The Human Consciousness Now...Our World in the Midst of Becoming...to What? Observe, contemplate Now.
NEW YORK, Apr 10 2026 (IPS) - The past several weeks have marked a significant escalation in hostilities across the Middle East, with tensions rising among Israel, Lebanon, Iran, and the United States following large-scale exchanges of bombardment. Recent statements from U.S. President Donald Trump, including threats of extensive destruction in Iran, have further inflamed regional tensions and complicated ongoing diplomatic efforts. Humanitarian experts warn that these developments risk further destabilizing cross-border relations and could trigger a broader regional conflict.
“Every day this war continues, human suffering grows. The scale of devastation grows. Indiscriminate attacks grow,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “The spiral of death and destruction must stop. To the United States and Israel, it is high time to stop the war that is inflicting immense human suffering and already triggering devastating economic consequences. Conflicts do not end on their own. They end when leaders choose dialogue over destruction. That choice still exists. And it must be made – now.”
In late February, Israel coordinated a series of airstrikes targeting Iranian military infrastructure, triggering retaliatory drone and missile strikes from Iran. According to figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over 3.8 million Iranians have been impacted by the war in Iran as of early April. Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME) reports that over 2,100 civilians have been killed as of April 3, including 216 children, 251 women and 24 health workers. Over 1,880 children, 4,610 women, and 116 health workers have been injured in that same period.
The scale of destruction to civilian infrastructure across Iran has been particularly severe. The Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) estimates that roughly 115,193 civilian structures have sustained significant damage, including at least 763 schools. Israeli airstrikes have targeted numerous densely populated areas and critical civilian infrastructures, including airports, residential areas, hospitals, schools, industrial facilities, cultural heritage sites, water infrastructure, and a power plant in Khorramshahr, as well as nuclear facilities in Khonab, Yazd, and Bushehr.
Iran’s healthcare system has borne a massive toll, with damage to over 442 health facilities across the nation, disrupting access to lifesaving care for over 10 million people, including 2.2 million children. The Pasteur Institute of Iran—one of the oldest research and public health centers in the Middle East, and a critical source of vaccines for infectious diseases—has been severely damaged, leaving thousands of children increasingly vulnerable. Tofigh Darou, a key producer of pharmaceutical products for chronic conditions such as cancer, has been destroyed, raising broader concerns of a severe, nationwide health crisis.
These challenges are especially pronounced for Iran’s growing population of internally displaced persons (IDPs), which has swelled to approximately 3.2 million since the escalation of hostilities. Iran also currently hosts over 1.65 million refugees. These vulnerable communities are in dire need of access to basic services, many of which have been severely disrupted. IDPs and refugee communities face significant protection risks, alongside critical shortages of healthcare, food, clean water, and financial support for basic needs and relocation assistance.
“Unprovoked attacks by the US and Israel — launched amid diplomatic negotiations and without authorisation from the Security Council — violate the fundamental prohibition on the use of force, sovereign equality, territorial integrity, and the duty to peacefully settle disputes under Article 2 of the UN Charter. They also violate the right to life,” said a coalition of UN experts on April 4. “The targeting of civilians, educational facilities, and medical institutions constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law….Calls by the US and Israel for Iranians to seize control of their own government are reckless and put countless civilian lives at risk.”
On April 8, the U.S. brokered a two-week ceasefire with Iran, mediated by Pakistan, in an effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway and one of the world’s most prominent oil and gas passes, and to de-escalate tensions in the 2026 Iran War. Immediately following the implementation of the ceasefire, Israel launched a series of large-scale airstrikes in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah sites, resulting in widespread damage to civilian infrastructure and a significant loss of human life.
Attacks across Lebanon have been widespread, with Israeli authorities reporting that they had carried out approximately 100 strikes across the country within 10 minutes. Southern Lebanon has experienced immense destruction, along with the southern suburbs of Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley, all reporting significant damage to civilian infrastructures. Attacks have been reported in the vicinity of the Hiram Hospital in Al-Aabbassiye near Tyre, as well as on an ambulance on the Islamic Health Authority in Qlaileh, causing three civilian deaths.
Figures from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) show that more than 1,500 people had been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon between early March and April 8, including over 200 women and children. Additional figures from the UN reveal that the attacks on April 8 alone resulted in more than 200 deaths and over 1,000 injuries across Lebanon. Many victims are believed to be still trapped beneath the rubble of destroyed infrastructure, as hospitals and rescue teams struggle to respond amid the overwhelming scale of casualties and urgent humanitarian needs.
