'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
Drought report calls for new management approach
(UN News)* — Innovative measures to address debt are required to help the world’s more than 100 middle-income countries expand their economies and exit the COVID-19 pandemic, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the General Assembly on Thursday [17 June 2021].
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Addressing a high-level meeting on these nations, which account for more than half of the UN’s 193 Member States, he underlined the need for financing to help them recover in the wake of the global crisis.
(UN News)* — Sexual violence in conflict “reverberates down generations” and threatens both human and international security, the UN chief said on 17 June 2021 in his message for the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict.
Already a “cruel tactic of war, torture, terror and repression”, Secretary-General António Guterres pointed to the turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that “has made it even more difficult to hold perpetrators of sexual violence to account”.
“Even as we respond to the pandemic, we must investigate every case, and maintain essential services for every survivor”, he said.
(Milan) – European Union governments have a collective responsibility to protect the lives and rights of people on the move along the central Mediterranean route, Human Rights Watch on 16 June 2021 said.
Humanity is waging a relentless, self-destructive war on nature.
Biodiversity is declining, greenhouse gas concentrations are rising, and our pollution can be found from the remotest islands to the highest peaks.
We must make peace with nature.
The land can be our greatest ally. But the land is suffering.
16 June 2021 (United Nations)* — The 2021 Desertification and Drought Day to be held on 17 June will focus on turning degraded land into healthy land. Restoring degraded land brings economic resilience, creates jobs, raises incomes and increases food security.
©IFAD/GMB Akash
15 June 2021 (IFAD)* — Every year, on 16 June, the International Day of Family Remittances (IDFR) is observed to raise further awareness on the abnegation and sacrifice of migrant workers, who support their families and communities of origin through the money they send back home, particularly in these times of crisis.
16 June 2021 (United Nations)* — The International Day of Family Remittances (IDFR) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and is observed on 16 June. The IDFR recognizes more than 200 million migrant workers, women and men, who send money home to over 800 million family members.
First World Health Organization report on e-waste and child health calls for more effective and binding action to protect children from growing health threat.
Effective and binding action is urgently required to protect the millions of children, adolescents and expectant mothers worldwide whose health is jeopardized by the informal processing of discarded electrical or electronic devices according to a new ground-breaking report from the World Health Organization: Children and Digital Dumpsites.
Unless we make some major adjustments to the way the planet is run, many observers believe that business as usual puts us on a path to catastrophe.
Around 90 per cent of global biodiversity loss and water stress (when the demand for water is greater than the available amount), and a significant proportion of the harmful emissions that are driving climate change, is caused by the way we use and process natural resources.
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UNICEF/UNI118470/Noorani
Lead is a highly poisonous element that is responsible for nearly 1.5 per cent of annual global deaths – almost as many deaths as from HIV and AIDS, and more than from malaria.
Nearly a third of the world’s children – up to 800 million children – are affected by lead poisoning. Continue reading
Cotton is one of the most popular fabrics around the world, but, in some countries, child labour is common in its production. ©FAO/Swiatoslaw Wojtkowiak
However, the backstory of cotton is more complicated. Its production is heavily dependent on natural resources and labour; and unfortunately, child labour is often a part of this. Continue reading
(United Nations)* — This year’s World Day Against Child Labour focuses on action taken for the 2021 International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour.
It is the first World Day since the universal ratification of the ILO’s Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, and takes place at time when the COVID-19 crisis threatens to reverse years of progress in tackling the problem.
The International Labour Organization and UNICEF warn nine million additional children at risk as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
GENEVA, 12 June 2021 (ILO)* – The number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide – an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years – with millions more at risk due to the impacts of COVID-19, according to a new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF.
(UN News)* – Escalating violence across Myanmar including attacks on civilians must be halted to prevent even greater loss of life and a deepening humanitarian emergency, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet on 11 June 2021 said.
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Ms. Bachelet’s appeal follows reports of a continuing military build-up in various parts of the country including Kayah State in the east – where more than 108,000 people have fled their homes in the last three weeks – and in Chin State in the west.
Phoenix Express 2021, the AFRICOM-sponsored military exercise involving 13 countries in the Mediterranean Sea region, concluded last week. While its stated aim was to combat “irregular migration” and trafficking, the US record in the region indicates more nefarious interests.
Tunisian navy personnels aboard USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB 4) on May 23 when the Phoenix Express 2021 was underway. Photo : AFRICOM
At 32 million doses, Africa accounts for less than one per cent of the more than 2.1 billion doses administered globally.
Just two per cent of the continent’s nearly 1.3 billion people have received one dose, and only 9.4 million Africans are fully vaccinated.
$72.6 billion is how much nine nuclear armed countries spent on their nuclear weapons as the pandemic spread in 2020 and a global treaty banning nuclear weapons took full effect.
The report “Complicit: 2020 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending” details the spending of these nine countries on their arsenals, the companies that profited, and the lobbyists hired to keep nuclear weapons in business.
This amounts to $137,666 every minute, and (after adjusting for inflation) represents an increase of $1.4 billion from last year.
The U.S. spent three times more than the next in line- a whopping $37.4 billion.
China was the only other country crossing the ten billion mark, spending $10.1 billion.
Russia had the third highest spending at $8 billion, though the U.K.’s $6.2 billion and the French $5.7 billion weren’t so far behind.
India, Israel, Pakistan also each spent over a billion on their arsenals, while North Korea spent $667 million.
The ocean produces at least 50% of the planet’s oxygen, it is home to most of earth’s biodiversity, and is the main source of protein for more than a billion people around the world.
Not to mention, the ocean is key to our economy with an estimated 40 million people being employed by ocean-based industries by 2030.
Ahead of G7, coalition of luminaries says “new relationship with the planet” and “transformational action this decade” absolutely necessary.
