region of central Mali on 26 January. Some 30 civilians were also reportedly killed by unidentified gunmen in the Bandiagara region at the weekend.
In his call for impartial investigations into the allegations, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights emphasized the need for justice in accordance with international standards.
Mr. Türk also urged the Malian authorities to ensure that their troops – “as well as their agents or allies” – adhered to human rights law and international humanitarian law, particularly regarding the protection of civilians.
A fact-finding report from the UN human rights office, OHCHR, released last May in relation to allegations of a massacre of over 500 people in the village of Moura in March 2022, documented witnesses who described “armed white men” fighting alongside Malian soldiers.
This report followed allegations made a year ago by independent UN rights experts that the Russia-based Wagner mercenary group had been involved, describing a “climate of terror and impunity” surrounding the military contractors’ activities in Mali.
OHCHR has previously verified two other incidents involving the alleged killings of at least 31 civilians by Malian armed forces and “allied foreign military personnel” last September and October.
In the September killings, 14 herders were allegedly executed in Ndoupa in the Segou region while on 5 October, 17 civilians were reportedly executed in Ersane village in the Gao region.
No official investigations into these incidents have been reported, OHCHR noted.
Deaths, injuries and destruction continues in Ukraine-Russia war
New attacks in eastern Ukraine on Thursday have led to injuries and damage to civilian infrastructure, the UN Spokesperson told reporters in New York on Thursday.
A hospital in Kharkiv was damaged in an attack on Wednesday, with several injured and many evacuated, according to Ukraine’s national rescue service, he said.
A health facility also sustained damages in Toretsk, in the Donetsk region, as reported by the regional administration.
“In frontline areas, our humanitarian colleagues note that the continued hostilities in the Donetsk and Kherson regions of Ukraine are continuing to kill and injure civilians. Homes, education facilities, public transport, water, electricity and [heating] facilities have also been damaged,” he continued, citing local authorities.
A humanitarian hub run by a local non-governmental organization (NGO) in Kherson was also hit on Thursday.
“Despite the challenges of operating in frontline areas, aid organizations continue to provide assistance,” the UN Spokesperson said.
“In recent days, we, along with our humanitarian partners, have provided emergency repair materials as well as [psychological] and legal support in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions.”
Peacekeepers provide new humanitarian corridor in DR Congo
Peacekeepers are “continuing to do their utmost to protect civilians” in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) amid ongoing clashes between the M23 rebel group and Congolese armed forces.
That’s according to UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, who reminded correspondents at the regular Noon Briefing that the UN Stabilization Mission, MONUSCO, has established a temporary presence in Mweso following clashes in the area of North Kivu.
“Peacekeepers have also created a humanitarian corridor, which has allowed more than 1,000 displaced men, women and children to move to safer ground”, he said.
The UN Mission is continuing to protect and provide medical assistance to displaced communities taking refuge near its base in Kitchanga, which is about 15 kilometres from Mweso, Mr. Dujarric said.
The mission said it had helped evacuate eight Congolese soldiers to Goma who had been wounded in the fighting with the M23. The UN will monitor the situation closely, he added.
MONUSCO is due to withdraw completely from DRC at the request of the government by the end of 2024, but while ‘blue helmets” may be withdrawing, the UN has repeatedly said that it will continue providing support to the Congolese people in the long-term.
Haiti: UN human rights report shows spike in violence
The last quarter of 2023 saw another rise in violence across Haiti, with reports of 2,327 victims of murder, wounding and kidnapping, marking an eight per cent increase compared to the previous three months.
That’s according to the latest quarterly update from the UN integrated office in the crisis-wracked Caribbean island nation, BINUH.
People who have fled their homes due to insecurity find shelter at a theatre in downtown Port-au-Prince.
The total number of recorded victims for the year was more than 8,400. Much of the rise is due to violence at the hands of organized crime gangs, particularly in the Artibonite and the southern outskirts of the capital, with an upsurge in sexual violence recorded in several areas.
UN Special Representative and Head of BINUH, Maria Isabel Salvador, stressed that this violence is fuelling chronic insecurity and undermining social stability.
The report also reveals the serious impact on children, with at least 53 child victims of violence or other crimes. It also highlights the threat to humanitarian aid on the roads due to gang control of highways.
The judicial system has also been impacted although there are some signs of improvement, including a reduction in pre-trial detention.
During the quarter, 400 cases were processed resulting in the release of more than 258 people. However, there has been a rise in police casualties, highlighting persistent insecurity, BINUH said.
The report calls on the international community to keep Haiti high on its agenda and support the implementation of the planned Multinational Security Support Mission for Haiti.
The Taliban crackdown initially began in western Kabul, predominantly inhabited by the minority ethnic Hazara community – which has been the target of extremist violence for years – but swiftly expanded to other areas, including Tajik-populated regions and provinces such as Bamiyan, Baghlan, Balkh, Daykundi and Kunduz.
Women and girls reportedly accused by the Taliban of wearing “bad hijab” were arrested during the operation in public places, including shopping centres, schools and street markets.
Some were forcibly taken to police vehicles, held incommunicado and denied legal representation, according to a news release issued by UN rights office OHCHR on behalf of the experts.
“Women and girls were reportedly held in overcrowded spaces in police stations, received only one meal a day, with some of them being subjected to physical violence, threats and intimidation,” they said.
In May 2022, the de facto authorities ordered all women to observe “proper hijab”, preferably by wearing a chadari – a loose black garment covering the body and face – in public and made male relatives responsible for enforcing the ban or face punishment.
Institutionalized discrimination
While some detainees were released after a few hours, others reportedly languished in custody for days or weeks.
The lack of transparency and access to justice means the current number of detainees potentially held incommunicado is hard to assess.
Their release has been made contingent on male family members and community elders providing assurances, often in writing, that they would comply with the prescribed dress code in the future.
“In addition to punishing women for what they wear, assigning responsibility for what women wear to men violates women’s agency and perpetuates an institutionalized system of discrimination, control of women and girls and further diminishes their place in society,” the experts said.
The experts speaking out are mandated by the Human Rights Council to monitor and report on the rights situation in the country as well as on violence and discrimination against women and girls.
They work on a voluntary basis, serve in their individual capacity, are not UN staff and do not receive a salary.
Troubling pattern
Last month, a UN report found that several hundred Afghan women were forced to quit their jobs or were arrested and denied access to essential services in the last quarter of 2023.
Those arrested included women purchasing contraceptive pills, female staff of a healthcare facility and women who were not accompanied by a mahram – a male chaperone.
The de facto authorities reportedly stated that “it was inappropriate for an unmarried woman to work”.
A father and son walk amidst the wreckage of their home, destroyed during an earthquake in Afghanistan. (file)
Dire humanitarian situation
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation across the country continues to deteriorate.
Four decades of conflict, entrenched poverty, climate change-induced and natural disasters and severe restrictions on rights has left almost 24 million people, including over 12 million children, in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.
In response, the UN and relief partners have launched a $3.06 billion response plan for 2024, targeting 17.3 million for assistance.
Greater food supplies are needed alongside rebuilding the agricultural sector, health systems, water and sanitation. Protection for women, children and other vulnerable groups is also a key priority.
Morocco faces several challenges today, including:
1. Unemployment and Underemployment: An increase in unemployment, particularly among youth, and the persistence of underemployment pose economic and social challenges.
2. Socio-Economic Inequalities: Inequalities persist, creating disparity between different segments of the population and raising concerns about the distribution of wealth.
3. Poverty and Economic Hardship: Growing economic hardship and high poverty rates are challenging the country’s socio-economic stability.
4. Inflationary Pressures: Double-digit inflation is putting pressure on the cost of living, especially on basic foodstuffs, which is causing concern among the population.
5. Governance and Technocracy: A growing perception of a technocratic and unsustainable government, raising concerns about the government’s ability to meet the needs of the population.
6. Social Fracture: A growing division between a population seeking a better life and a government perceived as disconnected from daily concerns.
7. Political Uncertainties: Political uncertainties can also pose a challenge, with sometimes unmet expectations on the part of the population.
8. Business Climate: Economic reforms to improve the business climate and encourage investment are necessary to stimulate economic growth.
9. Education and Skills: Improving the education system and matching skills with the needs of the labor market are essential to promote sustainable development.
10. Security and Regional Stability: Security challenges and regional dynamics can also influence the stability of Morocco.
Solving these challenges requires a holistic and coordinated approach, combining economic, social and political reforms to promote inclusive and sustainable development.
