country:fiji

  • Global Report on Internal Displacement #2019

    KEY FINDINGS

    Internal displacement is a global challenge, but it is also heavily concentrated in a few countries and triggered by few events. 28 million new internal displacements associated with conflict and disasters across 148 countries and territories were recorded in 2018, with nine countries each accounting for more than a million.

    41.3 million people were estimated to be living in internal displacement as a result of conflict and violence in 55 countries as of the end of the year, the highest figure ever recorded. Three-quarters, or 30.9 million people, were located in only ten countries.

    Protracted crises, communal violence and unresolved governance challenges were the main factors behind 10.8 million new displacements associated with conflict and violence. Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Syria accounted for more than half of the global figure.

    Newly emerging crises forced millions to flee, from Cameroon’s anglophone conflict to waves of violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region and unprecedented conflict in Ethiopia. Displacement also continued despite peace efforts in the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Colombia.

    Many IDPs remain unaccounted for. Figures for DRC, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sudan and Yemen are considered underestimates, and data is scarce for Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Russia, Turkey and Venezuela. This prevents an accurate assessment of the true scale of internal displacement in these countries. ||Estimating returns continues to be a major challenge.

    Large numbers of people reportedly returned to their areas of origin in Ethiopia, Iraq and Nigeria, to conditions which were not conducive to long-lasting reintegration. ||Urban conflict triggered large waves of displacement and has created obstacles to durable solutions. Airstrikes and shelling forced many thousands to flee in Hodeida in Yemen, Tripoli in Libya and Dara’a in Syria. In Mosul in Iraq and Marawi in the Philippines, widespread destruction and unexploded ordnance continued to prevent people from returning home.

    Heightened vulnerability and exposure to sudden-onset hazards, particularly storms, resulted in 17.2 million disaster displacements in 144 countries and territories. The number of people displaced by slow-onset disasters worldwide remains unknown as only drought-related displacement is captured in some countries, and only partially.

    The devastating power of extreme events highlighted again the impacts of climate change across the globe. Wildfires were a particularly visible expression of this in 2018, from the US and Australia to Greece and elsewhere in southern Europe, displacing hundreds of thousands of people, causing severe damage and preventing swift returns.

    Global risk of being displaced by floods is staggeringly high and concentrated in towns and cities: more than 17 million people are at risk of being displaced by floods each year. Of these, more than 80 per cent live in urban and peri-urban areas.

    An overlap of conflict and disasters repeatedly displaced people in a number of countries. Drought and conflict triggered similar numbers of displacements in Afghanistan, and extended rainy seasons displaced millions of people in areas of Nigeria and Somalia already affected by conflict. Most of the people displaced by disasters in Iraq and Syria were IDPs living in camps that were flooded.

    Promising policy developments in several regions show increased attention to displacement risk. Niger became the first country to domesticate the Kampala Convention by adopting a law on internal displacement, and Kosovo recognised the importance of supporting returning refugees and IDPs, updating its policy to that end. Vanuatu produced a policy on disaster and climate-related displacement, and Fiji showed foresight in adopting new guidelines on resettlement in the context of climate change impacts.

    https://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-report-internal-displacement-2019-grid-2019-0
    #IDPs #déplacés_internes #migrations #asile #statistiques #chiffres

    ping @reka @karine4

  • UNHRC adopts resolution to strengthen UN presence in Palestine
    March 22, 2019 4:14 P.M.
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=782955

    BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a draft resolution to strengthen the UN presence in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, on Friday afternoon.

    The UNHRC requested “the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to strengthen the field presence of the Office of the High Commissioner in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the besieged Gaza Strip.”

    The Council requested the deployment of “personnel and expertise necessary to monitor and document the ongoing violations of international law” in the occupied territories.

    It condemned Israel’s “apparent intentional use of unlawful lethal and other excessive force” against civilian protesters, including children, journalists and health workers, in Gaza.

    The resolution was adopted with 23 states in favor, 8 against, and 15 abstentions.

    The votes against the resolution were given by Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Fiji, Hungary, and Ukraine.