“The scale of the killing and destruction in Lebanon today is nothing short of horrific,” said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk. “Such carnage, within hours of agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran, defies belief. It places enormous pressure on a fragile peace, which is so desperately needed by civilians. The scale of such actions, coupled with statements by Israeli officials indicating an intention to occupy or even annex parts of southern Lebanon, is deeply troubling. Efforts to bring peace to the wider region will remain incomplete as long as the Lebanese people are living under continuing fire, forcibly displaced, and in fear of further attacks.”
On April 7, U.S. President Donald Trump issued a series of posts on social media in which he warned of potential large-scale destruction in Iran, which elicited significant concern and outrage from regional and international actors. His subsequent partial withdrawal of these comments did little to ease concerns and only further underscored the volatility of the U.S.’s role in foreign affairs.
“Today, the President of the United States again resorted to language that is not only deeply irresponsible but profoundly alarming, declaring that ‘the whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back’,” Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, told the Security Council on April 7. He added that Trump’ s comments only acted as an open declaration of “intent to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity”, underscoring the troubling precents that the U.S. is setting for international conflicts.
“The announcement of a two-week ceasefire is a welcome step but it is partial, fragile, and incomplete. Most urgently, it does not include Lebanon, where I visited IRC programs last week and where airstrikes, evacuation orders and active hostilities not only continue to threaten civilians but intensify. A ceasefire that leaves one front of the conflict burning risks prolonging the crisis, not resolving it,” said David Miliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee.
“The war in Iran has already triggered a dangerous domino effect, spreading humanitarian need, economic shock, and instability across the region and beyond. This moment must be used to expand the ceasefire, ensure the Strait of Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb and other critical routes remain open to allow scaled-up humanitarian aid and essential supplies to reach those in need, and to stabilize economies under strain. Without that, the gap between rising needs and shrinking resources will only deepen. Civilians must be given the space to begin rebuilding their lives with dignity which can only happen if there is a permanent cessation in hostilities,” he continued.
IPS UN Bureau Report
FREETOWN, Apr 10 2026 (IPS) - As Sierra Leone prepares for its next national election in 2028, political parties across the country have begun setting strategies and preparing to select their candidates. However, persons with disabilities say they remain poorly represented and are calling on political parties to nominate them as candidates ahead of the election.
Samuel Alpha Sesay, a person with a physical disability living in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, is among those advocating for change. He still recalls the last general election, held in 2023, and how there was no person with a disability vying for any position in government.
In 2025, he founded the All Political Party Disability Association to challenge the long-standing exclusion of persons with disabilities from governance. Sesay says the lack of representation of persons with disabilities in national elections pushed him to establish the group.
According to Sierra Leone’s 2015 Population and Housing Census, about 93,129 people in the country have a disability, representing approximately 1.3% of the total population. The 2018 Integrated Household Survey reported a higher figure of 310,973 persons with disabilities, accounting for 4.3% of the population.
“For decades, persons with disabilities have actively participated in elections as voters, rarely as candidates, despite forming a significant part of Sierra Leone’s population,” says Sesay, who believes that participation in political parties’ activities alone is no longer enough.
“We do not want to remain in the party wings. We want persons with disabilities to be part of the core leadership of political parties,” he adds.
Breaking Deep-Rooted Perceptions
Sesay and others argue that stigmatisation and deep-rooted societal perceptions are among the barriers affecting their participation in politics.
Sylvanus Bundu, a man with a physical disability in his fifties, agrees with Sesay. He told IPS that one of the most persistent barriers to political inclusion is the perception that persons with disabilities are incapable of effective leadership.
“People feel sorry for us, but we do not want sympathy. Disability does not mean inability. We want society to unlearn these perceptions and allow us to lead,” says Bundu.
He adds that such perceptions are deeply embedded in social and political institutions and often translate into exclusion from candidate selection processes and leadership appointments.
Sesay says similar perceptions once shaped attitudes toward women before the introduction of the 30 percent quota ahead of the 2023 general elections. He argues that such views were used to justify excluding women from leadership positions.
However, he notes that the introduction of the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) Act 2022, which mandates a 30 percent quota for women’s political representation, marked a turning point.
