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	Yazidi children and rape victims 'left abandoned' after Isis captivity by UN News, Amnesty International, agencies   Sep. 2020 (UN News)   With one in three women around the world affected by gender-based violence – a crime that skyrockets more than 200 per cent in conflict settings – Nobel laureate Nadia Murad brought governments and UN leaders to task on, for failing to provide the resources needed to create meaningful change for traumatized communities.   “We have the ability to provide resources to communities destroyed by violence, Ms. Murad, who also serves as a UN Goodwill Ambassador, said. “We simply lack collective political will to do so.”   Speaking during an event titled #EndSGBV, on the margins of UN General Assembly general debate, Ms. Murad – jointly awarded the 2018 Nobel peace prize with Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war - took stock of progress over the last year.   “We must critically look at what we did well, where we can be really proud because we have made a true difference”, she said, “but also, be honest and transparent on where we missed opportunities to stop gender-based violence and truly be there for victims.”   She described the launch of the Global Survivors Fund as “a major achievement”, along with the Murad Code, a protocol she launched with the United Kingdom for those collecting information from survivors on conflict-related sexual violence.   In a post-conflict region like Iraq, she said survivors must play an active role in the peacebuilding process. “Survivors know best what they need to heal and recover.” Efforts to engage them at every level of their recovery will empower them.   Perhaps nowhere is the international unwillingness to engage more stark, than in the experience of the Yazidis, she said, most of whom live in northern Iraq and who in 2014 became victims of genocide by ISIL/Da’esh terrorists, in the group’s pernicious campaign to wipe out non-Islamic influence.   Stressing that their situation remains “virtually unchanged,” she said it pains her greatly that once again she must convey to the world the seriousness of their plight. Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis are internally displaced in camps, where conditions are dangerous – especially in light of COVID-19.   Their destroyed homeland of Sinjar, lacks critical infrastructure to support their needs. It is ignored, lacking any dedicated effort to build a stable local government and security force committed to equal protection for all citizens. Thus, Yazidis cannot return safely.   Most importantly, she said thousands of Yazidis still face sexual violence daily at the hands of ISIL/Da’esh, with more than 2,800 women and children still missing and in captivity. They have been subjected to sexual violence and slavery for over six years.   “It is incredibly disheartening to understand no collective search and rescue efforts have been made by the Iraqi Government or the United Nations to find these women and children”, she said. “Make no mistake, the global community has abandoned over 2,800 human beings.”   To be sure, it is the responsibility of Iraq, the United Nations and the international community to take immediate steps to rescue these women and children, she said. “Anything less is unacceptable.” Yazidi families cannot rebuild their lives without knowing the fate of their loved ones. “Let us be clear: It is a moral imperative to respond to the vast needs of fellow human beings”.   She called for a collaborative grass roots approach, with international organizations, the United Nations and Governments working closely with local non-governmental groups to develop contextually specific approaches.   Development can only be sustained if local communities are part of every decision that impacts them. “It is vital that we listen to the communities we serve,” she assured.   Drawing attention to Nadia’s Initiative, which seeks to empower Yazidis to rebuild their lives and advocates for investments that will provide survivors of sexual and gender-based violence with comprehensive support, she said non-governmental organizations cannot rebuild post-conflict communities on their own.   In Iraq, she pressed the Government to rebuild Sinjar, provide survivors with reparations and stabilize local governments. While investigations have begun, evidence has been collected and survivors have recorded their testimonies, justice has yet to be served.   It is up to Iraq and the international community to try ISIL/Da’esh perpetrators for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, she stressed. Yazidis and other communities destroyed by violence deserve international support. http://bit.ly/3n1KGm3   http://www.globalsurvivorsfund.org/ http://www.nadiasinitiative.org/   July 2020   Child survivors of Islamic State captivity and their families have been left to fend for themselves when dealing with lasting trauma and health complications, Amnesty International said in a new report.   Almost 2,000 Yazidi children living in the Kurdish regional government area have been “effectively abandoned”, according to the report highlighting their struggles to recover from the violence inflicted by Isis.   Many suffer from fits of anger, flashbacks and nightmares and have persisting health problems.   “These children were systematically subjected to the horror of life under Isis, and now they’ve been left to pick up the pieces,” said Matt Wells, Amnesty International’s crisis response deputy director.   “Their physical and mental health must be a priority in the years ahead if they are to fully reintegrate into their families and community.”   