UNITED NATIONS, Oct 17 2019 (IPS)* – When the six much-ballyhooed high-level UN meetings concluded late September, there were mixed feelings about the final outcomes.
And civil society organizations (CSOs), who were mostly disappointed with the results, are now gearing themselves for two upcoming key climate summit meetings: COP25 in Santiago, Chile in December and COP26 in Glasgow, UK in late 2020, along with the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Women’s Conference scheduled to take place in September 2020 in New York.
But perhaps the most politically-significant event in 2020 will be the 75th anniversary of the United Nations which will take place amidst continued threats against multilateral institutions, rising right-wing nationalism, growing authoritarianism and widespread disinformation.
15 October 2019 (openDemocracy)* — Donald Trump is a master of distraction, but he is also an illusionist and there are few illusions bigger than his favourite obsession – the US border wall. On 1 October the New York Times reported that Trump told aides he would like to electrify his proposed wall and add to it a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators.
US border patrol stands watch as barbed wire is added to a border wall, 2018. | US Customs and Border Protection
October 2019 (Wall Street International)* — It is difficult to know if there is an Italian left today, in the country where the Communist Party of Italy (PCI) founded in 1921 by Antonio Gramsci in the 70s of the past century became the largest in the Western world and a reference for the renewal of socialism.
The “Compromesso Storico” summarized in a handshake between Enrico Berlinguer (PCI) and Aldo Moro (DC) | Photo from Wall Street International.
It lived through the rise and consolidation of Mussolini’s fascism which it fought with weapons, as well as resisted the country’s Nazi occupation during World War II.
GENEVA / LAGOS, Oct 16 2019 (IPS)* – In Geneva this week, a treaty process is underway that promises to usher in a new era for human rights around the globe.
The process—the intergovernmental working group on the binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights—could mean that for the first time, human rights would be prioritized above corporate profits.
But the future of the agreement and human rights writ large will depend on whether governments can agree on a strong text this week.
Communities and governments have long struggled to hold abusive corporations and industries accountable.
16 October 2019 (UN News)* — On a Friday afternoon, in a small restaurant kitchen in the New York borough of Brooklyn, head chef Alexander Harris is giving instructions to his attentive team, preparing them for the busy evening ahead. So far, the tables are empty, but the small, popular space, with just a handful of tables – and some stools around the bar – will soon be bustling with the evening crowd.
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Conor Lennon/ UN News | Trainee chef Roberta Mbiua (2nd right) receives his instructions from culinary director Alexander Harris at Emma’s Torch Restaurant, Brooklyn.
16 October 2019 — Eating food high in starch, sugar, fats and salt; combined with a sedentary lifestyle, is a recipe for soaring global obesity rates, even in countries where many still suffer from hunger. On World Food Day, which falls on Wednesday 16 October 2019], the UN’s food agency, FAO, is calling for action to make healthy, sustainable diets affordable and accessible for all.*
Public Domain | Hamburger with Fries. WHO has released the REPLACE guidelines, to eliminate industrially-produced trans-fatty acids from food suplly.
15 October 2019 (The Norwegian Refugee Council)* —Pakistani refugees in Afghanistan are facing a bleak future as international organisations withdraw from Gulan camp, in the south-east of the country. Funding for their assistance is now being omitted for plans for 2020. In this photo story, camp residents share their concerns and their hopes.
In 2014, hundreds of thousands of Pakistani people fled their homes. Many settled in Gulan camp, in south-east Afghanistan. Here, men from North Waziristan wait in a queue for aid supplies in the camp distribution centre. Photo: Andrew Quilty/NRC
(Wall Street International)* — The climate crisis was made vivid by the October 2018 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In the words of 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg: “According to the IPCC, we are less than 12 years away from not being able to undo our mistakes. In that time, unprecedented changes in all aspects of society need to have taken place, including a reduction of our CO2 emissions by at least 50%…”
15 August 2019 (IGWIA)* — While much of the world has focused on the fires raging in the Amazon, the world’s largest forest–the Siberian Taiga in Russia–has been on fire for most of 2019.
Demonstration held in Krasnoyarsk on 22 Aug 2019. Signs read (left to right): Sign 1: “Summer 2019 – Evenkia is covered in smoke and on fire. Photos from Tura, Baikit, Vanavara settlements taken 9 August 2019, Indigenous Day”; Sign 2: “Investment projects are the destruction of the traditional environment of Evenkia — Ecocide. Photos from forest plots and the results of industrial logging by company Kraslessinvest”; Sign 3: “Baikit forest, 50km from Baikit, forest fires 2019 — Ecocide”. Photo: Nikita Kaplin
15 October 2019 (UN News)* — Across the globe, at least one-in-three children under-five are malnourished and not developing properly, UNICEF revealed on Tuesday [15 October 2019], in its most comprehensive report on children, food and nutrition in 20 years.
“An alarmingly high number of children are suffering the consequences of poor diets and a food system that is failing them,” the UN children’s agency (UNICEF) warned.
The process—the intergovernmental working group on the binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights—could mean that for the first time, human rights would be prioritized above corporate profits.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 