Featured Stories
Stacey G. Lehr Foundation Commits $1 Million to John Stoddard Cancer Center
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, June 27 -- UnityPoint Health issued the following news release:
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Stacey G. Lehr Foundation Commits $1 Million to John Stoddard Cancer Center
The Stacey G. Lehr Foundation has committed $1 million to support adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer care at UnityPoint Health - John Stoddard Cancer Center, ensuring young adults facing cancer have access to the specialized support and resources they need throughout their treatment journey.
The gift, announced during the 26th Annual Rally Against Cancer, will name the Stacey G. Lehr Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Program,
... Show Full Article
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, June 27 -- UnityPoint Health issued the following news release:
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Stacey G. Lehr Foundation Commits $1 Million to John Stoddard Cancer Center
The Stacey G. Lehr Foundation has committed $1 million to support adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer care at UnityPoint Health - John Stoddard Cancer Center, ensuring young adults facing cancer have access to the specialized support and resources they need throughout their treatment journey.
The gift, announced during the 26th Annual Rally Against Cancer, will name the Stacey G. Lehr Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Program,honoring the life and legacy of Stacey Lehr.
Stacey passed away in 2023 at the age of 42 following a courageous battle with breast cancer. A talented designer, entrepreneur, mother of three and passionate advocate for others, Stacey was known for her ability to make people feel seen and cared for - even during her own cancer journey.
"For our family and all those who were close to Stacey, this gift is about honoring who she was and the way she lived her life," said Kent Lehr. "Even during treatment, Stacey was always asking how we could help other people facing difficult circumstances. Supporting young adults with cancer reflects her heart for others and her desire to make a difference. I am grateful to the many family members and friends who have joined us in this commitment, and I am proud to partner with John Stoddard Cancer Center to see it through."
The Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program serves patients navigating cancer during some of life's most formative years. Whether they are pursuing education, building careers, raising families or planning for the future, young adults often face unique emotional, practical and financial challenges alongside their medical treatment.
The Stacey G. Lehr Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Program will help provide specialized support services designed to address those challenges and ensure patients receive care that extends beyond treatment alone.
"Young adults facing cancer have needs that are distinct from both pediatric and older adult populations," said Sarah Zeidler, Executive Director of John Stoddard Cancer Center. "This extraordinary gift will help us continue providing comprehensive support that addresses the physical, emotional and practical realities these patients experience. We are deeply grateful to Kent Lehr and the Lehr and Gibbs Families for their generosity and partnership."
The commitment reflects the mission of the Stacey G. Lehr Foundation to continue Stacey's legacy of helping others and creating meaningful impact within the community.
"For our family, the incredible friends Stacey made throughout her life, and for our children, this gift represents more than a philanthropic investment," said Lehr. "It's a lasting tribute to Stacey's life, values and enduring impact on the community we both loved. Her love continues to show up for others, and her legacy will continue to grow through every life this program touches."
The Stacey G. Lehr Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Program builds upon Stoddard Cancer Center's commitment to providing comprehensive, patient-centered cancer care for individuals and families throughout Iowa.
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Original text here: https://www.unitypoint.org/news-and-articles/press-releases/stacey-g-lehr-foundation-commits-one-million-dollars-to-john-stoddard-cancer-center
[Category: Health Care]
Save the Children: Venezuela Earthquake - 'A Cataclysmic Event' - Children Spend Second Night Sheltering in Open Spaces Amid Hundreds of Aftershocks as Needs Rapidly Rise
WESTPORT, Connecticut, June 27 -- Save the Children, an organization that says it is giving children a healthy start in life, opportunity to learn and protection from harm, posted the following news release:
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Venezuela Earthquake: 'A Cataclysmic Event' - Children Spend Second Night Sheltering in Open Spaces Amid Hundreds of Aftershocks as Needs Rapidly Rise
CARACAS - Families in earthquake-devastated Venezuela spent a second night sheltering in open spaces amid fears of further building collapses and raising serious concerns over children's safety and their immediate needs, Save the Children
... Show Full Article
WESTPORT, Connecticut, June 27 -- Save the Children, an organization that says it is giving children a healthy start in life, opportunity to learn and protection from harm, posted the following news release:
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Venezuela Earthquake: 'A Cataclysmic Event' - Children Spend Second Night Sheltering in Open Spaces Amid Hundreds of Aftershocks as Needs Rapidly Rise
CARACAS - Families in earthquake-devastated Venezuela spent a second night sheltering in open spaces amid fears of further building collapses and raising serious concerns over children's safety and their immediate needs, Save the Childrensaid.