    #ONU

  • #internet #culture Roundup #3: Not “Notable” Enough, That’s How Mafia Works
    https://hackernoon.com/internet-culture-roundup-3-not-notable-enough-thats-how-mafia-works-b9cc

    If the internet is an ever-evolving collective consciousness of content, then #memes are it’s DNA. In this week’s edition of Internet Culture Roundup, we have a diverse array of memes take the spotlight including a mobile game with ads showing delusions of grandeur, a photobombing Fiji water bottle model, an ambitious content creator, a victim of an All-Star baseball player’s troll campaign, and a deleted Wikipedia page.Screenshot of a Mafia City adMafia CityThere are normal mobile game advertisements, and then there are Mafia City ads which are in the league of their own. Created by Shanghai-based Yotta Games, Mafia City gameplay consists of different clans competition to be the preeminent crime family of the city. But what has really taken the internet by storm is not the games, but the (...)

    #everipedia-partnership #twitter

  • China approves 10 international agricultural parks
    https://af.reuters.com/article/zambiaNews/idAFL4N1KT1P2

    China has approved plans to establish international agricultural demonstration zones in 10 countries, the agriculture ministry said on Monday, as Beijing looks to extend its influence in the global farm sector.

    The projects include an agriculture technology park in Laos, an agricultural products processing zone in Zambia and a fisheries park in Fiji, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

    The demonstration zones are based on existing projects set up by Chinese firms, which will be given government backing to serve as platforms for other Chinese companies.

    China also approved 10 pilot agricultural parks at home, which will be open to overseas investment. They are located in coastal, river and border regions to help encourage overseas cooperation and local connections.

    The agricultural parks are part of China’s Belt and Road initiative, an ambitious plan to expand infrastructure and trade links between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond.

    #Chine #OBOR #agriculture

  • Rooting for the Favorite Is a Sign of Social Dominance - Facts So Romantic
    http://nautil.us/blog/rooting-for-the-favorite-is-a-sign-of-social-dominance

    Over the first week of the Rio Olympics, an ancient narrative played out in the men’s rugby sevens tournament. Rising through a field of 12, the Fiji national team dispatched powerhouses New Zealand and Great Britain on its way to a gold medal, the first of any kind for the small South Pacific nation. Having defeated its former colonial ruler in the final match, an unexpected champion was crowned and this made a lot of people happy; in the Olympics, at least, people tend to cheer for an underdog. While it’s hard to imagine that everybody wasn’t thrilled by Fiji’s win, a recent article in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology suggests otherwise. The article’s authors, Serena Does from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Avital Mentovich from the University of Essex, found (...)

  • Amnesty highlights ’disturbing rise’ in global executions - BBC News
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-35971623

    At least 1,634 people were executed in 2015, a rise of more than 50% on the previous year, the group found in its review of the use of the death penalty.
    Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were responsible for 89% of the executions.
    The total does not include China, where Amnesty said thousands more were likely killed but records were kept secret.
    On the other hand, the group also noted that for the first time ever a majority of the world’s countries had fully abolished the death penalty.
    Fiji, Madagascar, Congo-Brazzaville and Suriname changed their laws in 2015, while Mongolia also passed a new criminal code that will take effect later this year.

    #peine_de_mort

  • Fish Kills Reported in Fiji and Vanuatu
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lagipoiva-cherelle-jackson/fish-kills-reported-in-fiji_b_9233612.html

    Lice Movono-Rova of Newswire Fiji reported thousands of dead fish washed up on the shores of Coral Coast in Fiji. The pictures taken by Victor Bonito, a marine ecologist in Fiji show a beach scattered with dead fish. The same reports were also received from Vanuatu who have reported unprecedented high temperatures which also lead to fish kills in some parts of Vanuatu.

    Bonito, a marine ecologist for Reef Explorer Fiji attributed the fish kill to high temperatures. “This is the worst thermal (heat) stress event I’ve witnessed on Coral Coast reefs during the 10 years I’ve lived here,” he said. Bonito who has been monitoring the water temperature said Reef Explorer Fiji has equipment in the water to measure water temperature, and confirms 5 degrees Celsius higher than normal in the area. He said the water has been peaking around 35, 35 degrees out on the reef flats with sea temperature is around 30 degrees.

