Hate speech reinforces discrimination and stigma and is most often aimed at women, refugees and migrants, and minorities. If left unchecked, it can even harm peace and development, as it lays the ground for conflicts and tensions, wide scale human rights violations.
To turn back the rising tide of hate, the United Nations is marking the International Day for Countering Hate Speech by calling on everyone to work together to build a more respectful and civil world, and for effective action to end this toxic and destructive phenomenon.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also warns that misguided and ambiguous responses to hate speech – including blanket bans and internet shutdowns – may also violate human rights by restricting freedom of speech and expression.
Similarly, the top UN human rights official, Volker Türk, says that the spread of hate speech-related laws being misused against journalists and human rights defenders is almost as viral as the spread of hate speech itself.
In his message on the Day, he stresses that broad laws – that license States to censor speech they find uncomfortable and to threaten or detain those who question Government policy or criticize officials – violate rights and endanger essential public debate.
“Rather than criminalizing protected speech, we need States and companies to take urgent steps to address incitement to hatred and violence,” Mr. Türk says.
‘Amplify voices that cut through the hate’
But we are far from powerless in the face of hate speech, says Mr. Guterres, stressing that “we can and must raise awareness about its dangers, and work to prevent and end it in all its forms.”
He cites the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech as the Organization’s comprehensive framework for tackling the causes and impacts of hate speech, and notes that the world body’s offices and teams around the world are confronting hate speech by implementing local action plans, based on this strategy.
“The United Nations is consulting governments, technology companies and others on a voluntary Code of Conduct for information integrity on digital platforms, aimed at reducing the spread of mis- and disinformation and hate speech, while protecting freedom of expression,” he adds.
Mr. Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, calls for a range of actions – from education initiatives and investing in digital literacy programmes to listening to those most effective by hate speech and holding companies to their human rights obligations.
“More also needs to be done to address mega-spreaders – those officials and influencers whose voices have profound impact and whose examples inspire thousands of others,” Mr. Türk said. “We must build networks and amplify voices that can cut through the hate.”
The Bar Council is profoundly concerned by recent announcements in parts of Pakistan that Ahmadi Muslims lawyers must renounce their religion in order to practise at the Bar. Both the District Bar Association of Gujranwala and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council issued notices that anyone applying for admittance to the Bar must positively assert they are Muslim and denounce the teachings of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and its founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan enshrines the principles of religious freedom and equality before the law and it is difficult to see how the notices can be consistent with that principle.
Nick Vineall KC, Chair of the Bar of England and Wales, has written to the chair of the Pakistan Bar Council requesting that action be taken to remedy this discrimination against Ahmadi Muslims and non-Muslims.
According to news reports from The Friday Times, Ahmadi Muslims have also faced physical attacks in court. In a judgment from the High Court of Sindh Karachi, Omar Sial J. said: “Not only an attempt was made to intimidate the court and interfere in the smooth administration of justice, but a lawyer… was physically abusive towards… one of the learned counsel for the applicant. […] This was simply unacceptable behaviour and conduct and must necessarily be condemned by the Bar Associations and Councils.”
Commenting, Chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales Nick Vineall KC, said:
“There is understandably a huge amount of international political focus on Pakistan at the moment. Amid these wider concerns over democratic processes, we have been alerted to the specific concerns of Ahmadi Muslim lawyers who are facing discrimination in being denied the right to practise at the Bar because of their religion.
“The decisions taken in Gujranwala and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to exclude Ahmadi Muslims and non-Muslims from the Bar – and by extension, potentially excluding citizens from access to legal representation – are intentionally discriminatory and seem impossible to reconcile with Pakistan’s constitutional principles of religious freedom and equality before the law.
“We are urging the Bar Council of Pakistan, as the overarching body, to take action.”
On 6 August 1890, a form of execution called the electric chair was used for the first time in the United States. The first person executed was William Kemmler. Nine years later, in 1899, the first woman, Martha M. Place, was executed in Sing Sing Prison.
But it was not until 45 years later, in 1944, that a 14-year-old boy named George Stinney was executed. This young black man was found guilty of murdering two girls and was immediately condemned by an all-white court to die a brutal death in the electric chair. The most curious thing is that this brutal attack on human rights had its epilogue in 2014 when an appeal court, thanks to a black rights organisation, which had the evidence of that case reviewed, declared him innocent, not not not guilty, but innocent.