Venezuela has declared a national emergency following two consecutive 7.5 and 7.2 magnitude earthquakes in the north-central region of the country, putting thousands of children and families at risk. [1]
At least 255 people have been killed and 4,500 injured as of June 26, according to the country's health ministry, although these numbers are likely to rise.
Save the Children's teams and local partners on the ground are monitoring reports of child deaths and injuries, as well as children who have been separated from their families during evacuations in the capital Caracas and La Guaira - a major port city
Fatima Andraca, Save the Children's Country Director in Venezuela, fled her old, 12-story building barefoot through an outside staircase when the interior stairs of the building were too damaged to use.
Fatima said: "There is devastation and destruction everywhere you look and many children and families, including here in Caracas, have been forced to spend another night sheltering in open spaces.
Families are clutching what few belongings they managed to save, children are in the open streets too scared to return to their destroyed homes which are unsafe. The safety of children is a serious concern and our top priority.
In the days and weeks ahead, children will need protection, psychosocial support, safe water and safe spaces as communities recover from this cataclysmic event."
Save the Children and its partners have teams on the ground in affected areas who will be responding to children and families impacted, providing child protection, shelter, health services, food and emergency relief items.
Save the Children has been working in Venezuela since 2019. Since the humanitarian crisis started to rapidly deteriorate a few years ago, Save the Children has been scaling up its response through local partners to support the increasing number of children in need. Save the Children is delivering health, nutrition, education, child protection, shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene and food security and livelihoods support.
References: [1] OCHA
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Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. Since our founding more than 100 years ago, we've been advocating for the rights of children worldwide. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children - every day and in times of crisis - transforming the future we share. Our results, financial statements and charity ratings reaffirm that Save the Children is a charity you can trust. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and YouTube.
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Original text here: https://www.savethechildren.org/us/about-us/media-and-news/2026-press-releases/venezuela-earthquake-race-to-free-people-trapped
[Category: Sociological]
Plastic Pollution Coalition: We Are Eating Plastic. Here's What Congress Can Do About It
WASHINGTON, June 27 -- The Plastic Pollution Coalition issued the following statement on June 26, 2026:
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We Are Eating Plastic. Here's What Congress Can Do About It
From takeout containers and plastic-wrapped produce to dairy products and bottled water, plastic food and drink packaging is flooding the U.S. We are eating plastic. Grocery aisles that were once stocked with many foods in paper or glass, or unwrapped entirely, are now lined with endless rows of unnecessary single-use plastic packaging.
The plastics industry intentionally promoted this system of disposability. In 1956, the
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, June 27 -- The Plastic Pollution Coalition issued the following statement on June 26, 2026:
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We Are Eating Plastic. Here's What Congress Can Do About It
From takeout containers and plastic-wrapped produce to dairy products and bottled water, plastic food and drink packaging is flooding the U.S. We are eating plastic. Grocery aisles that were once stocked with many foods in paper or glass, or unwrapped entirely, are now lined with endless rows of unnecessary single-use plastic packaging.
The plastics industry intentionally promoted this system of disposability. In 1956, theeditor of Modern Packaging stated "the future of plastics is in the trash can." In 1963 he doubled down: "You are filling the trash cans, the rubbish dumps and the incinerators with literally billions of plastics...The happy day has arrived when nobody any longer considers the plastics package too good to throw away."
