Human Rights | WPN World People News

Nearly 17 percent of Niger's children younger than five suffer acute malnutrition, a 5 percent increase over the same period last year, according to a national survey released by the government. More than 15 percent acute malnutrition is classified as a critical emergency by the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

The heads of two United Nations agencies today welcomed the decision by leaders of the Group of 8 (G8) industrialized countries to boost efforts to improve maternal and child health in poorer countries, urging the world to ensure that no woman died while giving birth.

Haiti's earthquake left the nation's rice economy in ruins. That's a big deal, because many Haitians eke out a living distributing and selling rice, the nation's staple food.

CAIRO, 28 June 2010 (IRIN) - Ahmed Ramadan, aged 13, works 11 hours a day in a bakery in Cairo's Kherbet Kheirala slum, where he says he works with hazardous machinery in unpleasantly hot surroundings, and is ill-treated by his employer.

(Geneva) - The Canary Islands government's decision to keep more than 250 unaccompanied migrant children in unregulated emergency shelters puts the children at risk and threatens their well-being, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

Many European countries are failing to care for migrant children who arrive alone from places like West Africa or Afghanistan seeking safety. But potential changes fueled by a Human Rights Watch report may improve the living conditions of migrant children on the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago.

Gender equality and the empowerment of women will be the main focus of attention when government ministers from across the world gather in New York for the annual high-level meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) next week.

The year of 2010 is turning into quite an eventful one for Africa and not only because it's the first time an African country hosts a Football World Cup. Throughout the year, six francophone countries are expected to hold presidential elections and as many as 17 countries are celebrating 50 years of independence: 14 are former French colonies, two were ruled by the British and one country is a former Belgian colony, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). But the celebrations in the DRC in June 30 are taking an uncertain path as the murder of human rights activist Floribert Chebeya is raising more than a few concerns.

ADEN - "I arrived in Yemen in 2008 from Mogadishu," the letter starts. Hawo Yousuf, 28, now in a refugee camp, spent her last money on having a letter written to inform the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) of her plight.

VATICAN CITY- On 16 June Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States, attended the opening of the tenth Cuban Catholic Social Week, during which he delivered a speech entitled: "Certain considerations concerning the secularism of the State".