'Unseen' News and Views
14 April 2022 (UN News)* — The world’s best-known coral reefs could be extinct by the end of the century unless we do more to make them resilient to our warming oceans.
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The 18th Free Land Camp is underway in Brasilia, with thousands of Indigenous People coming together for 10 days of non-violent, mass demonstrations to denounce the ongoing violations of their rights and to foster solidarity across Brazilian society.
Government Continues to Rip Up its Duties to Asylum Seekers
(HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH)* — Shirking its obligations to persons seeking asylum at its shores, the UK government has today [14 April 2022] signed an agreement with Rwanda to send asylum seekers crossing the English Channel there.
Under the new Asylum Partnership Arrangement, people arriving in the UK irregularly or who arrived irregularly since January 1, 2022 may be sent to Rwanda on a one-way ticket to have their asylum claim processed and, if recognized as refugees, to be granted refugee status there.
11 April 2022 (Wall Street International Magazine)* — One hundred years after World War I, Europe’s leaders are sleepwalking toward a new, all-out war. As in 1914, they believe that the war in Ukraine will be limited and short-lived.
In 1914, the word in Europe’s chancelleries was that the war would last three weeks. It lasted four years and resulted in more than 20 million deaths.
Credit: WHO
The study, elaborated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), found that, globally, not enough attention is being focused on the threat posed by antimicrobial resistance with most antibiotics being excreted into the environment via toilets or through open defecation.
A penguin stands on an iceberg in Yankee Harbour, Antarctica, February 18, 2018. Reuters/Alexandre Meneghini
The Conger ice shelf, which cleaved away from the eastern side of Antarctica in March, is the latest victim of rising temperatures at the Earth’s poles.
Experts say as the polar regions warm, more ice is likely to melt, potentially pushing up sea levels and inundating coastal communities.
Fully artificial food is an increasingly popular trend focused on developing a new line of synthetically produced, ultra-processed food products by using recent advances in synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology.
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These new products seek to imitate and replace animal products, food additives, and expensive, rare, or socially conflictive ingredients (such as palm oil).
(UN News)* — Decrying the erosion of democracy in Brazil, a UN expert has called for authorities to create and maintain a safe environment conducive to the exercise of the rights to peaceful assembly and association.
“I am concerned that in recent years there have been emerging trends limiting the enjoyment of these rights in all areas,” Clément Nyaletsossi Voule said on Monday [11 April 2022] in São Paulo, speaking at the end of a 12-day visit to South America’s largest country.
(UN News)* — The basic rights of older persons need to be protected today, more than ever before, said the UN human rights chief on Monday [11 April 2022], but existing legal safeguards render them, in effect, “invisible”.
Students eating lunch at Shivbhawani Primary School, Deulekh, Bajhang, Nepal. Credit: Marty Logan
Worldwide 388 million students, or 1 in 2 schoolchildren, received at least one meal or snack per day at school before the COVID-19 pandemic in what the World Food Programme (WFP), quoting the World Bank, calls the world’s “most extensive social safety net.”
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 