In the late 1980s, working as a documentary filmmaker, I had the opportunity to participate in a documentary on forms of death and among them, one of the most shocking was undoubtedly to see the process by which a person was seated in a chair and his limbs were tied to the chair with straps. Then a splint was placed in his mouth so that he would not swallow his tongue and choke during the convulsions, his eyes were closed, gauze or cotton wool was placed over them, and then the adhesive tape was applied so that they would remain closed.
On top of his head, a helmet connected with wires to an electric net and finally the terrible torture of frying him was put into practice. His body temperature would rise to over 60 degrees and, after suffering terrible convulsions, having to relieve himself and experiencing a series of vomiting which, due to the splint and a kind of strap attached to his chin, left only a white foam peeping out of the corners of his mouth, he would die. This was considered a humane death, given that at the end of the 19th century, it replaced hanging, which was apparently atrocious.
Today the practice is no longer used, although some American states, including South Carolina, often give it as an option to prisoners. There is no evidence of its use today, although similar methods are used in some of the documented tortures carried out by central intelligence or terrorist movements around the world. Torture by alternating or direct current is still among the top ten most commonly used methods.
In other words, the use of electricity as a form of death or torture to obtain information is basically already classified as a human rights offence all over the world, including the most radical countries on earth, which often sign the various United Nations charters condemning such practices.
Why, then, does an army of psychiatrists throughout the world persist in continuing a practice that has been condemned by many of their colleagues, in contravention of the guidelines and recommendations of the World Health Organisation, the United Nations and even the various organisations linked to the European Union in this field? What are they trying to prove?
In 1975, in the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, a psychiatric hospital that still exists today, the interiors of one of the most iconic films in history were shot: Someone Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. A cult film, it is ranked 33rd out of the 100 best films of the 20th century. This is not the place to develop the plot, but it takes us into the life of a psychiatric hospital where electroconvulsive therapies are carried out in the 1960s.
The plot is set in 1965 and depicts the treatment of the patients in the centre. Violent nurses, are obsessed with controlling the patients. Doctors who use them for experiments and above all to suppress what they consider to be their aggressiveness. Electroconvulsion and especially its first cousin lobotomy are part, in this film, of what the psychiatric class used to do at that time, and even many years later.
In the end, the scene, which is still repeated today in many parts of the world, is always the same. The patient is treated like a prisoner, he is deprived of any possibility of having a say in what is going to happen to him, and it is a judge, playing Pilate, who washes his hands of a simple sheet of paper stating that this subject, this person, is mentally ill and that he needs this therapy, according to the psychiatrist on duty.
They are sat in a chair, or laid on a stretcher, unheeding, if they are relatively conscious and not crammed with antidepressants and tranquilisers, and electrodes are attached to the skin of their head, through which current is supplied, without knowing what the therapy will produce. A piece is even placed in their mouths to prevent them from swallowing their tongues so that the current can be applied without remorse.
Yes, there are studies that speak of a certain improvement among patients with severe clinical depression, even in some cases the figures are as high as 64%. Likewise, in states of violent schizophrenia, it seems that the personality of these patients improves and they are not so aggressive. And so it is possible to live with them. They are patients condemned for life to aggressive electroconvulsive therapy, most of them with no say in the appropriateness of their treatment. It is always others who decide, but what does the patient want?
In the face of these infrequent studies, mostly carried out in psychiatric environments, paid for by pharmaceutical industries eager to sell psychotropic drugs, the failures are ignored, hundreds of thousands of people with whom this therapy has been used over the last few years, without any results. Such figures are never published. Why?
The gaps in the mind, the loss of memory, the loss of speech, motor problems in some cases, and above all the enslavement to antipsychotic drugs are really a scourge which, despite the efforts of organisations denouncing such practices, are to no avail.
In the United States, or in the European Union, when this type of aggressive and denounceable therapy, medical tortures, are applied, in short, anaesthesia is usually applied to the patient. It is called therapy with modifications. However, in other countries, for example in Russia, only 20% of patients undergo this practice with a relaxing treatment. And then in countries such as Japan, China, India, Thailand, Turkey, and other countries where, although it is used, there is no statistical data on the subject, it is still practised in the old way.
