World News In Brief: UNHCR rushes support for Rohingyas, end normalization of prostitution, devastating drought in Zambia

In an alert on Friday, spokesman Babar Baloch said the agency and partners are stepping up support to help around 8,000 mostly Rohingya refugees affected by the disaster earlier in the week.

Teams have been mobilized to find shelter for those displaced while work continues to rehabilitate or fix damaged accommodations, he said.

In addition to shelter, affected refugees also urgently require food and household items, as well as access to health care and psychosocial support.

Coxs Bazaar is a network of about 33 camps in Bangladesh that mostly house hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled persecution in Myanmar in 2017.

Extreme weakness of the weather

Camps are extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change and prone to natural disasters, UNHCRMr Baloch said, adding that Coxs Bazaar has seen more than 770 landslides and floods since 2017 – and more damage is expected with further rain forecast.

To aid humanitarian efforts, the UN agency has issued an urgent appeal for donors as relief efforts in the camps have been severely hampered by insufficient funding.

UNHCR needs $275 million for its relief efforts in Bangladesh this year, but the appeal is only 25 percent funded.

It is also critical that promises made at the Global Refugee Forum in recent years are fulfilled to advance self-reliance for Rohingya refugees and ease pressure on the Bangladeshi Government, UNHCR stressed.

Independent rights expert calls for an end to the normalization of prostitution

UN independent expert on human rights against violence against women and girls called on Friday for prostitution to be unequivocally recognized as a system of violence, exploitation and abuse.

Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem said in her latest report on Human Rights Council that prostitution reduces women and girls to mere commodities and allows a system of discrimination and violence to prevent women from achieving true equality.

Prostitution sexualizes and racializes poverty and targets women from marginalized backgrounds, who often lack access to protective services or stable livelihood opportunities, increasing their vulnerability to further exploitation, Ms. Hello.

The use of sex work, problematic

She emphasized that prostitution violates the physical, psychological and economic rights of the individual and can lead to torture, dignity and security violations, among others.

She further said it is important to use a term that complies with international human rights law, noting that the term sex work can dilute the real harm of prostitution.

She also expressed concern about how men's right to purchase sex acts normalizes systemic violence and blurs the lines between consenting to sexual activities and sexual violence.

Normalizing prostitution, including pornography, creates harmful sexual expectations for men and boys and undermines the safe and equal participation of women and girls in society, Ms. Alsalem said.

Call to action

The expert calls on states to decriminalize prostitution for women and girls, who should be treated as victims, provide comprehensive support and exit routes, as well as criminalize the purchase of sex acts and implement strict action against pimps.

Special Rapporteurs and other rights experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council are independent from any government, receive no salary for their work, and serve in their individual capacity.

Zambia: Over 50,000 children at risk of severe deprivation

Almost 52,000 children under the age of five in Zambia are at risk of severe malnutrition, the deadliest form of malnutrition, within the next 12 months unless urgent preventive measures are taken, the UN Children's Fund said.UNICEF) has warned.

The assessment comes as Zambia, a landlocked nation in southern Africa, faces prolonged drought.

Children in Western, Southern, Central and North-Western provinces, four of Zambia's ten regions, are at particularly high risk of malnutrition, as many families already face hunger and are unable to provide nutritious food, UNICEF said. .

Malnourished children are ten times more likely to die than well-nourished children, said UNICEF's Director of Global Communications, Naysan Sahba.

If we do not act now, there could be devastating and long-term effects on the health, nutrition and development of Zambia's youngest and most vulnerable population.

The assessment, commissioned by the National Food and Nutrition Commission and supported by UNICEF, also found that pregnant and breastfeeding women are at risk of wasting.

Low breastfeeding rates are also a cause for concern, the agency said, noting that rates of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life, which helps protect babies from disease, are worryingly low in many provinces, especially in the urban parts of the capital Lusaka.

The UN agency called for immediate action to ensure the distribution of food and cash assistance to mothers and children, expand access to health care and improve health and sanitation services.

We urgently need to expand access to nutritious and diverse food, health services and water, sanitation and hygiene services in order to avoid an impending crisis, said Mr Sahba.