The UN Women Transparency report indicates that following the introduction of the 30% quota under the GEWE Act 2022, women’s representation in Sierra Leone’s Parliament approximately doubled from 14.5% to around 28–30.45%, with notable increases also recorded in local councils and cabinet positions.
“Today, women are leading across sectors and contributing meaningfully to national development. The same transformation can happen if persons with disabilities are given space,” Sesay says, adding that he believes the 2028 elections present a crucial opportunity to shift this dynamic and ensure that affirmative political action is extended to persons with disabilities.
Electoral Quota
Despite international human rights treaties, including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, political representation for persons with disabilities in Sierra Leone remains weak.
Disability rights advocates say the representation of persons with disabilities in Sierra Leone does not even reach one percent a concerning figure in a country where the eleven-year civil war significantly increased the population of people living with disabilities.
The International Foundation for Election Systems reported that, as a result of the civil war and subsequent conflict, more than 3,000 people in Sierra Leone had limbs amputated and many others suffered severe war wounds. The 2015 Population and Housing Census identifies causes such as illness, congenital conditions, accidents and war injuries as contributing to disability prevalence.
Sesay says the solution lies in a legally backed electoral quota system that guarantees representation at both national and local levels.
“We are not asking for short-term appointments. We are asking for long-term, meaningful representation across all regions of the country,” he says.
Bundu believes that inclusion in governance is about policymaking that reflects lived realities. He wants a five percent quota to be clearly enshrined in Sierra Leone’s constitution and the 2011 Persons with Disability Act, both of which are currently under review.
“They say who feels it knows it, so if persons with disabilities are part of governance structures, our needs will be better understood and prioritised,” Bundu says.
While advocates push for enforceable quotas, independent regulatory bodies overseeing political parties cite legislative constraints. Eugene Momoh, Senior Outreach Officer of the Political Parties Regulation Commission (PPRC), an independent regulatory body of political parties, says the commission promotes inclusion but cannot mandate quotas.
“Section 43 of the Political Parties Regulation Commission Act of 2022 requires political parties to endeavour to make adequate provisions for persons with disabilities in executive positions from ward to national level,” states Momoh.
According to him, the commission monitors compliance with this provision by engaging political parties to ensure persons with disabilities are included within their structures. However, Momoh notes that during engagements, party leaders often disclose that persons with disabilities do not actively participate in party activities.
Ibrahim Dumbuya, Acting Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Union on Disability Issues (SLUDI), a disability rights group, acknowledges that interest levels may vary but insists that the willingness to participate exists.
“It is true that some persons with disabilities may not show strong interest in politics, but there are many who do yet are not given the platforms to hold leadership positions within political parties,” says Dumbuya.
He argues that when persons with disabilities engage politically, they are often treated as charity cases, which subjects them to discrimination.
“In some instances, political parties showcase persons with disabilities during political parties’ events, but they do not give them meaningful platforms to contest for parliamentary or local council seats.”
Learning from Uganda
As Sierra Leonean disability rights advocates call for a disability quota system, Uganda offers a working model on the African continent.
Lilian Namukasa, Programme Manager of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, under the Secretariat for Special Interest Groups, told IPS that Uganda’s quota system, introduced years ago as an affirmative action measure, has led to the representation of persons with disabilities in Parliament and local councils.
“We have five reserved seats for persons with disabilities in Parliament; one of these seats is specifically reserved for a woman with a disability. In fact, in this recent election, we have two parliamentarians who are women with disabilities,” says Namukasa.
She explains that this representation also extends to local government structures nationwide and has created space for people with disabilities to influence policy, budgets and national development.
Namukasa adds that the structured inclusion has translated into tangible outcomes, including the allocation of dedicated funding for the economic empowerment of persons with disabilities, the provision of annual university scholarships, and the introduction of severe disability grants for children with disabilities, among other initiatives.
Crossroads
As the 2028 elections approach, advocates believe Sierra Leone stands at a crossroads. They say the question is no longer whether persons with disabilities can lead, but whether the political system is willing to create space for them to do so.
Whether the country responds to this call, they argue, may well define the depth of its democratic commitment in the years ahead.
“We have voted for others for decades,” Sesay reflects. “Now, we are asking to be voted for.”
IPS UN Bureau Report
BELLINGHAM, Washington USA, Apr 10 2026 (IPS) - Trigger warning: This article discusses child rape.
Their quiet latent power comes from being ever-present eyes and ears on the ground. As they move around their compounds, collecting rent and checking on anywhere from 10 to 20 houses occupied by as many as 200 people, they see and hear things.
