(Greenpeace International)* — It is a sad truth that even now, on the cusp of 2020, slavery is very much alive in the modern context. This is particularly true in the fishing industry and of great concern, are migrant workers from Indonesia and the Philippines. For several years now, international media has shone a spotlight on the inhumane working conditions of migrant fishers from Southeast Asia.
11 December 2019 (Transparency International)* — A new report by Transparency International reveals that only 28 per cent of citizens in six countries in the Middle East and North Africa think their government is doing a good job at fighting corruption.
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In a region that has seen mass protests against corruption in 2019, two in every three (65 per cent) citizens think that corruption increased in the previous 12 months.
The report, Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) — Middle East and North Africa, reveals that more than one in five people (22 per cent) who accessed public services, such as health care and education, paid a bribe in the previous year. This is equivalent to approximately 11 million people in the six countries surveyed.
10 December 2019 (UN Environment)* — If you’re reading this from a city in a high-income country, you have about a one in two chance of breathing in air that exceeds World Health Organization guidelines for air pollution. That’s worrying enough, but if you live in a city in a low- or middle-income country, the chances of breathing in clean air are much slimmer still—97 per cent of cities in these countries do not meet air quality guidelines.
Photo by Andy Maluche, Flickr
Most of the global population is exposed without their consent to hazardous substances and wastes that increase their likelihood of developing diseases and disabilities throughout their lives. In some cases, it has the potential to be a human rights violation.
It is “imperative” that the COP25 climate conference underway in Spain delivers “significant results now”, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the UN General Assembly (PGA), said on Tuesday [10 December 2019]. (*).
WMO/Injoo Hong | Storm clouds forming over Banghwa-ri in Gyeongsangnam-do, Republic of Korea.
“Science is unequivocal on the urgency to act, both at global and national levels”, he told the conference to address the climate crisis – officially known as the 25th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Mr. Muhammad-Bande recalled the consensus reached through the Paris Agreement to limit the rise in temperature to 2ºC above pre-industrial levels and efforts to hold it to 1.5ºC.
10 December 2019 (UN News)* — Covering around 27 per cent of the earth’s land surface, mountains play a critical role in moving the world’s towards sustainable economic growth. With the future in mind, the theme for this year’s international day celebrating the world’s peaks and summits on Wednesday [11 December 2019], is Mountains matter for Youth.
WMO/Vladimir Nolic | Spomen park Kadinjaca, Serbia, during a storm.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), mountains not only provide sustenance and well-being to 1.1 billion mountain people around the world but also indirectly benefit billions more living downstream.
And they provide freshwater, energy and food – resources that will grow increasingly scarce over the coming decades.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 