Archive for January, 2021

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19/01/2021

Why Are People Going Hungry in India Despite a Massive Grain Surplus?

Human Wrongs Watch

By Prabhat Patnaik | Indepedent Media Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service*

Since late November, braving the bitter cold, hundreds of thousands of farmers have set up protest camps at various points on the borders of India’s capital, New Delhi. Their main demand is the withdrawal of the three farm laws rammed through parliament by the right-wing Narendra Modi government in September. Farmers fear these laws will drive down the prices they get for their produce and pave the way for greater corporatization of agriculture. Noted economist Prabhat Patnaik analyzes some of the key arguments being made in this context.

A farmer looks skyward as he sits amid his wheat crop in the Indian state of Rajasthan. (AP / Deepak Sharma)

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16/01/2021

Child Labour Harms Children Mentally, Physically and Morally – It May Involve Them Being Enslaved and Exposed to Serious Hazards and Illnesses

Human Wrongs Watch

2021: International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour 

What is child labour? (*)

Child labour is defined by international standards as work that is hazardous, demands too many hours, or is performed by children who are too young.

  • It harms children mentally, physically, socially, and morally
  • It interferes with their schooling, preventing them from attending or concentrating
  • It may involve them being enslaved, separated from their families, and exposed to serious hazards and illnesses

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15/01/2021

‘As Temperatures Rise and Climate Change Impacts Intensify, Nations Must Urgently Step Up Action to Adapt to the New Climate Reality or Face Serious Costs, Damages and Losses’

Human Wrongs Watch

Nairobi, 14 January 2021 (UNEP)* – As temperatures rise and climate change impacts intensify, nations must urgently step up action to adapt to the new climate reality or face serious costs, damages and losses, a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report finds.

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Pixabay / 14 Jan 2021

Adaptation – reducing countries’ and communities’ vulnerability to climate change by increasing their ability to absorb impacts – is a key pillar of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The agreement requires its signatories to implement adaptation measures through national plans, climate information systems, early warning, protective measures and investments in a green future.

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15/01/2021

2020, One of Three Warmest Years on Record – World Meteorological Organization

Human Wrongs Watch

Geneva, 14 January 2021 (WMO)* – The year 2020 was one of the three warmest on record, and rivalled 2016 for the top spot, according to a consolidation of five leading international datasets by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). A naturally occurring cooling climate phenomenon, La Niña, put a brake on the heat only at the very end of the year.

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2020 was the warmest decade on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

All five datasets surveyed by WMO concur that 2011-2020 was the warmest decade on record, in a persistent long-term climate change trend. The warmest six years have all been since 2015, with 2016, 2019 and 2020 being the top three.

The differences in average global temperatures among the three warmest years – 2016, 2019 and 2020 – are indistinguishably small.  The average global temperature in 2020 was about 14.9°C,  1.2 (± 0.1) °C above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) level.

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15/01/2021

UN Steps Up Support for Thousands Left Homeless after Devastating Fire at Rohingya Refugee Camp

15 January 2021 (UN News)* — UN agencies have stepped up efforts to help thousands of Rohingya refugees left without shelter after a devastating fire tore through a crowded refugee camp in south-eastern Bangladesh on Thursday [14 January 2021].
 
WFP Bangladesh | A devastating fire broke out on 14 January in Nayapara refugee camp, southern Bangladesh, destroying over 500 shelters.

The fire erupted shortly after midnight on Thursday (local time) in the Nayapara refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, gutting about 550 shelters and 150 shops. A community centre is also said to have been destroyed.

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15/01/2021

Israel: Ensure Equal COVID-19 Vaccine Access to Palestinians – UN Independent Human Rights Experts

Human Wrongs Watch

14 January 2021 (UN News)* — Israel’s “impressive” vaccination programme against the COVID-19 pandemic must include Palestinians under occupation, UN independent human rights experts stressed on Wednesday [13 January 2021].

UNRWA/Louise Wateridge | A health worker provides COVID-19 information to a patient visiting the Jerusalem Health Center.

“In this early stage of the worldwide inoculation programme, Israel has delivered the vaccines to a higher percentage of its citizens than any other country”, said Special Rapporteurs Michael Lynk and Tlaleng Mofokeng.

While noting that Israel has offered Palestinians with resident status in occupied East Jerusalem the vaccines, they noted however, that  it has not ensured that those under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza will have any near-future access to the vaccine.

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14/01/2021

Fewer Protections, Lower Wages, and Higher Health Risks: Homeworking in the COVID Era

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — The UN’s labour agency (ILO) on 13 January 2021 called for greater recognition and protection for the hundreds of millions of people who work from home, accounting for almost eight per cent of the global workforce even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Since movement restrictions linked to the global spread of the virus were implement in many countries, the number of people working from home has increased sharply, and that trend is expected to continue in coming years, despite the rollout of vaccines that began in late 2020.

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13/01/2021

EU: Respect Rights Amid Pandemic, Economic Downturn

Human Wrongs Watch

By Human Rights Watch*

Tackle Inequality, Abuses against Migrants, Autocratic Backsliding

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A nurse holds hands with a Covid-19 patient at the intensive care unit of Casal Palocco hospital in Rome, October 20, 2020.  ©2020 Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP

(Brussels) – The Covid-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the lives and rights of people across the European Union, Human Rights Watch on 13 January 2021 said in its World Report 2021.  

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13/01/2021

India: Growing Crackdown on Activists, Critics

Human Wrongs Watch

By Human Rights Watch*

Attacks on Muslims, Marginalized Groups; Abuses Persist in Kashmir

202012asia_india_wr

Indian migrant workers sit atop a bus as others walk along an expressway to return to their home villages during a nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, New Delhi, India, March 28, 2020. © 2020 Altaf Qadri/AP Photo

(New York) – The Indian government increasingly harassed, detained, and prosecuted activists, journalists, and others critical of the government or its policies, Human Rights Watch o 11 January 2021 said in its World Report 2021.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government brought politically motivated cases, including under broadly worded sedition and counterterrorism laws, against human rights defenders, student activists, academics, opposition members, and other critics.

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13/01/2021

Small Towns Are Bigger than We Think

Human Wrongs Watch

Innovative FAO study maps urban-rural catchment areas and points to ways to optimize policy and planning coordination for agriculture, services and agri-food systems

Source: ©FAO

 

Southern Africa’s rural-urban pattern.

ROME, 12 January 2021 (FAO)* — Fewer than one percent of the global population live in truly remote hinterlands, sharpening the need for better understanding of how urban forms impact food systems as well as social and economic development, according to ground-breaking new research by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the University of Twente.

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