They say not everyone knows their neighbours these days. But landlords play a unique role in Kibera, one of the world’s largest informal slums, situated on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. Here, rape and gender-based violence are widespread, and a 2022 study found that Kenya is third in the world for teen pregnancies. In 2024, thousands marched across the country against femicide, after a rise in murders. Last month, Kenya announced it was rolling out new protections for female athletes after they were targeted.
A harmful mix of cultural norms, limited government services, and persistent economic struggles has made gender-based violence rampant in slums like Kibera. One might assume the people who can address such a systemic problem are those who hold power, authority, and indeed, the responsibility to deal with it, such as legal authorities, government officials, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
But landlords know when violence breaks out behind closed doors; they have a sense when things are turning ugly. Though typically, they don’t want to interfere in what residents have long considered “private domestic matters.”
Siama Yusuf, senior program officer at CFK Africa, addressing the community at Kiandutu informal settlement, Nairobi. Credit: Meg Warren
When parents learn of their young girls’ pregnancy, they throw them out of the house. Not only because of the cultural norms that shame the victims, but also because, given their conditions of extreme poverty, they don’t want to have one more mouth to feed.
Ultimately, rape and the consequent teen pregnancies become an economic problem, burdening landlords with unpaid tenants – a clear draw for property owners to become engaged in preventing this kind of violence.
When CFK Africa, an NGO focused on empowering youth in Kibera, launched a program to train landlords on how to spot and respond to domestic violence and sexual assault, the participating property owners learned that they could be valuable allies at very little cost to themselves and teach others to do the same. They could earn respect as community leaders and help keep tenants at their properties—a win-win.
In one incident, a landlord was at home in his compound in the afternoon when he heard cries emerging from a house. In the past, he would have put it out of his mind, deciding that he shouldn’t get involved in a “private domestic matter.”
Instead, he went to the house, where he found a father brutally raping his four-year-old daughter. He immediately intervened to stop it and called the program’s special number for an emergency ambulance service, which he had learned about during the training the previous day. It directs callers to a private ambulance or other services, including a recently installed “gender desk.”
Typically, the police were reluctant to enter the slums. This meant that people could perpetrate violence without facing consequences. The landlord knew how to get help, so he did.
He found the girl’s mother, who had been at work, and reassured her that he would support her if she wanted to file a police report against her husband. He told her that there’s no fee to file the report — a community myth perpetuated to deter people from reporting violence.
In 2025, landlords made 92 referrals to the authorities, helping survivors of violence with life-saving support services. The program has since expanded to other slums in Kenya, like Mathare and Mukuru kwa Ruben, and in Kajiado County.
CFK’s model has potential for global scale. My team’s 2024 study conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) suggested that the most powerful allies aren’t outsiders, but respected local leaders such as the church pastors and the wives of the imams, using their community’s own values and traditions to stand up for others.
When they decided to turn their knowledge and power into a strength, they used their influence to teach an estimated 30,000 congregants about healthy relationships characterized by respect, gender equity, nonviolence, and empowerment. Four years later, gender-based violence had dropped dramatically by 50 to 85%.
It’s time for governments and aid agencies to recognize and empower non-traditional allies as an invaluable resource in the fight against gender-based violence. Target 5.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls to eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking, sexual exploitation, and other types of exploitation.
The day after the landlord in Kibera contacted the emergency line, he called back to deliver hopeful news. The little girl had suffered serious injuries from the attack and was taken to the hospital, but doctors said she would survive because of the timely intervention. Her life was saved thanks to an unexpected ally: the landlord.
Meg Warren, Ph.D. is Professor of Management, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.
IPS UN Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 9 2026 (IPS) - On April 8, Israeli military forces launched the deadliest series of airstrikes on Lebanon since hostilities escalated in early March, resulting in the deaths of at least 254 civilians. This latest incident threatens to further complicate humanitarian efforts in Lebanon that are already under immense pressure.
This latest escalation occurred just as a two-week ceasefire deal between the United States and Iran was announced the night prior on April 7, more than a month after the United States, Iran and Israel began engaging in military strikes against each other, which also led to Arab States in the Gulf getting caught in the crossfire. The parties targeted military bases and civilian infrastructure in Iran and Gulf states allied with the United States. Israeli and Lebanese armed forces exchanged fire across borders, which has resulted in a new wave of civilian casualties and mass displacement in a continuation of the conflict between the Israeli military and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Israeli strikes on Lebanon have resulted in nearly 1,530 deaths since March 2, including more than 100 women and 130 children.
