10 Million Flee Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Daily Brief

 

Ten million people in Ukraine have fled their homes because of the war, according to the United Nations refugee agency, with 3.4 million leaving the country altogether and the others internally displaced. That's about a quarter of the total population of Ukraine. One of the cities that has suffered most is Mariupol, in the southeast of the country. Civilians who managed to escape told Human Rights Watch how they struggled to survive in below-freezing temperatures as Russian forces relentlessly attacked the city. They described men, women, and children sheltering in basements with little or no access to running water, power, heating, medical care, or mobile phone service since the siege began on March 2. “Mariupol residents have described a freezing hellscape riddled with dead bodies and destroyed buildings,” said Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at HRW. “And these are the lucky ones who were able to escape, leaving behind thousands who are cut off from the world in the besieged city.” Russian forces laying siege to Mariupol should immediately ensure that civilians in Mariupol are not being denied access to items essential for their survival such as water, food, and medicine, and should facilitate safe passage to areas under control of Ukrainian forces for civilians who choose to leave the city.

Governments should ensure that the conflict in Ukraine does not worsen the food crisis in the Middle East and North Africa, and protect the right to affordable, adequate food for everyone. Both Ukraine and Russia are leading exporters of agricultural products to many countries in the MENA-region, and disruptions related to the war are already exacerbating already-rising food prices and deepening poverty. “Global food chains demand global solidarity in times of crisis,” says Lama Fakih, executive Middle East and North Africa director at HRW. “Without concerted action to address the supply and affordability of food, the conflict in Ukraine risks deepening the world’s food crisis, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa.”

Schools in Afghanistan will reopen this week after the new year, and the big question is whether the Taliban will keep their promise to reopen the girls’ secondary schools that they shut down in September. HRW has published a new paper, highlighting what donors should do to make sure their approach to supporting education in Afghanistan is based in human rights. “Access to education is about much more than whether the gate in front of the school is unlocked,” said Heather Barr, associate women’s rights director at HRW. “Donors need to find ways to induce the Taliban to respect the rights of girls and women to education.” After taking power on August 15, 2021, the Taliban ordered the reopening of boys’ secondary schools on September 18, but did not mention girls’ schools. Most girls’ secondary schools have remained closed since August, depriving most adolescent girls of access to education. This is one of the Taliban’s many violations of girls and women’s rights since they gained control of the country.

Today, March 21, marks International Day of Forests, and did you know that forests and trees provide vital resources to 1.3 billion people? More than 300 million people, nearly half of whom are Indigenous, rely almost entirely on forests to fulfill their needs. But forests also play a crucial role in efforts to contain climate change, by absorbing and storing planet-warming gases. Frontline communities’ struggles to protect their forests therefore have a global relevance. Want to know how HRW is trying to achieve positive change on this topic? Then read this dispatch by Luciana Téllez Chávez, researcher in our Environment and Human Rights Division.

Across the African continent each year, tens of thousands of adolescent girls drop out of school or suffer discrimination or exclusion from schools because they are pregnant or have become mothers. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, teenage pregnancies have increased in various African countries. Many girls’ futures are at stake and a pan-African response is greatly needed, says HRW before a meeting this week of the African Union’s African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

And there is very positive news from South Africa, as civil society watchdog groups have scored a resounding legal victory, which will add pressure on the government to force major companies to reduce air pollution in one of the world’s most polluted places, in the Highveld region.