“What makes people flee their homes? People flee from war, hunger, violence, extreme poverty, and even adventure or love. I left Lebanon. I was in real danger of being killed because I was born into the wrong body, and wanted to talk about it.
When I was nine, I looked at myself in the full-length mirror, and I couldn’t understand why I didn’t have a girl’s body. I identified with my five sisters. I thought I was one of them. I liked to play with them; I wore my mother’s clothes when I spent time with them. I barely spent any time with my brothers.
Beaten and rejected
When my father saw me like this, he beat me. He beat me so hard with a stick that I fainted, blood pouring out of my ears. Another time he stabbed me in the arm, and I still have that physical scar.
What you see isn’t who I am: I’m Leyla
He never accepted me. Though, I was girl. I knew it then, and today even though I am a father, I still don’t feel male. I am trapped in my body. I don’t want to have a beard. What you see isn’t who I am: I’m Leyla.
It hasn’t been easy, this choice, this life. I was bullied mercilessly at school. My father even tried to have me expelled. He kicked me out of the house, and I had to work for a living just to finish school.
Then it was university. You’d think I’d find some tolerance there. I did not – the same story: bullying and discrimination, bullying and discrimination. I know that education is the key, to success and tolerance. And education was like the forbidden fruit for me. The more they tried to obstruct my development, the more eager I was to use it to pursue my goals.
Covering up
After university, I worked in the media and kept my identity a secret. Little by little, I started to recognize more people like me. We communicated through secret signs in the daytime, but at night I concealed my beard, put on a wig and enjoyed the feeling of being free, being me.
I married a lesbian to appease my family and we had two wonderful children
Despite some precious moments, life was still complicated. Very complicated. I married a lesbian to appease my family and we had two wonderful children during our seven-year marriage.
Finally, I decided to stop denying who I was and work for our LGBTQI+ rights. I connected with other people in that community and became an activist, blogging and running an LGBTQI+ website.
So, there I was. Despite all the difficulties, the double life, and the taboos, I had a really good life in Lebanon: I had a home, a nice car, a good job, friends, and wonderful, beautiful kids…and trouble was coming my way.
‘Men were coming to kill me’
One night I was at home when I heard shouting from outside and knew men were coming to kill me. My life was a sin and deserved to die, in their eyes. I jumped from the balcony and ran away.
I didn’t take anything because I just wanted to avoid being caught and killed. I arrived at the airport at 3AM, and was in Istanbul before dawn.
When I arrived in Turkey, I felt inspired by the freedom that LGBTIQ+ community members enjoyed in society. They gave me hope that I could be the woman I am. I made new friends and began dressing up in beautiful dresses, doing my make-up, and going out in the city with them. However, even though there was solidarity in our community, in wider society, I faced the same discrimination and hate speech here that I had faced in Lebanon.
Leyla with her twelve-year-old son and thirteen-year-old daughter.
‘Mummy and daddy’
Then two good things happened. First, six months ago, my ex-wife helped with all the documents for children and my sister brought them here, and now they live with me. I’m mummy and daddy to them.
Second, I got in touch with a migrant centre run by IOM, which helped me with legal issues, like getting my kids into school and getting regular healthcare. They even helped me get a job in an Arabic restaurant.
I want to live as who I am without worry. And again, I have to thank IOM for helping me
Life is stable, the panic is over, and I have my children with me. However, this isn’t the end of my journey. Turkey has been good to me, by and large. I want to live as who I am without worry. And again, I have to thank IOM for helping me get a foot on that road.
I went to the provincial migration office for an interview, and after two days, I was granted conditional refugee status. I haven’t received any further information on resettlement.
Standing by
I’m standing by. I’m not sure where I will end up. I think it would be good to move to an English or French-speaking country because those are the languages I speak.
I want to finish by saying that discrimination is utterly futile. There is no benefit to it. It achieves nothing. It just damages people, and it damages society.
For me, it made me stronger, and now I have a new family: the LGBTIQ+ community. It’s not just my community and my family, though. It’s my life, and it’s a symbol of my identity. And I know one thing for sure, we are all born equal, and we all deserve to be treated that way.”