While the temporary ceasefire was welcomed, including by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, questions were raised about where it extended, even among major players in the negotiation process. Iran and Pakistan, a mediator in the peace negotiations, have stated that the deal includes Lebanon. Meanwhile, Israeli leadership initially claimed that the ceasefire did not include Lebanon and that the airstrikes specifically targeted Hezbollah-owned strongholds. Wednesday’s airstrikes targeted residential and commercial neighborhoods in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon.
Humanitarian actors expressed concern and alarm over the airstrikes and urged the parties involved to consider the safety and dignity of civilians in Lebanon. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was “outraged” by the “devastating death and destruction” in Lebanon.
Displaced families at a makeshift shelter in a parking lot in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. Credit: WFP Arete/Ali Yunes
Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar welcomed the news of a ceasefire but said in a statement that until there was an end to the hostilities across the entire region, “no one will feel truly safe.”
“This pause must become a stepping stone for wider peace,” Behar said.
The war in Iran and the Middle East has put greater strain on humanitarian aid workers on the ground, including UN agencies.
Imran Riza, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon, explained that even before the latest escalation, the UN and its partners were aiming to support 1.5 million vulnerable people and that they have been forced to scale up their response with fewer resources than in previous years.
Less than a third of the emergency flash appeal for USD 308 million has been funded as of now. Yet despite these challenges, the UN and its partners have been able to provide more than four million meals and distribute more than 130,000 blankets and 105,000 mattresses to shelters. Multi-purpose cash assistance has also been provided to households as well.
Briefing reporters virtually from Beirut mere hours after the airstrikes, Riza commented on how civilians reacted to the news of a ceasefire.
“This morning, many people across Lebanon were cautiously optimistic about returning home—some even began to move. The events of the past hours, however, are likely to have triggered further displacement,” said Riza.
Also briefing from Lebanon was UNFPA Arab Regional Director Laila Baker, who described how the city of Beirut slowed to a standstill in the wake of the airstrikes. Cars are lining the streets while tents spread across the city as families seek shelter, she noted. She warned that the initial sense of unity that the Lebanese government and its partners had been working towards was now under threat due to the month-long “devastating aggression” from military forces.
“The risk is not only humanitarian collapse but also renewed fragmentation at a time when unity is most needed,” said Baker.
Displacement is already at an “unprecedented scale”, Riza said, as more than 1.1 million people—or one in five people in Lebanon—are internally displaced. More than 138,000 civilians, of which a third are children, are sheltering in 678 collective sites. The majority are dispersed across informal settings and host communities, which Riza noted leaves them with limited access to basic services. Overcrowding in shelters and limited sanitation services will likely lead to increased health risks.
The health system has also been overwhelmed and “under severe pressure.” Many facilities have been forced to close or have been damaged. Riza reported at least 106 attacks on healthcare, which have resulted in more than 50 deaths and 158 injuries among health workers.
Women and children are particularly vulnerable in this situation. Baker estimates that at least 620,000 women and girls have experienced displacement. Among them are at least 13,500 pregnant women who have been cut from essential maternal health services. At least 200 pregnant women will be delivering babies without essential support from midwives or nurses or with access to maternal and neonatal healthcare.
More than 52 primary healthcare facilities are no longer facilities and are forced to close. Among the six hospitals forced to close, five of them had maternity wards.
“These are not just statistics. They are grave violations of international humanitarian law – direct assaults on life, health, and dignity,” said Baker. “This is not only a humanitarian crisis – it is a crisis of humanity. It is a crisis of trust in the international system and in the principles meant to protect civilians.”
The UN and other humanitarian agencies urge for a permanent end to the fighting and call for international law to be upheld by all parties. Under the ceasefire agreement, all parties are urged to pursue diplomatic dialogue and work toward a long-term solution to the war.
IPS UN Bureau Report
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 9 2026 (IPS) - In 2025, at least 326 humanitarians were recorded as killed across 21 countries, bringing the total number of humanitarians killed in three years to over 1,010. We recognise, grieve and honour each of our 326 colleagues, and commit the work ahead to their memory.
Of those over 1,000 deaths, more than 560 were in Gaza and the West Bank, 130 in Sudan, 60 in South Sudan, 25 in Ukraine and 25 in [the Democratic Republic of the Congo].