The 400,000 Yazidi minority were targeted in their heartland of the Sinjar mountains from August 2014 by Isis, which captured thousands of prisoners and turned them into slaves.   The report quotes a doctor who said almost every girl they had treated between the ages of nine and 17 had been the victim of sexual violence and now suffered from infection, irregular periods and difficulties in pregnancy and childbirth.   Some female survivors told Amnesty that the babies born as a result of the abuse have been socially ostracised and that many of them had to abandon their children and have not been allowed any contact since.   Many captured boys were left disabled after being forced to fight alongside Isis and have received no support since returning home, the report says.   The UN refugee agency’s special envoy, Angelina Jolie, quoted Amnesty’s research at the UN security council earlier this month, when she called for more support for Yazidi children.   “If we are not able to live up to our promise of a survivor-centred approach for Yazidi children, who make up just one relatively small group of survivors, then how many more children and young adults are suffering in silence at the global level?” the actor said.   Families have struggled to pay for their daily needs, according to Amnesty, especially as many only secured the freedom of their relatives by paying large ransoms to their Isis captors.   Suzan Nawaf, a community worker for the charity Mines Advisory Group, which has been helping to clear landmines from the Yazidi heartland on Mount Sinjar, said many impoverished Yazidi refugees have been forced to return there despite lingering dangers.“After six years of displacement from Sinjar to the Kurdistan camps, now they have begun to return to their homes, but many of them can’t return because their houses have been destroyed,” she said.   Nawaf said the area was still littered with improvised landmines and unexploded ordnance. Many of the homes had been booby-trapped and conditions have been made worse by the coronavirus pandemic, which has limited the community’s ability to work and disrupted humanitarian aid.   “There is no electricity, there is no water, many of their houses are exploded so they are living in other houses or in tents. They depend on agriculture for their livelihoods but they cannot now do that because the agricultural area is contaminated with explosives,” she said.   http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/iraq-yezidi-child-survivors-of-islamic-state-facing-unprecedented-health-crisis/ http://www.globalr2p.org/publications/without-justice-and-recognition-the-genocide-by-isis-continues/
	UNHCR stresses urgent need for States to end unlawful detention of refugees and asylum-seekers by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, agencies   July 2020   UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is calling today on States to urgently release refugees and asylum-seekers who are being unlawfully and arbitrarily held in detention. States must act to ensure their actions are in line with international law and that amidst the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, vulnerable refugees are not being placed at heightened, unnecessary risk.   “Refugees fleeing war and persecution should not be punished or criminalized simply for exercising their fundamental human right to seek asylum,” said Gillian Triggs, UN Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees for Protection. “Measures to tackle COVID19 do not justify arbitrarily detaining them on arrival, which not only worsens the misery of people who have already suffered, but also undermines efforts to limit the spread of the virus.”   As part of its role on the Executive Committee of the UN Network on Migration, and as co-lead for the Alternatives to Detention Working Group, UNHCR echoes the Network’s call ;on States to reaffirm their commitment to adopting a human rights-based approach to the detention of newly arriving refugees and migrants and to prioritize non-custodial alternatives.   UNHCR welcomes the positive efforts that have been made by a number of States, which have released refugees and asylum-seekers from detention during the pandemic. Such efforts prove the viability of community-based alternatives and provide a blueprint for developing new, long-term, rights-based approaches to receiving refugees and asylum-seekers.   Suitable approaches will vary depending on the context but may include, amongst others, the deposit or surrender of documentation; reasonable and proportionate reporting conditions; residence at a specific location; residence at open or semi-open asylum centres or community supervision arrangements.   However, some States are using the pandemic as justification to resort to increasingly regressive measures, including detaining refugees and asylum-seekers in greater numbers, for longer or arbitrary periods of time, or without access to due process.   UNHCR is concerned that many detained refugees and asylum-seekers are often forced to live in overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions where they are unable to practice social and physical distancing measures and have limited or no access to adequate healthcare and clean water. In some detention centres, tensions are reaching boiling point as detainees’ anxieties rise about their health and welfare.   Under international law and in line with UNHCR guidance, detention of refugees and asylum-seekers for administrative purposes must be used as a last resort, in the absence of viable alternatives, and for a legitimate purpose, for example, to verify an individual’s identity, conduct a preliminary asylum interview, where there are significant security concerns or where there are strong grounds for believing an individual is likely to abscond.   