On 7 May, UK health authorities notified WHO of the confirmed case in an individual who had recently returned to the country from Nigeria.
Monkeypox is a viral disease that occurs primarily in tropical rainforest areas of Central and West Africa. It is occasionally exported to other regions.
Modes of transmission
The monkeypox virus is mostly transmitted to people from wild animals such as rodents and primates, though human-to-human transmission also occurs.
The disease typically presents with fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes.
Contact with live and dead animals – for example through hunting and consumption of wild game or bush meat – are known risk factors.
UN News/Omar Musni
The Palace of Westminster and central London, as seen from across the River Thames.
Extensive contact tracing
WHO said the case travelled to Nigeria in late April, staying in Lagos and Delta states, and developed a rash on 29 April.
They returned to the UK on 4 May and went to a hospital that same day. As monkeypox was suspected, they were immediately isolated.
Extensive contact tracing has identified exposed persons in the community, the healthcare setting, and on the international flight. So far, none has reported compatible symptoms.
“Since the case was immediately isolated and contact tracing was performed, the risk of onward transmission related to this case in the United Kingdom is minimal. However, as the source of infection in Nigeria is not known, there remains a risk of ongoing transmission in this country,” the UN agency said.
No travel or trade restrictions
Nigerian authorities were informed about the case on 7 May.
The individual did not report contact with anyone with a rash illness, or known monkeypox, in Nigeria. Details of travel and contacts within the country have also been shared for follow up as necessary.
WHO currently does not recommend any restriction for travel to, and trade with, Nigeria or the UK, based on available information at this time.
More about monkeypox
The monkeypox virus belongs to the orthopoxvirus family, which includes smallpox.
It can be transmitted by contact and droplet exposure, and the incubation period is usually from six to 13 days but can range from 5 to 21 days.
Symptoms can be mild or severe, and usually resolve spontaneously within 14 to 21 days. However, lesions can be very itchy or painful.
There have been seven cases of monkeypox previously reported in the UK, all of which were related to a travel history to or from Nigeria.
Two separate cases were also reported in the United States last year, also imported from Nigeria.
Since September 2017, the West African country has continued to report cases of the disease, with 558 suspected cases up to 30 April of this year.
The figure includes 241 confirmed cases, including eight deaths from the disease.
In a statement, WHO took note of the “deaths and large number of people with fever” as reported by the official news agency KCNA, for DPRK – commonly known as North Korea – but said they are still awaiting information from the International Health Regulations national focal point, concerning the extent and severity of the first officially recorded outbreak.
“We stand committed to assist our member country, as needed, by providing technical support to scale up testing, strengthen case management, implement situation-specific public health and social measures, and provide essential medical supplies and medicines,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, South-East Asia WHO Director.
Vaccination yet to begin
WHO had supported the country to develop a COVID-19 vaccine deployment plan as well as aided the country with its national strategic preparedness and response plans.
The vaccination plan was reviewed and approved by a multi-partner body at the regional level, clearing the way for North Korea to receive COVID-19 immunizations through the international COVAX facility.
“With the country yet to initiate COVID-19 vaccination, there is risk that the virus may spread rapidly among the masses unless curtailed with immediate and appropriate measures,” she said.
Pandemic ‘far from over’
The expert reminded that it is important for all countries, irrespective of their COVID-19 transmission status, to roll out COVID-19 vaccination, which protects against severe disease and death.
“The pandemic is far from over. Every country must implement tailored public health and social measures and protect its population with COVID-19 vaccines, prioritizing the vulnerable population such as health workers, the elderly and those with underlying conditions that puts them at risk of severe disease and death from COVID-19,” Dr. Khetrapal highlighted.
According to the national news agency of DPR Korea, as of May 15, a total of 50 people had died in the country, with over a million cases of “fever” and over half a million currently receiving medical treatment.
