world News in Brief: September 2024
Nigeria Faces Criticism Over Rights Record, School Abductions
A new report from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has highlighted Nigeria’s shortcomings in protecting women and girls, specifically citing failures too criminalize abduction and marital rape. The report, published on Wednesday following a December 2023 mission to the country, also criticizes the lack of protection for schoolgirls from abduction and the stigmatization faced by survivors.
CEDAW chair Nahla Haidar stated the repeated failures “amount to systematic and grave violations” of women’s and girls’ rights.The delegation, the frist UN body to visit the Chibok school as the 2014 mass abduction, gathered information from government officials, security forces, and victims of abduction.
The report draws attention to the 2014 abduction of 276 girls from Chibok school by Boko Haram. Of those, 82 escaped, 103 were released in exchange for prisoners, and at least 91 remain in captivity or their fate is unknown. Ms. Haidar emphasized that the Chibok abduction was “not an isolated tragedy, but part of a series of mass abductions targeting schools and communities,” adding that “at least 1,400 students have been kidnapped from schools as the Chibok abduction.”
sunscreen Reinstated as Essential Medicine by WHO
The World Health Institution (WHO) has restored sunscreen to its model lists of essential medicines, a move welcomed by independent UN experts as a crucial step in combating skin cancer among people with albinism. Skin cancer is the leading cause of death for individuals with albinism globally, frequently enough due to limited access to sunscreen and insufficient awareness.
Experts emphasized that the WHO’s decision has the potential to “transform the everyday lives of persons with albinism, including life expectancy,” but stressed that effective implementation hinges on governmental commitment to integrating sunscreen into national health systems and supply chains. They affirmed that access to sunscreen is “not a cosmetic exercise. It is a essential human right,” and aligns with international obligations to protect vulnerable populations from climate change-related harms.
Note: The original text did not contain information about “Migrant medics mean shortages at home” or ”UN names top innovators”. These topics were not included as they were not present in the provided source material.the date of September 2024 was added for context as the article references September 2025 in one instance.
