© UNICEF/Tiécoura N'Daou
Nearly a quarter of Mali's population faces moderate or severe food insecurity.
A total of 1 million children under the age of 5 in Mali are at risk of malnutrition due to outbreaks of polio and measles, escalation of armed violence and increased displacement, UNICEF said today.
UNICEF Representative in Mali, Pierre Ngom, told reporters in Geneva that dozens of children have been killed by non-state armed groups in northern and central Mali this month alone.
On 7 September, an attack on a boat along the Gao and Timbuktu routes killed at least 24 teenagers.
Ngom called for urgent action to protect and support children in Mali.
"Investments in peace and security must take into account the needs of children, ensure that all children have access to school, are fully vaccinated, protect all children from grave violations and avoid outbreaks of malnutrition," he said. ”
Withdrawal of peacekeeping forces
Ngom said the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) is scheduled to withdraw entirely by the end of this year, further exacerbating the country's high level of insecurity.
Ngom stressed that MINUSMA is currently helping UNICEF teams to ensure the safety of vaccination in unsafe areas.
With just a few weeks left until the start of the 2023-2024 school year, more than 1,500 out of 9,000 schools are not functioning, according to UNICEF.
In the Menaka region in the south-east of the country, half of the schools were closed, affecting 500,000 children. UNICEF is working with the government to teach students through radio programmes and recruit community volunteers to fill teacher vacancies.
Brazil: OHCHR welcomes the ruling in favour of indigenous peoples' claims to land rights
The United Nations Office for Human Rights (OHCHR) today welcomed the recent ruling of Brazil's Supreme Court in favour of indigenous peoples' claim to land rights.
OHCHR said the landmark decision lifted the time limit for indigenous peoples to claim their ancestral lands, calling it "very encouraging".
According to this overturned legal argument, indigenous peoples' claims to ancestral lands are limited to the lands they occupied on the date of the promulgation of the Constitution (5 October 1988), when indigenous peoples who did not live on ancestral lands at that time had no right to claim their land rights.
According to OHCHR, such a time limit would "perpetuate and exacerbate the historical injustices suffered by Brazil's indigenous peoples".
OHCHR remains concerned that a bill is under discussion in the Brazilian Congress seeking to enact this "1988 time frame", which has been rejected by the Supreme Court.
Montenegro: Failure to ensure judicial independence impedes justice
Montenegro's failure to elect a seventh member of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme State Prosecutor and a new lay member of the Judicial Council, said today that Montenegro's failure to elect a seventh member of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme State Prosecutor and a new lay member of the Judicial Council puts the country's judicial reform plans at risk.
In a statement after concluding an official visit to Montenegro, Satteswaite said it would hinder the right of all citizens of the country to access justice.
"The Montenegrin parliament has repeatedly failed to elect the new members needed for these important bodies," she said. As a result, these institutions lack the strategic leadership to plan and act on institutional reform. ”
National interests take precedence over political interests
"Members of parliament must put the national interest above political interests and ensure that these appointments do not delay further," Satterthwaite said. ”
The country's judges and prosecutors, in a meeting with Satterthwaite, said they were clearly working in an underfunded environment.
The small and outdated buildings of the judiciary, their poor state of maintenance and the lack of office space pose security risks to judges and prosecutors. Updates in information technology and digitalization are also grossly inadequate.
Satterthwaite added: "During my visit, I witnessed first-hand the lack of storage facilities for archives and evidence, firearms and drugs at the court, which I saw. ”
Special rapporteurs and other independent experts are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council and are not UN staff members and are independent of any Government or organization. They perform their functions in their personal capacity and are not remunerated for their work.
