UN News Today 14 March 2025 |

Bangladesh: UN chief pledges to help stave off food rations cut to Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar

In Bangladesh, UN chief António Guterres has pledged his support to help avoid food rations cuts affecting around one million ethnic Rohingya refugees, who fled their homes in Myanmar.

Speaking from the vast Cox’s Bazar camp complex, Mr. Guterres explained that “dramatic cuts in humanitarian aid” announced by the United States and several other mainly European countries were the reason for the potential rations cut.

Speaking to journalists, the Secretary-General said that the United Nations “will do everything to avoid it”; and that he will be seeking funding from donor nations “to avoid a situation in which people would suffer even more and…some people would even die”.

Iran protests: Human Rights Council probe condemns surveillance repression

Iranian authorities have continued to ramp up efforts to restrict the rights of civilians including children as young as seven in an effort to crush dissent, independent investigators mandated by the Human Rights Council insisted on Friday.

In their latest and final report, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran alleged ongoing serious rights violations by Iran, stemming from massive protests after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 2022.

Ms. Amini had been arrested by the country’s “morality police” for allegedly not complying with rules on how the hijab should be worn.

Since April 2024, Iran has increased criminal prosecution against women who defy the mandatory hijab, the Mission said in a new report.

Speaking in Geneva, investigator Shaheen Sardar Ali maintained that online surveillance was “a critical tool for State repression” and involved Instagram accounts being shut down and the SIM cards of human rights defenders confiscated:

“Nazer app, which is a particular app that the Government has instituted, where after vetting, sort of normal citizens can also complain – file a complaint – against someone who’s just passed by and hasn’t got the mandatory hijab. So this technology that’s being used for surveillance is really very far reaching and highly intrusive.”

Sara Hossain, Chair of the Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, maintained that the Iranian State committed gross human rights violations in repressing the 2022 nationwide protests – with some amounting to crimes against humanity.

She described many “harrowing accounts of harsh physical and psychological torture” and serious fair trial violations committed against children.”

Coffee price hike blamed on climate change, says FAO

Finally, to something many of us hold dear: coffee, whose prices have spiked to the highest level in years which is mainly down to bad weather, it turns out.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, world coffee prices in 2024 were almost 40 per cent higher than 2023.

And FAO said that coffee export prices may rise further in 2025 if major growing regions see further poor harvests – highlighting the need for the industry to invest in climate-resilient technology to help the smallholder farmers who sustain the market.

The UN agency explained that prolonged dry weather in Viet Nam caused a 20 per cent drop in production from 2023 to 24, while heavy rains in Indonesia drove harvests down significantly too. Brazil meanwhile suffered dry and hot conditions that pushed output estimates down, too.

FAO said that in December, coffee shop regulars were paying well over six per cent more for their cuppa in the United States and nearly four per cent more in Europe.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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