(UN News)* — Afghanistan’s economy is in “free fall”, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator told a special meeting on Sunday [19 December 2021], warning that if decisive and compassionate action is not taken immediately, it may “pull the entire population with it”.
Speaking virtually to the 17th Extraordinary Session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad, Pakistan, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths painted a grim picture of 23 million people facing hunger; malnourished children overflowing in health facilities; 70 per cent of teachers working without salaries; and millions of students – Afghanistan’s future – out of school.
17 December 2021 (UN News)* – In a message just ahead of International Migrants Day, celebrated on Saturday [18 December], the United Nations Secretary-General said that expressing solidarity with migrants on the move, “has never been more urgent.”
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PAHO/Karen González | Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Venezuelan migrant refugees have faced numerous challenges in Colombia.
Today, more people than ever live in a country other than the one where they were born. While many individuals migrate out of choice, many others leave home out of necessity.
Approximately 281 million people were international migrants in 2020, representing 3.6 per cent of the global population.
New UNEP report provides a guide to increase resource efficiency in cities through circularity, better connectivity, ecosystem restoration, among others.
If no action is taken, by 2050 cities in the LAC region will consume two to four times more resources over the limits of sustainability.
Panama, 13 December 2021 (UNEP)* – If a sustainable transformation is pursued within this decade, Latin American and Caribbean cities can halve their consumption of natural resources such as fossil fuels, minerals and food, while succeeding in the fight against poverty and inequality, according to a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
13 December 2021 (Wall Street International)* — Last month, I read a newspaper story that called the future of automobiles electric; and it quoted an electric vehicle (EV) owner who worries “only about replacing his tires, wiper blades and air filter.”
(UN News)*— The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday [7 December 2021]launched an appeal for a record $9.4 billion as attacks against children continue to rise. Close to 24,000 grave violations against youngsters were confirmed last year, or 72 violations a day, according to the agency, in its largest ever appeal for funding.
The appeal is 31 per cent larger than last year’s campaign, as humanitarian needs continue to grow globally, exacerbated by conflict, the climate crisis and now the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Millions of children around the world are suffering from the impacts of conflict, extreme weather events and the climate crisis,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
(UN News)* — The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said on Tuesday [7 December 2021] that the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has become “disastrous”, with severe infringements occurring effecting some four million people.
MADRID, Dec 6 2021 (IPS) – ”All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” These words are a sound introduction to the transcendental issue of human rights and equalities, as stated by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
The Declaration proclaims the “inalienable rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being – regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”
In 1906, in response to the British Administration in the Transvaal, South Africa passing the Asiatic Law Amendment Act designed to enforce registration of the colony’s male Asian population, Mohandas K. Gandhi led a group of fellow satyagrahis (nonviolent activists) to defy the just-introduced ‘pass law’: they publicly burned their passes.
In the seven year campaign that followed, thousands of Indians were jailed (including Gandhi himself) and activists were flogged or even shot for striking, refusing to register, burning their registration cards, or engaging in other forms of nonviolent resistance. Nevertheless, the campaign was eventually won.
(UN News)* — The UN’s top human rights official on Monday [6 December 2021]condemned the imprisonment of Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi by a military-controlled court, and called for her release. She also faces additional charges of corruption and electoral fraud.
ICJ/Frank van Beek | Aung San Suu Kyi appears at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 10 December 2019.
.The development follows media reports that a military vehicle slammed into demonstrators in the city of Yangon over the weekend, leaving an unknown number injured and at least five dead.
A shift to wind energy is leaving a trail of destruction in Ecuador, with a brutal impact on Indigenous communities and fragile ecosystems | ESPAÑOL
An island on the Pastaza river seen from the community of Sharamentsa in the Ecuadorian Amazon | Francesc Badia i Dalmases
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1 December 2021 (openDemocracy)* — What has the destruction of balsa trees in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest got to do with the wind power industry in Europe?
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 