The plague and cholera
Three years after it occurred, Haiti's cholera epidemic is still in the news.
Three years after it occurred, Haiti's cholera epidemic is still in the news.
While European Union members are debating the lifting of arms embargo on Syria, populations living in opposition held territories continue to be severed from desperately needed humanitarian aid. Yet, there is a controversy among aid agencies on the best ways to scale up relief activities in Syria.
In June, MSF opened a hospital in the Idlib region in northern Syria, an area under rebel control. Located behind the front lines, the hospital has 15 beds and a staff of approximately 50, including 10 international MSF workers.
Two scientific studies published last year confirmed the origin of the cholera epidemic that struck Haiti in October 2010. It was indeed caused by massive amounts of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae in the Artibonite river delta, originating from the sewage in the Minustah soldiers' camp.
The United Nations has again raised the question of the implication of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) - in power in Rwanda since July 1994 - in crimes committed between 1993 and 2003 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The main objective of the United Nations Development Millennium Goals - a consensus if ever there was one - is to end poverty.
UN Women was created in July 2010, after intense negotiations between United Nations member states and women's rights organizations. This new structure will take over the mandates of the four UN organizations heretofore devoted to gender issues.
Using Niger as an example, this text seeks to explore the dilemmas involved in medical responses to child malnutrition when such malnutrition is endemic (strong, permanent presence) and gives rise to seasonal peaks (epidemics) each year.
The earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince and neighboring areas has led to a worldwide surge of solidarity which we must fully appreciate because no country could face such a disaster on this scale alone.
This essay points out the fragility of the arguments most often used by humanitarian organizations to justify their support for an international criminal court. Questioning NGOs' infatuation with punitive justice, Fabrice Weissman argues that humanitarian organizations should advocate for politics of aid and mediation rather than for a global moral order based on judicial punishment and just war.