On March 21, the 193-member UN General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution—the first ever — on the promotion of “safe, secure and trustworthy” artificial intelligence (AI) systems that will also benefit “sustainable development for all”. Adopting a United States-led draft resolution, without a vote, the Assembly also highlighted the respect, protection and promotion of human rights in the design, development, deployment and the use of AI. The text was “co-sponsored” or backed by more than 120 other Member States
Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 25 2024 (IPS)* – Speaking at the third Summit for Democracy in South Korea last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that a malicious “flood” of disinformation is threatening the world’s democracies—triggered in part by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).
GENEVA (UN Human Rights) 22 March 2024 – UN experts* today expressed alarm about increasing reports of trafficking in persons, especially women and girls, for purposes of sexual exploitation and sexual slavery, child and forced marriage, and the recruitment of boys for participation in hostilities in Sudan, against the backdrop of the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the country that has caused an unprecedented mass displacement of over 9 million people.
Access to support for victims and survivors has reportedly deteriorated since December 2023, eight months after the outbreak of conflict between Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in April 2023, the experts said.
Geneva, 22 March 2024 (IOM)* — The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is profoundly shocked and alarmed by the discovery of at least 65 migrants’ bodies in a mass grave in Southwest Libya.
The circumstance of their death and nationalities remains unknown, but it is believed that they died in the process of being smuggled through the desert.
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Mar 19 2024 (IPS)* –– This year more than half the world’s population has the chance to go to the polls. That might make it look like the most democratic year ever, but the reality is more troubling.
Too many of those elections won’t give people a real say and won’t offer any opportunity for change.
Credit: Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images
2024’s bumper election year comes as a record number of countries are sliding towards authoritarianism, and global advances in democratisation achieved over more than three decades have been all but wiped out.
(UN News)* —Records were once again broken for greenhouse gas levels, surface temperatures, ocean heat and acidification, sea level rise, ice cover and glacier retreat, a new global report issued by the UN weather agency (WMO) on Tuesday [] shows.
Heatwaves,floods, droughts, wildfires and rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones caused misery and mayhem, upending everyday life for millions and inflicting many billions of dollars in economic losses, according to the WMOState of the Global Climate 2023 report.
“Sirens are blaring across all major indicators… Some records aren’t just chart-topping, they’re chart-busting. And changes are speeding up,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in a video message for the launch.
GENEVA (UN Human Rights)* 18 March 2024 –Twelve months into the armed conflict in Sudan, 24 million children are at risk of a generational catastrophe, and their rights to life, survival, protection, education, health, and development have all been gravely violated, a UN committee said.
To mark a year of brutality against Sudanese children, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) issued the following media statement, urging Sudan to immediately put an end to these grave violations and stop recruiting children to the armed forces.
(UN News)*, —Efforts are being made in the south of Madagascar to end a traditional but illegal practice in which girls are promised as a wife to older men, sometimes even before they are born.
UN News/Daniel Dickinson | Nodely Lehilaly regularly attends positive masculinity group sessions in his village in southern Madagascar.
The arranged marriage typically involves the exchange of a highly prized and culturally important Zebu cow for teenage girls as young as 13 years old.
Now two UN agencies UNICEF and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) are working together with the local authorities to educate women and also men, through sessions focusing on positive masculinity, about the dangers of the practice and how to treat women as equals.
(UN News)* — Amid a rising tide of anti-Muslim hate, top UN officials condemned the scourge on Friday [] as the General Assembly adopted a resolution to push back against it during commemorations marking the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.
The new resolution, tabled by Pakistan, calls for, among other things, concerted action to fight ongoing violence against Muslims and requests the UN Secretary-General to appoint a special envoy to combat Islamophobia.
The world body created the International Day through a resolution adopted following attacks on two mosques Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 51 people dead on this day in 2019.
Prior to adopting the new resolution, by a vote of 113 in favour to none against, with 44 abstentions, a divided Assembly rejected by a close margin two amendments proposed by a group of European nations.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Mar 13 2024 (IPS)* – Much higher interest rates – due to Western central banks – are suffocating developing nations, especially the poorest, causing prolonged debt distress and economic stagnation.
US Fed-induced stagnation
After the greatest US Fed-led surge in international interest rates in more than four decades, developing countries spent $443.5 billion to service their external government and government-guaranteed debt in 2022.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
The World Bank’s last International Debt Report showed most of the poorest countries in debt distress as borrowing costs began to surge.
The increase has cut into scarce fiscal resources, reducing social spending on health and education.
Debt-servicing costs for all developing countries in 2022 increased by 5% over 2021. The US Fed continued to raise interest rates through 2023, compounding debt distress, while the European Central Bank warns against ‘prematurely’ lowering interest rates.
Megaruma Displacement Site hosts some of those who have been displaced. Photo: IOM 2024/María Toro
Geneva/ Maputo, 8 March2024 (IOM)* -–More than 110,000 people have been displaced since end of last year (December 22) by the resurgence of attacks by non-state armed groups in a distressing escalation of violence in Cabo Delgado Province.
This alarming figure represents the second-largest wave of displacement in Cabo Delgado since the onset of the conflict in 2017, underscoring the deepening humanitarian crisis in the area. The violence has seen a horrifying increase, with affected communities bearing the brunt of these relentless attacks.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 