That number – over 1,000 – compares to 377 recorded as killed globally over the previous three years – so that’s almost tripling the death count. This is not an accidental escalation – it is the collapse of protection.
These humanitarians were killed while distributing food, water, medicine, shelter. They died in clearly marked convoys and on missions coordinated directly with authorities. And, too often, they were killed by Member States of the United Nations.
Credit: WFP/Sayed Asif Mahmud / Source: UN News
Humanitarians know we face risks. It is the nature of our work, the places in which we operate.
These deaths are not because we are reckless with our lives. They are because parties to the conflict are reckless with our lives.
So, on behalf of over a thousand dead humanitarians and their families, we ask: why?
Is it because the world no longer believes in Security Council resolution 2730, in which you spoke with such moral urgency about ending violence against humanitarians?
Is it because international humanitarian law, forged by a generation of wiser political leaders for just such a time as this, is no longer convenient?
Is it because it is more important to protect those designing, selling, supplying and firing lethal weapons – including drones, cyber tools, artificial intelligence – than protecting us?
Is it because those killing us feel no cost for their actions? How many were prosecuted? How many of their leaders resigned? On how many investigations did the UN Security Council insist? Were you ever selective in your outrage?
Or is it because Member States see these numbers as collateral damage, part of the fog of war? Or worse, are we now seen as legitimate targets?
And perhaps the most chilling question: if these deaths were ‘preventable,’ why then were they not prevented?
Over 110 Member States have chosen to act together through the political declaration on the protection of humanitarians. Yet across multiple crises, humanitarians are not just being killed.
Our action is being restricted, penalized, delegitimized. We are told where not to go, whom not to help. We are harassed or arrested for doing our job. And we are lied about – and those lies have these consequences.
And, of course, when humanitarians are harmed, aid often stops. Clinics close, food doesn’t arrive. In Yemen, 73 UN and dozens of NGO personnel remain arbitrarily detained by the Houthis. In Afghanistan and Yemen, women humanitarians are prevented from doing their jobs.
In Gaza, Israel restricts UN agencies and international NGOs. In Myanmar, insecurity and access constraints cut off aid to over 100,000 people in a single month.
And in Ukraine, drone attacks have forced aid groups to pull back from frontline communities.
In all these cases, the results of the deaths of humanitarians are too often the death of hope for millions who rely on them. These trends, alongside the collapse in funding for our lifesaving work, are a symptom of a lawless, bellicose, selfish and violent world. Killing humanitarians is part of the broader attack on the UN Charter and on international humanitarian law.
International humanitarian law was never, and is not now, an academic exercise. In honour of our colleagues killed, and in solidarity with those now risking their lives, we ask you to act with much greater conviction, consistency and courage.
I normally conclude with three asks of this Council. But it seems insulting to over one thousand colleagues killed to echo back to you the commitments of SCR 2730: protection, integrity, accountability.
We come here not to remind you of these commitments, but to challenge you to uphold them.
Because if we cast aside these hard-won principles, then the integrity of this Council, and the laws we are here to protect, die with our colleagues.
IPS UN Bureau
VICTORIA, Seychelles, Apr 8 2026 (IPS) - We live in a century of extraordinary achievement.
Humanity has split the atom, mapped the genome, and sent astronauts to the Moon, with plans now underway to reach Mars. Our knowledge has expanded, our tools have become more powerful, and our capacity to shape the world around us exceeds anything previous generations could have imagined. We communicate instantaneously across continents, diagnose diseases earlier, monitor climate patterns in real time, and design artificial intelligences that can aid in everything from medicine to climate modelling.
James Alix Michel
We possess the means to protect our planet, restore degraded ecosystems, and build a future that is regenerative and sustainable. The Earth still holds enough resources to feed, shelter, and nourish every person on it.
The science is clear, the solutions are known, and the pathways are increasingly understood. We know how to phase out the most damaging fossil fuels, how to design circular economies, and how to restore forests and oceans on a large scale. The question is not whether we can heal, but whether we choose to.
Instead of using this knowledge to nurture life, we spend trillions on weapons, war, and systems of domination. We continue to refine instruments of destruction with the same ingenuity that once helped us survive as hunter gatherers.
From spears and arrows to missiles and nuclear arsenals, technology has evolved far faster than our moral imagination. The same species that can design satellites and decode life itself is also capable of perfecting the means to erase itself. We have turned our curiosity into a danger when it is not paired with humility.