    #climat #poissons #océans

  • Global Zika update : Incidence, microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome | Outbreak News Today
    http://outbreaknewstoday.com/global-zika-update-incidence-microcephaly-and-guillain-barre-synd

    The World Health Organization (WHO) released their Zika Situation Report Friday, which is chock full of interesting information, ranging from the incidence of Zika virus to microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) data.

    Between 2015 and 2016, 33 countries have reported autochthonous transmission- Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Colombia, Curaçao, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Maldives, Martinique, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Suriname, Tonga, United States Virgin Islands, Vanuatu and Venezuela.
    Brazil has reported by far the most cases, in fact, the outbreak got so large they stopped counting cases. Best estimates from Brazil health officials say there has been [between] 497,593 and 1,482,701 cases of Zika virus since the outbreak began.

    Dernier état de la situation de l’OMS, ici (actuellement, au 5/02/16)
    http://www.who.int/emergencies/zika-virus/situation-report/en

  • Le #Pentagone déploie des soldats supplémentaires au #Sinaï égyptien pour renforcer la sécurité - china radio international
    http://french.cri.cn/621/2015/09/11/562s448654.htm

    Le Pentagone a confirmé jeudi que les Etats-Unis avaient déployé 75 soldats américains supplémentaires ainsi que d’autres équipements dans la péninsule du Sinaï, en #Egypte, alors que la situation sécuritaire est de plus en plus préoccupante.

    Facing Islamic State, Pentagon to send infantrymen and surgical teams to Sinai - The Washington Post
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/09/10/facing-islamic-state-pentagon-to-send-infantrymen-and-surgical-teams

    Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook disclosed the plan Thursday, saying about 75 more U.S. service members will deploy. The plan will increase the number of U.S. troops there to more than 700, and comes following two Sept. 4 attacks on the northern part of the peninsula that wounded four soldiers from the United States and two from Fiji with improvised explosive devices.

    #Etats-Unis

  • India reaches into the South Pacific to counter China - World Socialist Web Site

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/08/27/modi-a27.html

    India reaches into the South Pacific to counter China
    By John Braddock
    27 August 2015

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted leaders from 14 Pacific Island countries at the second Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) in Jaipur, India on August 21. The Pacific Islands present were Fiji, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Eleven of the tiny island nations were represented by their heads of state or government, and the remaining three by foreign ministers.

    #inde #chine #Pacifique

  • Can New Research & Old Traditions Save Fiji From Ecological Collapse? - Facts So Romantic
    http://nautil.us/blog/can-new-research--old-traditions-save-fiji-from-ecological-collapse

    I look out the windshield of the taxi and see that the road through the tropical forest ends, but our journey does not. We continue on a rutted dirt road, then ford a small stream, and eventually emerge from the thick vegetation at the edge of a vast and empty beach. Here, we wait. A great deal of doing fieldwork in Fiji is waiting. This can sometimes feel at odds with the knowledge that passing time means the continued exhaustion of marine life in the coral reefs that ring these islands.My fellow passengers—Joshua Drew, a conservation biologist from Columbia University, and Sharon Jones, an anthropologist from Northern Kentucky University—look out across Natewa Bay toward the mountainous band of green that divides water and sky. On the opposite shore, at Jones’s dig, her students await (...)

  • Historical cross-border relocations in the Pacific: lessons for planned relocations in the context of climate change | Professor Jane McAdam

    Professor Jane McAdam focuses here on the relocation of the Banaban population from Ocean Island (previously one of the Gilbert & Ellice Islands, now Kiribati) to Rabi Island in Fiji after the Second World War, and the lessons that can be drawn from this.

    http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/news/historical-cross-border-relocations-in-the-pacific-lessons-for-planned-rel
    #Océanie #Pacifique #climat #changement_climatique #migration
    cc @reka

  • Syrian rebels strengthen hold over Israel border region
    Senior Israeli official says rebels currently don’t pose a threat to Israeli security.
    By Amos Harel and Jack Khoury | Aug. 31, 2014 Haaretz
    http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.613246

    Syrian rebel groups strengthened their hold over the Syrian side of the Quneitra Crossing — located on the frontier between Syrian and Israeli controlled parts of the Golan Heights – over the weekend and managed to repel attacks by Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.