All plastic is harmful, but throwaway plastic food packaging comes at a particularly steep cost to our health: like all plastic items, it sheds microplastics and leaches toxic chemicals--but directly into our food and drinks, making it one of the most common and often unavoidable sources of human exposure to these harmful substances. Growing evidence links exposures to microplastics and plastic chemicals to serious health risks, including cancer, heart attack, hormone disruption in children, infertility and reproductive problems in men and women, stroke, and even premature death.
The good news is that effective policy solutions have already been devised. Congress can act now to repair our broken food packaging system and reduce people's exposure to microplastics and toxic chemicals through commonsense legislation that protects public health.
Less Plastic, Safer Foods
Plastic Pollution Coalition recently published an informative policy brief, Less Plastic, Safer Foods: Federal Opportunities to Reduce Microplastics and Toxic Chemical Exposure, which outlines current opportunities for federal action and summarizes the growing body of scientific evidence linking plastic food packaging to serious health risks warranting precautionary action.
Tackling Toxic Chemicals
The Ensuring Safe and Toxic-Free Foods Act in the U.S. Senate and the Grocery Reform and Safety Act in the U.S. House of Representatives would close a nearly 70-year-old loophole that has allowed thousands of chemicals to enter the food system without meaningful Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight. While Congress had intended for new food chemicals to undergo safety review under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the 1958 Food Additives Amendment created an exemption for substances that are "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS), originally for common ingredients such as baking soda and spices. Over time, that exemption became a major regulatory loophole through which numerous untested food and food-contact chemicals have entered the marketplace without public transparency. As a result, companies are not required to notify FDA of many chemical safety determinations, leaving regulators and consumers largely in the dark about chemicals added to food and food packaging.
Synthetic chemicals are used to give plastic packaging its desirable qualities--including flexibility, durability, lightness, and transparency. Scientists have identified approximately 14,000 food-contact chemicals, with roughly 3,600 already detected in the human body. While public concern has increasingly focused on food dyes and additives, packaging itself is a major source of exposure. For example, two phthalates commonly used in plastic food packaging have been linked to two million preterm births and 74,000 infant deaths worldwide in a single year.
These bills would put safety first by strengthening oversight of food-contact chemicals, increasing scrutiny of substances linked to cancer and reproductive or developmental harm, and requiring the FDA to periodically reassess chemicals already on the market.
Public support for reform is strong. Polling found that 83% of respondents do not trust companies to ensure chemical safety without government oversight, while 83% want greater transparency so they can make informed decisions. Concern about food packaging chemicals is also widespread, with 68% reporting they are somewhat or very concerned about chemical exposure from food packaging.
As a growing national issue, other bills have been proposed to reform GRAS, however some could weaken existing public health protections. For example, the FRESH and Affordable Foods Act would preempt state laws on food and packaging chemicals--effectively overturning PFAS bans on food packaging already enacted in 12 states. It would also grandfather in existing chemicals on the market, meaning toxic chemicals would get to stay in our food packaging for good. If passed, this bill would deepen existing gaps in our food safety system and make it harder to protect the public from harmful chemicals.
Reducing Microplastic Exposure
The Microplastics Safety Act would direct the FDA to study the human health impacts of microplastics in food and water and submit findings to Congress within one year. The legislation would assess major exposure pathways and links to cancer, chronic disease, and harms to children's and reproductive health, while recommending legislative and administrative actions to reduce exposure.
Scientists, health experts, and the public are increasingly sounding the alarm on microplastics. One poll found that 89% of Americans are concerned about microplastics in food and drinks, while 79% agree that plastic particles pose a threat to human health and warrant action now.
Federal agencies, in response to growing public health concerns, announced plans to further study their impacts on human health. The Microplastics Safety Act would build on this momentum by ensuring sustained federal attention, accountability, and a legislative pathway toward actually reducing exposure through food and water. However, this crisis demands more than research--sufficient scientific evidence exists to show plastics' harms--and must be paired with immediate policy action to protect health.