Students demonstrate holding signs reading “There is no Planet B” during the Fridays for Future climate strikes in May 2019. (Photo: Kay Nietfeld/picture alliance via Getty Images)
A group of 126 Nobel laureates and other experts today called on the leaders of the G7 nations and the United Nations secretary-general to help put the global community on a path to establishing “a new relationship with the planet,” as the world continues to battle the Covid-19 pandemic and faces a coming decade which will be “decisive” in determining whether the Earth remains habitable.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is one of the biggest threats to our oceans. ©Cristiano Minichiello
IUU fishing is one of the biggest threats to our oceans, impacting the sustainability of fisheries, the livelihoods of fishers and coastal communities and the protection of aquatic ecosystems. It also impacts consumers who could be cheated in terms of what fish they are buying, where it comes from or how it is caught.
Image from Greenpeace International.
Sounds like the premise of a brand new Netflix series, but instead this is the reality of what happens in one of the world’s most lucrative industries. And the secret activity worth billions of dollars? Fish.
ROME (FAO)* – Worsening soil pollution and waste proliferation threaten the future of global food production, human health and the environment, and require an urgent global response, according to a joint report released on 4 June 2021 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Programme.
KEY MESSAGE 1
Countries need to deliver on their existing commitments to restore 1 billion hectares of degraded land and make similar commitments for marine and coastal areas.
The fulfilment of these commitments is not simply something that is ‘nice to have’.
Restoration is essential for keeping global temperature rise below 2°C, ensuring food security for a growing population and slowing the rate of species extinctions.
4 June 2021 (UNEP)* — To launch the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, UNEP has released this synthesis report as a call to action for anyone and everyone to join the #GenerationRestoration movement to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide.
– The United Nations has been in the forefront of an ongoing battle against the growing hazards of climate change, including the destruction of different species of plants and animals, the danger of rising sea-levels threatening the very existence of small island developing states (SIDS), and the risks of oceans reaching record temperatures endangering aquatic resources.
Restoring natural habitats as pictured here in Cuba will help to slow down climate change. A new UN-backed study released May 27 says annual investments in nature-based solutions will have to triple by 2030, and increase four-fold by 2050, if the world is to successfully tackle the triple threat of climate, biodiversity and land degradation crises. Credit: UNDP
3 June 2021 (UNEP)* — When African Ministers of Environment voted to adopt a green stimulus initiative in December 2020 that tied environmental incentives to economic and social recovery in a post-COVID-19 world, the mandate to build back better following the pandemic sprang to life.
The African Green Stimulus Programme that was agreed by 54 ministers at the eighth special session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) reaffirmed the continent’s commitment to protect and sustainably use natural resources.
The ambitious project- which is supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) – sets out to plant ten billion trees by 2023. Launched in 2019, the project has just reached a new milestone – planting of the billionth tree.
This year also sees the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 and projects such as the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami are key to preventing, halting and reversing the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean.
4 June 2021 (UNEP)* — With the world beginning to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is increasing recognition that healing from the pandemic is linked to healing the planet.
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Resetting humanity’s relationship with nature will be the focus of World Environment Day on June 5, which also marks the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a ten-year global push to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation.
ROME (FAO)* – Global food prices rose in May at their fastest monthly rate in more than a decade, even as world cereal production is on course to reach a new record high, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 3 June 2021 reported.
The FAO Food Price Index averaged 127.1 points in May, 4.8 percent higher than in April and 39.7 percent higher than in May 2020.
Rome (FAO)* – Due to the impact of climate change, plant pests that ravage economically important crops are becoming more destructive and posing an increasing threat to food security and the environment, finds a scientific review released on 2 June 2021.
Countries also need to add similar commitments for oceans, according to a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), launched as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 gets underway.
(UN News)* — The world must harness “clear, transformative and actionable solutions” to address the ocean crisis, the President of the UN General Assembly on 1 June 2021 said, opening a meeting to generate momentum towards the 2022 UN Ocean Conference, when public health safety measures allow.
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USS “Stoltenberg” – Norway, now the newest US aircraft carrier
Fredrik S. Heffermehl
Some years back Norwegian foreign minister Thorvald Stoltenberg took wise steps to reduce confrontation with Russia through a Barents Council for civilian cooperation.
This was in prolongation of a long Labor tradition, initiated by the legendary Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen, who started a policy of low tension with the neighboring Soviet Union: No foreign bases, restraint with military exercises in the North, no nuclear weapons in Norway or our waters.
Last week Stoltenberg´s son, Jens, now leader of NATO, dishonored a high-level meeting for civilian corporation in the Arctic Council in Reykjavik by NATO holding a large navy maneuver in that part of the Atlantic.
How to hide a democracy that is not one
May 2021 (Wall Street International)* — The notion of political parties in the non-United States existing along a neat and orderly linear continuum from left to right (or right to left depending on your predilection I suppose) is yet another American fantasy about ourselves, outdated at best and madly simplistic at worst.
31 May 2021 (United Nations)* — Since the 1980s, the important role of the family has increasingly come to the attention of the international community. The General Assembly adopted a number of resolutions and proclaimed the International Year of the Family and the International Day of Families.
Emphasizing the critical role of parents in the rearing of children, the Global Day of Parents recognizes that the family has the primary responsibility for the nurturing and protection of children.
31 May 2021 (WHO)* — Tobacco causes 8 million deaths every year. When evidence was released this year that smokers were more likely to develop severe disease with COVID-19 compared to non-smokers, it triggered millions of smokers to want to quit tobacco.
Quitting can be challenging, especially with the added social and economic stress that have come as a result of the pandemic, but there are a lot of reasons to quit.
The benefits of quitting tobacco are almost immediate:
