Since 24 February, an average of five children have been killed or injured in Ukraine every day, according to a Save the Children analysis of verified UN data.

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Children displaced by flooding taking refuge in Shikarpur district of Sindh province, Pakistan, September 1, 2022.
© 2022 AP Photo/Fareed Khan

Disastrous floods now cover nearly one-third of Pakistan, causing billions of dollars in damages to crops, houses, and other buildings, and severely impacting the lives of 33 million people, many of whom have been displaced from their homes. The consequences have been especially horrific for children, who make up about half the affected population.

More than 400 children have been killed in the floods, and many more injured. UNICEF reports that at least 3.4 million children need urgent humanitarian assistance and are at increased risk of waterborne diseases, drowning, and malnutrition. Most of the approximately16 million affected children are without homes, lack access to safe drinking water, and are living in unsanitary conditions.

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the 72 worst-hit districts in Pakistan already had high levels of poverty and impaired growth and development among children.

The floods have also fully or partially destroyed more than 18,000 schools. The hardest-hit province, Sindh, has had nearly 16,000 schools destroyed alone. Another 5,500 schools are being used to house families displaced by the floods. Thousands of kilometers of road and dozens of bridges have been destroyed, further hindering access to schools and hospitals. Pakistan was already facing an education emergency before the flooding began, with more than 22.8 million children between the ages of 5-16 out of school nationwide.

Pakistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change. While research on the attribution of the floods to climate change is ongoing, Pakistan faces rates of warming considerably above the global average, making extreme climate events more frequent and intense. These events are particularly threatening for marginalized and at-risk populations, including children. UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index classifies Pakistan as the country in Asia where children are most at risk.

The international community and Pakistani authorities should prioritize the well-being of children in rescue, relief, and rehabilitation processes related to weather crises. The countries most historically responsible for climate change, including top emitters in Europe and North America, should also support Pakistan and other threatened countries in dealing with disasters exacerbated by climate change.

In Brazil, news of a slain forest guardian overshadowed the commemoration of Amazon Day on September 5, as the killing put in stark relief the reality of the rainforest and its embattled defenders.

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Janildo Guajajara
© Guardiões da Floresta

Janildo Oliveira Guajajara was reportedly shot dead on September 3 near the Araribóia Indigenous territory in the Brazilian Amazon, where he lived. He was a member of the Guardiões da Floresta (Forest Guardians), a group of Guajajaras who patrol their territory to deter intruders. Janildo’s teenage nephew was also injured during the incident but survived.

Another Guajajara man, Jael Carlos Miranda, also died after he was reportedly struck by a vehicle in the nearby town of Arame on the same day. At the time of writing, it was unclear whether the incidents were related.

Civil police are investigating whether the deaths are related to conflicts with loggers operating illegally in Araribóia.

I went to Araribóia in late 2017 with my colleague César Muñoz to interview Guajajara guardians like Janildo, who were already facing death threats and other forms of intimidation in connection to their environmental work warding off loggers. Araribóia is one of the last patches of surviving Amazon forest in the state of Maranhão – largely because of the work done by the Guajajara to close unauthorized logging roads.

At the time, the state’s environmental law enforcement was conspicuously absent. Many defenders told us that they felt they had to fill this role.

Tragically, the risks faced by Indigenous forest defenders like them were about to considerably worsen.

Since 2019, the Brazilian government has adopted policies that facilitate encroachment on Indigenous land and gutted the agency tasked with protecting Indigenous people’s rights. In fact, the agency’s head has removed experienced career public servants from leadership and has asked the police to open criminal investigations against employees, Indigenous leaders, and even prosecutors for defending Indigenous rights.

As Brazilians prepare to head to the polls in October to elect a president, some activists fear that ranchers, loggers, and wildcat miners operating illegally are rushing to seize as much as they can, should election results not favor them.

Brazilian police should conduct an extensive investigation into the attack that led to Janildo’s killing and his nephew’s injury, as well as Jael’s death. They should also work with judicial authorities to hold the perpetrators accountable.

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The national flag of Uzbekistan on March 30, 2016 in Tashkent
© 2016 Florian Gaertner/Photothek via Getty Images

Uzbekistan’s Internal Ministry has proposed a regressive new law that would require police to conduct mandatory testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, as part of police raids on venues where “dangerous groups” gather or live as well as those suspected of having close contact with them. Mandatory HIV testing violates fundamental human rights and is potentially detrimental for public health. The rights under threat include the rights to bodily integrity, to be free from violence, to the highest attainable standard of health, and to nondiscrimination.

This is particularly true for people in marginalized populations, such as the “dangerous groups” referenced in the proposed law – sex workers, people who use drugs, and men who have sex with men (MSM). These populations already find their human rights threatened on a daily basis.

The World Health Organization and UNAIDS have made it clear that they “do not support mandatory or compulsory testing of individuals on public health grounds. HIV testing, no matter how it is delivered, must always respect personal choice and adhere to ethical and human rights principles.”

The marginalized groups targeted by this draft law already face discrimination under existing laws. Uzbekistan’s criminal code punishes consensual sexual conduct between men with up to three years in prison. Sex work is punishable by a fine. Possession of illegal drugs carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and people who are convicted of using drugs are placed on a government registry.

In its 2020 conclusions, the UN Human Rights Committee called on the Uzbek government to repeal its criminalization of same-sex conduct. In 2022, the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights recommended Uzbekistan amend its drug laws, removing criminal provisions, the same year the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women called for better protections from violence for marginalized women, including those living with HIV/AIDs, and for measures to support women seeking to leave sex work.

Instead of using a new law to moralize about “dangerous groups,” Uzbekistan authorities should scrap this proposed update and turn their focus to protecting marginalized populations, by repealing or reforming existing laws that violate basic rights.