Plastic Packaging Fuels Pollution
As if plastic harming human health directly were not bad enough, it's also wrecking our environment which we depend on to survive. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 14.5 million tons of plastic containers and packaging were produced in 2018, with 69% of that plastic sent directly to landfills. Approximately 95% of plastic food packaging is discarded after a single use.
Without action to curb plastic production, the plastic food packaging market is projected to grow by more than 58% between 2025 and 2035. Without federal action, Americans' cumulative exposure to harmful chemicals and microplastics will continue to rise. While individual choices can help reduce exposure for ourselves and our loved ones as well as helping shift markets, plastic-free options are often inaccessible or unaffordable for many communities. Keeping toxic chemicals out of the food supply should not be the responsibility of consumers alone.
Take Action
This week, PPC joined the Break Free From Plastic Movement's lobby week to bring these policy solutions directly to Congress. We met with congressional offices to urge their support in strengthening food safety protections, reducing exposure to harmful chemicals and microplastics, and beginning to repair a regulatory system that has failed to keep pace with science. But we need your help!
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Original text here: https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2026/6/26/we-are-eating-plastic-heres-what-congress-can-do-about-it
[Category: Industrial Materials]
National Center on Sexual Exploitation: Lawsuit Against Snapchat Shows Children are at Risk
WASHINGTON, June 27 -- The National Center on Sexual Exploitation issued the following news:
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New Lawsuit Against Snapchat Shows Children are at Risk
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) called on Snap to make urgent changes to ensure predators cannot contact or sexually abuse children, considering a new lawsuit against the platform that alleges Snap facilitated a Missouri girl's rape when she was 12. "Snapchat features such as Quick Add and Snap Map enabled assailant Gabriel Joel Valentin-Rios to connect with and groom the girl, referred to as J.F., the complaint alleges,"
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, June 27 -- The National Center on Sexual Exploitation issued the following news:
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New Lawsuit Against Snapchat Shows Children are at Risk
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) called on Snap to make urgent changes to ensure predators cannot contact or sexually abuse children, considering a new lawsuit against the platform that alleges Snap facilitated a Missouri girl's rape when she was 12. "Snapchat features such as Quick Add and Snap Map enabled assailant Gabriel Joel Valentin-Rios to connect with and groom the girl, referred to as J.F., the complaint alleges,"according to CNN.
"The new child sexual abuse lawsuit against Snapchat highlights the horrific fact that the platform continues to be a tool for child abusers and predators - this should be a catalyst for Snapchat to make urgent changes," said Haley McNamara, Executive Director and Chief Strategy Officer, National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
"Snapchat - which earned it a spot on our 2026 Dirty Dozen List of mainstream contributors to sexual exploitation - has the ability to stop the creation and sharing of self-generated child sexual abuse material and adult image-based sexual abuse on its platform. But it chooses not to. This is a design choice that is facilitating the sexual abuse and sextortion of untold numbers of youth and adults alike. Snapchat should immediately reverse course and use existing technologies to block explicit content creation and sharing, cutting off the tools predators rely on, along with radically reducing minors' access to friend-finding mechanics which allegedly led to J.F.'s abuse in this lawsuit.
"According to this lawsuit, internal documents and whistleblower accounts reveal that reports of abuse have often gone ignored by Snapchat. It is time for Snapchat to enact strong safety protections for children in order to prevent future tragedies. We are grateful to the Social Media Victims Law Center for filing this lawsuit. Survivors of child sexual abuse deserve justice," McNamara said.
NCOSE holds that Snapchat is too dangerous for children and believes the minimum age for users should be at least 16, if not older.
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About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national non-profit organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography.