Electroconvulsion is, above all, a technique that violates the human rights of individuals, including those who at a given moment may appear to need it. Also, without there being a general study, which would be very interesting, I believe that more and more of this technique has been used in psychiatric hospitals all over the world for the annulment of people, in order to carry out studies on patients who are a nuisance. People who hardly mean anything to society and who can be made dispensable.
Have all psychiatric practices always been used for the benefit of society, or rather for the benefit of a few large companies?
The questions go on and on and, in general, psychiatrists do not have any answers. Even when, after the trial of success-error they carry out their electroconvulsive therapies, and this provides them with something like an interesting response, they are able to obtain a meagre improvement in the patient, nothing definitive; they do not know how to explain the reason for this improvement. There are no answers, the good or bad that it can produce is unknown. And all that can be said is that patients are used as guinea pigs. No psychiatrist in the world is going to guarantee that such a practice can reverse any of the alleged disorders for which it is used. No psychiatrist in the world. And if not, I encourage them to ask in writing for the real benefits of taking pills or applying some kind of aggressive therapy that they might recommend.
On the other hand, and to conclude, many of the people who come to be diagnosed as patients of interest to receive electric shocks to the brain have been treated with antipsychotic or antidepressant drugs, even crammed with anxiolytics. In short, their brains have been bombarded with medication, the contraindications of which are often more serious than the small problem they are trying to solve.
It is clear that societies that constantly manufacture diseases also need to generate medication for them. It is the perfect circle, turning society, the people who make it up, into mentally ill people, in general, making us chronic patients so that they can take the pill that will save our minds to our nearest drug dispensary. Perhaps, at this point, I would like to ask the question that many medical experts, some of them honest psychiatrists, are asking themselves: Are we all mentally ill? Are we creating fictitious mental illnesses?
The answer to the first question is NO; to the second question, it is Yes.
Source: Electroshock: necessary treatment or psychiatric abuse? – BBC News World And others.
Conference held by COMECE, L’Oeuvre d’Orient and Aid to the Church in Need (The European Times)
Christians in Syria are doomed to disappear within two decades if the international community does not develop specific policies to protect them.
This was the call for urgent assistance from Christian Syrian activists who had come to Brussels to testify at the conference organized by the COMECE, L’Oeuvre d’Orient and Aid to the Church in Need on the eve of the 7th Brussels EU Conference “Supporting the future of Syria and the region.”
The event titled “Syria – Humanitarian and Development Challenges of Faith-Based Actors: a Christian Perspective” also gave the floor online to representatives of Christian humanitarian and social projects in Syria.
In this 13th year of war, Christians are among the 97% of the global population who live below the poverty line but in addition the demographic erosion of their community looks irreversible. A few alarming data.
In Aleppo, 2/3 of Christian families have ‘disappeared’ from the radars: there are only 11,500 left now against 37,000 in 2010.
Each Christian family is only composed of 2.5 persons due to the decreasing birth rate which can be explained by the massive migration of young couples and the lack of a future to be built in Syria for a possible next generation.
Moreover, according to some statistics, about 40% of the remaining families are headed by women but they have fewer job opportunities than men.
The average age of the members of the Christian community is 47 years. As it is steadily rising, this trend will lead to an increasingly ageing community doomed to become less and less dynamic and to die slowly without descendants.
In addition, the devastating earthquake in February and the unabated egregious violations of human rights have further aggravated their situation.
For the moment, there is no light at the end of their tunnel although young Christians are ready to take up the challenge, but funding is needed to build a future, some Syrian Christians said at the conference.
No regime change no reconstruction, the EU says
On 15 June, the EU High Representative/ Vice-President Josep Borrell said at the 7th Conference:
“The European policy on Syria has not changed. We will not re-establish full diplomatic relations with the Assad regime, or start working on reconstruction, until a genuine and comprehensive political transition is firmly under way – which is not the case. As long as there is no progress – and for the time being there is no progress – we will maintain the sanctions regime. Sanctions that target the regime and its supporters, and not the Syrian people.”
Josep Borrell
In the Catholic Church, some think that a lot of attention is disproportionately devoted to the sanctions targeting the 3% elite while not enough is efficiently being done to guarantee the present and the future of the poor population (97%).
The United States and the European Union have stopped to be credible political players in Syria since September 2013 when former U.S. President Obama finally failed to resort to military intervention, despite his verbal threats, after Assad used chemical weapons against his own population. This unpunished crossing of the American red line had then resulted in the unavoidable withdrawal of President Hollande from any military joint operation. The vacuum was quickly replaced by Russia and now Assad’s Syria has just been reintegrated in the Arab League.
