Between October 2023 and the end of December 2024, average intake was 1,510 calories per day, or 72 per cent of the minimum recommended amount.
“The findings reveal systemic and escalating violations of both international human rights law and international humanitarian law, particularly concerning the right to adequate food, the prohibition of starvation as a method of warfare, and the protection of civilians in armed conflict,” FAO insisted.
Even based on its most optimistic food availability scenario, the UN agency estimated that energy intake was just 1,470 calories per person per day on 11 May, during the complete aid blockade imposed by Israel, beginning 2 March.
“This has critical implications for hunger and undernutrition, especially for families without cash and/or able-bodied men, as well as children, pregnant and lactating women, person with disabilities and the elderly,” FAO explained.
Without an improvement in the amount of aid being allowed into Gaza for distribution by established agencies, FAO warned that the already dire humanitarian situation could deteriorate even further.
This is despite repeated calls to Israel from the United Nations including from the Secretary-General to allow more aid in at scale, in line with “binding orders” issued by the International Court of Justice to fully cooperate with the UN and ensure that aid reaches the people of Gaza without delay.
Unknown number of dead
Gaza’s population today is approximately 2.1 million, down from 2.23 million in October 2023 before the war began following Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel.
Citing the Palestinian authorities, FAO said that as of 30 April, 52,400 Palestinians had been reported killed, while another 11,000 were feared missing, presumably under the rubble.
While more than 60,000 children have been born in the Gaza Strip during the conflict, “an unknown number of Palestinians have died of natural causes or indirectly from the conflict, due to hunger, untreated diseases or injuries since October 2023”, FAO said.
The UN agency also referred to a June 2024 article by the authoritative medical journal The Lancet suggesting that up to 186,000 people would likely die from indirect causes because of the conflict, at a “conservative” rate of four indirect deaths for every direct death.
According to FAO’s simulation, 2,297 tonnes – equivalent to 120 trucks – per day are required to deliver food baskets providing 2,100 calories per person per day to the entire population of the Gaza Strip. On Wednesday, UN teams requested access for 130 truckloads of aid via Kerem Shalom, but only 50 carrying flour were approved to enter from Israel.
EU transport ministers reached a political agreement on the revision of the regulation on air passenger rights and the regulation on airline liability. The common position answers to a need for simpler and clearer rules, while aiming at striking a better balance between a high level of protection for passengers and preserving connectivity and level playing field for the aviation sector within the EU’s internal market.
It warned that without immediate support, women and girls will continue to pay the price of this crisis with their lives, as hundreds of thousands are being left without access to emergency obstetric care or support after rape.
Often suffering complications from constant distress, malnutrition, and physical exhaustion, more and more displaced pregnant women are arriving at UN facilities in desperate conditions after months without care, UNFPA said.
Due to persistent insecurity, access limitations and inadequate funding, over 1.1 million pregnant women in Sudan currently lack access to antenatal care, safe delivery, and postpartum care, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
As UNFPA recently underwent sharp funding cuts, the organization has had to scale back services to survivors escaping violence, shutting down 11 out of its 61 safe spaces in Sudan. Nearly one fourth of the population, most of them women and girls, are now at risk of gender-based violence.
“The scale and brutality of violations are beyond anything we’ve previously documented. We have documented numerous cases of adolescent girls who have survived rape and sexual violence,” Dina, a gender-based violence specialist in Sudan, told the agency.
“Cuts to humanitarian funding are not just budget decisions — they are life-and-death choices,” said Laila Baker, UNFPA Arab States Regional Director. “The world is turning its back on the women and girls of Sudan.”
Over 30 million children suffer from ‘wasting’ in 15 countries: WFP
Two UN agencies are uniting to tackle wasting – the deadliest form of malnutrition – among 33 million children in 15 countries.
The life-threatening condition is caused by lack of nutritious food along with frequent illness.
Children who survive wasting can still suffer “long-term and devastating impacts,” said the World Food Programme (WFP), highlighting the need to act fast and early.
However, the agency said this is difficult in places where families have been uprooted by violence or extreme weather, such as South Sudan’s Unity state – where Nyanene Gatdoor, a 25-year-old mother-of-three, lives in a displacement camp.
Cries of hunger
“When the baby is crying in front of you, and you have nothing to give him, you feel pain in your heart,” she said, referring to her two-year-old son, Tuach, who cries with hunger.
More than three million South Sudanese mothers and children are at risk of malnutrition this year – that’s more than one-quarter of the country’s total population.
To help those most in need, WFP has joined forces with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to eradicate wasting in South Sudan and 14 other countries. Together, they represent
The objective includes delivering nutritious food to communities and sharing key messages on healthy eating and cleanliness, to avoid getting sick.
Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
Belarus: Trade unionists repressed by ‘climate of fear’, rights experts say
Trade unions in Belarus continue to face State repression and detention, top independent rights experts said on Thursday.
The experts called for the immediate release of, and urgent medical care for, imprisoned trade union leaders, stressing that freedom of association at work is “absent” in Belarus.
Their leaders and members have also been imprisoned, forced into exile and prosecuted while outside Belarus, Ms. Romero said.
Many unionists have been left without legal protections, their assets confiscated, and their voices silenced, insisted the rights experts, who report to the Human Rights Council.
The development comes amid growing concerns over prison conditions in Belarus for opponents of the Government.
The rights experts who are not UN staff highlighted the human impact of detaining union leaders and called for them to be granted access to independent doctors.
They also called for international missions to be allowed to visit those held in prison.
Guatemala violated child rape victim’s rights by forcing her into motherhood: Human Rights Council
On Thursday, the UN Human Rights Committee decided a case against Guatemala, ruling the country violated the rights of a 14-year-old girl who became pregnant from rape by forcing her to continue the pregnancy to term and into motherhood.
The girl was repeatedly raped by an ex-director of the day-care centre she attended as a child who maintained contact with her family.
She was then denied access to an abortion, endured an almost fatal delivery, and was forced to assume parental responsibilities despite not wanting to be involved in the child’s care.
The suffering the victim endured led to two suicide attempts. The child now lives with the victim’s mother, who is struggling to cover his expenses.
Near-decade of legal proceedings
After nine years of criminal proceedings against the perpetrator, Guatemala did not properly investigate the rape or take effective action to prosecute the perpetrator.
The Committee ruled that Guatemala breached the girl’s right to live with dignity and reproductive autonomy and subjected her to treatment comparable to torture, in violation of the treaty.
The Committee called on Guatemala to establish a system to track and address cases of sexual violence, child pregnancy, and forced motherhood, as the country has one of the highest rates of forced motherhood and impunity for sexual violence.
The authorities also were urged to redress damage done to the victim’s life plans, publicly acknowledge responsibility and ensure education and psychological care for her child.
Between October 2023 and the end of December 2024, average intake was 1,510 calories per day, or 72 per cent of the minimum recommended amount.
“The findings reveal systemic and escalating violations of both international human rights law and international humanitarian law, particularly concerning the right to adequate food, the prohibition of starvation as a method of warfare, and the protection of civilians in armed conflict,” FAO insisted.
Even based on its most optimistic food availability scenario, the UN agency estimated that energy intake was just 1,470 calories per person per day on 11 May, during the complete aid blockade imposed by Israel, beginning 2 March.
“This has critical implications for hunger and undernutrition, especially for families without cash and/or able-bodied men, as well as children, pregnant and lactating women, person with disabilities and the elderly,” FAO explained.
Without an improvement in the amount of aid being allowed into Gaza for distribution by established agencies, FAO warned that the already dire humanitarian situation could deteriorate even further.
This is despite repeated calls to Israel from the United Nations including from the Secretary-General to allow more aid in at scale, in line with “binding orders” issued by the International Court of Justice to fully cooperate with the UN and ensure that aid reaches the people of Gaza without delay.
Unknown numbers of dead
Gaza’s population today is approximately 2.1 million, down from 2.23 million in October 2023 before the war began following Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel.
Citing the Palestinian authorities, FAO said that as of 30 April, 52,400 Palestinians had been reported killed, while another 11,000 were feared missing, presumably under the rubble.