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Original text here: https://endsexualexploitation.org/articles/new-lawsuit-against-snapchat-shows-children-are-at-risk/
[Category: Sociological]
Letter Urges Reconsideration of Proposed Data Center Near Nashville Zoo
WASHINGTON, June 27 [Category: Biology] -- The Center for Biological Diversity posted the following news release on June 26, 2026:
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Letter Urges Reconsideration of Proposed Data Center Near Nashville Zoo
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Center for Biological Diversity and the Southern Environmental Law Center submitted a letter to the city of Nashville and developer DC BLOX today detailing concerns about a proposed data center adjacent to the Nashville Zoo. The massive facility would encompass almost 70,000 square feet and use up to 50 megawatts of power.
"Nashville doesn't want to risk people
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, June 27 [Category: Biology] -- The Center for Biological Diversity posted the following news release on June 26, 2026:
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Letter Urges Reconsideration of Proposed Data Center Near Nashville Zoo
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Center for Biological Diversity and the Southern Environmental Law Center submitted a letter to the city of Nashville and developer DC BLOX today detailing concerns about a proposed data center adjacent to the Nashville Zoo. The massive facility would encompass almost 70,000 square feet and use up to 50 megawatts of power.
"Nashville doesn't want to risk peopleor wildlife being placed in harm's way for this data center," said Laurel Jobe, an attorney at the Center and a Nashville native. "The people have spoken, and they've chosen to protect their neighbors, humans and animals alike. Now it's time for the city and DC BLOX to listen, step up and do the right thing."
From clouded leopards to the native Nashville crayfish, sensitive species lie just a few hundred feet from the proposed data center's footprint.
Today's letter raises concerns about the endangered Nashville crayfish and potential habitat degradation from stormwater runoff into Mill Creek tributaries. Noise and light disturbances from the site could alter breeding patterns and other behaviors as well as heighten animals' stress responses.
This kind of potential harm to federally protected species would be illegal under the Endangered Species Act. The Act prohibits harassing, harming or significantly disrupting the behavior of a protected species, and violations carry substantial civil and criminal penalties.
Public opposition to the data center has surged in recent weeks, with the Nashville Zoo's Change.org petition now surpassing 500,000 signatures and thousands of comments from concerned citizens.
Earlier this month, the Metro Nashville Council introduced a bill that would place a temporary moratorium on data centers in Davidson County. The measure must pass three readings before taking effect. However, under a new state law, the DC BLOX data center would be exempt from the moratorium if its building permit application is submitted before the moratorium takes effect.
Regardless of the outcome of the local moratorium, Endangered Species Act obligations are federal requirements. The Center will continue to monitor the project and is prepared to take legal action.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.8 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
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INFODOC: https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/docs/regions/Southeast/2026-06-25-Endangered-Species-Act-Letter-Re-Grassmere-Data-Center.pdf?_gl=1*47vuix*_gcl_au*OTYyNzMwMDgwLjE3ODI1NDUwMTA.
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Original text here: https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/letter-urges-reconsideration-of-proposed-data-center-near-nashville-zoo-2026-06-25/
Humans of Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences: Emma Beretta
BOULDER, Colorado, June 27 -- The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences issued the following news:
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Humans of CIRES: Emma Beretta
Statistician found way to soundscape monitoring through hands on undergraduate research experience
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Emma Beretta is a passive acoustic data analyst at CIRES and NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) who uses open source software to build accessible visualizations about ocean sounds. A statistician by training, she is passionate about protecting Earth's ecosystems and mitigating human impacts on vulnerable environments.
Beretta
... Show Full Article
BOULDER, Colorado, June 27 -- The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences issued the following news:
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Humans of CIRES: Emma Beretta
Statistician found way to soundscape monitoring through hands on undergraduate research experience
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Emma Beretta is a passive acoustic data analyst at CIRES and NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) who uses open source software to build accessible visualizations about ocean sounds. A statistician by training, she is passionate about protecting Earth's ecosystems and mitigating human impacts on vulnerable environments.
Berettafound her way to passive acoustics research after an internship at California Polytechnic State University in 2022. She was analyzing population count data from invertebrates who live along the Florida coast when she met Lecturer Maddie Schroth, who was starting an acoustics research project. The meeting sparked exciting new opportunities and relationships: Beretta helped Schroth test acoustic recorders, she joined fieldwork out of Morro Bay, California, and she met NOAA scientist, Lindsey Peavey and Ella Kim. Beretta went on to complete two summer internships with Peavey at the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and held a data manager position at the Cooperative Institute For Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) before landing at CIRES.
Beretta and her colleagues at CIRES and NOAA NCEI recently launched the U.S. Ocean Sound Monitoring and Condition Reporting website. Explore the new dashboard to learn more about ocean soundscapes in national marine sanctuaries across the United States. You can focus on particular frequencies or species to see how acoustics have changed through time -- and you can compare sites. In the coming months, the team will continue to add more recording sites and data to increase the analysis capabilities of the website, and improve certain graphics to be interactive.
Humans of CIRES Q&A
What do you work on at CIRES?
I helped create and currently maintain the U.S. Ocean Sound Monitoring and Condition Reporting website. My main focus for this project is to use open source software to create standardized graphics that visualize information about ocean sounds archived at NCEI, and enable easy comparison of soundscapes recorded at 29 listening stations deployed in 12 national marine sanctuaries (NMS) across three United States regions: Eastern, West Coast, and Pacific Islands.
What are you most passionate about professionally?
My driving passion that led me to pursue a career as an environmental data scientist is my desire to help preserve Earth's ecosystems and mitigate human's increasing impact on vulnerable species, caused by our advances in technology and increasing need for resources. I completed my B.S. in Statistics with a minor in Biology at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo in 2024. During my studies, I discovered the importance of data analytics in ecology and became eager to apply my coding and logical reasoning skills to environmental research. I am particularly interested in marine science research because of the unique data collection challenges inherent to the ocean. Because visual data is incredibly difficult to gather miles offshore and deep below the surface of the ocean, I have become fascinated by the passive acoustics field, using sound recordings to study the ocean and its inhabitants to bridge critical data gaps.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey, which is about 30 minutes outside of New York City, but have moved around the United States quite a bit throughout my life. My parents are first generation immigrants from Italy who moved to the U.S. one year before I was born in Boston, Massachusetts. We then moved to New Jersey when I was two years old and the summer after my sophomore year of high school we moved to Redondo Beach, California. This last move was most impactful to my life but despite the challenges that came with it, I am forever grateful to my parents for having taken the leap to leave their country to pursue a better career and life for their kids.
What sport would you compete in if you were in the Olympics?
If I had the skills to be an Olympic athlete, I would love to participate in one of the skiing events, like ski mountaineering (skimo) or freestyle slopestyle skiing. I have loved skiing since I was little and even helped run my local ski club when I was getting my undergraduate degree. I currently work for CIRES from California as a remote employee, but proximity to the mountains is one of the many reasons why I am excited to move to Boulder this summer!
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Original text here: https://cires.colorado.edu/news/humans-cires-emma-beretta
[Category: Environment]
38 Civil Society Organizations Issue Joint Letter Urging U.N. Human Rights Council Action on Sudan Atrocities
WASHINGTON, June 27 [Category: International] -- Human Rights Watch posted the following letter with 37 civil society organizations:
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Sudan: Urgently Address the Situation in and Around El Obeid, Take Bold Steps Towards Atrocity Prevention and Accountability
To Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (Geneva, Switzerland)
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Your Excellencies,
In light of the situation in and around El Obeid, North Kordofan, which after 18 months of siege-like conditions appears at risk of an imminent ground offensive by the Rapid Support
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, June 27 [Category: International] -- Human Rights Watch posted the following letter with 37 civil society organizations:
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Sudan: Urgently Address the Situation in and Around El Obeid, Take Bold Steps Towards Atrocity Prevention and Accountability
To Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (Geneva, Switzerland)
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Your Excellencies,
In light of the situation in and around El Obeid, North Kordofan, which after 18 months of siege-like conditions appears at risk of an imminent ground offensive by the Rapid SupportForces (RSF) and their allied forces, credible reports of risks of atrocity crimes, and risks of further violations throughout Sudan, the Human Rights Council should convene an urgent debate during its 62nd regular session or hold a special session at the earliest opportunity.
