CIVICUS discusses enforced disappearances in Mexico with a member of the International Network of Associations of Missing Persons. The crisis of disappearances in Mexico has reached alarming proportions, with over 52,000 unidentified bodies in morgues and mass graves. On 1 July, the Mexican Congress approved controversial changes to the General Law on Disappearances, which promise to modernise the search process through a national biometric system, but which human rights organisations and victims’ groups claim could establish an unprecedented system of mass surveillance.

ABU DHABI, October 13 (IPS) - As global conservation leaders gather in Abu Dhabi for the IUCN World Conservation Congress, communities in the hills of Darjeeling, thousands of kilometers away, are still counting their losses. In early October, heavy rains triggered deadly landslides that buried homes, blocked key roads, and left several people dead. The destruction has once again exposed how vulnerable India’s mountain regions are to extreme weather.

TOKYO & JOHANNESBURG, October 13 (IPS) - Vulnerable children are being targeted online faster than parliamentarians and law enforcers can act, a conference convened by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) heard. Yet, with international cooperation and sharing of ideas, lawmakers believe the scourge of online abuse can be addressed.

BANGKOK, Thailand, October 13 (IPS) - The theme of this year’s International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, “Fund Resilience, Not Disasters,” called for the urgent need to shift from reactive spending on recovery to proactive investment in disaster risk reduction.

KATHMANDU, Nepal, October 13 (IPS) - The United Nations turned 80 this year. What should have been a moment of pride and celebration at the high-level session of the UN General Assembly in September 2025 turned instead into an occasion of bitter irony.

UN Deputy-Secretary General Amina Mohammed has acknowledged the Chinese capital’s enduring association with the fight for women’s rights and gender equality, 30 years on from the adoption of the landmark Beijing Declaration, a foundational international treaty.

The UN is stepping up its emergency response in Gaza, releasing $11 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to meet urgent needs before winter – a move that underscores both the expanding humanitarian effort and the funding shortfall threatening to stall it.

As the humanitarian crisis continues to escalate in Haiti, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Monday that women, children and displaced families are disproportionately affected as malnutrition and hunger rise.

People around the world who are transforming food systems in their local communities are being recognised and supported by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

There is now “real hope” for a ceasefire which would pave the way for a lasting and definitive settlement of the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Huang Xia, told the Security Council on Monday.