    The rebels kidnapped dozens of Fiji soldiers, members of the UN observer force stationed in the Golan Heights and are maintaining a siege on a second UN stronghold manned by Philippine soldiers. Officials in the Israeli security services said that it is a relatively moderate militia, the Free Syria Army, that controls the Syrian side of the border crossing, and that the Nusra Front, which is affiliated with Al-Qaida currently pose no threat. Despite this, Israeli forces in the Golan Heights are on relatively high alert due to the recent developments.

    Some 300 members from different groups participated in the taking of the Quneitra Crossing. This varied force was led by the Free Syria Army and with only a small number of Nusra Front members. The government forces that held the crossing before sustained losses in life and retreated to the north to areas controlled by the government. Over the weekend the Syrian army conducted several artillery barrages on the crossing area and tried to retake the area unsuccessfully. Israeli security officials characterized this attempt as "pathetic.”

  • My week as an Amazon insider
    http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/01/week-amazon-insider-feature-treatment-employees-work

    To spend 10½ hours a day picking items off the shelves is to contemplate the darkest recesses of our consumerist desires, the wilder reaches of stuff, the things that money can buy: a One Direction charm bracelet, a dog onesie, a cat scratching post designed to look like a DJ’s record deck, a banana slicer, a fake twig. I work mostly in the outsize “non-conveyable” section, the home of diabetic dog food, and bio-organic vegetarian dog food, and obese dog food; of 52in TVs, and six-packs of water shipped in from Fiji, and oversized sex toys – the 18in double dong (regular-sized sex toys are shelved in the sortables section).

  • Le 2e jour (12 nov.) de la COP-19 à Varsovie a été marqué par la sortie du Global Climate Risk Index qui mesure l’exposition et la vulnérabilité aux événements extrêmes, mesuré à partir du nombre de victimes et des coûts économiques.

    http://germanwatch.org/de/download/8551.pdf

    More than 530,000 people died as a direct result of almost 15,000 extreme weather events, and losses of more than USD 2.5 trillion (in PPP) occurred from 1993 to 2012 globally.

    The Climate Risk Index for 1993-2012: the 10 most affected countries:
    1/ Honduras; 2/ Myanmar; 3/ Haiti; 4/ Nicaragua; 5/ Bangladesh; 6/ Vietnam; 7/ Philippines; 8/ Dominican Republic; 8/ Mongolia; 10/ Thailand; 10/ Guatemala
    The Climate Risk Index for 2012: the 10 most affected countries:
    1/Haiti; 2/Philippines; 3/Pakistan; 4/Madagascar; 5/Fiji; 6/Serbia; 7/Samoa; 8/Bosnia/Herzegovina; 9/Russia; 10/Nigeria.

    Particularly in relative terms, poorer developing countries are hit much harder. These results emphasise the particular vulnerability of poor countries to climatic risks, despite the fact that the absolute monetary damages are much higher in richer countries. Loss of life and personal hardship is also much more widespread especially in the low-income countries.

    Evidemment tout n’est pas mesurable avec cet index. En l’occurrence, il est calculé à partir d’événements précis (inondations, ouragans, etc.), il ignore donc, par exemple, le déclin à long terme des précipitations dans certains pays d’Afrique, qui a pourtant de graves conséquences.

    http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/2013/11/warsaw-day-2-extreme-weather-who-suffers-most

    Christoph Bals, policy director of Germanwatch, said: “The report illustrates that the self-help capacity of countries is being overwhelmed by the scale of the climate disasters they are facing.
    “These are the countries that have contributed least to climate change because they have tiny emissions, yet they are the countries that are suffering most from it. Developed countries that have caused the problem have a moral responsibility to help.”