Lacombe (right), from Haiti, and Ricaela, a Dominican who recently arrived in Chile, pose at the stall where they work for a Chilean entrepreneur at a popular outdoor Sunday market in Arrieta, in Peñalolén, in eastern Santiago. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi/IPS
by Orlando Milesi (santiago)
Inter Press Service
SANTIAGO, May 16 (IPS) – The pressure of the influx of migrants, especially Venezuelans, has reached a critical level in northern Chile, and is felt as far as the capital itself, forcing the government that took office in March to create a special interministerial group this month to propose solutions that respect their human rights.
The first problem is that the number of undocumented migrants is unknown, since in recent years thousands have entered the country unregistered, especially through Colchane, a small town in the Andes highlands in the northeast bordering Bolivia.
Jorgelis, a 23-year-old Venezuelan woman, crossed the border into Chile there last December.
“It was the longest 11 days of my entire life,” she told IPS, her face darkening as she remembered the journey from Caracas to Colchane.
Today she sells fruit at a stand on Santiago’s main avenue, Alameda, on the corner of Santa Lucía street outside the subway station, just five blocks from La Moneda palace, seat of the presidency, where leftist President Gabriel Boric, 36, has been governing since Mar. 11.
Jorgelis’ 33-year-old cousin Engelin arrived two months ago “after a 10-day journey that at one point took us though the middle of the desert.
“I left behind two daughters in Venezuela, 15 and five years old,” she said. “That is a very strong pain in my heart.” And she complained about the cold, pointing out that in tropical Caracas the temperature only drops – and much less than in Chile – in December and January.
Engelin lives in a Haitian camp in the municipality of Maipú, on the west side of Santiago, and sells fruit at a stand outside the Metro República subway stop, also on Alameda avenue.
Dubarly Lorvandal, 23, arrived from Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, when he was 18 years old, after studying in high school. He does not have a visa and works at a vegetable stand in an open-air market in Arrieta, in eastern Santiago.
Relaxed entrance policies that were introduced in 2010 and later eliminated turned Chile into a popular destination for Haitians fleeing a cocktail of natural and economic tragedies.
“I worked at the beginning for a month laying cables, but now I’m a papero (potato seller). Everyone loves me at this market,” he says with a smile.
Lacombe also came from Haiti six years ago and works alongside Ricaela, who arrived six months ago from the Dominican Republic. The two undocumented migrants sell vegetables at a stand in the Arrieta market. Lacombe says he is happy.
Jorgelis, Engelin, Dubarly, Lacombe and Ricaela are all part of the long line of at least half a million people waiting to regularize their legal status in Chile, a long narrow country of 19.4 million inhabitants that stretches between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
According to the latest official figures on migration in Chile, from 2020, there were 1,462,103 foreign nationals in the country, including 448,138 migrants from Venezuela, which since 2013 has experienced a massive exodus of more than six million people, a good part of whom are scattered throughout neighboring Latin American countries.
But these statistics do not include migrants who remain undocumented and whose real number the organizations working with immigrants prefer not to divulge.
Venezuelan immigrants Engelin, Jorgelis and Edgar sell fruit at a street stall on Alameda Avenue, near the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, Chile. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi/IPS
A shaky ship
“Over the last three years, 90 percent of people entering have come through unauthorized crossings,” said Macarena Rodríguez, chair of the board of directors of the Catholic Jesuit Migrant Service.
“Since 2020 the border has been closed, and before that the government required a visa (acquired in their countries of origin) for Haitians and Venezuelans. When you restrict regular entry, irregular entry increases,” Rodríguez, the head of one of the country’s main immigrant-serving organizations, told IPS.
“There is a huge number of people who are not counted, who have no papers and cannot work (legally). And their children have irregular migratory status. And they pay five times more in rent (on average) for precarious housing,” she said, listing some of the problems faced by undocumented migrants.
Luis Eduardo Thayer, who took office in March as director of the National Migration Service, is part of the new Interministerial Commission expanded to include civil organizations, created on May 6 by the government to seek solutions to a growing social problem that has given rise to expressions of xenophobia.
President Boric stated that the solution must include other countries of origin or transit of migrants, although there are no details yet as to what this eventual participation would look like.
The commission seeks to “address with a sense of urgency and responsibility the challenges and opportunities posed by migration in different territories,” said Minister of the Interior and Public Security Izkia Siches.