The Council should request the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) for the Sudan to conduct an urgent inquiry into the situation. To prevent further atrocities, advance accountability for all violations committed in Sudan, and end the impunity of perpetrators and those backing and enabling them, the Council should unequivocally condemn external actors supporting the warring parties, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Council should also ensure that the FFM has adequate resources to identify all actors responsible for atrocity crimes with a view to ensuring that they are held to account, in line with its mandate, including as part of an effort to encourage the FFM to report on external actors fuelling violations in Sudan.
On 18 June 2026, following a significant troop build-up by the RSF and their allied forces around El Obeid, accompanied by intensifying drone strikes and artillery shelling, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, issued a "stark warning" that "an imminent offensive risked fresh commission of serious international crimes [...]." Referring to atrocities committed in North Darfur in 2025, and "patterns of serious violations of international law," he said: "We have seen this playbook before. We know where it led then, and cannot allow a repeat of the preventable atrocities we documented in El Fasher and Zamzam IDP camp [...]." Violations include summary executions, abductions, arbitrary detentions, widespread sexual violence against women and girls, and other violence against civilians, including ethnically motivated violence, as well as the use of starvation as a weapon of war.
In North and South Kordofan, civilians continue to be targeted, including through drone attacks and artillery shelling. The city of Dilling, South Kordofan faces a humanitarian catastrophe as a result of RSF/ SPLM/N attacks on essential life-sustaining services.
On 20 June 2026, the UN Security Council adopted a statement in which members expressed concern over the "imminent risk of mass atrocities" and demanded that the RSF immediately halt their assault on El Obeid. They called for "all abuses and violations to be investigated and for those responsible to be held accountable."
Both the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Security Council have urged external actors to stop interfering in Sudan, the former highlighting that "States with influence have the duty to exercise it now to stop this madness," and the latter urging "all UN Member States to refrain from external interference that could fuel conflict and instability." As Human Rights Watch has reported, "[t]hroughout the conflict, the RSF has received military support from the UAE," which has directly backed the paramilitary group and facilitated the recruitment of hundreds of private military contractors on its behalf. Human Rights Watch highlighted that leaders from across the globe should "break their silence on the insidious role of the UAE in fueling this conflict." Civil society organisations have repeatedly called on the international community to call out and condemn the role of the UAE in fuelling the Sudan conflict.
Other external actors backing the RSF or other warring parties in Sudan, including the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), should also be condemned and held to account for the violations they have either committed or enabled, some of which amount to crimes under international law.
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The Human Rights Council should not content itself with reacting to one atrocity crisis after another. Keeping in mind that the FFM has concluded that massacres committed by the RSF and their allied forces in El Fasher in 2025 bore the "hallmarks of genocide," the Council should make full use of its prevention mandate and act to prevent the commission of crimes under international law, in and around El Obeid and throughout Sudan.
We urge all States Members and Observers of the Human Rights Council to:
(a) Support the convening of an urgent debate or special session on the situation in and around El Obeid, North Kordofan;
(b) Request the FFM to conduct an urgent inquiry into the situation and present its report to the Council between its 63rd and 64th session, to be followed by an interactive dialogue;
(c) Request the FFM to update the Council on the progress made on its inquiry at the Council's 63rd session, allocating adequate time to enable the FFM to do so, in addition to the presentation of the comprehensive report requested by resolution 60/3; and
(d) Take additional steps towards accountability in Sudan, among other things by explicitly condemning external actors supporting the warring parties, including the United Arab Emirates, and ensuring that the FFM has adequate resources to identify all actors responsible for violations with a view to ensuring that they are held to account, in line with its mandate, including as part of an effort to encourage the FFM to report on external actors fuelling violations in Sudan.
