03/02/2021
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb 3 2021 (IPS)* – Access to COVID-19 vaccines for many developing countries and most of their people will have to wait as the powerful and better off secure earlier access regardless of need or urgency. More profits, by manufacturing scarcity, will surely cause even more loss of both lives and livelihoods.
Credit: UNICEF/Nahom Tesfaye
Good intentions not enough
To induce private efforts to develop and distribute vaccines, the WHO initiated COVAX to ensure more equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. However, interest by vaccine companies has been limited, while some governments – especially from better-off upper middle-income countries – pursue other options.
COVAX has been co-led with GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Buoyed by their earlier success with advance market commitments (AMC), they have extended the same approach in very different circumstances.
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03/02/2021
The International Organization for Migration Helps Prevent the Spread of COVID-19 among Brazilian Indigenous and Riverside Communities
Indigenous and riverside communities in northern Brazil are receiving hygiene and cleaning kits to help them prevent COVID-19. Photo: IOM/Daniel Boechat
Brasília (IOM)* – Indigenous, rural, and riverside communities in northern Brazil comprise the most vulnerable populations to the spread of COVID-19. Due to economic and transportation restrictions in place across such communities, locals’ access to health, hygiene and cleaning products is limited, making it difficult to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
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03/02/2021
Poor and vulnerable communities across the world, including the forcibly displaced, struggle with the pandemic’s far-reaching consequences.
Regina lost her job as a physical therapist in Pretoria, South Africa, in the pandemic and now relies on food parcels from the Somali business community to feed her family.
© UNHCR/Helene Caux
3 February 2021 (UNHCR)* — In a data visualization project entitled ‘Livelihoods, food and futures: COVID-19 and the displaced,’ UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, collated statistics from numerous sources to shed more light on the effects of the pandemic on poor and vulnerable people, including refugees.
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03/02/2021
(UN News)* — Although almost 50,000 victims of human trafficking were detected and reported in 2018 by 148 countries, the “hidden nature” of the crime means that the actual number of victims could be “far higher”, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Tuesday [2 February 2021].
UNICEF/Michele Sibiloni | The COVID-19 pandemic has created conditions making it easier for vulnerable people to become victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking.
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Migrants and people without jobs were among the groups most targeted by human traffickers, UNODC added, warning that the economic fallout and job losses due to the coronavirus pandemic have exposed millions more to the risk.
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03/02/2021
(UN News)* — The UN Special Envoy on Myanmar appealed on Tuesday [2 February 2021] for the Security Council to unite in support of democracy in the country in the wake of the recent power grab by the military and the declaration of a one-year state of emergency.
World Bank/Markus Kostner | Bagan, Myanmar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Christine Schraner Burgener addressed ambassadors during a closed meeting held the day after Myanmar’s military seized power and detained top political leaders and activists, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint.
“More than ever, this Council’s unity is crucial”, she said, according to remarks shared afterwards.
“I strongly condemn the recent steps taken by the military and urge all of you to collectively send a clear signal in support of democracy in Myanmar.”
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02/02/2021
HYDERABAD, Feb 2 2021 (IPS)* – Yangon resident Ni Ni Aye walked to her office yesterday morning. A couple of hours before, the army had staged a coup by seizing power and declaring a state of emergency in Myanmar. Ni Aye, an employee of one of Yangon’s largest technology firms, tried to call her colleagues and family, but phone services were down. So, she decided to walk to the office and see what was happening.
Central Yangon, Myanmar (file photo). According to locals there is a high level of uneasy calm right now and the army has focused on taking control of the capital Nay Pyi Taw. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS
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02/02/2021
2 February 2021 (UN News)* — The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has voiced “deep fears” of a violent crackdown on dissenting voices in Myanmar, where the military assumed all powers and declared a state of emergency after overthrowing the civilian government and arresting top political leaders, on Monday [1 February 2021].
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World Bank/Markus Kostner | The skyline of Yangon, Myanmar. (file photo)
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“Given the security presence on the streets in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, as well as in other cities, there are deep fears of a violent crackdown on dissenting voices”, High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said in a statement on Monday.
“I remind the military leadership that Myanmar is bound by international human rights law, including to respect the right to peaceful assembly, and to refrain from using unnecessary or excessive force”, she added.
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02/02/2021
In this interview for Pacifica Radio’s Covid, Race and Democracy, Ajamu Baraka warned of a new era of totalitarian neoliberalism.
“Anybody who is in opposition to the hegemony of the neoliberal project is at some point over the next few years going to experience the heavy hand of the state.”
Ann Garrison: On January 20, we saw Joe Biden carry on about “unity” behind seven-foot fences topped with razor wire and 25,000 plus National Guard troops deployed . One friend of mine said that this pointed to an irony deficiency. Is there anything you’d like to say about it?
Ajamu Baraka: Well, I think it is ironic, but it’s quite understandable that the kinds of activities that the US has been involved in promoting and supporting globally—undermining democracies, subverting states, undermining and destroying any semblance of the rule of law—have basically come back to haunt them.
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02/02/2021
Colourful coral colonies make up some of the earth’s most diverse ecosystems. ©Gregory Piper/Coral Reef Image Bank
2 February 2021 (FAO)* — Coral is one of the treasures of the sea, whether it’s illuminating the shallow tropical waters of the Caribbean or hidden in the darker depths of the Pacific Ocean.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 