18 April 2018 — There is a threat to the future of humanity so silent that few people notice it, so pervasive that many families have suffered from it and so dangerous that it may soon be the leading cause of premature deaths worldwide.
Martin Khor
If climate change has now become more obvious and visible as the No.1 risk to our civilisation, antibiotic resistance will soon rival it as the gravest threat to human life and health.
Many friends have told me of how their relatives have contracted infections while staying in hospitals and could not be cured with a normal dose of antibiotics. Some of them have died.
For example, the mother of a close friend of mine died from MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) after a visit to the hospital for an unrelated minor ailment.
MRSA is an antibiotic-resistant pathogen that causes a variety of serious infections. It is well known for being spread in hospitals, but it is also a problem elsewhere in the community.
Panama City, 20 April, 2018 (UN Environment)* — Efforts to reduce dangerous air and climate pollutants by Latin American and Caribbean countries could reap immediate and long-term benefits for health, food security and the climate according to the first ever Integrated Assessment of Short-lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs) for the region.
Short-lived climate pollutants – which include black carbon (or soot), methane, ground level (tropospheric) ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – all have a global warming potential hundreds to thousands times that of carbon dioxide. Black carbon and ozone also seriously impact human and plant health.
New York, 17 April, 2018 –Yemeni government officials have tortured, raped, and executed migrants and asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa in a detention center in the southern port city of Aden, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities have denied asylum seekers an opportunity to seek refugee protection and deported migrants en masse to dangerous conditions at sea.
(Greenpeace International)*— Today, we’re celebrating a huge moment in the global movement for a plastic-free future: more than one million people around the world have called on big corporations to do their part to end single-use plastics.
Bucharest (IOM)* – IOM, the UN Migration Agency, is today (19/04/2018) kicking off an innovative multi-country project to provide resettled refugees with the building blocks to start their new life in Europe.
Skills profiling tool for refugees resettled to the UK, Germany, Portugal or Romania. | IOM
Initially targeting 500 Syrian refugees, the LINK IT project aims to link pre-departure and post-arrival support to facilitate the social and economic integration of resettled refugees in four European countries: the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal and Romania.
Rome, 18 April 2018 (FAO)* – The body charged with keeping global trade in plants and plant products safe has adopted several new phytosanitary standards aimed at preventing destructive agricultural and environmental pests from jumping borders and spreading internationally.
A male Gypsy Moth, a voracious tree pest capable of defoliating millions of acres of forest in a single year. |Source: FAO.
The standardized norms developed by the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) cover a range of strategies and techniques used to prevent the introduction and spread of plant diseases and pests to new environments, thereby avoiding their often-devastating impacts on biodiversity, food security and trade.
Robotics may soon be a critical ally in the fight against disease-spreading bugs, a United Nations agency on 19 April 2018 said after a successful test releasing sterile mosquitos from aerial drones as part of efforts to suppress the insect that spreads Zika and other diseases.
N. Culbert/IAEA | ROMEO, a customized drone, soars through the sky to help control disease-carrying mosquitoes to save lives. | Source: UN News Centre
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The drone-based mechanism overcomes a critical bottleneck in the application of Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) to control insect pests, said the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which developed the system in partnership with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the non-profit group WeRobotics.
While the world economy continues to show broad-based momentum, a new report released on 17 April 2018 by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is warning that there may be choppy seas ahead, caused by increasing protectionism or tit-for-tat trade wars.
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Dominic Sansoni/World Bank | Quay cranes on docks in Sri Lanka. The global economy is critically dependent on the international merchant fleet of carriers and tankers to keep commodities moving swiftly, safely and efficiently. ” Source: UN News Centre
17 April, 2018 (UN Women)*— Indigenous peoples live across 90 countries, represent 5,000 different communities and speak a majority of the worlds languages. They account for less than 6 per cent of the world’s population, but make up 15 per cent of the poorest worldwide.
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Photos: UN Women/Ryan Brown
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As more than 1,000 indigenous representatives come together in New York for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, this year focusing on the theme “Indigenous peoples’ collective rights to lands, territories and resources”, we’re highlighting some of the groundbreaking women activists from indigenous communities around the world.
18 April 2018 — With multiple crises forcing millions of people away from their homes, United Nations agencies, Governments and partners have launched a set of measures to strengthen protection of internally displaced persons as well as find solutions to address their problems.
UNAMID/Hamid Abdulsalam | Displaced persons, mostly women and children, seek refuge at a safe zone in Um Baru, north Darfur. By the end of 2016, conflict and rights abuses displaced over 40 million globally. The same year, disasters forced another 24 million from their homes.
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“Addressing the protection needs of the forcibly displaced and seeking solutions to their plight contribute to greater stability for countries and whole regions,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in a news release announcing the three-year Plan of Action.
