Congo, where 13 million people in a population of 82 million need help, also topped the annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll in 2017, but agencies said the situation had deteriorated.
An estimated 137,000 women and girls in England and Wales have undergone FGM. Many cases go unnoticed because they had happened at a young age and abroad, campaigners say.
More than 850 children arrived on Greek islands each month on average between January and August, up 32 percent on the same period last year, UNICEF said.
"It's very difficult for Venezuelan migrants because they come across major illegal groups who take advantage of their vulnerability. We've heard several testimonies of the sexual exploitation and trafficking of women," an expert said.
Almost 900 million children have to contend with a lack of basic hygiene facilities during their education, putting their health at risk and meaning some have to miss school.
"The caning would be carried out within the court premise," prosecutor said. "Under the sharia rules, they will be whipped with a rattan cane on their back with their clothes on while they are seated."
Grenada is one of a growing list of countries, including four others in the Caribbean, cashing in on a booming industry that offers citizenship or residency in return for investment as more people look for political and economic safe havens.
The researchers also warned that consumers in affluent countries may be purchasing products manufactured using slave labour, including computers, mobile phones and clothing.
Gay men and men who have sex with men remained most at risk of contracting HIV, along with female sex workers, drug users and transgender women, the Global Aids Update 2018 report noted.
The task of fetching water for cleaning, cooking and washing falls on women. With women also tending the fields as men migrate to cities in search of jobs, the burden is even greater, said Nirja Bhatnagar, a regional head of the charity ActionAid.
Families are reluctant to blame the diamond business, which employs over 1.5 million men - mainly from drought-prone parts of Saurashtra – for fear of losing work, with few other options.
The United Nations said last month it wanted a global ban on the invasive therapy based on the idea that homosexuality is a mental disorder or medical condition.
Deadly clashes between herders and farmers in central Nigeria are a growing security concern in Africa's most populous country, which is roughly split between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south.
"Feminism doesn't mean excluding men, it's about being more inclusive of women and -in this case - acknowledging the role they can play in tackling climate change," UN rights commissioner Mary Robinson said.
Sex crimes against children are fueled by a sense of impunity and social tolerance that results in low conviction rates, said Najat Maalla M'jid, who chairs a global task force to end the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism.
US: Guest workers are often tied to one employer and can be deported if they change jobs or quit, making them vulnerable to traffickers who exploit their uncertain status, said the Washington-based non-profit Polaris.
The legal age of marriage in India is 18 for women and 21 for men. Parents face a fine of 100,000 rupees ($1,535) and two years in prison if they are caught trying to marry off their underage children.
At least 13,000 people across Britain are estimated by the government to be victims of forced labour, sexual exploitation and domestic servitude - but police say the true figure could be in the tens of thousands with anti-slavery operations rising.
In Nepal, the Tribeni community library in Bhimdhunga is one of 22 that are part of a "Practical Answers" programme jointly run by READ Nepal, a literacy and anti-poverty organisation, and Practical Action, a British charity.
Women politicians are judged more harshly online than their male peers on appearance and marital status, according to an international study comparing how male and female politicians are treated on social media.
Cities that could see the steepest temperature increases during the 2020s include Geneva in Switzerland (2.5C), Shenzhen in China (2.3C) and Tsukuba in Japan (2.3C), the study showed.