Some in the Catholic Church firmly contend the position that reconstruction is a priority to keep Syrians of all faiths and ethnicities on their historical lands and should not be indefinitely subjected to an illusory political change in Damas. They consider that reconstruction can be carried out without legitimizing Assad’s regime. Such voices need to be listened to and their options to be examined.
Foreign and international humanitarian Christian institutions have their relays in Syria. They can activate their human and logistical capacities to serve the Syrian population in its global diversity. They are reliable partners which meet transparency and justice requirements.
The tiny Christian minority is a chance for Syria because they can have a significant impact on the improvement of the daily life of all Syrians. The EU and other donors should bet on it because Syrians deserve to get a chance to live in dignity.
The 7th Brussels EU Conference
VII Brussels Conference “Supporting the Future of Syria and the region” (EEAS)
The high-level ministerial segment of the conference gathered representatives of 57 countries on 14-15 June, including EU member states and over 30 international organisations, including the United Nations, in addition to the EU institutions.
The 7th Conference, which claims to be the main pledging event for Syria and the region in 2023, succeeded in mobilising aid to Syrians inside the country and in the neighbouring countries, through international pledges totalling €5.6 billion for 2023 and beyond, including €4.6 billion for 2023 and €1 billion for 2024 and beyond.
Christians from the charity “Hope” in Syria testifying in Brussels (The European Times)
The pledges cover the humanitarian needs of Syrians inside Syria, and also support for early recovery and resilience, helping Syrians to rebuild their country and covering the needs of 5.7 million Syrian refugees in the hosting countries, in the neighbourhood: Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq, as well as the needs of the communities who generously provide them shelter.
From 2011 to date, the European Union and its member states have been the largest donors of humanitarian and resilience assistance to Syria and the region with over €30 billion but they are no longer local political and geo-political players.
Christians in Syria hope that their inclusive educative, social and humanitarian projects will benefit at their fair value from this financial windfall. Only time will tell.
Parliament calls for an annual ‘European day for the victims of the global climate crises’ to be established to remember the human lives lost due to climate change.
In the resolution, adopted with 395 votes to 109 and 31 abstentions on Thursday, Parliament proposes to hold this day annually -starting this year on 15 July 2023- and invites the Council and the Commission to back the initiative.
MEPs say it is appropriate to commemorate the victims of the climate crises and highlight that it would help to raise awareness of the human lives lost and humanitarian crisis caused by climate change.
They point out that climate change is leading to more unpredictable weather phenomena, including more frequent and intense heatwaves, wildfires and floods, to threats to food, water safety and security, and to the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, which are intensifying and taking an ever-greater human toll both globally and in Europe.
Background
Parliament has adopted the European Climate Law, which obliges the EU by law to become climate neutral by 2050 and to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% in 2030. Parliament has also recently adopted key laws as part of the ‘Fit for 55’-package in order to reach that target. On 29 November 2019, Parliament declared a climate and environmental emergency in Europe and globally.
Kenyan tea pickers destroy machines brought in to replace them in violent protests that highlight the challenge facing workers as more agribusiness companies rely on automation to cut costs, reports Semafor Africa.
According to local media reports, at least 10 tea picking machines have been set on fire during protests over the past year. In the latest demonstrations, one protester was killed and several people were injured, including 23 police officers and farm workers. The Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA) estimated the value of the destroyed machinery at $1.2 million after nine machines belonging to Ekaterra, maker of the best-selling Lipton tea brand, were destroyed in May.
In March, a local government task force recommended that tea companies in Kericho, the largest city that hosts many of the country’s tea plantations, adopt a new ratio of 60:40 between mechanized and manual tea picking. The task force also wants legislation to be passed to restrict the importation of tea picking machinery. Nicholas Kirui, a member of the task force and former CEO of KTGA, tells Semafor Africa that in Kericho County alone, 30,000 jobs have been lost to mechanization in the last decade.
“We held public hearings in all the counties and with all the different groups, and the overwhelming opinion we heard was that the machines should go,” Kirui says.
In 2021, Kenya exported $1.2 billion worth of tea, making it the third largest tea exporter in the world, after China and Sri Lanka. Multinational companies including Browns Investments, George Williamson and Ekaterra – which was sold by Unilever to a private equity firm in July 2022 – plant tea on about 200,000 acres in Kericho and have all adopted mechanized harvesting.
