Human Wrongs Watch
Credit: IPS
The attacks on hospitals, he warned, were “war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law”.
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05/10/2016
Science and Society
Human Wrongs Watch
5 October 2016
By John Scales Avery*
I would like to announce that an updated and very much enlarged edition of mu book “Science and Society” will very soon be published by World Scientific (in November, 2016).
John Scales Avery
The book can be purchased at a 20% discount at the following address by quoting the code number WSSPPS20. http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/10227
This book has a very interesting history. In 1986, a friend from the World Health Organization called my attention to an essay contest sponsored by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
A prize was offered for the best essay on how to give science and engineering students a sense of social responsibility for the consequences of their work. I wrote an essay arguing that the best way to do this would be to introduce a course on the history and social impact of science.
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05/10/2016
‘The Earth Is Not Flat; It Is Urban’
Human Wrongs Watch
Credit: UN Photo / Bikem Ekberzade / Iraq, 2011
Such a balance has clearly failed. While cities have emerged over the past 20 years as the world’s economic platforms for production and innovation, helping millions escape poverty through better jobs and improved quality of life, mass urbanisation has also led to overcrowding, deepened inequalities and triggered a raft of environmental and health challenges, according to the report.
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04/10/2016
World Habitat Day: ‘Adequate Housing Is a Universal Human Right’
Human Wrongs Watch
Adequate housing is a universal human right and should be at the centre of the urban policy and in the physical centre of the city, senior United Nations officials on 3 October 2016 said, marking the 2016 edition of World Habitat Day.
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Pedestrian waits to cross in Mumbai, India. Photo: Simone D. McCourtie/World Bank | Source: UN News Centre
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“The unplanned rapid expansion of towns and cities means an increasing number of poor and vulnerable people are living in precarious conditions, without adequate living space or access to basic services, such as water, sanitation, electricity and health care,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message on the Day.
More than half the global population already lives in urban areas. Approximately a quarter of these urban dwellers live in slums or informal settlements.
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04/10/2016
Selecting the Next UN Secretary-General: Informal Briefings Reopen
Human Wrongs Watch
The latest candidate for the position of the next United Nations Secretary-General was on 3 October 2016 heard by UN Member States, answering questions on how she would promote sustainable development, improve efforts to create peace, protect human rights, and deal with huge humanitarian catastrophes should they be selected to lead the 193-member Organisation.
A wide view of the Trusteeship Council Chamber as the General Assembly holds informal dialogues with candidates for the position of the next Secretary-General of the United Nations. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas
04/10/2016
October 2: Nonviolence Day, Gandhi’s Birthday
Human Wrongs Watch
By Antonio Carlos Silva Rosa*, Editor – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 October 2016
“The International Day of Non-Violence is marked on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence.” — un.org
Thus starts the UN Resolution that on 15 June 2007 formalized the legacy of one the most prominent figures of the 20th Century, born 1869 dead 1948 and still ahead of his time in 2016.
Yet, in the short span of 9 years this celebration has already become merely symbolic, ceremonial, practically meaningless. Gandhi Jayanthi as it is called in India. Myths can be useless and also misleading. So let me stick to the man and his meaning to humans.
Let’s remind ourselves of the worldwide wars, proxy-wars, invasions, occupations, terrorisms (State and private); slaveries/tortures of various kinds, human trafficking, forced human mass displacements, persecutions of minorities, economic exploitation, and cruelty to animals.
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03/10/2016
Non-Violence Day – The Link between Peace and Nature
Human Wrongs Watch
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 2 October 2016 stressed the link between non-violence, peace and nature as he observed the International Day of Non-Violence.
UN Postal Administration unveils the commemorative stamp of M.S. Subbulakshmi, Indian music legend on the 50th anniversary of her performance at the UN in 1966, during an event on the International Day of Non-Violence at the UN Headquarters on 2 October 2016. The first copy is presented to musician Sudha Raghunathan (left). UN Photo/Evan Schneider
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02/10/2016
A Day in the Life of a Community Midwife in Yemen
02/10/2016
Day of Older Persons: ‘Take a Stand against Ageism’
Human Wrongs Watch
A herder in Tarialan, Uvs Province, Mongolia. (file photo) UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
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“While older persons are often said to enjoy particular respect, the reality is that too many societies limit them […] The marginalization and devaluing of older persons takes a heavy toll,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message on the International Day, marked annually on 1 October.
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02/10/2016
Environmental Crimes Could Warrant Intl. Criminal Court Prosecutions
Human Wrongs Watch
The International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas.
This may see business executives and government officials in cahoots to exploit natural resources prosecuted for crimes that displace millions. 38.9 billion hectares – an area the size of Germany – has been leased to investors in resource-rich but cash-poor countries since 2000, Alice Harrison, Director of Communications at Global Witness, told IPS.
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