At the start of 2023, Morocco is faced with an increase in the unemployment rate, particularly affecting youth. According to data from the High Commission for Planning, the number of unemployed increased by 83,000, from 1,446,000 to 1,549,000, an increase of 6%. This increase is explained by an increase of 67,000 unemployed in urban areas and 16,000 in rural areas.
The overall unemployment rate increased by 0.8 points, from 12.1% to 12.9%, with marked differences between urban (17.1%) and rural (5.7%) areas. This trend is also visible by gender, with an increase in the unemployment rate among men (from 10.5% to 11.5%) and women (from 17.3% to 18.1%).
Moroccan youth are strongly affected, with an increase of 1.9 points in the age group of 15 to 24 years, going from 33.4% to 35.3%. People aged 25 to 34 also experienced an increase of 1.7 points, from 19.2% to 20.9%.
The construction and public works sector created 28,000 jobs, while the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector recorded a drop of 247,000 jobs. The service sector also lost 56,000 jobs, and manufacturing lost 10,000 jobs.
In general, Morocco experienced a net loss of 280,000 jobs between the first half of 2022 and the same period of 2023, mainly due to the loss of 267,000 unpaid jobs and 13,000 paid jobs.
Underemployment remains a concern, with 513,000 people underemployed relative to the number of working hours, representing 4.9%. In addition, 562,000 people are underemployed due to insufficient income or incompatibility with their qualifications, representing 5.4%. In total, the active population in a situation of underemployment reaches 2,075,000 people, with an underemployment rate increasing from 9.2% to 10.3%.
The economic situation in Morocco presents challenges in terms of poverty, with persistent inequalities. The population faces growing difficulties, while economic disparity highlights social inequalities and raises concerns about the distribution of wealth in the country.
Indeed, a deep division is growing deeper every day between a population aspiring to a better life, as promised in the last election, and a government perceived as technocratic and difficult to bear.
The main current concern is the high prices of basic foodstuffs, a worry that threatens to continue unless concrete action is taken, and unfortunately little appears to be actually being done.
Faced with this concern, the government presents a ministerial cacophony, with contradictory declarations. Some ministers assure that measures are taken to control and sanction, while another encourages denunciation, also admitting that government measures have not had the desired effect.
This government impotence in the face of rising food prices raises concerns about the distribution of wealth and the government’s ability to meet the needs of the population.
At the same time, the fortune of the Moroccan Prime Minister, “Aziz Akhannouch & Family”, ranked 14th according to Forbes, has exploded. Rising from $1.5 billion in 2023 to $1.7 billion in January 2024, this $200 million increase from the previous year raises questions about economic inequality and wealth distribution in the country .
The main concepts and definition of health: The ability of a person to adapt to his environment.
The definition of health was formulated by the World Health Organization and sounds like this: “Health is not just the absence of disease, but a state of physical, mental and social well-being”.
In the general concept of health, two components are distinguished: spiritual health and physical health.
A person’s spiritual health is the system of his understanding and his attitude towards the world around him. It depends on the ability to build relationships with other people, the ability to analyze the situation, to predict the development of various situations and, in accordance with this, to build the patterns of one’s behavior.
Spiritual and moral health has one of the fundamental meanings for the person, the family, the society and the state.
Spiritual health is ensured and achieved through the ability to live in harmony with oneself, with relatives, friends and society.
Such a state of the spiritual sphere of the person, allowing it to transform reality in accordance with the moral, cultural and religious values to preserve the life of the person and the world as a whole.
The spiritual sphere of the personality is the area of ideals and values, which represent orientations of all life activity. These ideals and values can be different in terms of moral criteria and relate to both good and evil.
Moral health is determined by those principles that are the basis for the social life of human society.
Social health is a state of a person’s social activity towards the world, his ability to establish and maintain social connections and relationships. The qualitative content of this social activity, the level of its constructiveness or destructiveness is determined by the level of the spiritual health of the person.
And while the process of change in physical health is only in a downward curve, in spiritual (social and mental) it changes unevenly, going through ups and downs more than once.
So the overall state of health turns out to be difficult to achieve and is very unstable over time due to the variability of all these forms of health. The state of absolute health in the human being is a rare phenomenon and is more of an ideal than a real phenomenon.
The person’s idea of health is a reflection of the existing theoretical models of health in society.
Harmonic model of health – based on the understanding of health as harmony between man and the world.
