'Unseen' News and Views
Credit: Amnesty International
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The rising new socialist movements—which included “Black Lives Matter,” “Occupy Wall Street” “Un-Occupy Palestine” and “the #Me Too Movement” triggering women’s marches— were aimed at battling racism, institutionalized inequalities, political repression and sexual harassment.
One billion small arms in circulation worldwide
5 February 2020 (UN News)* — Nearly 50 per cent of all violent deaths between 2010 and 2015, more than 200,000 each year, involved small arms and light weapons, the Security Council was told on Tuesday [5 February 2020], during a briefing by UN disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu.
– Counter-terrorism efforts adopted by governments around the world in response to threats of terrorism are affecting children negatively in numerous ways, a report by Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict (Watchlist) claimed last week.
4 February 2020 (UN News)* — Rising instability and unpredictable geopolitical tensions have led to a “wind of madness” across the world, Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday [4 February 2020] during his main annual press conference for journalists at UN Headquarters in New York.
Following recent flare-ups in some hotspots, the UN chief observed that although de-escalation efforts indicated progress, the situation has now changed.
“I have spoken about winds of hope. But today a wind of madness is sweeping the globe. From Libya to Yemen to Syria and beyond — escalation is back. Arms are flowing. Offensives are increasing”, he said.
4 February 2020 (UN News)* — “My flesh has been taken away, but I can never give away my heart”; those are the powerful words of resolve from Abida Dawud, one of three women survivors of female genital mutilation, or FGM, from Ethiopia, who have been speaking to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) about their experiences.
Indigenous and tribal communities are around three times more likely to face extreme poverty than others with women “consistently at the bottom of all social and economic indicators”, UN labour experts said on Monday [3 February 2020]. (*).
Highlighting new data showing that disproportionate numbers of indigenous people live on less than $1.90 a day – 18.2 per cent versus 6.8 per cent of non-indigenous people – the International Labour Organization (ILO) insisted that millions are being held back by a “spectre of poverty”.
Toward a new Universal Declaration of Human Rights
30 January 2020 (Wall Street International)* — Baruch de Spinoza, the great 17th century philosopher, wrote that the two basic human emotions (or “affections”, as he called them) are fear and hope, and he suggested that a balance needs to be struck between the two, because fear unmingled with hope leads to despair and hope unmingled with fear can lead to destructive self-confidence.
Draconian Migration Measures Put Lives, Rights at Risk
Migrants are crowded together on deck of the rescue ship “Eleonore” as it seaches for a safe port in the Mediterranean. The “Eleonore” took in the migrants on August 26, 2019 off the Libyan coast, as their boat was sinking © 2019 Johannes Filous/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images (Photo posted here from HRW’s article).
MILAN, Italy (Human Rights Watch)* – Italy’s Democratic Party-Five Star Movement coalition government should revoke anti-asylum and anti-rescue measures held over from the previous government, Human Rights Watch on 31 January said.
1 February 2020 (UN Environment)* — A new global study sheds light on how interactions between specific characteristics of catchments, such as carbon and pollution, affect aquatic plant diversity and function in freshwater environments.
Photo by Lars L Iversen
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Photosynthesis in many aquatic plants relies on bicarbonate (HCO3−) in addition to carbon dioxide (CO2). The study investigates the link between the two and their impact on plant distribution.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 