Human Rights

With 60 percent of the world’s population, Asia has one of the largest concentrations globally of aging persons, creating a host of potential challenges, experts [warn](http://www.irinnews.org/printreport.aspx?reportid=94856). Over 65 percent of Asia’s elderly population will be women.

An estimated 10 million people or more are struggling to get enough to eat across the Sahel region, including 5.4 million in Niger alone, representing over one third of its total population. More than a million children under the age of five risk severe acute malnutrition in the region, up from 300,000 last year.

Food shortages have worsened, with the number of South Sudanese without enough to eat rising from 3.3 million last year to 4.7 million currently, according to a new UN [report.](http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/high-levels-food-insecurity-south-sudan) This figure represents more than 50% of the recently independent oil-rich country, estimated in less than 9 million.

Israeli policies on Palestinian residency have arbitrarily denied thousands of Palestinians the ability to live in, and travel to and from, the West Bank and Gaza, Human Rights Watch said in a new report.

The United Nations declared an end to famine conditions in Somalia, but warned that the crisis in the Horn of Africa is not over and requires continued efforts to restore food security and help people resume normal lives.

Geneva – The Mediterranean Sea has become the deadliest stretch of water in the world for migrants and refugees, according to a UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) new report.

Dubai – Oil rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) harassed, arrested, and jailed activists, and disbanded the elected boards of two of the country’s most prominent civil society organizations, says [Human Rights Watch](http://www.hrw.org/) (HRW) report “[UAE: Free Speech Under Attack](http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/01/25/uae-free-speech-under-attack)”

Geneva – The UN human rights chief spoke out against “the failure by the United States to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and to ensure accountability for serious violations – including torture – that took place there.”

Cairo, 23 January – Egyptian state TV –for decades the mouthpiece of the authoritarian regime– is an ugly towering block of concrete and steel overlooking the River Nile at Maspero in downtown Cairo. In the post-revolutionary era, it is a heavily fortified fortress surrounded by barbed wire and stone barricades.

The ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) convened a Consultative Meeting with the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Violence against Children (SRSG-VAC) and CEDAW Committee experts on violence against women in Manila, The Philippines, on 16-17 January 2012.