Adaptation model for health – similar to the first, but with an emphasis on the mechanisms of adaptation to the changing conditions of the internal and external biosocial environment.
Anthropocentric model of human health – based on the idea of the higher (spiritual) purpose of man and, accordingly, the leading role of spiritual health among all components of this multifaceted phenomenon.
Man is recognized as having limitless possibilities for the improvement of his inner peace, and, as a consequence, for the qualitative improvement of his physical and social health.
Illustration: Preserved frescoes in the church of St. Georgi in the village of Oreshets – Belogradchik spiritual district, Bulgaria.
The Legal Affairs Committee adopted on Wednesday, with 13 votes for, no votes against and 10 abstentions, its position on new rules to support the so-called standard-essential patents (SEPs). These patents protect cutting-edge technologies, such as Wi-Fi or 5G, which are essential to a technical standard, meaning that e.g. no Internet of Things (IoT) products can be developed without using them. They also play a key role in the development of connected vehicles, smart cities and technologies to mitigate climate change.
The aim is to encourage SEP holders and implementers to innovate in the EU and create products based on the latest standardised technologies that will benefit businesses and consumers.
MEPs want to task the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) to create a SEP Licensing Assistance Hub as a one-stop shop to provide free-of-charge training and support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups. EUIPO should also help small companies to identify which standard essential patent they will need to use and thus pay for when developing their products and on how to best enforce their rights, including how to be paid if they hold such a patent.
EUIPO competence centre
MEPs agreed on tasking EUIPO with new powers to help reduce litigations and increase transparency. EUIPO will create a register of holders of standard essential patents, it will verify which patents are really essential to a particular standard, what is the fair payment for the use of such a patent and provide help in related negotiations between companies. EUIPO should also set up an electronic database with detailed information on SEPs terms for registered users, including academic institutions.
The EUIPO competence centre would also train evaluators of SEPs and conciliators mediating between parties and establish rosters of EU candidates for these positions. MEPs added provisions to ensure these candidates have the necessary qualifications and are impartial. The competence centre would further cooperate with national and international patent offices as well as authorities of third countries dealing with SEPs to get information about the SEPs-related rules outside the EU.
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Following the committee vote, rapporteur Marion Walsmann (EPP, DE) said: “The new instruments will bring much-needed transparency to an opaque system, make negotiations fairer and more efficient, and strengthen European technological sovereignty. For instance, in 5G almost 85% of the standard essential patents are in fact non-essential. The new essentiality test will stop the occurrence of over-declaration and strengthen EU SEP holders´ position in global markets. SEP holders will also benefit from an increased number of licenses, faster agreements, more predictable returns, and a reduced risk of litigation. SEP implementers, 85% of which are small and medium-sized enterprises, will benefit from legal and financial predictability.”
Next steps
The agreed text needs to be adopted by Parliament as a whole before talks with EU countries on the final shape of the legislation can start.
Background
The current SEPs market is fragmented, as there is no organisation in charge of informing firms about who holds which key patents and how much they ask for their use. This makes it difficult for companies to develop new devices using the technologies covered by these patents. The Commission proposed a new regulation on standard essential patents in April 2023 as part of the ‘EU patent package’. The proposal reacts to Parliament resolution from 11 November 2021, where MEPs called for a strong, balanced and robust intellectual property system.
The Council should adopt a decision to include hate speech and hate crime among criminal offences within the meaning of Article 83(1) TFEU (so-called “EU crimes”) by the end of the current legislative term, Parliament says in the report adopted on Thursday with 397 votes in favour, 121 against, and 26 abstentions. These are crimes of a particularly serious nature with a cross-border dimension, for which Parliament and Council can establish minimum rules to define criminal offences and sanctions.
MEPs seek to ensure universal protection for all, with a special focus on targeted persons and vulnerable groups and communities. Currently, member states’ criminal laws deal with hate speech and hate crime in different ways, while EU-wide rules apply only when such crimes are committed based on race, skin colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin.
With hate on the rise in Europe, two years have passed since the relevant Commission proposal was tabled and the Council has made no progress on it. MEPs call for the “passerelle clauses” to be used to overcome obstacles posed by the need for unanimity.
