At 22 pages, the current draft text contains 32 draft articles which will be discussed in fine detail, according to the UN. The text is designed to shape the future instrument and will serve as a starting point for negotiations. For 10 days from 5-14 August, delegations from 179 countries will pore over the text as they meet at UN Geneva, alongside more than 1,900 other participants from 618 observer organizations including scientists, environmentalists and industry representatives.
Plastic garbage is offloaded from a fishing boat on the east coast of China. Credit: UNEP/Justin Jin
GENEVA, Aug 12 2025 (IPS)** –– The future plastics treatyis being sold as potentially an environmental breakthrough. But in its current form during this week’s negotiations, it contains adangerous flawthat must be addressed before the final text is agreed — or it could undercut the world’s most widely ratified health treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), and hand the tobacco industry the tools to expand its market under the banner of environmental action.
Land degradation and drought are fueling a hidden health crisis – but we still have time to act. When we speak of desertification or drought, we often think of dry rivers, cracked soil and failed harvests.
But there is another, less visible toll – one that strikes deep into the lungs, hearts and daily lives of the world’s most vulnerable people.
A new policy brief from the UNCCD reveals the far-reaching health impacts of land degradation and drought — and it delivers a stark message: the health of the planet and the health of people are inseparable.
Around the world, land is deteriorating at an alarming pace.
Between 2015 and 2019, more than 100 million hectares of productive land were lost each year. That’s an area roughly the size of Egypt — gone annually.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Aug 12 2025 (IPS)* –– The accumulation of still growing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in an increasingly unequal world is accelerating planetary heating. It is also worsening disparities, especially between the rich and others, both nationally and internationally.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Unequal emissions In our grossly unequal world, international disparities account for two-thirds of overall income inequalities.
National income aggregates and averages can mislead by obscuring significant disparities within countries.
Meanwhile, GHG emissions continue to grow as their accumulation accelerates planetary heating.
Emissions disparities within nations now account for almost two-thirds of worldwide emissions inequality, nearly doubling from slightly over a third in 1990.
The bottom halves of rich country populations are already at – or close to – the 2030 per capita carbon dioxide equivalent emission targets set by their governments. Yet North America’s wealthiest 10% or decile are the world’s biggest GHG emitters.
The sheer, unrelenting horror unfolding in Gaza is not unique in its scale of human suffering. Sudan has endured catastrophic famine for over a year, reaching the same “fifth stage of starvation” Gaza now tragically enters.
Every second of august, under the GENOCOST celebration , the Congolese community and its allies around the world come together to honor the memory of the victims of the Congolese genocide.
(UN News)* — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned the killing of six Palestinian journalists in Gaza this past weekend, his Spokesman said on Monday [].
The reporters – five of whom worked for the Al Jazeera media network – were killed in a targeted Israeli strike in Gaza City the previous day.
“These latest killings highlight the extreme risks journalists continue to face when covering the ongoing war,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said during his regular media briefing from New York.
“The Secretary-General calls for an independent and impartial investigation into these latest killings.”
N’Djamena, Chad, 8 August 2025 – In a country where legal frameworks are still taking root and taboos around human trafficking and exploitation run deep, Julienne Deyo stands as a determined force. A lawyer by training and justice advocate by conviction, she has been at the frontlines of the Chad’s fight against human trafficking since 2018.
Now Chair of the National Commission to Combat Trafficking in Persons and Director of Legal Affairs at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Madame Deyo leads with both a steady resolve and a heart marked by the suffering she’s witnessed.
“It started with the stories of young boys,” she recalls. “Children sold off to cattle herders, sent into the bush, far from their families, walking behind herds. Some were bitten by snakes and died alone. No one seemed to care. How can anyone stay unmoved?”
Madame Deyo’s focus is as much on the survivors as it is on building a foundation that prevents such abuse from happening again. Illustration: AI-generated image
Indigenous peoples consider 22% of the world’s land surface their home. They live in areas where around 80% of the planet’s biodiversity is found on not-commercially-exploited land. UN Composition with photographs by Manuel Elias, Alessia Pierdomenico, Evan Schneider and Marcel Crozet (left to right.)
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Young Indigenous Activists Fight to Save Their Languages and Cultures | United Nations
An estimated 476 million Indigenous Peoples live across 90 countries, representing 5,000 different cultures.
Without proper safeguards, AI risks harming Indigenous rights through inequitable distribution of the groundbreaking technology, environmental damage and the reinforcement of damaging colonial legacies.
The growing amount of electricity generation needed for AI data centres and other infrastructure is also intensifying climate change pressures, according to the UN.
Sana’a, Yemen — Fourteen men and four women set off from the Horn of Africa, drifting into the unknown across the sea.
After surviving the journey to Yemen, Sennait gave birth at a migrant centre and now hopes to rebuild her life with her baby. Photo: AI-generated image
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Among them was Sennait*, a 20-year-old Ethiopian woman carrying the weight of her father’s recent death and the scars of a harrowing trek from her village to the coastal town of Bossaso.
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Her life had once been simple. She went to school, laughed with friends, and helped her father tend their small farm.
(UN News)* — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed grave concern over Israel’s decision to “take control of Gaza City”, his Spokesperson said in a statement on Friday [].
The announcement following an Israeli cabinet meeting “marks a dangerous escalation and risks deepening the already catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians, and could further endanger more lives, including of the remaining hostages,” it said.
The statement noted that Palestinians in Gaza continue to endure a humanitarian catastrophe of horrific proportions.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 