By : Baher Kamal
ISTANBUL, Turkey, May 23 2016 (IPS) - With a line up of heads of state or government telling all what they did to alleviate human suffering and promising to do more, along with leaders of civil society and humanitarian
organisations denouncing lack of honest political will to act while governments continue spending trillions of dollars in weapons, the two-day World Humanitarian Summit kicked off today May 23 in Istanbul.
ISTANBUL, Turkey , May 22 2016 (IPS) - The African Union (AU) representing 54 countries and home to 1,2 billion inhabitants, will be in Istanbul to participate in the May 23-24, 2016, first-ever World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) with two key demands—that the international humanitarian system be redefined, and a strong, firm own commitment to itself, to the continent and its people, anchoring on the primacy of the states.
ROME, May 19 2016 (IPS) - It is true that millions of refugees, especially in Africa and the Middle East, reside in camps. But in all they represent only one-quarter of the total number of refugees.
Meanwhile, more than 1 in 2 of all the world’s refugees live in slums or in informal settlements and on the fringes of cities, in overcrowded neighbourhoods and in areas prone to flooding, sanitation hazards and diseases.
ROME, May 16 2016 (IPS) - When, in March 2015, delegates from the Middle East met in Amman for their regional consultations round in preparation for the May 23-24 World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, most likely what they had in mind is the fact that their region was –and still is– the dramatic set of “the mother of all humanitarian crises.”
Baher Kamal, a Spanish national of Egyptian origin presents his views on the current Middle East situation and its future. Read The Over-Written, Under-ReportedMiddle East – Part I: Of Arabs and Muslims and Middle East Part II – 99.5 Years of (Imposed) Solitude
IPS Daily Report