While more than 60,000 children have been born in the Gaza Strip during the conflict, “an unknown number of Palestinians have died of natural causes or indirectly from the conflict, due to hunger, untreated diseases or injuries since October 2023”, FAO said.
The UN agency also referred to a June 2024 article by the authoritative medical journal The Lancet suggesting that up to 186,000 people would likely die from indirect causes because of the conflict, at a “conservative” rate of four indirect deaths for every direct death.
According to FAO’s simulation, 2,297 tonnes – equivalent to 120 trucks – per day are required to deliver food baskets providing 2,100 calories per person per day to the entire population of the Gaza Strip. On Wednesday, UN teams requested access for 130 truckloads of aid via Kerem Shalom, but only 50 carrying flour were approved to enter from Israel.
The United States has vetoed a new draft resolution on Gaza, standing as the lone vote against the text which called for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire, the unconditional release of hostages held by Hamas and others and the immediate lifting of all aid restrictions. Follow live coverage from our Meetings Coverage Section and UN News app users can follow here.
The EU has changed the level of protection of the wolf from “strictly protected” to “protected” to give EU countries more flexibility in managing wolf populations. The estimated population of wolves on the European continent almost doubled between 2012 and 2023 to more than 20 000. Source link
The EU has changed the level of protection of the wolf from “strictly protected” to “protected” to give EU countries more flexibility in managing wolf populations. The estimated population of wolves on the European continent almost doubled between 2012 and 2023 to more than 20 000.
The ocean shapes our economies, our food systems, even the air we breathe. To better protect our ocean, the Commission has adopted a European Ocean Pact, which will help to promote a thriving blue economy and support the well-being of people living in coastal areas.
This Ocean Pact brings together EU ocean policies under one single and coordinated framework. It will do so through a collaborative approach between EU countries, regions, and stakeholders, including fishers, innovators, investors, scientists, and civil society. Six priority areas for action will define this work, namely
protecting and restoring ocean health by supporting EU countries in their efforts to restore degraded coastal marine habitats
boosting the competitiveness of the EU sustainable blue economy including by strengthening the EU’s maritime industry and by introducing a Blue Generational Renewal Strategy, to foster access to young professionals in marine research, ocean tech, and sustainable fisheries
supporting coastal and island communities, and outermost regions by presenting new or updated strategies for these regions and communities
enhancing maritime security and defence by strengthening EU coast guard cooperation and maritime border security
advancing ocean research, knowledge, skills and innovation by proposing an ambitious EU Ocean Observation Initiative
strengthening EU ocean diplomacy and international ocean governance by stepping up its fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
The European Ocean Pact will be complemented by an ocean act by 2027, which will help to ensure the implementation of the priorities of the pact. An EU Ocean Pact dashboard will be used to track progress.
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KINGNEWSWIRE/ Press release / ROME — In what has been widely reported as a landmark decision, Italy’s Constitutional Court struck down portions of the nation’s decades-old psychiatric treatment laws in May 2025, declaring unconstitutional Article 35 of Law 833/1978. The ruling affects procedures for Trattamento Sanitario Obbligatorio (TSO), the legal framework governing compulsory psychiatric hospitalization. While many media outlets have hailed the move as progress, critics—including prominent human rights advocates and civil society organizations—warn that the ruling fails to fully align Italy’s mental health practices with modern international human rights law.
At the heart of the decision is the acknowledgment that individuals subjected to TSO must be notified of the order, granted access to legal counsel, and given the opportunity to present their case before the Tutelary Judge prior to judicial validation. However, the Court did not abolish TSO itself, instead choosing to preserve the practice with additional procedural safeguards.
This approach has drawn sharp criticism from those who argue that forced psychiatric treatment is inherently incompatible with human dignity and the right to autonomy.
A Bit Closer but not yet in Full Compliance with International Standards
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which Italy ratified in 2009, explicitly rejects coercive interventions in mental health care. General Comment No. 1 from the CRPD Committee affirms that all persons, regardless of disability status, have the right to legal capacity and must be supported—not substituted—in making decisions about their lives and bodies.
In recent years, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have echoed this stance, calling for the complete abolition of forced psychiatric interventions and urging nations to adopt support-based, rights-respecting alternatives.
