Shownotes Transcript
This is UN News Today with me, Daniel Johnson. The International Court of Justice, ICJ, began hearings on Monday into Israel's severe restrictions on the work of the UN and other international organisations in Gaza. Legal counsel for the UN, Eleanor Hammerskjold, repeated the Secretary General's calls for a ceasefire, for aid supplies to be allowed into Gaza and for all hostages to be freed.
She also highlighted Israel's obligations as the occupying power in Gaza under international law. In the specific context of the current situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, these obligations entail allowing and facilitating all relevant United Nations entities to carry out those activities for the benefit of the local population. The International Court of Justice, which sits in The Hague and is the UN's top court, is expected to hear from 40 states in proceedings slated to last all week.
The purpose of the hearings at the ICJ is to establish what's known as an advisory opinion on Israel's obligations as the occupying power in Gaza and the wider occupied Palestinian territory, in accordance with the UN Charter. Female genital mutilation, or FGM, is happening less than it used to, but if a girl is cut today, it is increasingly by a healthcare worker, the UN World Health Organization, or WHO, said on Monday.
While the health sector worldwide plays a key role in stopping FGM and supporting survivors, in several regions, evidence suggests otherwise. As of 2020, an estimated 52 million girls and women were subjected to FGM at the hands of health workers. That's around one in four cases. WHO insisted that cutting is a severe violation of girls' rights that critically endangers their health.
Since 1990, the likelihood of a girl undergoing genital mutilation has dropped threefold. But 30 countries still practice it, putting 4 million girls each year at risk.
To Yemen, where the UN migration agency IOM has condemned the killing of dozens of mainly Ethiopian nationals at a detention centre after a reported US strike. Media alerts indicate that at least 68 migrants died in the Houthi-controlled facility in Sada Governorate in the far north of the country. Unconfirmed footage showed bodies covered in rubble on Monday morning.
IOM's chief in Yemen, Abdus Sattar Oesoev, said that the agency is trying to organise a mission to establish what happened, but it is not based in Sadr because UN staff continue to be detained there by the de facto authorities.
Mr SOF explained that many migrants spend years trying to reach Gulf countries where they hope to find work. The humanitarian funding crisis has hit them too. In Yemen particularly, we are to close some of our facilities, some of the health centres where we have been providing support. So these are the challenges they are facing. IOM's Abdu Sattar, SOF, ending that report. Daniel Johnson, UN News.