    #climat

    • J’en profite pour rappeler que les quatre journalistes du climatenewsnetwork.net, que je connais puisque j’ai travaillé avec certains d’entre eux pendant ma période Pnuesienne, et qui suivent la COP de Varsovie, sont ce qui se fait de mieux en matière de journalisme environnemental, donc pour ceux que ça intéresse, à suivre absolument.

  • IPS – U.N. Accused of Playing Down Nuke Disarmament Conference | Inter Press Service
    http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/05/u-n-accused-of-playing-down-nuke-disarmament-conference

    ... the Group of 77, the largest single coalition of 132 developing countries, implicitly accuses the United Nations of falling short in its efforts to publicise a meeting on nuclear disarmament scheduled to take place Sep. 26.

    Ambassador Peter Thomson of Fiji, the G77 chair, last week described the upcoming talks as “the first-ever high level meeting of the General Assembly on nuclear disarmament.”

    He said the meeting is of importance to developing nations, and therefore, all efforts should be made to give it timely and wide publicity.

    A G77 delegate told IPS the conference is not getting the advance publicity it should, probably because three of the big powers, the United States, UK and France, are not supportive of the meeting.

    “We have not seen anything on the high level meeting so far,” he added.

    The lack of coverage stands in contrast to the strong public stand taken by the secretary-general, who has consistently called for the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

    Asked about the significance of the upcoming meeting, Dr. John Burroughs, executive director of the New York-based Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, told IPS the meeting is a chance for world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and others, to give direction to the nuclear disarmament enterprise, “which is now drifting aimlessly despite much rhetoric over the past five years.”

  • Fijian government says gays have nothing to fear in Fiji
    Fiji government building


    Government of Fiji responds to protestors on the roof of an immigration detention center in Sydney
    13 November 2012 | By Anna Leach
    The government of Fiji has responded to claims by protestors at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney who said yesterday there are no gay rights in the Pacific islands nation.

    Three protestors climbed onto the roof at the immigration center yesterday. One protestor, Sai Bulewa said gay people have no rights in Fiji and they fear abuse.

    Fiji Village reports today that a government spokesperson said that ‘there are no grounds to support the Fijian protestors’ claims… that they face persecution in Fiji for their sexual orientation’.

    AAP reports today that the protestors are still on the roof despite hours of negotiation.

    Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said the protest started when a female Fijian asylum seeker climbed onto the roof with two others at 7am yesterday to protest against her deportation.

    ‘The Immigration Department should withdraw the removal notice,’ said Rintoul, The Age reports. ‘That is the first step to de-escalate the situation and remove the threat of forcible removal.’

    The Fijian government spokesperson added that Fiji has some of the most liberal gay laws in the Pacific and the government has specifically decriminalized acts between consenting adults.

    In February 2010 a Crime Decree decriminalized gay sex in Fiji, following an outcry after an Australian, Thomas McCosker, was arrested and eventually sentenced to two years in jail for sodomy in 2005.

  • Quand l’Australie prévoyait d’envahir Fidji et la Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée...

    http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/paci-j12.shtml

    Australian military plans for invasion of Fiji and PNG
    By James Cogan
    12 June 2012

    The Australian reported in its weekend edition that military strategists drew up detailed plans for the invasion of the island-states of Fiji and Papua New Guinea (PNG) as part of the Labor government’s 2009 Defence White Paper. The plans were part of a “top-secret Force Structure Review and analytic documents supporting it—which were prepared in conjunction with the white paper—and were presented to the National Security Committee of cabinet for consideration.”

  • Entire nation of Kiribati to be relocated over rising sea level threat - Telegraph
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/kiribati/9127576/Entire-nation-of-Kiribati-to-be-relocated-over-rising-sea-level-threat.

    The low-lying Pacific nation of Kiribati is negotiating to buy land in Fiji so it can relocate islanders under threat from rising sea levels.

    #réfugiés ou #migrants du #climat