Category: Europe

“More people in distress will be made to suffer and more lives risk being lost because timely help is not available, if this law is passed,” he said in a statement.  Mr. Türk expressed his serious concerns a day after the Italian Parliament approved legislation that imposes stricter requirements on humanitarian ships which are attempting to save migrant lives on… Read More

The situation for many in Ukraine remains desperate, amid “relentless” shelling of civilian targets and infrastructure, the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, told journalists in Geneva. Humanitarian funding is needed to continue supporting lifesaving aid convoy deliveries to communities on the front line, “into areas of great danger and difficulty and priority needs”, said Mr. Griffiths, who heads the… Read More

While European prisons managed adequate COVID-19 pandemic responses for inmates, concerns remain about poor mental health services, overcrowding and suicide rates, the report stated. “Prisons are embedded in communities and investments made in the health of people in prison becomes a community dividend,” said Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, regional director of the WHO regional office for Europe. “Incarceration should… Read More

The development would represent a key measure to tackle past injustices and create a more inclusive society, said UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, José Francisco Cali Tzay, in a statement at the end of a 10-day visit to the two countries.  Inuit people comprise nearly 90 per cent of the population of Greenland, an autonomous dependent… Read More

Preliminary criminal proceedings opened last May in Sicily against 21 people charged with aiding and abetting illegal immigration in connection with several search-and-rescue missions conducted between 2016 and 2017.  Those accused include four crew members of the Iuventa, a former fishing trawler credited with saving some 14,000 migrant lives in the Mediterranean Sea, and human rights activists from other civilian… Read More

“Like hundreds of thousands of other people in South-Eastern Türkiye I was fast asleep when the world started to shake. I don’t really know how to describe to anyone who hasn’t felt an earthquake, let alone one of the biggest ever recorded in this region.  It’s just completely surreal. The floor and the walls were shaking, bending, and as we… Read More

“On the eve of the horrific one-year milestone, we have a lot to do and we can do better,” said Martin Griffiths, who also serves as the Emergency Relief Coordinator. 14,000 civilian casualties A recent World Health Organization (WHO) report documented 14,000 civilian casualties, 17.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and 7.5 million Ukrainian refugees displaced across Europe.… Read More

Medicines, roofing repair kits, bottled water and solar lamps were offloaded, highlighting the desperate plight of many thousands of people who are unable or unwilling to leave their homes, amid “regular” shelling attacks. On Thursday, a five-lorry inter agency convoy reached the town of Hulyaipole in the Zaporizhia region – home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant – where around… Read More

Tucked away in the southeastern corner of Europe, Moldova’s winters may be drab and harsh, but the road from Ukraine’s border spools out through bare, brown hills like a ribbon of hope. To Larysa, who came from the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the silent heath means safety. It means a pause in the constant barrage of artillery, the whine of… Read More

“We welcome the timely action taken by Switzerland to suspend the children’s return to Bulgaria, in compliance with the Committee’s request for interim measures,” said Ann Skelton, a member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). “We also welcome the decision to reassess these children’s situation and their risk of being exposed to cruel, inhuman and degrading… Read More