Some machines are reported to be able to replace 100 workers. Ekaterra’s director of corporate affairs in Kenya, Sammy Kirui, says mechanization is “critical” to the company’s operations and the global competitiveness of Kenyan tea. As the government task force has found, a machine can reduce the cost of picking tea to 3 cents per kilogram compared to 11 cents per kilogram for hand picking.
Analysts partly attribute Kenya’s unemployment rate – the highest in East Africa – to the automation of industries including banking and insurance. In the last quarter of 2022, about 13.9% of Kenyans of working age (above 16) were unemployed or long-term unemployed.
Automation will only continue to develop at breakneck speed not only in rural Kenya, but also in other sectors of countries in Africa – especially with the spread of artificial intelligence. Anger in tea-picking areas may be just an early sign of future tensions if governments and companies do not find ways to help workers.
The majority of tea pickers are young, many are women, and often lack the opportunities and skills to develop outside the tea sector. Retraining farm workers, as well as creating more jobs and diversifying the economies of tea-growing communities, will be key to countering the violence and growing anger.
“My ministry is committed to opening up the labor market to increase employment opportunities for Kenyans,” Labor Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore said on a trip to Kericho, days after the latest wave of protests in May. She added that efforts are being made to resolve the dispute between local residents and tea companies.
The private sector can also play a role in retraining workers. Kirui shared that Ekaterra is keen to partner with local communities on projects involving technical and vocational education and training centres.
Mechanization makes business sense for tea growers and they are unlikely to give up the tea picking machines that reduce their costs. But the trend is likely to continue to hurt rural communities, where farm workers are central to economic activity. Workers and residents will continue to resist these changes as they have no alternative employment options.
The largest exporter of tea in the world is China. In an article calling for more efficient mechanization of tea picking in China, published in March, Wu Luofa of the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at the Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences notes that manual tea picking represents more than the half of the cost of tea production.
“The development and promotion of tea picking machines is beneficial to increase labor productivity, reduce labor costs, increase the market competitiveness of tea products and promote the sustainable development of the tea industry,” he said.
According to Tabitha Njuguna, managing director of African Commodity Exchange AFEX in Kenya, the introduction of technology and mechanization is key to unlocking the potential of agriculture in Africa and should therefore be embraced despite the discontent of some workers.
“We find that the potential disruptions caused by the integration of technology and mechanization may seem initially threatening, but it is important that all stakeholders (agricultural organizations, farmers, processors) involved see them as increasingly inevitable she tells Semafor Africa.
In February, a BBC documentary revealed widespread sexual harassment and abuse on tea farms in Kericho, with 70 women being abused by their managers on plantations run by British companies Unilever and James Finlay.
The Russian Orthodox Church claims that pacifism is incompatible with the teachings of the Orthodox Church, as evidenced by its presence in heretical teachings. This is stated in the materials for the meeting of the ecclesiastical court, at which the statements of the priest from Kostroma Ioan Burdin, who was placed under ban for his anti-war stance, will be examined. The case materials were published by Father Ioan Burdin on his Telegram channel.
The meeting, scheduled for June 16, is to consider the statements of Father John Burdin, which “clearly denigrate the activities of the higher church authorities”, “undermine the confidence of the faithful in the patriarch and bishops” and harm “ecclesiastical unity”, according to the materials of the case.
“The pacifism with which priest Burdin tries to protect himself from the accusations against him is incompatible with the true teaching of the Orthodox Church, in particular with that set forth in the Foundations of the Social Concept,” the indictment also said.
According to Russian church figures, “pacifism was present in heretical teachings in various periods of church history – among the Gnostics, Paulicians, Bogomils, Albigensians and Tolstoists, showing, like other utopian ideologies, a connection with the ancient Hiliasm,” the case materials say . It is noted that throughout its history the Orthodox Church has “blessed the soldiers for the defense of the Fatherland”.
In reality, however, the Orthodox Church has never condemned “pacifism” and the reluctance to go to war because of God’s categorical and unequivocal commandment “Thou shalt not kill.” A number of canons prescribe penances (periods of penance and abstinence from Holy Communion) for combatants who have taken human life.
The charges state that “Ioan Burdin’s pacifism is in fact imaginary” and his statements “clearly show his anti-Russian political position, which is perceived as unacceptable in our country”, as reported by dveri.bg.
As part of the aid effort, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and UN World Food Programme (WFP) transported live-saving water and food to families by boat, only 15 kilometres from the contact line.
“We are using today four boats to deliver assistance to these 500 families, a small community that is here close by where I am now”, said Saviano Abreu, head of communications for UN aid coordination office OCHA, in Ukraine.
“These communities, they already have been facing the consequences of the war. This area was under Russian control. Late last year around November, it was retaken by Ukraine and now, they are now facing this new catastrophe with the flooding here.”
UN agencies and humanitarian partners continue to support the urgent needs of people affected by the Kakhovka Dam blast in eastern Ukraine.
Cut off from drinking water
The emptying of Kakhovka Reservoir has left tens of thousands of people in southern Ukraine without access to piped water, mainly in the Dnipro region.
The reservoir – one of the largest in Europe – is reportedly 70 per cent empty, according to Ukrainian authorities. The width of the reservoir has also decreased from three kilometres to one, while the water level is now at around seven meters, well below the 12-metre operational threshold, OCHA reported.
“Our calculation is that 200,000 people in the Dnipro region, for example, have already been cut off from the water from their houses,” said Mr. Abreu.
But that could rise to affect more than 700,000 people as the reservoir is the only source for that whole part of southern Ukraine, not just the Kherson region, he warned.
Large urban areas in the Dnipro region, including Pokrovska, Nikopolska and Marhanetska, are completely cut off from centralized water and others like Apostolivska and Zelenodolska have extremely limited access.
Deadly mine displacement
The receding floodwater has also created other deadly challenges in the form of landmines that have been scattered far and wide.
“This area, I think it is one of the most mine contaminated parts of the world,” said Mr Saviano. “It is the reason, why for example, agriculture in Kherson, in Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia have been impacted because of the mine contamination, so the floodwater is moving the mines, that is a reality.”
Abigail Hartley, Chief of Policy, Advocacy and Donor Relations section from the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) added that “when the water subsides the mines are there.
“(The) good thing is that mines float, so they do stay on the surface. But, of course, there’s a lot of other flood debris and they can get buried in sediment. So, it is a challenge”.
She said Ukrainian authorities had done “a good job of de-mining so far”.
Since the destruction of Kakhovka dam, OCHA and humanitarian partners have continued life-saving operations. At least 10 inter-agency convoys have reached those in need.
UN News/Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer – Abigail Hartley, UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) Chief of Policy, Advocacy, Donor Relations and Outreach.
In a joint statement, refugee agency UNHCR and migration agency IOM, said that the duty to rescue people in distress at sea without delay was a “fundamental” rule of the international maritime law.
They underscored that the current approach to Mediterranean Sea crossings – one of the world’s most dangerous and deadly migration routes – was “unworkable”.
According to figures released by the IOM on Tuesday, last year 3,800 people died on migration routes within and from the Middle East and North Africa – the highest number since 2017.
The recent tragedy adds to the gruesome statistics. While the number of people aboard the boat is still not clear, it is believed to have been somewhere between 400 and 750.
The boat was reportedly in distress as of Tuesday morning. A large-scale search and rescue operation was announced by the Hellenic Coast Guard on the morning of 14 June, after the vessel capsized.
UN support continues
UNHCR and IOM representatives have been on the ground in Kalamata in southern Greece working with the authorities to provide support and assistance to survivors.
These include non-food items, hygiene kits, interpretation services and counselling for survivors.
The agencies said they welcome investigations underway by Greek authorities into the circumstances leading up to the disaster.
‘Unworkable’
“It is clear that the current approach to the Mediterranean is unworkable. Year after year, it continues to be the most dangerous migration route in the world, with the highest fatality rate.
“States need to come together and address the gaps in proactive search and rescue, quick disembarkation, and safe regular pathways,” said Federico Soda, IOM Director for the Department of Emergencies.
UNHCR called on the European Union to put “safety and solidarity at the heart of its action in the Mediterranean”.
Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Gillian Triggs said in view of increased migrant numbers, “collective efforts, including greater coordination between all Mediterranean States, solidarity, and responsibility-sharing, as reflected in the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum, are essential to save lives.”
The agency continues to advocate for the establishment of an agreed regional disembarkation and redistribution mechanism.
Make traffickers accountable
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk added his voice, reiterating that the incident highlighted the need to fully investigate people smugglers and human traffickers and ensure that they are brought to justice.
He voiced solidarity with the survivors and the families of the victims, many of whom are women and children.
Mr. Türk called on States to open more regular migration channels, enhance responsibility-sharing, and ensure the safe and timely disembarkation of all people rescued at sea.
Lachezara Stoeva was addressing a special crisis meeting on Haiti organized by ECOSOC to address the country’s urgent food security needs and noted that the humanitarian response plan for this year is only 22.6 per cent funded.
“This plan targets 3.2 million Haitian people whereas around 5.2 million Haitian people are in need. This should be our wake-up call”, she told the group of Prime Ministers, UN aid chiefs, civil society and other stakeholders gathered at UN Headquarters in New York.
During the high-level meeting, both the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced they would be travelling to Haiti in the next few days to highlight the depth of the crisis there.
The recent earthquake, flooding and landslides, have exacerbated political and economic turmoil combined with rampant insecurity and violence perpetrated by armed gangs – all of which has triggered a food and health crisis for millions.
“We must learn the lessons of our past efforts in Haiti. A whole-of-society approach that engages the Haitian people would be key to building resilient food systems”, she said, calling for bold thinking combined with immediate action.
‘Alarming’ descent
Bob Rae, Chair of the ECOSOC Advisory Group on Haiti said the crisis was continuing to deteriorate “at an alarming rate.”
Humanitarian needs have doubled in the last year. Now 1.8 million Haitians are facing emergency levels of food insecurity and nearly five million do not have enough to eat. “This represents half of the country’s population”, he added.
UNICEF delivering: Russell
UNICEF chief Catherine Russell warned that the country was “on the precipice of catastrophe.”
She reminded the meeting the agency had worked in Haiti for decades and remained deeply committed to supporting all children there.
“Alongside our partners, we are engaging with community leaders and other relevant stakeholders to facilitate the safe movement of humanitarian workers and supplies”, she said.
“We are also expanding our response in health, nutrition, protection, education, water, sanitation and hygiene. So far this year, we have screened more than 243,000 children under five for wasting, helped nearly 70,000 women and children access healthcare, provided more over 417,000 people with safe water and reached 30,000 children with learning materials.”
Action is now long overdue, she said, announcing her intention to go to Haiti “in the coming days” to assess the collective response and “reiterate UNICEF’s commitment to helping the Haitian people.”
Investments and action are sorely needed for Haiti, she said.
“Let’s work together to make sure this happens. Together we can join with the Haitian people to break through the cycle of crises and begin building towards a more peaceful and hopeful future.”
Welcome focus on ‘forgotten crisis’: McCain
WFP chief Cindy McCain, said she would be on the ground next week, “so I welcome your focus on this forgotten crisis.”
The situation is dire and getting worse every day, she added.
“Hunger has reached record levels. 4.9 million people – almost half of the population – are acutely food insecure. This includes 1.8 million people who are at serious risk of starvation.”
She said that “a coordinated and well-funded humanitarian response must be part of the broader strategy to restore security and political stability in Haiti.”
Despite the challenges, WFP has stayed and delivered, with support for 1.8 million people and the aim of reaching 2.3 million through this year, having already supported 1.4 million with lifesaving food and livelihood support so far.
“But we urgently need the support of the international community. Without additional funds, we will not be able to reach all those we are targeting for help”, Ms. McCain stressed.
“Ladies and gentlemen: we must act now, and work together to get food and cash transfers to the millions of people who are relying on us. Together we can make a difference – and help the people of Haiti rebuild their shattered lives.”
Build local food resilience
The UN’s Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator in Haiti, Ulrika Richardson, told the special meeting that the UN was working hand-in-hand with the Government, together with local and international partners, to make food systems more resilient.
This includes a recent national policy and strategy for food security and independence, and it must not be forgotten how the impact of climate change and climate risks are jeopardizing food supplies.
The UN in Haiti is promoting local production and boosting local farming, through measures such as basing school food programmes on locally produced crops. By 2030, she said all food programmes should be entirely locally sourced.
“Addressing root causes of instability and restoring social and economic wellbeing in Haiti can be achieved through promoting food sovereignty, recalibrating agrifood policies, fostering stakeholder consensus and leveraging international support.”