Detention must be based on individual assessments, subject to procedural safeguards, and in accordance with and authorized by clearly defined laws and limits. Maximum periods of detention should be set and asylum-seekers must be immediately released once the justifications for their detention are no longer valid.   Children should never be held in immigration detention. This can never be considered to be in the child’s best interest, which must be a primary consideration under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.   Temporary measures by States for new arrivals, such as quarantines or restrictions on movement, owing to the COVID19 pandemic are understandable. However, restrictions on this basis should only last as long as strictly necessary for ensuring an individual’s health status.   UNHCR is calling on State to adopt the following immediate measures to help avert a catastrophic outbreak of COVID19 in a detention centre:   Immediately release all refugees and asylum-seekers who are being arbitrarily or unlawfully detained, including those in pre-removal detention where deportations have been suspended.   Scale up and implement community-based alternatives to detention, including in place of detention for newly-arriving refugees and asylum-seekers.   Improve conditions in places of detention while alternatives are being prepared, and ensure that UNHCR continues to have access to asylum seekers and refugees being held in these locations.   9 July 2020 (UN News)   Millions of refugees across Africa face even greater food insecurity because of aid disruption and rising food prices linked to the COVID-19 crisis, UN humanitarians warned on Thursday.   The alert from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), coincides with ongoing conflict and disasters on the continent, and severe underfunding for their work.   “While the situation continues to deteriorate for everyone, the disaster is magnified for refugees who have absolutely nothing to cushion their fall”, said WFP Executive Director, David Beasley. “In the best of times, refugees live in cramped conditions, struggle to meet their basic needs and often have no option but to rely on outside assistance for their survival. Now more than ever, they need our lifesaving support.”   More than 10 million refugees worldwide receive WFP assistance today; this includes the world’s largest refugee settlements, such as Bidibidi in Uganda, where food rations were cut by 30 per cent in April, owing to cash shortfalls.   Reduced rations   More than 3.2 million refugees across East Africa are already receiving reduced rations because of underfunding, including in Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan and Tanzania.   Significant funding shortfalls either threaten or have led to food cuts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.   Without urgent action, levels of acute malnutrition, stunting and anaemia are expected to rise, the agencies warned, while also urging Governments to ensure that refugees and displaced populations are included in social safety nets and COVID-19 response plans - in line with the Global Compact on Refugees - to ensure they are able to access food and emergency cash assistance.   Ethiopia refugee children in crisis   In Ethiopia, more than six in 10 refugee children are already experiencing critical levels of anaemia, while UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi, warned that around one in two refugees are children “who may develop life-long difficulties if deprived of food at vital stages in their development”.   In Cameroon, WFP had to reduce its assistance to refugees from the Central African Republic by 50 per cent in May and June, because of funding gaps.   Cuts in rations are also expected for Nigerian refugees in the country, while across East Africa, congestion at borders linked to COVID-19 “have created congestion, delaying vital aid and trade flows”, the UN humanitarians said.   They added that in many parts of the continent, food prices are rising as a result, “posing a potentially devastating threat to millions of refugees, particularly those who were already living hand-to-mouth on daily wages”.   Food price shocks   In the Republic of Congo, the average price of a basic food basket has increased by 15 per cent, while in Rwanda, WFP reported that around refugee camps, found food prices were already on average 27 per cent higher in April compared to a year earlier, and 40 per cent higher than in 2018.   Because of these challenges, “many refugees are resorting to negative coping mechanisms, such as skipping meals or reducing meal portions”, the joint agency statement said.   Survival tactics   In South Sudan, more than 80 per cent of refugees are likely resorting to such measures and “in some cases, refugees are resorting to begging, transactional sex, or early or forced marriages to be able to afford food”.   Globally, WFP needs more than $1.2 billion to support refugees globally for the next six months, just over half is for operations in Africa. As part of the broader UN Global Humanitarian Response Plan for COVID-19, UNHCR requires $745 million for life-saving interventions, of which $227 million is for operations in Africa.   http://www.wfp.org/news/food-rations-cut-refugees-eastern-africa-coronavirus-stretches-resources http://news.un.org/en/story/2020/07/1068021 http://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2020/7/5f1569344/unhcr-stresses-urgent-need-states-end-unlawful-detention-refugees-asylum.html http://www.unhcr.org/emergencies.html http://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/press-release/migrants-and-refugees-least-protected-most-affected-in-covid-crisis-warns-ifrc-president/ Visit the related web page
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