BANGKOK (FAO)* –– Three million undernourished people in Asia and the Pacific must be lifted out of hunger each month from now on, if the region is to meet the SDG 2 Zero Hunger goal by the end of 2030, says a new report released today [11 December 2019] by four United Nations agencies.
Social protection initiatives have great potential to help in eradicating hunger and malnutrition. In the photo: local school children eat their meals at the Ban Bor Primary School in Xay District, Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
13 December 2019 (UN News)* — During the recent mass protests which led Chile to declare a state of emergency, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a report published on Friday [13 December 2019] that international human rights norms had been violated by both police and army personnel, which should be prosecuted.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) | In a new report, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that demonstrations in Chile were deeply rooted in grievances related to inequality and non-discriminatory access to human rights.
13 December 2019 (UN News)* — A new law in India which expedites citizenship for certain religious minorities has been criticized by the UN human rights office for being “fundamentally discriminatory in nature.”
UN India | Photo of New Delhi, India.
The amendment to the Citizenship Act gives priority to Hindus, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians resident in India before 2014, but excludes Muslims, including minority sects.
FAO and the Global Pulse Confederation agree to bolster production and consumption of nutritious pulse crops
A variety of pulses.
ROME, 10 December 2019 (FAO)* – FAO and the Global Pulse Confederation (GPC) today agreed on a three-year partnership to promote cultivation of foods such as lentils, dry beans, dry peas and chickpeas and to advocate for their high nutritional values.
Madrid, 12 December 2019 (UN Environment)* –Latin America and the Caribbean could achieve annual savings of US$ 621 billion by 2050 if the region’s energy and transport sectors reach net-zero emissions, according to new findings from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) presented today [12 December 2019] in Madrid at the UN Climate Change Conference COP25.
The findings are included in an advance executive summary of the Zero Carbon Latin America and the Caribbean 2019 Report, which will soon be published, and which highlights the opportunities, costs and benefits of coupled decarbonization of power generation and transportation.
(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.
Social protection initiatives have great potential to help in eradicating hunger and malnutrition. In the photo: local school children eat their meals at the Ban Bor Primary School in Xay District, Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 