Week in Review

Failures on the part of UN Peacekeeping missions have been highly publicised and well documented – and rightly so. But if you look at the overall picture and crunch the data, a different and ultimately positive picture emerges.

From Arctic communities desiring to receive public services in their own languages, to the Arhuaco people in Colombia who still speak Ika, indigenous people across the world are determined to keep their mother tongues alive. 

Emel Mathlouthi was named the ‘voice of the Tunisian revolution, after a video of her performing a version of the song ‘My Word is Free’, during a Tunisian street protest, went viral online during the Arab Spring.

Her music was banned by the regime, and she became known as the “voice of the Tunisian revolution.” Three years later, she was invited to perform the song at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.

Over the years, Emel’s musical journey has led her to incorporate electronica and digital glitches, but it was clear from talking to her, that she hasn’t lost her revolutionary spirit.

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_{Original music that appears in amplifyHER is included with the kind permission of the artists. All rights reserved.}

With armed gangs in charge of key transport routes in Haiti, the country could see famine conditions, unless a robust humanitarian aid plan is put in place, the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Haiti, Jean-Martin Bauer, has warned.

A UN Security Council meeting on Thursday focused on terrorism began with a sobering reminder of the danger posed by this persistent threat to international peace. 

No one should have to surrender their human right to migrate in order to find a living wage, the UN human rights office, OHCHR said in a new report published on Friday, highlighting the importance of temporary migratory labour programmes. 

In Ukraine, the UN’s top emergency relief official on Thursday pledged solidarity with the embattled country and its people, as they try to rebuild their lives amid the ongoing war.

The 54-member UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on Wednesday adopted a resolution to remove Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) for the remainder of its four-year term ending in 2026. 

Ten initiatives from around the globe, which together aim to restore more than 68 million hectares of land and coastlines, have been recognized by the UN for their role in preventing and reversing the degradation of natural habitats across the planet. 

Gender equality remains essentially, a question of power, said the UN chief on Monday, but to change the culture of male-domination and bring balance, we need equality in terms of leadership, decision-making and participation at all levels.

The number of calories per person consumed globally, increased by a full nine per cent on average last year, to 2,960 per day, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday, in its latest annual statistics report.

To mark Universal Health Coverage Day on Monday, the UN is sharing the spotlight with the biggest sporting event in the world this week – the FIFA World Cup semi-finals. A showcase celebration of Health for All on the eve of the first showdown between Argentina and Croatia, is taking place on the main stage at the FIFA Fan Festival in Doha, Qatar.

More than 11,000 boys and girls have been killed or injured in the war in Yemen – an average of four a day since fighting escalated in 2015, though the number is likely to be far higher, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reported.