The new authorities do not want a repeat of the measures taken by the government of Boric’s right-wing predecessor Sebastián Piñera, which loaded dozens of migrants dressed head-to-toe in white sanitary protective gear onto airplanes and deported them. The widely published photos were aimed at dissuading migrants from coming to Chile and at reassuring worried Chileans.
Thayer said the National Migration Service “is a ship that is now in the process of stabilization and we are taking the necessary internal measures so that we can fulfill our mandate.”
“Today we have almost 500,000 pending applications for visas, renewals, definitive stays, refugee applications and naturalizations,” he said.
The head of migration proposed moving towards “a rational migration policy.”
Workers at the Chevery Bakan, a Venezuelan restaurant in the La Reina district in Santiago, Chile that employs nine Venezuelan immigrants, six of whom have visas. “We all do everything, working in the kitchen or serving customers. And I work hard, I haven’t had a vacation for three years,” says Yulkidiz Pernia, the Venezuelan owner. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi/IPS
Pressure cooker
According to Rodríguez, in Chile “today we have a pressure cooker with many people having to take informal jobs or even to rent an identity to sign up for an application and be able to work.
“This situation must be urgently addressed,” she said. “That means recognizing them, identifying them, documenting them, issuing visas, prioritizing the situation of children and pregnant women and thus try to put things in order.”
She also cited “the impact on the communities where these people arrive, where the impression is socially complex. They are described as criminals, generating among the local population the sensation that migration is bad.”
Yulkidiz Pernia, 38, a publicist from Caracas, comes from a different generation of migrants, as she arrived six years ago with her son and got a visa without any problems, “although it took seven months.”
Today she has a restaurant that serves Venezuelan food, Chevery Bakan, which employs nine other Venezuelans, six of whom have legal documents.
“I have not done badly. I miss the rest of my family, uncles and aunts. Several of them have died and we couldn’t be there,” Yulkidiz said. “In Chile I have found a warm welcome. The cases of xenophobia are isolated.”
But the study “Immigrants and Work in Chile”, by the National Center for Migration Studies at the University of Talca, found that 51.1 percent of the migrants surveyed said that being a foreigner has had a negative influence on their labor integration in Chile and 51.4 percent said that at work many people have stereotypes about them and treat them accordingly.
Dubarly, a Haitian immigrant, lives alone, but he gets together with cousins and other Haitian friends to eat because “it’s hard to get home and have to do everything yourself.” At the food market in Santiago, Chile where he works, he is happy because he feels loved and enjoys working as a vendor. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi/IPS
Colchane is no longer Colchane
Colchane, a town with only 1,500 permanent residents, is the gateway for irregular migration from Bolivia, a preferred transit route after arrival through the airports was closed. The town’s mayor, Javier García Choque, fears that the culture of the Aymara indigenous people, the main native group in the area, will disappear due to the exodus of local inhabitants after the massive influx of foreigners.
“Migrants provide data on their identity, but there is no mechanism for verifying whether they are who they say they are,” the mayor said on a visit to Santiago.
According to García Choque “many migrants come with family members, with terminally ill people. They come in search of opportunities. But some people are violent and destroy public spaces or occupy private homes, which has led many to build fences around their yards, which are not typical of Aymara culture.”
“The Aymara people are disappearing, they are vulnerable and we cling to our cultural identity to preserve it. This migratory phenomenon has been disproportionate in quantity and violence,” he said, demanding greater security in his municipality.
“The government’s effort to respect the human rights of migrants is necessary, but it is also important to respect the rights of indigenous peoples,” said the mayor.
Patricia Rojas, of the Venezuelan Association in Chile, admits that migration management under the restrictive law imposed by Piñera “has had a negative impact on peaceful coexistence, especially in the cities and northern regions.
“We all have to make an effort to reverse this, so that the public perception of migration is not the negative one we are currently experiencing, because this will not benefit Chilean society in any way,” she said.
Jaime Tocornal, vicar of the Catholic Social Pastoral in Santiago, told IPS that in Colchane “these poor people arrive hungry and cold, completely disoriented. At an altitude of 3,600 meters they arrive with altitude sickness and hope to cross the border and get to Santiago, only to realize that they still have 1,500 kilometers to go.”
