14 January 2020 (UN Environment)* – Megafires, typically defined as covering more than 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares or 400 square kilometres), are accelerated by high temperatures and drought. By the close of 2019, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Russian Federation and the United States all experienced megafires on what many have called unprecedented scales.
The Australian 2019–2020 bushfire season is already on track to be one of the worst on record. The twin weather extremes of drought and heatwaves, driven by climate change, only increase the risk of recurring catastrophic fire seasons for Australia. Taking climate action is necessary if we don’t want this to become the new normal.
26 January 2020 (Wall Street International)* — I would like to announce the publication of a book1, which reviews the lives and thoughts of some of the women and men who have addressed the crucial problems of ecology and sustainability that we are currently facing. I have tried to let them speak to us in their own words.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 24 2020 (IPS)* – The UN’s ongoing cash crisis, which has virtually destabilized the Organization’s day-to-day operations, has also undermined the human rights mandate of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC).
A meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Credit: UN / Jean-Marc Ferré
Aligning inclusive, quality education with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was centre-stage on Friday 24 January 2020[], as the President of the UN General Assembly held a high-level interactive meeting for the International Day of Education. (*).
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe | Young women return home after classes in the town of Bol in Chad.
“The education sector is wrestling with mammoth challenges worldwide”, said Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, in his message for the day.
25 January 2020 (UN News)* — Following confirmed cases of the Novel coronavirus in Europe, the United Nations health agency released a statement on the need for the international community to work together as one to combat the infectious disease.
UN News/Jing Zhang | Airport workers wear face masks at China’s Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport.
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The evolving outbreak that began in China is “a sign that every country needs to be ready to timely detect and manage outbreaks of any type”, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday [25 January 2020].
Castillo, who participates in the World Encounter Against Imperialism, remarked that there is a systematic massacre occurring in his country.
Demonstrators take part in a protest against the government of Colombia’s President Ivan Duque, in Bogota, Colombia, January 21, 2020. | Photo: Reuters (Photo posted here fromteleSUR).
23 January 2020 (teleSUR)* — Colombia’s Indigenous people are outraged at the death of more than 20 social leaders inside South American country, the counselor of the Indigenous Youth of Colombia , Eliel Castillo, said this week.
The head of the UN health agency, WHO (World Health Organization), declared on Thursday [23 January 2020] that the respiratory disease Novel Coronavirus, is not yet an official Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), but warned that is an emergency in China.*
UN News/Jing Zhang | People wear face masks as they wait at China’s Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport arrivals.
However, after two days of deliberations, the WHO Emergency Committee, which advises the head of the agency, was divided on whether to declare a PHEIC.
24 January 2020 (RT)* — The World Health Organization (WHO) held off designating a new fast-spreading coronavirus as an international health threat, but did deem it a crisis within China, where the pathogen has infected some 830 people and killed 26.
The world is “doomed” in the face of climate change unless major industrial nations reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday [23 January 2020]. (*).
World Economic Forum/Boris Baldinger | UN Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.
(UN News)* — Myanmar must take steps to protect its minority Rohingya population, the top UN court unanimously ruled on Thursday [23 January 2020].
ICJ-CIJ/Wendy van Bree | Judges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague consider the case against Myanmar.
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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) also ordered authorities to prevent the destruction of evidence related to genocide allegations.
The case against Myanmar was brought to the ICJ in November by The Gambia, on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), arguing that the mainly-Muslim Rohingya had been subjected to genocide.
