(UN News)* — Decades of neglect and underinvestment in addressing people’s mental health needs have been exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN said on Thursday [13 May 2020], in a call for ambitious commitments from countries in the way they treat psychological illness, amid a potential global spike in suicides and drug abuse.
Spearheading the alert ahead of the upcoming World Health Assembly in Geneva, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the international community to do much more to protect all those facing mounting mental pressures.
Statement by the United Nations Network on Migration
UNICEF/UNI312751/Romenzi
GENEVA, 14 May 2020 (UNICEF)* – The United Nations Network on Migration is concerned by reports of States in many regions using forced return of migrants as a measure in response to COVID-19.
The Network calls on States to suspend forced returns during the pandemic, in order to protect the health of migrants and communities, and uphold the human rights of all migrants, regardless of status. Successfully tackling the pandemic cannot be achieved without upholding human rights.
10 May 2020 (Wall Street International)* — When the extreme contagion is over, when we have a vaccine or an effective treatment, when we can safely emerge from our individual cocoons, there will be another pandemic waiting for us.
As with the rampant physical illness currently ravaging our individual and community health, this new pandemic will affect everyone in ways that can be more debilitating and longlasting than the physical danger of the virus.
(New York) – Governments should take urgent steps to prevent racist and xenophobic violence and discrimination linked to the Covid-19 pandemic while prosecuting racial attacks against Asians and people of Asian descent, Human Rights Watch today [12 May 2020].
There is so much wrong with Donald Trump that one hardly knows where to start.
He is a bully, braggart, narcissist, racist, misogynist, habitual liar, and tax evader, in addition to being demonstrably ignorant. He has contempt for both domestic and international law, as well as for the US Constitution.
However, it is Trump’s climate change denial, withdrawal from the Paris agreement, and sponsorship of fossil fuels that pose the greatest threats to the future of human society and the biosphere.
The general support of the Republican Party for the fossil fuel industry is the reason why Prof. Noam Chomsky has called the party “the most dangerous organization in history”.
Trump’s Climate Change Denial
In a recent article, climate expert Dr. Andrew Glickson wrote:
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 2020 (IPS) – Although Wuhan local authorities undoubtedly ostracized local medical whistle-blowers, notably Dr Li Wenliang, who suspected a new virus was responsible for flu-like infections in Wuhan in late 2019, official responses were apparently not delayed, and possibly even expedited, as the novel character of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, responsible for Covid-19 infections, was not immediately self-evident.
11 May 2020 (FAO)* — Desert Locust upsurges aren’t a new phenomenon. Locusts are one of the oldest migratory pests in the world and have wreaked havoc on crops across the globe for centuries. When huge swarms infest many countries and spread across several regions or continents, it becomes a plague. A plague of Desert Locusts, the most destructive locust species of all, can easily affect 20 percent of the Earth’s land, potentially damaging the livelihoods of one tenth of the world’s population and seriously affecting food security.
So, what are the main things to know about Desert Locusts?
12 May 2020 (UN News)* — As the coronavirus outbreak enters its fifth month, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that the health crisis is “quickly becoming a child rights crisis”, requesting $1.6 billion to support its humanitarian response for children impacted by the pandemic. And without urgent action, a further 6,000 under-fives could die each day.
With a dramatic increase in the costs of supplies, shipment and care, the agency appeal is up from a $651.6 million request made in late March – reflecting the devastating socioeconomic consequences of the disease and families’ rising needs.
(UN News)* — A new report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) unveiled on Tuesday [12 May 2020], proposes that governments ensure immediate temporary cash transfers to help millions of people struggling to meet basic needs, as the massive fallout from COVID-19 ripples across the region’s economies.
Executive-Secretary Alecia Bárcena – launching the “The Social Challenge in Times of COVID-19” report, at a virtual press conference in Santiago, Chile – said these transfers should then be made permanent and extend to those who are at risk of being caught in the poverty trap. Such a step would pave the way towards a universal basic income, guaranteeing the basic right to survival, she said.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 