“The situation is dramatic. The landscape is wonderful, like in the rest of the highlands, full of volcanoes and running water up in the mountains. But the water, which might be very beautiful, creates mud that sticks to the shoes of people crossing the streams and they slip and fall when they try to drink the water,” he said.
Twenty-seven people died this year, seven of them between January and March 2022, in their attempt to enter Chile, according to figures from the Chilean office of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Archbishopric of Santiago.
The documentary “Hope Without Borders” says the dead could number in the hundreds in recent years, and “many bodies have been abandoned in different desert or wooded areas crossed by migrants coming from Venezuela to Chile,” often at least partially on foot.
García Choque said that despite the state of emergency decreed by Piñera to bring in the military to control the northern border zone, “the flow of migrants did not cease.”
“It changed the way they came in, but it forced the migrants into situations where it was more complex to rescue them: the coyotes (human traffickers) moved them to remote areas, which put their lives and health at risk,” he said.
Special Rapporteur Morris Tidball-Binz called on the international community to step up support for Ukraine’s own investigations, and welcomed progress made so far by the Office of the Prosecutor General in ensuring perpetrators are brought to justice.
He also commended the international community’s swift mobilization in establishing mechanisms and initiatives to collect, document and preserve evidence of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including unlawful killings, committed during the Russian invasion of the country.
Respect national ownership
Mr. Tidball-Binz said these mechanisms can play a key role in supporting the work of the Prosecutor General’s Office, as well as other “accountability frameworks” such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) and national prosecutions by parties to the conflict and in States with universal jurisdiction.
“It is therefore of paramount importance that the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, which is leading the investigations in the country, receives all the support and resources necessary to ensure the adequate coordination of investigative efforts under its responsibility in Ukraine,” he said.
The rights expert stressed that “to achieve progress and deliver tangible results”, this support must respect national ownership of investigative efforts, if in line with relevant international norms and standards.
Proper coordination critical
He warned that without coordination, “there is a considerable risk of overlap and duplication to the detriment of the effectiveness and efficiency of investigations”.
For example, the identification of deceased persons requires proper the collection, analysis and matching of information, he said.
“Proper coordination can also prevent the re-traumatisation of victims and witnesses arising from being interviewed multiple times by different investigators, and ensure that interviews fit into the overall investigative strategy,” he added.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine, a man places his hand to the window of a train car as he says goodbye to his wife and children before they depart on a special evacuation train.
“International law requires that investigations be prompt, effective, thorough, independent, impartial and transparent,” he added. “To this end, proper coordination and adequate data management are fundamental requisites, particularly in complex cases, such as those under investigation in Ukraine.”
Mr. Tidball-Binz, a medico-legal expert, explained that investigations of war crimes and crimes against humanity require multiple areas of expertise and specialised knowledge so that the high volume of sensitive and complex evidence can be adequately collected, documented and securely preserved.
Dignity for victims
Identification of human remains, and their dignified treatment, is paramount, and coordinating efforts here is “absolutely essential” here, he said, “for adequately resolving cases of enforced disappearances and preventing the dead from becoming missing persons.”
He again urged all stakeholders to comply with applicable international norms and standards, and to actively coordinate among themselves, not only to avoid duplication but also in the best interest of the victims.
The expert also underlined his readiness to assist and offer technical advice on these matters.
Role of UN Rapporteurs
Mr. Tidball-Binz was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council and is part of its Special Procedures mechanism, in which independent experts are given mandates to report on specific country situations or thematic areas.
He is not a UN staff member and does not receive a salary for his work.
Hans Grunberg noted that the first flight to leave the Houthi-controlled airport in Sana’a – since not long after fighting intensified between the rebel forces there and the Saudi-backed coalition supporting the internationally-recognized Government – had been a key part of the Truce agreement last month.