Taking the circumstances that victims face into account
Parliament calls on the Commission to consider an “open-ended” approach, whereby the grounds for discrimination will not be limited to a closed list, to make sure the rules cover incidents motivated by new and changing social dynamics. It underlines that freedom of expression, as critical as it is, must not be exploited as a shield for hate and stresses that misusing the internet and the business model of social media platforms contributes to spreading and amplifying hate speech.
MEPs also ask for particular consideration to be given to minors, including in bullying in schools and cyberbullying, and call for a robust framework for victims, with an intersectional approach, training for relevant professionals, and measures to ensure safe access to justice, specialised support and reparations, as well as a safe environment to increase reporting of incidents.
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Rapporteur Maite PAGAZAURTUNDÚA (Renew, Spain) commented: “In addition to lacking a comprehensive European legal framework to tackle hate speech and hate crime, we are facing new social dynamics, through which the normalisation of hate evolves very quickly. We must protect ourselves as a society and the people who are attacked, persecuted and harassed, while responding to the radical networks and extreme polarisation that provide fertile ground for behaviours that violate fundamental rights. We ask the Council to finally give the green light to the legislation against hate crime and hate speech at EU level, always in accordance with the principle of proportionality and guaranteeing citizens’ freedom of expression.”
“Its people are witnessing daily threats to their very existence – while the world watches on”, warned Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths in a statement, adding that “hope has never been more elusive” amidst deteriorating conditions.
“The humanitarian community has been left with the impossible mission of supporting more than two million people, even as its own staff are being killed and displaced, as communication blackouts continue, as roads are damaged and convoys are shot at, and as commercial supplies vital to survival are almost non-existent.”
Three months on from the horrific 7 October attacks, Gaza has become a place of death and despair, he said, with a public health disaster unfolding before our eyes.
“Infectious diseases are spreading in overcrowded shelters as sewers spill over. Some 180 Palestinian women are giving birth daily amidst this chaos. People are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded. Famine is around the corner”, he said.
But rocket attacks from militants are still raining down on Israel, while more than 120 people are still held hostage in Gaza, he added.
With tensions in the West Bank at boiling point, and “the spectre of further regional spillover of the war” looming, Mr. Griffiths said that the war must end, “not just for the people of Gaza and its threatened neighbours, but for the generations to come who will never forget these 90 days of hell and of assaults on the most basic precepts of humanity.”
He concluded with a call for the international community to use all influence possible to end the fighting, meet civilians’ essential needs, and secure the release of all hostages.
COVID infections rising fast and under-reported, warns WHO
The UN health agency WHO confirmed on Friday that coronavirus numbers are spiking globally and that we “should expect more cases” in the coming winter months in the northern hemisphere.
Latest data from the World Health Organization covering the four weeks to 17 December indicated a 52 per cent increase in infections compared with the previous 28-days.
That amounts to 850,000 new COVID-19 cases reported, but the true figure is likely much higher, according to WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier:
“You know that all throughout the world and you’ve seen it in many of your own countries, the reporting has dropped, the surveillance centers have dropped, the vaccination centers have dropped, have been dismantled as well or shut down”, he told reporters in Geneva.
“This, of course, leads to an incomplete picture and we should expect unfortunately more cases than we have officially reported.”
Most infections have been caused by a new COVID strain called JN.1 which is now under close scrutiny by the UN health agency as a “variant of interest”. JN.1 was reportedly first detected in the United States before spreading across dozens of countries.
It evolved from the Omicron variant which was linked to a peak in COVID infections in 2022.
Food price inflation fears ease again: FAO
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported on Friday that the Food Price Index ended the year just over 10 per cent below its December 2022 level, further easing concerns over food price inflation worldwide.
The monthly figure for a basket of traded food commodities was also down around 1.5 per cent for December, averaging 118.5 points, compared with the previous month.
The sharpest drop came in international sugar quotations, which were some 16.6 per cent down for December on the previous month.
For 2023, the index was 13.7 percent lower overall than the average value for 2022, with only the international sugar price index higher over the year.
FAO said the sugar price drop was mainly due to the strong pace of production in Brazil along with reduced use of sugarcane for ethanol production in India.
The cereal price index rose 1.5 per cent in December, with wheat, maize, rice and parley all rising due to shipment limitations experienced by exporters. Cereal prices for the year however we more than 15 per cent below the 2022 average.
In central Gaza, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Sunday that medics at the only functioning hospital in Deir al Balah governorate “had been forced to cease lifesaving and other critical activities…and leave” after an evacuation order issued amid “increasing” Israeli military activity.
