'Unseen' News and Views
Illustration: Andrea Settimo © Transparency International
Foreign bribery has huge costs and consequences for countries across the globe – and those costs have become more severe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
9 December 2020 (UN News)* — Not only has the coronavirus crisis unleashed immense social and economic suffering, it has created opportunities for corruption to thrive, the UN Secretary-General has said, underscoring that measures to prevent and fight such unscrupulous activities must be included in recovery from the pandemic as well as in the development and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
(Athens) Thousands of asylum seekers, aid workers, United Nations, and Greek and European Union employees may be at risk of lead poisoning in a new migrant camp that Greek authorities have built on a repurposed military firing range on the island of Lesbos, Human Rights Watch said on 8 December 2020.
(New York) – The Bangladesh government should immediately halt imminent relocations of Rohingya refugees to remote Bhasan Char island, Human Rights Watch said on 3 December 2020.
Refugees held on Bhasan Char island protesting to return to Cox’s Bazar during a 3-day “go and see visit” to the island for 40 refugees from the camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, September 5, 2020. Screenshot from a video recording. © 2020 Private7 December 2020 – The head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), has voiced concerns over the reported relocation of some Rohingya refugees by Bangladeshi authorities, to an island off the country’s coast, in the Bay of Bengal. (*)
“Any transfer must follow a voluntary, informed decision”, Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said on Twitter on Sunday [7 December 2020].
According to media reports, about 1,600 Rohingya refugees have moved from camps in Cox’s Bazar to the Bhasan Char island in the Bay of Bengal, a low-lying island said to be vulnerable to cyclones and flooding.
8 December 2020 – Writer Neil Gaiman launches animated version of ‘What You Need to Be Warm’ to raise life-saving funds for Syrian refugees left out in the cold.
A submission for the Neil Gaiman #DrawForRefugees initiative. © UNHCR/Christina Clemis
(Stockholm) — Sales of arms and military services by the sector’s largest 25 companies totalled US$361 billion in 2019, 8.5 per cent more than in 2018. The largest companies have a geographically diverse international presence. This is according to new data released on 7 December 2020 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
“The rights and needs of women and adolescent girls in emergencies are often overlooked, and COVID-19 has made matters worse, with rising intimate partner violence, sexual violence and child marriage”, said Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
7 December 2020 (UNEP)* — The record-breaking wildfires that engulfed the western United States this year show the danger from global heating and ecosystem decline, but also light up opportunities for forest and landscape restoration to reduce the threat of catastrophic fires.
Altered rainfall patterns are lengthening fire seasons from the Mediterranean to Australia. Record heat and drought are sucking moisture from trees and undergrowth. And some regions are seeing more violent thunderstorms, whose lightning can provide a fateful spark.
Scientists say forest restoration and other natural solutions could provide up to one-third of the mitigation needed to keep global warming below 2°C.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 