THOUSAND OSI Translation. Region: Spanish/Latin America/UN –
Source: United Nations – in Spanish 4
Headline: Gaza, infant mortality, Guatemala, Ukraine… Wednesday’s news
The number of children killed in Gaza is higher than in four years of conflict worldwide
Amid reports of new Israeli airstrikes in Gaza overnight on Wednesday, the Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) said more children have been killed there in recent months than in four years of conflict worldwide.
“This war is a war against children. “It is a war against their childhood and their future,” declared the agency’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, referring to the latest data from the Gaza health authorities, which indicate that at least 12,300 minors have died in the enclave in the last four months, compared to 12,193 worldwide between 2019 and 2022.
The head of UNRWA reiterated in a tweet late on Tuesday the repeated international calls for an immediate ceasefire in the enclave, where intense Israeli bombing has devastated entire neighborhoods.
To date, more than 31,184 Palestinians have been killed and 72,889 injured, according to local health authorities. As of March 12, 247 Israeli soldiers had been killed in Gaza and 1,475 wounded since the start of the ground operation, according to Israeli army data.
© UNICEF/Patricia Willocq
A five-month-old child receives a vaccine at a health center in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.
Infant mortality reduced to 4.9 million in 2022
The fight against infant mortality has reached a historic milestone. The latest estimates reveal that the number of children who died prematurely before reaching the age of five has fallen to 4.9 million in 2022.
Figures published by the United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation this Wednesday reveal that the global under-five mortality rate has fallen by 51% since 2000.
Thus, some countries such as Cambodia, Malawi, Mongolia and Rwanda reduced the under-five mortality rate by more than 75% during this period.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell praised the dedicated efforts of midwives, health workers and community health workers, whose commitment has contributed to this remarkable decline.
Despite these advances, the report notes that there is still a long way to go to end all preventable deaths among children and adolescents, as millions of them continue to die from treatable causes, such as complications from premature birth, pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria.
The majority of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, highlighting regional disparities in access to quality healthcare.
Unsplash/Arturo Rivera
A vendor in a central plaza in Antigua Guatemala.
Guatemala: UN experts ask the president-elect to adopt concrete measures to protect civic space
This Wednesday, a group of UN experts* called on the elected president of Guatemala and his government to adopt concrete measures to protect civic space. The objective is to guarantee a safe and enabling environment for associations, human rights defenders and journalists, and civil society as a whole.
“It is essential that the exercise of fundamental rights, including freedom of peaceful assembly, association and expression, is guaranteed, ensuring that the relevant legislative framework complies with international standards,” they added.
Likewise, the experts praised “the resilience of Guatemalan society, particularly the Indigenous Peoples,” for participating in peaceful demonstrations for more than 100 days “to defend democracy, the rule of law and the results of the elections.”
The group had previously expressed concern regarding alleged limitations that were imposed in the context of post-election protests and alleged threats and violence against individuals from an organization that promotes the rights of trans people, as well as the judicial harassment and the criminalization of activists and journalists.
The experts also stressed the importance of independent, free and pluralistic media and their concern about the closure and harassment of some of them.
They also reaffirmed their availability to provide recommendations and technical assistance to improve the human rights situation in the country.
IOM quickly mobilized its mental health team to provide assistance to those affected by the missile attack on a residential building in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine.
An attack on a residential building in Ukraine leaves three dead and 40 injured
The top UN humanitarian aid official in Ukraine strongly condemned the Russian missile attack on an apartment block, which left three dead and around 40 injured on Tuesday.
“I am shocked to learn that families were gathering for dinner and a quiet night at home, only to see their homes damaged and their loved ones injured,” Denise Brown said in a tweet.
According to the UN Office in the country, the attack caused extensive damage to the residential building in the town of Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro region, and left several people, including several children, trapped under the rubble.
The incident is part of a pattern of attacks that are not limited to frontline regions and that target civilian infrastructure and homes, Brown said in a statement.
He stressed that international humanitarian law is unequivocal about the need to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure during the conflict, which has “taken a devastating toll” on Ukraine.
Brown reiterated that civilians should never be subjected to the horrors of war and called for an immediate end to such attacks.
*The experts: Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, special rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and association; Mary Lawlor, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; José Francisco Calí Tzay, special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples; Irene Khan, special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression; Reem Alsalem, special rapporteur on violence against women and girls; Graeme Reid, independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The special rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures is the largest body of independent experts in the UN human rights system. The experts work on a voluntary basis; They are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent of any government or organization and provide their services in an individual capacity.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.