The FFM should continue coordinating and sharing information, as appropriate, with other independent international and regional mechanisms, including the African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights-mandated Joint Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) to the Republic of Sudan and the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Security Council should expand the jurisdiction of the ICC to cover investigations of international crimes committed across the entire territory of Sudan. Additionally, the General Assembly should submit all reports of the FFM to the Security Council for its consideration and appropriate action.
We thank you for your attention to these pressing issues and stand ready to provide your delegation with further information as required.
Sincerely,
1. African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS)
2. AfricanDefenders (Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network)
3. Amnesty International
4. Burkinabe Human Rights Defenders Coalition (CBDDH)
5. Coalition of Human Rights Defenders-Benin (CDDH-Benin)
6. Connection e.V.
7. CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)
8. Darfur Women Action Group
9. DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project)
10. Federation of African Journalists (FAJ)
11. Geneva for Human Rights - Global Training & Policy Studies
12. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
13. Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD)
14. Governance Programming Overseas (GPO)
15. Hawai'i Institute for Human Rights
16. Human Rights Watch
17. Institut des Medias pour la Democratie et les Droits de l'Homme (IM2DH) - Togo
18. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
19. International Practice of Human Rights (IPHR)
20. International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
21. InterReligious Task Force on Central America
22. Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) - Sudan
23. MIR Italy (Italian branch of International Fellowship of Reconciliation)
24. Mouvement contre le Racisme et pour l'Amitie entre les Peuples (MRAP)
25. Network of the Independent Commission for Human Rights in North Africa (CIDH AFRICA)
26. Nigerien Human Rights Defenders Network (RNDDH)
27. Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities (PAEMA)
28. The Reckoning Project
29. REDRESS
30. The Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in South West Asia and North Africa (WHRDMENA)
31. Rencontre Africaine pour la Defense des Droits de l'Homme (RADDHO)
32. The Strategic Initiative for the Horn of Africa (SIHA)
33. Sudanese Women For Peace UK (SWP)
34. Sudanese Women Rights Action
35. Sudan and South Sudan Forum e.V.
36. Togolese Human Rights Defenders Coalition (CTDDH)
37. Women of Change Organization
38. Youth Citizen Observer Network (YCON Sudan)
(Initial list as of 26 June 2026. List of signatories to be updated on a rolling basis until 29 June 2026, C.O.B.)
1. Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), "Sudan: Imminent offensive on El Obeid must be halted - Turk warns of catastrophic impact on civilians," 18 June 2026, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/06/sudan-imminent-offensive-el-obeid-must-be-halted-turk-warns-catastrophic (accessed on 24 June 2026). See also DefendDefenders et al., "Sudan: civil society calls for a UN Human Rights Council special session on El Fasher," 3 November 2025, https://defenddefenders.org/sudan-call-for-hrc-special-session-elfasher/ ; DefendDefenders, "El Fasher atrocities under UN spotlight, but accountability gaps remain in Sudan," 14 November 2025, https://defenddefenders.org/el-fasher-atrocities-under-un-spotlight/ (accessed on 24 June 2026).
2. See Sudanese Women Rights Action, "Urgent Action: End Systematic Targeting of Civilian in North and South Kordofan," 24 June 2026, https://suwra.org/blog/2026/06/24/urgent-action-end-systematic-targeting-of-civilian-in-north-and-south-kordofan/ (accessed on 24 June 2026).
3. UN News, "Sudan: Security Council warns of mass atrocity risk in El Obeid," 20 June 2026, https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/06/1167773 (accessed on 24 June 2026).
4. Human Rights Watch, "Robust Global Action Is Key to Curbing Sudan Atrocities," 22 June 2026, https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/06/22/robust-global-action-is-key-to-curbing-sudan-atrocities (accessed on 24 June 2026).
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Original text here: https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/06/26/sudan-urgently-address-the-situation-in-and-around-el-obeid-take-bold-steps-towards