“This should be a moment of coming together to do more, start repairing what the war has broken &follow through on all the Truce commitments. I expect the parties to meet their obligations, including by urgently meeting to agree on opening roads on #Taiz &elsewhere in #Yemen” pic.twitter.com/HxfT6HSpSz
The flight took off just after 9AM local time, heading for Amman, Jordan, carrying 130 Yemeni passengers. In his statement, Mr. Grunberg expressed his gratitude to the Jordanian Government for their invaluable support, “and for the constructive cooperation by the Government of Yemen in facilitating the flight.”
“I would like to congratulate all Yemenis on this important and long-awaited step”, the UN envoy said.
Come together ‘to do more’
“I hope this provides some relief to the Yemenis who need to seek medical treatment abroad, pursue education and business opportunities, or reunite with loved ones,” Mr. Grundberg added.
“This should be a moment of coming together to do more, to start repairing what the war has broken, and to follow through on all the Truce commitments to build trust and move towards resuming a political process to sustainably end the conflict.”
Mr. Grundberg stressed that intense efforts are being exerted to support the parties in fulfilling all the commitments they made when the agreed to this Truce.
A promise
“These commitments were essentially a promise to Yemenis”, he said, “a promise of more security, better access to basic goods and services, and improved freedom of movement within, to and from Yemen.
“Making progress towards opening roads in Taiz is key for the fulfillment of this promise. I expect the parties to meet their obligations, including by urgently meeting to agree on opening roads on Taiz and other governorates in Yemen as per the terms of the Truce agreement,” Mr. Grundberg concluded.
The United Nations in Somalia welcomed the conclusion of the country’s presidential election held on Sunday, praising the “positive” nature of the electoral process and peaceful transfer of power.
“I would like to congratulate the newly-elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on his victory tonight”, said the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, James Swan, in the early hours of Monday morning.
He also expressed “our appreciation to the other candidates, and particularly outgoing President Mohammed Abdullahi Mohamed ‘Farmaajo,’ for respecting the outcome and for continuing the Somali tradition of embracing whoever wins and supporting them going forward – the atmosphere tonight, I think, was very positive”.
The top UN official in Somalia was speaking at the conclusion of the election, at the venue in Mogadishu known locally as the “hangar,” located near the Aden Adde International Airport, where he and other representatives of Somalia’s international partners had been invited.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud won office on the third round of voting by the country’s parliamentarians, after some twelve hours of voting and counting. There had been close to 40 candidates standing for the office.
‘Difficult moments’
The UN Special Representative flagged that the electoral process had been a long one, as well as actively competitive – and that focusing on domestic and state-building priorities should now become the focus of attention.
“There have been some difficult moments in this lengthy election. However, I believe that tonight’s process demonstrated that it was a genuine horse race, that it was a competitive election, and that there was an opportunity for all of the candidates to contest fairly, and, so I think this is an opportunity now to demonstrate that the outcome is credible,” Mr. Swan said.
Time to ‘come together’
“Now it’s time for Somalis and for Somalia’s friends to come together to support the new government as it is installed, and to work on the critical national priorities that still face Somalia,” he added. “There’s much work to be done, and we look forward to being Somalia’s partners going forward.”
Mr. Swan also noted that some of the country’s critical priorities include finishing the constitutional review process, addressing urgent needs for improved development, security and the current drought.
In a tweet later on Monday, the UN in Somalia also praised Somalia’s parliamentary Speakers and Deputy Speakers, the presidential election organizing committee and professional parliamentary staff, as well as Somali security forces and the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia, for ensuring the orderly, peaceful, and secure electoral process.
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BERLIN, May 16 (IPS) – The landmark land tenure decision by parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in 2019 offers a blueprint for upcoming climate negotiations in Sharm El Sheikh in November.
The ongoing UNCCD COP15 conference in Abidjan (May 9-20) is taking necessary next steps to guide countries on how to embed land rights within national implementation processes.
As the first of the three Rio Conventions (addressing climate, biodiversity and desertification respectively) to explicitly refer to land tenure as a critical enabler for the transition to more sustainable pathways, this meeting could advance the landmark land tenure decision by proposing guidelines to safeguard legitimate land rights, argues Berlin-based think tank TMG Research.
According to the UNCCD’s recently published Global Land Outlook, roughly $44 trillion of economic output (more than half of global GDP) is moderately or highly reliant on natural capital.
