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/Cox’s Bazar, 14 March 20214 (IOM)* -– The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is appealing for USD 119 million to support nearly a million Rohingya refugees in the world’s largest refugee settlement in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and the vulnerable community generously hosting them.
Nearly a million Rohingya refugees have sought temporary refuge in Cox’s Bazar. Women and children account for over 75 per cent of the refugee population. Photo: IOM Bangladesh
(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.
(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.
World Food Programme scrambles to respond to hunger crisis in Haiti amid funding crunch as country teeters on the brink
Photo: WFP/Antoine Vallas
PORT-AU-PRINCE, (WFP)* -– The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has on 12 March 2024 warned that Haiti is on the edge of a devastating hunger crisis, with humanitarian operations at risk of grinding to a halt, as rampant insecurity limits access to communities and donor funding dries up.
As fighting raging across the capital, WFP has been able to reach almost 300,000 people in the first ten days of March, delivering vital hot meals, food distributions, mobile money transfers and meals in schools.
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.
The Malaysian government is detaining about 12,000 migrants and refugees, including 1,400 children, in conditions that put them at serious risk of physical abuse and psychological harm.
(UN News)* —The plan by Israel’s Government to build more than 3,400 housing units in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank was condemned on Thursday [] by the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.
(UN News)* —At the current rate of investment, more than 340 million women and girls will still live in extreme poverty by 2030, according to UN Women.
As the world celebrates International Women’s Day on 8 March by investing in women, we look at what needs to be done to improve the economic situation of women around the world.
“This year’s theme – invest in women – reminds us that ending the patriarchy requires money on the table,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement for the International Day.
Geneva/ Berlin, 6 March 2024 (IOM)* -– At least 8,565 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2023, making it the deadliest year on record, according to data collected by IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.
In the ten years since the Missing Migrants Project was established, more than 63,000 deaths and disappearances have been documented worldwide. Illustration: Roberta Aita, IOM GMDAC
The 2023 death toll represents a tragic increase of 20 per cent compared to 2022, highlighting the urgent need for action to prevent further loss of life.
“As we mark the Missing Migrants Project’s ten years, we first remember all these lives lost. Every single one of them is a terrible human tragedy that reverberates through families and communities for years to come,” said IOM Deputy Director General Ugochi Daniels.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 