An April 2025 WHO report titled “Countries move away from using coercive measures in mental health care” emphasized that seclusion, restraint, and involuntary treatment are not only harmful but also violate human rights under all international instruments, including the CRPD. The report concluded:
“Forcibly restraining or secluding someone who is experiencing a mental health crisis can lead to severe physical injury and even death. People who have experienced these coercive measures say that they are traumatic, detrimental to recovery and engender mistrust in mental health services. They are systemic failures of care.”
Despite these global developments, the Italian Constitutional Court’s ruling stops short of eliminating TSO. Instead, it upholds the legality of involuntary psychiatric treatment while introducing modest reforms to how such measures are applied.
CCDU: Longtime Advocates for Dignity and Autonomy
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights Italy (CCDU), the Italian branch of the organization founded by the Church of Scientology in 1969 and long active in exposing abuses within psychiatry, has consistently advocated for the full decriminalization of mental distress and the dismantling of institutionalized coercion in mental health care.
CCDU praised the procedural improvements mandated by the Court but warned that allowing any form of forced treatment remains a grave ethical and legal failure.
“Dignity cannot be conditional,” said a CCDU representative. “If we recognize people as equal citizens, then they must have the right to make choices—even when others disagree with them.”
Since its founding, CCHR worldwide has worked alongside survivors, whistleblowers, and international partners to document systemic abuses in psychiatric facilities and push for transparency in clinical settings.
In line with this CCDU in Italy has backed a legislative proposal introduced by the advocacy group Diritti alla Follia, which seeks to replace TSO entirely with voluntary, community-based care models grounded in informed consent.
This support draws directly from the principles laid out by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology. Hubbard was a fierce critic of coercive psychiatry, and his writings formed the philosophical foundation for CCHR’s global campaign to end involuntary mental health interventions.
Today, CCHR continues that legacy, working closely with international watchdogs like the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, the UN Office of the High Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR) and various UN Human Rights Treaty bodies.
Why TSO Remains a Violation—No Matter the Process
Human rights watchdogs, including the CPT and the OHCHR, have repeatedly condemned practices involving non-consensual psychiatric treatment. The CPT specifically have argued that even with due process, forced medication and detention violate Articles 7 and 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 7 is centered around the principle of No punishment without law while Article 9 provides a right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. The OHCHR and other UN Human Rights treaty bodies stress that coercion in psychiatry violations of human rights under all international instruments, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The CPT has specifically called out Italy for its reliance on TSO and urged authorities to develop alternative models that respect personal autonomy and informed consent.
Moreover, the OHCHR and WHO all encompassing Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation: Guidance and Practice emphasizes that countries should move away from institutionalization and coercion, and instead invest in peer support, crisis homes, and community-led services.
“The idea that someone can be forcibly hospitalized and medicated simply because they think differently is archaic,” said Ivan Arjona, Scientology’s Representative to the Europen institutions and the United Nations. “It’s a good opportunity for Italy to go all the way forward and ensure full embracement of the human rights model in Mental Health.”
What Comes Next?
With the Constitutional Court’s decision now in force, Parliament faces the task of drafting new legislation to replace the unconstitutional provisions. While some lawmakers have signaled openness to reform, others remain aligned with traditional psychiatric institutions and clinical interests.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health reports that over two million Italians lack access to adequate mental health care, and emergency departments have seen a surge in psychiatric crises—an alarming trend that underscores the need for systemic change.
The CCDU and allied groups warn that without a clear commitment to abolishing coercion, any new legislation will perpetuate the very violations the Court claims to address.
“We’ve seen this before,” said a spokesperson from the CCHR European office. “Governments add layers of procedure to give the illusion of protection, but the core violation—the denial of bodily integrity and freedom—remains intact.”
As Italy stands at this crossroads, the question is no longer whether the system needs to change, but whether it has the political will to break free from outdated paradigms of control and embrace a future rooted in human rights, dignity, and true healing.
References:
Constitutional Court of Italy – Decision on Article 35 of Law 833/1978 (May 2025)
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) UN CRPD Treaty Page
UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – General Comment No. 1 (2014)