War has become normalised. We export violence beyond our borders, fuel conflicts in distant lands, and justify the dehumanisation of others in the name of power, ideology, or fear.
In doing so, we risk losing sight of what it means to be human: to care, to share, to protect, and to build together. Our intelligence has grown, but our ethics have often lagged behind. We have impressive control over external environments, yet we struggle to govern our own impulses—greed, resentment, the desire for domination over cooperation.
We still behave as if survival depends on conquest, as though strength is measured by the capacity to destroy rather than by the courage to cooperate.
In that sense, humanity is trapped between two identities: one capable of profound creativity and compassion, and another still governed by ancient instincts of greed, lust for power, and tribal dominance.
We have evolved in technology, but not always in spirit. We built institutions meant to protect rights and distribute justice, yet those very institutions are often weaponised or hollowed out by self interest.
The Earth is still rich enough to nourish us all. The ocean still teems with life, the land can still grow food, and the air can still be cleansed. We have the tools to live in balance, instead of in excess. We can choose renewable energy systems that do not poison our skies, farming practices that restore soil instead of depleting it, and urban designs that integrate nature instead of paving it over.
The problem is not scarcity, but choices—choices that prioritise short term gain over long term survival, accumulation over equity, and fear over trust.
If humanity is to truly evolve, it must move beyond the old logic of domination and embrace a new ethic of stewardship. This is not a soft or sentimental vision. It is a hard, practical necessity if we want civilisation to continue.
Stewardship means recognising that power is not only the ability to control, but the responsibility to protect. It means designing economies that reward regeneration, not extraction; diplomacy that favours mediation over militarisation; and education systems that nurture empathy as much as efficiency.
Progress cannot be measured only by how far we can reach into space, or how fast we can compute. It must be measured by how well we can care for the planet and for one another. It must be measured by how peacefully we resolve our differences, how fairly we share resources, and how seriously we protect the rights of future generations.
True progress is the transition from a species that merely adapts to its environment, to one that consciously shapes it for the benefit of all life, not just a privileged few.
We have not lost our humanity. We have only forgotten it.
The challenge now is to rediscover it—not as a romantic ideal, but as a practical imperative.
In a world capable of such beauty, creativity, and connection, the only true insanity is the choice to destroy rather than to heal, to dominate rather than to share, and to fear rather than to love.
After all, the moon and the stars will remain, no matter how we choose; what is at stake is whether we will still be worthy of the Earth we were given.
That is the real test of our century. And it is one we must pass together.
IPS UN Bureau
GARISSA, Kenya , Apr 8 2026 (IPS) - In 2006, Amina Saida was only two years old when her parents moved to the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya, near the border with Somalia.
The Dadaab refugee complex was established in 1991, when refugees fleeing the civil war in Somalia began crossing the border into Kenya. Over the years, thousands of Kenyan ethnic Somalis entered the refugee camp with the sole aim of accessing food aid, healthcare, and free education provided to refugees, while others saw an easier avenue of securing asylum and passage to the US and other European nations.
Just like Amina, thousands of Kenyan Somalis were taken into the refugee camp as children without their consent, and today they are trapped in a painful paradox of officially being recorded as refugees in Kenyan government databases and denied recognition as citizens of Kenya.
“I was told that my fingerprints were appearing in the refugee database when I went to apply for my national identity card in 2022. The registrar of persons informed me that they could not grant me an ID because I was from Somalia,” said Amina.
Amina told IPS that despite presenting her parents’ Kenyan identification cards to the registrar of persons, she has yet to receive the vital document.
“I am still waiting and hoping,” she said.
Residents of Garissa County, Kenya, attend a community sensitisation forum on identity and citizenship. Credit: Jackson Okata/IPS
Without a national identity card or passport, one cannot access basic services such as opening bank accounts, securing business premises, receiving healthcare, pursuing higher education, or gaining formal employment.
According to Haki na Sheria, a human rights organisation based in Garissa, Kenya, more than 40,000 Kenyans may have been registered as refugees in Dadaab. The crisis of double registration for Kenyan ethnic Somalis became more evident when, in March 2025, Kenya rolled out the Shirika Plan, an ambitious plan aimed at integrating refugees into host communities.
