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	Conflict continues to inflict widespread civilian death and injury by UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs   May 2022 (UN News)   Conflict continues to inflict widespread civilian death and injury, by Ramesh Rajasingham - UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.   Conflict continues to inflict “widespread civilian death and injury” a senior UN official told the UN Security Council, outlining the “grim reality” for those caught up in the crossfire of war.   Updating the ambassadors on the latest UN report on protecting civilians in armed conflict, Ramesh Rajasingham, Director of the Coordination Division of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that hostilities in densely populated areas, “sharply” increased the risks of death and injury for civilians.   “When explosive weapons were used in populated areas, about 90 per cent of casualties were civilians, compared to 10 per cent in other areas”.   War damages and erodes critical infrastructure, by disrupting vital water, sanitation, electricity and health services, and puts education at risk – depriving hundreds of thousands of children of tuition, while rendering them vulnerable to forced recruitment, and other dangers.   “In the first nine months of last year, over 900 schools in Afghanistan were destroyed, damaged or closed and their rehabilitation hindered by explosive hazards,” he stated.   Conflict also damages the natural environment not just through fighting, but due to a lack of good governance and neglect.   “We are all too familiar with the cycle of violence and displacement, and 2021 was no exception,” said Mr. Rajasingham. “By midyear, fighting and insecurity had forcibly displaced 84 million people, with close to 51 million of them internally displaced”.   Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) reported over the weekend that the Ukraine war and other conflicts have pushed the number of people forced to flee conflict, violence, human rights violations and persecution, to over 100 million, for the first time on record.   When civilians flee, they often left behind people with disabilities and those who manage to leave frequently confront difficulties in accessing assistance.   “More than one in five people living in conflict-affected areas were estimated to suffer from depression, anxiety and PTSD,” said the deputy humanitarian chief.   Medical workers, facilities, equipment and transport continued to come under attack, while parties to conflict interfered with medical care.   “In northern Ethiopia, healthcare facilities, equipment and transport were attacked and looted, and hospitals used for military purposes,” he elaborated.   And the pandemic has intensified human suffering and strained weakened healthcare services.   “Nearly three billion people are still waiting for their first vaccine, many of them in conflict situations where health systems are weak and public trust is low,” Mr. Rajasingham told the Council.   At the same time, parties to conflicts have heightened food insecurity by destroying supply chains, as aid workers continued to face complex challenges depriving civilians of life-saving assistance.   And as non-State armed groups further complicate humanitarian access negotiations, private military and security contractors have increasingly thrown up roadblocks for humanitarians desperately trying to deliver aid, said the deputy relief chief.   As sanctions and broad counterterrorism measures interfere with humanitarian work, misinformation and disinformation have eroded trust – putting humanitarians at risk of harm and further jeopardizing operations.   “When humanitarian activities were politicized, community acceptance was jeopardized,” detailed the OCHA chief. “Humanitarian staff were intimidated, arrested and detained while carrying out their functions.”   Last year, some 143 security incidents against humanitarian workers were recorded in 14 countries and territories affected by conflict, along with 93 humanitarian deaths. Of those killed, injured or kidnapped, 98 per cent were national staff.   In Ukraine: Suffering and loss   Since 24 February, OHCHR has recorded 8,089 civilian casualties in Ukraine, with 3,811 killed and 4,278 injured, although the actual casualties numbers are acknowledged as being most considerably higher.   Hospitals, schools, homes, and shelters have come under attack, 12 million have been forced from their homes, and tens of thousands of civilians remained trapped and cut off from food, water and electricity.   “The prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the realm of possibility,” said the Deputy Relief Coordinator.   Turning to the war’s impact on exports, he said that food, fuel and fertilizer prices have skyrocketed globally – with increases of up to 30 per cent for staple foods affecting people across Africa and the Middle East – “hitting the poorest people the hardest…and planting the seeds for further political instability and unrest worldwide.”   Mr. Rajasingham underscored that all States and non-State actors must comply with international humanitarian law (IHL), including by avoiding explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas. He also upheld the need to integrate legal protections into military training, doctrine, and policy and legal frameworks. “Parties to conflict and States must apply much greater political will and commitment to respect the rules of war”.   The Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Robert Mardini, reminded ambassadors that humanitarian principles must never be compromised. Recalling that ICRC has been briefing the Council year after year on the circumstances of civilians, he argued that civilian protection should be made much more of a strategic priority by States, particularly “in populated areas, which includes avoiding the use of heavy explosive weapons.”   http://reliefweb.int/report/world/report-secretary-general-protection-civilians-armed-conflict-s2022381-enarruzh http://starvationaccountability.org/news-and-events/un-protection-of-civilians-week-address/ http://starvationaccountability.org/news-and-events/protection-of-civilians-four-years-on-from-the-adoption-of-unsc-resolution-2417/ http://humanitarianaccess.acaps.org/ http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/staggering-scale-grave-violations-against-children-conflict-revealed-new-unicef   * Statement by Catriona Murdoch, Global Rights Compliance, on Armed Conflict, Starvation and International Humanitarian Law to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. April 2022: http://bit.ly/3MSpxHz Visit the related web page
	Archdiocese of Los Angeles agrees to $880m child sex abuse payout by Boston Globe, agencies USA   The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880m to 1,353 people who accused priests of abusing them as children in the largest payout by a United States diocese over decades-old claims that have rocked the church globally.   Attorneys for the plaintiffs said that they suffered horrific abuse at the hands of Catholic priests and that they reached the settlement after negotiations with the archdiocese.   For more than two decades the church has been roiled by allegations that onetime leaders mishandled abuse cases, sometimes moving clergy known to have sexually abused minors to other parishes rather than removing them from the priesthood and informing law enforcement.   In legal documents, diocesan and police records over the last few decades, more than 300 priests who worked in the archdiocese in Los Angeles have been accused of sexually abusing children.   The California law and similar laws in other states have driven many large Catholic organizations to seek bankruptcy protection. In California, the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the dioceses of Oakland and San Diego have filed for bankruptcy to resolve similar abuse claims.   The Los Angeles Archdiocese reached its settlement without filing for bankruptcy. Gomez said that the archdiocese would be able to pay victims from cash reserves, investments, loans and contributions from other religious organizations that had been named in lawsuits.   In the US, the Boston Globe revealed in a 2002 investigation the shocking scale of sexual abuse on children in the Boston diocese and efforts by the Catholic hierarchy to cover it up. The paper’s investigation was the subject of the Oscar-winning film Spotlight.   In 2004, a church commission published a report requiring clergy to report suspicions of sexual assault.   According to lawyers, more than 11,000 complaints have been lodged in the US by victims of priests. Dioceses have paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in out-of-court settlements.   Some victims associations say the payouts allow the church to escape justice. Several dioceses have since opened their archives, revealing that hundreds of priests had been suspected of abusing minors.   http://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/10/17/nation/archdiocese-of-los-angeles-abuse-settlement-880-million/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2024/sexual-abuse-native-american-boarding-schools/ http://www.nbcnews.com/news/religion/nearly-1-700-priests-clergy-accused-sex-abuse-are-unsupervised-n1062396 http://www.vox.com/2023/5/24/23736234/illinois-catholic-church-child-sex-abuse http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/maryland-ag-documents-widespread-sexual-abuse-least-600-victims-baltim-rcna78378 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45190355
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