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	Getting Latin America's homicide crisis under control by Igarape Institute, Nossas, agencies Brazil   Apr. 2018   Latin America has suffered more than 2.6 million murders since the start of this century and is facing an acute public security crisis that demands urgent and innovative solutions, a new report warns.   The sheer dimensions of homicidal violence are breathtaking, says the report by the Igarape Institute, a Brazil-based thinktank focused on security and development issues.   The publication, released on Thursday, paints a bleak portrait of what it calls the world's most homicidal continent.   Latin America suffers 33% of the world's homicides despite having only 8% of its population. One-quarter of all global homicides are concentrated in four countries - Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela - all of which are gearing up for presidential elections in which security is a dominant theme.   The overall trend right now in Latin America is one of increasing homicides and deteriorating security, said Robert Muggah, one of the report's authors.   Latin America is a large area and there are lots of variations. But as a region, including Mexico down to Central America and South America the rate of homicide is set to continue increasing up until 2030. The only other places we are seeing similar kinds of increases are in parts of southern and central Africa and some war zones.   The report lays bare how young Latin Americans are disproportionately affected, with nearly half of all homicide victims aged 15-29. It also denounces the astonishingly large role of guns.   Muggah said: 'In addition to having these exceedingly high, epidemic levels of homicide, the vast majority of these homicides are committed with firearms. Over 75% of homicides are gun-related. The global average is about 40%'.   April 2017   Responding to the murder epidemic in Latin America. (Igarape Institute)   The Instinct for Life homicide reduction campaign aims to cut homicides in the region by 50% in ten years.   Latin America faces a murder epidemic: every day at least 400 people are violently killed. That amounts to 144,000 homicides a year. Some 2.6 million people were murdered between 2000 and 2016. Youth populations are especially hard hit with a young person dying every 15 minutes. Taken together, Latin America has just 8% of the world's population but over 38% of its homicides.   Many Latin American countries have levels of violence comparable to war zones in the Middle East and Central Asia, and three-quarters of the homicides in the region are by firearms, significantly above the global average. If conditions remain unchanged, the murder rate could rise from 21 to 35 per 100,000 in 2030.   In order to put a stop to this trend, the Igarape Institute and Nossas are coordinating a regional homicide reduction campaign with the participation of approximately 30 civil society organizations from 7 countries and the support of multilateral organizations and the Open Society Foundations. The campaign, called Instinct for Life (Instinto de Vida) was launched at the Latin American summit in Buenos Aires on April 7, 2017.   The campaign's headline goal is to reduce homicide by 50% in 10 years. The campaign will initially focus on the seven countries registering the largest number of violent deaths in Latin America: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela.   Together, these countries make up 34% of all homicides globally. The benefits of halving the homicide rate in the following decade could be extraordinary, saving around 365,000 lives in just these countries.   In spite of the dire statistics, there are a growing number of examples across the region of countries and cities that have successfully reduced murder. Large cities such as Bogota, Ciudad Juarez, Medellin and Sao Paulo saw homicide rates decrease by 70% or more over the past decade. Civic leaders, especially mayors led the charge. They combined visionary planning and hard targets with hot spot policing and social programs targeting areas of concentrated disadvantage and at risk young people.   According to Illona Szabo de Carvalho, of the Igarape Institute (Brazil), 'getting Latin America's homicide crisis under control will require investing in a few common sense strategies. At a minimum, governments, business and civil society groups need to ground their approach on reliable data and solid evidence, focusing on the places, people and behaviors that have the greatest impact on the levels of lethal violence'.   This is because crime clearly tends to concentrate in very specific neighborhoods, to be perpetrated by key demographics (especially men between the ages of 15 and 29) and at certain moments during the day.   Edna Jaime, director of Mexico Evalua, adds that it is crucial to fully understand that there are multiple causes to lethal violence. 'Producing high-quality information on spatial, environmental and social factors is fundamental, as well as generating detailed profiles on the victims and perpetrators. This facilitates the design and development of specific and effective policies that can contribute to the reduction of homicides', she says.   Veronica Zubillaga, of Reacin (Venezuela), explains that fear can lead populations into supporting heavy-handed law enforcement tactics. Such measures, such as tough-on-crime policies or the military taking charge of citizen safety, have proved time and time again to be counterproductive strategies, she asserts.   The numbers are scary and often prevent us from seeing the true dimension and the seriousness of our situation, observes Alessandra Orofino, executive director of Nossas (Brazil). We don't see the faces in the published reports, only numbers. It is important for civil society to present a unified front, because the murder crisis affects us all.   This should be a permanent fight for each and every one of us. We have to urge governments to adopt efficient and effective solutions, and we need a commitment that can address the situation.   We need countries and cities suffering from high murder rates to shift the paradigm from accepting the situation as 'normal', adds Maria Victoria Llorente, executive director of the Ideas para la Paz Foundation (FIP), in Colombia. We have a serious problem that requires concrete, evidence-based measures that account for the local needs and capacities.   Instinct for Life is an urgent call to collective action. We know the medicine for the epidemic. It is time we take it.   * Current partners of the campaign include: Asociacion Para Una Sociedad Mas Justa (Honduras), Caracas Mi Convive (Venezuela), Casa de las Estrategias (Colombia), Cauce Ciudadano (Mexico), Dromomanos (regional), Enjambre digital (Mexico), Efecto Cocuyo (Venezuela), Fosforo (Mexico), Fundacion Ideas para la Paz (Colombia), Instituto Igarape (Brazil), Instituto Sou da Paz (Brazil), Jovenes Contra la Violencia (Guatemala), Kino Glaz (El Salvador), Mexico Evalua (Mexico), Nomada (Guatemala), Nossas (Brazil), Observatorio de Favelas (Brazil), Pacifista (Colombia), Parces (Colombia), Plaza Publica (Guatemala), Reacin (Venezuela), Redes Ayuda (Venezuela), Tupa.Yat Casa de las Redes y Ve por Sinaloa (Mexico).   http://igarape.org.br/en/responding-to-the-murder-epidemic-in-latin-america/ http://igarape.org.br/en/citizen-security-in-latin-america-facts-and-figures http://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2018/5/5b03d89c4/unhcr-alarmed-sharp-rise-forced-displacement-north-central-america.html http://bit.ly/2GKMIRd Visit the related web page
	Four years of conflict in Ukraine leave 4.4 million people in a dire humanitarian situation by UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs   Aug. 2021   The current situation in Ukraine. (OCHA)   The humanitarian crisis in eastern Ukraine remains dire. More than seven years after the start of armed conflict in the east of the country, people continue to fear for their lives as shelling and the deployment of explosive devices and mines continue.   While a comprehensive political solution to the conflict is not yet in sight, Ukrainian families in the east confront a lack of livelihood opportunities, economic shutdowns, restrictions on movement and the COVID-19 crisis.   People’s access to basic services has also been severely hindered as a result of hostilities, COVID-19-related movement restrictions and cumulative effects of years of armed conflict.   The resilience of communities on both sides of the “contact line”, dividing eastern Ukraine into areas under (GCA) and beyond Government control (NGCA), has been worn thin, leading to greater reliance on humanitarian assistance.   Seven years of ongoing armed conflict have pushed millions of people in Donetska and Luhanska oblasts to the brink. In addition, the last 17 months of movement restrictions across the “contact line” aimed to slow the spread of COVID-19 have pushed people into greater dependency on humanitarian assistance.   At the end of last year, humanitarian organizations estimated that 3.4 million residents of eastern Ukraine would require humanitarian assistance in 2021, out of which 1.9 million most vulnerable people on both sides of the “contact line” were targeted to receive humanitarian relief and protection services.   Despite existing funding constraints and limited humanitarian access, the UN and its humanitarian partners have already supported over 800,000 in the first six months of 2021.   “The work that humanitarian community does in eastern Ukraine is only possible if we have two key elements: humanitarian access and sufficient funding. Unfortunately, this year so far, we have only received 27 per cent, some US$45.4 million, of the $168 million required to provide humanitarian assistance to 1.9 million Ukrainians on both sides of the “contact line”, noted Ms. Osnat Lubrani, the UN Resident Coordinator, Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine. In eastern Ukraine, the needs of people continue to outpace the funding as violence and the COVID-19 pandemic continue to persist.   http://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/cost-inaction-august-2021-enuk http://reliefweb.int/country/ukr   Apr. 2018   The Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Mr. Neal Walker, has briefed Member States and International Organizations on the dire humanitarian situation faced by 4.4 million conflict-affected people in eastern Ukraine. After four years of conflict, 3.4 million people in Ukraine are struggling to cope with the impact of the humanitarian crisis and urgently require humanitarian assistance and protection.   Every day, the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine forces millions of civilians to make impossible choices whether they eat, have medicine, or their children go to school. Critical civilian infrastructure is severely impacted, as ceasefire agreements are consistently disregarded.   There were on average 40,000 violations per month last year alone. During his briefing, Mr. Walker said that, 'only this week, five water treatment workers were shot while trying to maintain critical water infrastructure along the contact line. Today, water supplies to over 345,000 civilians hang in the balance. Last year alone, over 130 incidents affected critical water infrastructure'.   Over 600,000 people, including 100,000 children, bear the brunt of the continued armed clashes along the 457-km contact line. Every month, over 1 million people are forced to cross the 'no man's land' through checkpoints, many to simply access basic humanitarian and social services.   More than 2,500 civilian men, women and children have been killed, and over 9,000 injured, since hostilities began four years ago.   Explosive hazard contamination in eastern Ukraine is impacting 1.9 million people, including around 200,000 children. The use of landmines across urban areas, farmland and the checkpoints is a constant concern. 'Last week, landmines killed a family of four in eastern Ukraine. In 2017, over 235 civilians were killed or injured by landmines and other explosive remnants of war', said Mr. Walker.   The humanitarian community is committed to meeting the humanitarian needs of all conflictaffected people in Ukraine. In December 2017, humanitarian agencies launched a highly prioritized US$187 million appeal to reach over 2.3 million of the most vulnerable people in Ukraine with assistance and protection services. So far, this appeal remains largely unfunded.   Mr. Walker said: 'Today, I call on Member States to stand in solidarity with conflict affected people in Ukraine and to help urgently address this 97 per cent funding gap. I continue to call on the parties to the conflict to take all measures necessary to ensure international humanitarian law is respected - civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected. The only solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine is peace. We do not want to mark any further anniversaries of continued conflict'. Visit the related web page
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