The problems with double registration began in 2007, when UNHCR implemented the biometrics system. UNHCR introduced biometric registration to better manage the hundreds of thousands of refugees living in the camps and to address fraudulent cases that arose during food distribution. Fingerprints of all existing and new refugees were captured.
In 2007, when Kenya operationalised the Refugees Act of 2006, the Department of Refugee Affairs (DRA) took over refugee management from UNHCR and assumed control of the refugee database in 2016.
Caught in Legal Limbo
Hamdi Mohamed was among those who moved into the refugee camp to shield his seven children from the pangs of hunger.
“In 2005, I lost all my livestock due to prolonged drought. There was a lot of hunger, and I moved my family into Dadaab and registered them as refugees,” said Mohamed.
“For 20 years, I lived within the Dadaab refugee camp with my children. Now they have come of age, but their future seems bleak. They want life outside the camp, but they can only keep dreaming of it.”
Mohamed said his children are considered neither citizens nor refugees.
“We have no relatives in Somalia, where the government of Kenya is alleging we came from,” he said.
Without IDs, Mohamed’s seven children are forced to live a life full of restrictions. They cannot move about freely, register a SIM card, open a bank account, enter many government and corporate offices, or gain formal employment.
“I fear one day the government might wake up and declare us undocumented migrants and deport us to Somalia, a country we have never set foot in,” Mohamed told IPS.
For Adan Gure, registering as a refugee was his only hope of joining his wife abroad.
He moved into the refugee camp in 2005, five years after his wife and two children had registered as refugees. In 2007, his spouse and children secured asylum in Canada.
“I never imagined it would end this way. All I hoped for was joining my family in Canada,’’ Gure told IPS.
He added, “My parents are Kenyan, but I am now living like a stateless person in my country because Kenya doesn’t recognise me as a citizen, and I can’t go to Somalia, where I know no one.”
The UN’s sustainable development goals envision a world where every person can access quality education, health care, and economic opportunity. “Achieving these global ambitions requires a collective effort that includes the full integration of refugees – one of the most vulnerable yet resilient populations,” according to the International Catholic Migration Commission.
It is these rights that those caught in this double registration impasse are fighting.
Fight for the Right to Citizenship
In 2021, three Kenyans, Hamdi Muhumed, Sahal Amin and Deka Gure, all of whom had been registered as refugees, sued the government, accusing it of failing in its duty to ensure citizens have access to and enjoy socio-economic rights. The petitioners also argued that the inclusion of their children’s names in the refugee database, without verifying whether or not they were foreigners, was erroneous.
They asked the court to order the Kenyan government to remove their names from the refugee database and issue them Kenyan identification documents.
In January 2025, the Kenyan High Court in Garissa County ordered the Kenyan government to remove vetted Kenyan citizens from the refugee database and issue them with national identification documents within 60 days. The court ruled that failing to deregister these individuals violated their constitutional rights to citizenship and identity.
In his judgment, Kenyan High Court Judge John Onyiego affirmed that citizenship is a birthright that administrative mishaps cannot revoke.
Government Remedy
Kenya’s Commissioner for Refugee Affairs, Mercy Mwasaru, told IPS that the government detected the problem of double registration in 2016 when it took over the management of refugee affairs from UNHCR.
“Since 2019, the government of Kenya, through the departments of refugee services, national registration bureau and national intelligence service and in conjunction with UNHCR, has been carrying out a verification process of those Kenyans whose details appear in the refugee database,” said Mwasaru.
But since the vetting and verification process began, people like Adan who went through the rigorous vetting procedure are still waiting to shed their refugee status and be given national IDs.
According to Mwasaru, the exercise takes a long time because the security and intelligence personnel in the Kenyan government must be engaged to prevent fraud.
Since 2019, Mwasaru says they have cleared at least 14,000 Kenyans from the refugee database, and the department is currently working to clear the remaining 26,000 citizens, a process she says might take time.
“The process takes time because of the work involved, and it involves different agencies. But we will ensure that anyone who is a Kenyan citizen and who registered as a refugee is removed from the refugee register,” Mwasaru told IPS.
Gure says he was among the 14,000 Kenyans who underwent vetting and had their names removed from the refugee database, but since then, they have not been issued national identification cards.
“We were vetted in 2020 and told that the IDs would be out within three months, but that never happened,” Gure said.
He hopes that with the court ruling, the government might hasten the process.
“We are not giving up. Our citizenship is a right that cannot be taken away from us,” said Gure.
Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.
IPS UN Bureau Report