'Unseen' News and Views
Iceland has for the first time been elected to the Human Rights Council, filling the seat vacated by the United States, which withdrew from the body last month, citing bias.
The United Nations General Assembly on 13 July 2018 elected Iceland to serve on the Geneva-based global rights body effective immediately, through to the end of next year.
“Water is the driving force of all nature.” — Leonardo Da Vinci
9 July 2018 – TRANSCEND Media Service – India has long undervalued one of its most precious resources—water. The country’s chronic mismanagement of water is staring at it now.
Over 600 million Indians rely on the monsoon to replenish their water sources and the unpredictable nature of rain leaves them vulnerable.
12 July 2018 (Greenpeace)* — Seven years ago we launched the Detox My Fashion campaign to stop companies from polluting rivers and oceans with toxic chemicals used in their production.
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33 people whipped off their clothes in Chatuchak market, Bangkok © Athit Perawongmetha / Greenpeace
When some of our favourite global brands told us that they didn’t know which companies in their supply chain were producing their clothes, and that change wasn’t possible, you didn’t accept no for an answer.
July 2018 (UN Environment)* — When William Buco, father of five, moved to Dar-es-Salaam thirty years ago the coastline was unrecognizable to today. He could sit on the beaches and picnic with his friends. Coconut sellers came by with fresh harvests, and newly married couples posed for wedding photographs with the oceanic backdrop. Then the tide turned, and all this began to change.
Photo from UN Environment.
Sea-levels rose and eroded the coastline. The tunnel of trees that once flanked the coastal road died from salt poisoning and rotted by the roadside. Businesses corroded along with the coastline – there were no more residents around to sell to.
FA)/Sergei Gapon
Where would you find the world’s largest recreation center and the most natural supermarket? Forests wouldn’t have been your first answer, would it?
That’s the thing about forests. They keep secrets.
For too long we have seen trees as purely functional or ornamental, objects in the backdrop or on the sideline. They decorate city streets. They give us shady spots for resting and relief from the sun. They provide us with paper and fuel, fruit and nuts. These benefits are fairly obvious.
14 July 2018
The State of Israel has no oil wells. It has no gold mines. What has it got? It has the ownership of the remembrance of the Holocaust.
Uri Avnery
That is worth a lot. Everyone who wants to clean himself from the stain needs a certificate from the State of Israel. Such a document is worth very much. And the larger the guilt of the applicant, the higher the price of the dispensation.
What does that remind us of?
FOR MANY centuries the Catholic Church sold “dispensations”.
These were documents issued by the pope and the cardinals, which allowed the recipient to dispense with religious duties or to do things forbidden by the church.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 