Yet this natural resource base is under intense pressure from changing land use patterns and the accelerated impacts of climate change. This already has huge consequences for the poorest and most vulnerable communities, who depend on natural resources for their survival, and even more people will be affected as natural capital dwindles.
Current land restoration efforts, such as the global goal of restoring 1 billion hectares of degraded land or achieving ‘land degradation neutrality’ by 2030, are seen as offering new opportunities to tackle the impacts of climate change while addressing food security needs, creating livelihood opportunities, especially in rural areas, and countering growing land-based conflicts and migration.
But such initiatives need to account for all existing legitimate tenure rights for Indigenous Peoples, smallholder farmers and pastoralists, women and youth, and other vulnerable groups.
Otherwise, restoration efforts and especially large-scale investments will lead to new conflicts, violating the rights of people and risking the success of the planned measure.
The UNCCD is the first of the three ‘Rio Conventions’ to explicitly recognize the importance of safeguarding all forms of legitimate land tenure – especially for women, youth, Indigenous communities, and smallholder farmers and pastoralists – as a prerequisite for the sustainable management of land and other natural resources.
But with land governance enacted at the national and sub-national levels, how can this progressive decision at the global level translate into a governance environment that promotes good land stewardship by strengthening the land rights of vulnerable groups at the local level?
As noted by the Global Land Outlook, “land is the operative link between biodiversity loss and climate change,” but to deliver on global aspirations, restoration must take place “in the right places and at the right scales.”
We therefore welcome the decision to devote a ministerial roundtable at COP15 to the theme of “Rights, Rewards and Responsibilities – the future of land stewardship” and invite TMG to deliver the keynote address.
The relationship between a decision on principles of good governance at global level and action on the ground must acknowledge that “all land stewardship is local.” This means that “localizing” the global land tenure decision requires analyzing the concrete situation on the ground, respecting people’s rights and strengthening the ability of local communities to protect their rights and become actively involved in restoration processes.
This approach is particularly critical for the implementation of global efforts to achieve carbon neutrality and afforestation for carbon offsetting purposes.
Our work with national partners in four African countries points to how the link between legitimate tenure rights and restoration can be made. National governments must incorporate land rights as a starting point in developing restoration agendas, including their UNCCD targets to achieve land degradation neutrality.
We welcome the strong statements made by many countries at the session and the commitment of multilateral agencies to support countries in more explicitly linking land governance and policies to reverse land degradation, desertification and drought. At its heart, this calls for “changing mindsets towards land tenure,” as FAO’s Maria Helena Semedo noted.
The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT) were designed to do exactly this. Adopted exactly 10 years ago by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the VGGT are “true connectors” of work across the three Rio Conventions, in the words of CFS Vice Chair Gabriel Ferrero de Loma-Osorio.
The UNCCD/FAO Technical Guide on implementing the land tenure decision in the context of the VGGT, which TMG helped develop, explains how to reinforce actions at the sub-national and local levels by building on efforts by communities and civil society organizations.
Our ongoing partnership with four African governments shows how responsible land governance can be meaningfully realized from the ground up.
Explore the Human Rights & Land Navigator, launched at UNCCD’s COP15, on May 12th in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. This tool was developed by TMG Research, the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Malawi Human Rights Commission, with the support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
Alexander Müller is Founder & Managing Director, TMG Think Tank for Sustainability, based in Berlin, with a regional office in Nairobi; Jes Weigelt is Head of Programmes, TMG Think Tank for Sustainability
Child Rights Advocate and 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Kailash Satyarthi urged participants at the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, organised by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Durban, South Africa, to put their efforts to eliminate child labour back on track. Credit: Cecilia Russell/IPS
by Sania Farooqui (durban)
Inter Press Service
Durban, May 15 (IPS) – “We want to address child labour in a way that it empowers the parents to take care of their own children, we want to address child labour in a way that it promotes improvement of community leaders, so they can pronounce their communities to be child labour free zones.” – Andrew Tagoe, Board Member of the Global March Against Child Labour and the Deputy Secretary-General of the General Agricultural Workers UnionThe Global Estimate on Child Labour estimates 160 million children are in child labour worldwide – an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years – with millions more at risk due to the impacts of COVID-19.
The report, jointly released by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF in 2021, warned that in sub-Saharan Africa, population growth, recurrent crises, extreme poverty and inadequate social protection measures have led to an additional 16.6 million children in child labour over the past four years.
One of the key findings in the report included the state of the agriculture sector, which accounts for 70 percent of children in child labour (112 million), followed by 20 percent in services (31.4 million) and 10 percent in industry (16.5 million). The prevalence of child labour in rural areas (14 percent) is close to three times higher than in urban areas (5 percent).
Andrews Tagoe
In an exclusive interview given to IPS News, Andrew Tagoe, Board Member of the Global March Against Child Labour and the Deputy Secretary-General of the General Agricultural Workers Union, says child labour in Africa alone is more than the rest of the world combined. While the majority are in agriculture, other areas are equally very important.
“We have a big challenge at hand and Africa needs a lot of strategies to tackle it right away.
“Addressing child labour is not a benevolent issue, it is the right of the people in rural communities to have their children in school. Child labour free zones have proven and provided solutions. For example, the government of Ghana has adopted this method – a child labour free zone and child labour free community and friendly villages. However, this concept needs more investment to continue making improved participation of communities and structures to address the issue of child labour in the country,” Tagoe said.
The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index (CRI) report shows that the fifteen South African Development Community (SADC) member states lost about $80 billion in 2020 due to lower-than-expected growth, which is equivalent to around $220 for every SADC citizen.
“The analysis estimates that this economic crisis could take more than a decade to reverse, erasing all hope of countries meeting their national development plan targets to reduce poverty and inequality by 2030. The report says that many SADC member governments are still showing considerable commitment to fighting inequality – but still, nowhere near enough to offset the huge inequality produced by the market and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Among the key messages in the African Economic Outlook 2021 report, states that an estimated 51 million people on the continent could fall into poverty. “Today’s non-poor households, maybe tomorrow’s poor households, 50.2 percent of the people in Africa most vulnerable to staying in poverty live in East Africa.”
There is something that we are not doing well, if the number of child labour is so high, we must change our ways, says Tagoe.
“By working together, we have begun to see some way forward, but what we have seen is that in the allocation of resources, either not being sent to the right places or when they are not enough, that still remains a big challenge.”
“We are calling for huge, massive investments in the national plans of the country, we are also calling for a community-based approach – by working with Global March, agricultural unions and their grassroots organizations. It is important to note that it’s not just about the investment, but also about the allocation of the resources, enough money has been invested into fighting child labour, but where does that money go? How is it spent? These are important questions. More money needs to go into strategies that are working and looking into community development. We have been able to develop systems and strategies. We have been able to chart and map friendly villages and labour free zone, which shows what happens when proper investment is done, it creates the potential for child labour free communities and living.
“We want to address child labour in a way that it empowers the parents to take care of their own children, we want to address child labour in a way that it promotes improvement of community leaders, so they can pronounce their communities to be child labour free zones,” says Tagoe.
The ongoing 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour organised by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Durban, South Africa aims to bring together experts from around the world who are leading the way in tackling child labour to reinvigorate international cooperation and to call for commitments that will genuinely realize freedom for every child.
Speaking during the conference’s opening plenary, Child Rights Advocate and 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Kailash Satyarthi urged rich nations to play their role in fighting the increasing global dilemma.
“You cannot blame Africa. It is happening because of the discriminatory world order. It is still an age-old racial discriminatory issue. We cannot end child labour without ending child labour in Africa. I refuse to accept that the world is so poor that it cannot eradicate the problem (of child labour),” Satyarthi said.
Child labour continues to be one of the worst end results of extreme poverty and inequality, children who are trapped in child labour deserve their right to education, health, clean water and sanitation.
“All of us must work together so that the prediction of these harrowing numbers doesn’t come true. We are very ashamed that the numbers are so high in Africa, and we must work hard to bring them down. All promises made to the children must be made to come true,” says Tagoe.
This is one of a series of stories that IPS will publish during the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour in Durban, South Africa.
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