The situation of Iraq’s minorities is one of unfolding catastrophe, say Minority Rights Group International and the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights, in the first comprehensive report on religious and ethnic minorities published since the advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham in the country.

Women and girls abducted by the Islamist group Boko Haram are forced to marry, convert, and endure physical and psychological abuse, forced labor, and rape in captivity, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on 27 October. The group has abducted more than 500 women and girls since 2009, and intensified abductions since May 2013.

British Prime Minister David Cameron had two clear messages when he spoke at a post-2015 global development goals forum on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly last month. The first was his emphatic view that the General Assembly panel’s proposal for 17 Sustainable Development Goals with 169 associated “targets” was too unwieldy and unmemorable—literally—to succeed in either practical or advocacy terms.