The number of people fleeing war, persecution and conflict exceeded 70 million in 2018, UN High Commissioner on Refuge (UNHCR) has said. This is the highest level the UN Refugee Agency has seen in its 68 years of existence. Data from UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report, released Wednesday, shows that almost 70.8 million people are now forcibly displaced. To put this in ...
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Nigeria: ‘Children used’ as suicide bombers in Borno attack
Children were used as suicide bombers in a triple attack in Nigeria on Monday, Unicef has said. Two girls and a boy carried out the bombing outside a video hall in Konduga village in north-eastern Borno State, the UN children’s charity said. Their ages are not yet known. Officials say at least 30 people were killed and 40 injured in ...
Read More »Protect and promote children’s rights, African governments implored
African governments have been implored to protect and promote the rights of children during humanitarian emergencies as a key to achieving the outcome of the Agenda 2063 which is Africa’s version of the Sustainable Development Goals. Mr Eric Adu, the Deputy Bono Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) made the appeal when he spoke at a ...
Read More »IDEG calls for regulation on activities of CSOs, NGOs
The Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), a policy research and advocacy organisation, is advocating a strict legal regime to regulate civil society organisations (CSOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the wake of the use of some of the organisations to promote money laundering and terrorists agenda. According to the IDEG, some people were using and exploiting CSOs as points of ...
Read More »Ghana scores low in World Bank Human Capital Index
The latest World Bank Human Capital Index (HCI) report has ranked Ghana as the last but one country on harmonised test scores of children from basic to secondary school education in the world. The report stressed that although Ghana had done well in terms of enrolment for basic and second cycle education, there was no corresponding improvement in the quality ...
Read More »Donors pledge $17 million to Africa Solidarity Trust Fund
African and non-regional donors on Tuesday pledged $17 million to replenish the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund, an initiative which aims to provide food security and eliminate rural poverty on the continent. The pledges were made at a high-level donor round table convened by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Equatorial Guinea President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, on the ...
Read More »UN Member States urged to put disability laws into action
Sightsavers and her global partners including the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD) on Monday 10th June, 2019, launched a petition at the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, held at UN headquarters in New York, calling for disability rights to be upheld by the UN and its member States. ...
Read More »Singapore abolishes school exam rankings, says learning is not competition
Whether a child finishes first or last will no longer be indicated in primary and secondary school report books from next year in Singapore, – a move which Education Minister Ong Ye Kung hopes will show students that “learning is not a competition”. Report books will not just stop showing a student’s position in relation to class or cohort. The information to ...
Read More »“To integrate Africa, bring down the walls”
African leaders on Wednesday underscored the urgent need to fast-track the continent’s regional integration process in order to accelerate Africa’s economic transformation. The call was made at the opening ceremony of the African Development Bank’s 2019 Annual Meetings, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, with the theme: “Regional Integration for Africa’s Economic Prosperity.” “Apart and divided, Africa is weakened. Together and united, ...
Read More »Ghana can do more to prevent torture – UN
The United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture has encouraged Ghana to establish a National Preventive Mechanism against Torture (NPM) in order to ensure that persons deprived of liberty are not at risk of ill-treatment. “Ghana ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture in 2016 and should have established its NPM by the end of 2017. It has ...
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