Only five doctors reportedly remain at Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Middle Area of Gaza, where a WHO team delivered medical supplies to support 4,500 dialysis patients for three months and 500 patients requiring trauma care.
From Al-Aqsa, WHO Health Emergency Officer Sean Casey posted a video on X social media platform on Sunday evening showing chaotic scenes as medics treated patients on the blood-streaked floor, some of the “hundreds” being brought in for urgent treatment.
“They are seeing in some cases hundreds of casualties every day in a small emergency department,” Mr. Casey said. “So, they’re treating children on the floor.”
Echoing those concerns, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a post on X reported “immense needs” at the hospital, “especially health workers, medical supplies and beds. But staff said their greatest need was for their hospital, and its staff, patients and families there, to be protected from strikes and hostilities.”
More than 600 patients “and most health workers” had reportedly been forced to leave the facility, Tedros said, adding that it was “inconceivable” that the protection of health care could not be counted on.
According to the UN health agency, no hospitals are “fully functioning” in northern Gaza. Another WHO mission had to be cancelled to the north on Sunday, Tedros said, “due to dangers and lack of necessary permissions”. Elsewhere in Gaza, “a mere handful of health facilities operate”, the WHO chief said.
In recent days casualty numbers have “increased markedly”, Tedros continued, with “over 120 trauma cases and dozens of dead arriving per day due to increased shelling, gunshot wounds, crush injuries from collapsed buildings, and other war-related trauma”.
WHO is also involved in plans to deploy an emergency medical team to support medical teams at Al-Aqsa. “This will only be possible in a secure environment,” the UN health agency’s Director-General noted.
Children wait to be served food in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Targets struck in north
In a separate update on the emergency confirming “intense” Israeli strikes “across (central) Deir Al Balah governorate and the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah”, OCHA reported on Sunday evening that Israeli forces “struck targets in Gaza city, Jabaliya Camp, Tal Az Za’atar, and Beit Lahiya” causing “a very large number of fatalities” in the Al Fallouja area of Jabaliya Camp.
Rocket fire into Israel by Palestinian armed groups also continued, the UN aid office said, amid “ground operations and fighting…across much of the Gaza Strip, resulting in additional fatalities”.
No end to rising toll
Latest data from the Gazan health ministry cited by the UN aid wing indicated at least 22,835 fatalities since Israeli military strikes began, in response to Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on 7 October that left some 1,200 dead including at least 33 children and around 250 taken hostage.
OCHA also noted reports of 225 Palestinian fatalities between Friday and Sunday and almost 300 injured, with 174 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza and more than 1,000 injured since ground operatio
ns began, according to the Israeli Defense Forces.
Deadly disease threat
Amid ongoing deadly violence, UN Children’s Fund UNICEF estimated that there are now approximately 3,200 new cases of diarrhoea per day among under-fives. Before the escalation in hostilities, the average was 2,000 per month.
There is also dire concern for nine in 10 children under two years old who are now in “severe food poverty” and “only getting grains (including bread) or milk” to eat.
“Time is running out. Many children already face severe acute malnutrition in Gaza,” said UNICEF’s Executive-Director Catherine Russell. “As the threat of famine intensifies, hundreds of thousands more young children could soon be severely malnourished, with some at risk of death. We cannot allow that to happen.”
Updated information from OCHA on the number of aid trucks entering Gaza indicated that on 6 and 7 January, a total of 218 trucks carried food, medicine and other supplies through the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings. Before the conflict erupted, more than 500 trucks carried aid into the Strip every day, some 60 per cent passing through Kerem Shalom.
Secretary-General António Guterres (right) meets with Sigrid Kaag, Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza.
UN Coordinator for Gaza
The new Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza officlally began her role on Monday. Sigrid Kaag will facilitate monitor and verify relief shipments coming in to the stricken enclave, in line with the Security Council resolution 2720 passed last month.
She has held a number of senior humanitarian jobs within the UN but most recently served as finance minister for the previous administration in the Netherlands.
Ms. Kaag will also have the challenging task of establishing a mechanism for accelerating aid into Gaza through States which are not party to the conflict.
She was in New York meeting the UN Secretary-General on her first day in office but will be heading to Washington DC later in the week before travelling to the Middle East.
