'Unseen' News and Views
In 2015, Burundi had an estimated 10.7 per cent forest cover and the growing demand for fuelwood has translated into hastened soil erosion and imperiled food security. And it could get worse. The country’s consumption needs require the production of about 180,000 ha of fuelwood, higher than its current 174,000 ha coverage.
In a world defined by “competition over cooperation, and the acquisition of arms, prioritized over the pursuit of diplomacy”, the threat of a nuclear weapon being used is “higher than it has been in generations,” the Security Council heard on Tuesday [2 April 2019].
Dar es Salaam, 2 April 2019 (IOM)* – Irregular migration from the East and Horn of Africa to southern Africa, presents countries along this route with a new challenge: how to manage these flows while ensuring that the human rights of migrants are respected and protected.
South Africa is the destination for many irregular migrants using the Southern Route. Photo: IOM
The ‘Southern Route’ – as this migration route is known – is used by scores of irregular migrants journeying southward in the hope of reaching South Africa.
2 April 2019, Brussels (FAO)* — A report presented today jointly by the European Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) finds that around 113 million people in 53 countries experienced acute food insecurity in 2018, compared to 124 million in 2017.
‘Millions more are forced to choose between health care and daily expenses such as food, clothing and even a home’.
Universal Health Coverage: Everyone, Everywhere
Universal health coverage (UHC) is about ensuring all people and communities have access to quality health services where and when they need them, without suffering financial hardship.*
It includes the full spectrum of services needed throughout life—from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care—and is best based on a strong primary health care system.
Over the past decade, countries in the WHO Western Pacific Region have made significant health gains and increased commitments to advance UHC.
We, in the United States, have yet to realize both the futility and immense consequences of war even as we develop, store, sell, and use hideous weapons. The number of children killed is rising.
Kathy Kelly
At 9:30 in the morning of March 26, the entrance to a rural hospital in northwest Yemen, supported by Save the Children, was teeming as patients waited to be seen and employees arrived at work.
Suddenly, missiles from an airstrike hit the hospital, killing seven people, four of them children.
Jason Lee of Save the Children, told The New York Times that the Saudi-led coalition, now in its fifth year of waging war in Yemen, knew the coordinates of the hospital and should have been able to avoid the strike. He called what happened “a gross violation of humanitarian law.”
Photo by Pxhere | Photo from UN Environment.
The United Nations is highlighting the important role that population trends play in promoting sustainable development, during the annual Commission on Population and Development, which began at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday [1 April 2019].
This year’s Commission is also an opportunity to take stock and review progress made since the landmark International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which took place 25 years ago in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
It takes up to 7,500 litres of water to make just one pair
1 April 2019 (Wall Street International)* — Paris, Milan, New York, Tokyo… These are just some of the world’s most prestigious fashion catwalks.
There, and elsewhere, perfectly – and often unrealistically – silhouetted young women and men graciously parade to impress elite guests and TV watchers with surprising, fabulous creativity of the most renowned fashion designers and dressmakers.
Yet…
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 