UN peacekeepers in Darfur received their first five military helicopters on Tuesday after a 2-year wait. Neighboring Ethiopia supplied the tactical aircraft.
The United States, the United Kingdom, France and other countries took to the floor of the Human Rights Council yesterday to criticize Iran’s crackdown on political dissidents following disputed presidential elections last year. The Iran discussion is happening under the auspices of a unique tool of the Human Rights Council called the Universal Periodic Review, which was an innovation of the Human Rights Co
The UN Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) just released the latest update on the flash funding appeal for Haiti. If you'll recall, one week after the earthquake the UN launched and emergency flash appeal for $577 million. Just about one month later, the appeal is nearly fully funded--it is only 4%, or $25 million, short.
Of the panoply of disputes around the world today, perhaps none is more petty than the conflict over the name of a certain country that sits to the north of Greece, west of Bulgaria, south of Kosovo and Serbia, and east of Albania. If you ask the UN, NATO or the International Olympic Committee, the name of that country is the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia -- FYROM." If you ask most of the inhabitants of this country, they would be happy to just go by "Republic of Macedonia." The problem is, the Greeks object. "Macedonia," you see, is the name of a Greek province t
By Myriam Annette
The scale of the devastation in Haiti continues to shock me. One million people are homeless and food and water remain scarce. As we drive through Port-au-Prince, we see temporary camps covering every public square, park, soccer field and garden. Thousands of kids under the age of 5 are living in those camps. According to one report, more than 1 million children are now orphans.
Major demonstrations are underway in Tehran today, the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. The Guardian is providing the full Nico Pitney treatment, and continuously collecting first hand accounts and videos from the day's events. So far, it looks like the government is firmly in control of the situation and has been able to keep the crowds dispersed.
ALNAP – the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in humanitarian action – just released a pilot study on the humanitarian system. The study was very ambitious - it looked at the humanitarian system’s performance and progress, defining key criteria, assessing system performance and progress, and present new statistics. Their conclusion? The system gets a B-.
On the heels of Laura Chinchilla's victory in the Costa Rican presidential election and Evo Morales's appointing women to half of his cabinet positions, the Christian Science Monitor