'Unseen' News and Views
(UN News)* — Nearly a third of all children in Haiti – numbering around 1.5 million – are in urgent need of emergency relief due to rising violence, insufficient access to clean water, health and nutrition, said the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF on 9 July 2021.
9 July 2021 (UNEP)* — When Elderman Ndubiwa Jabulani was invited to a consultation with a cross-sectoral group of local stakeholders from his native Zimbabwe and neighbouring Botswana, he was ready to talk about the elephant in the room.
Picking up the pieces is sadly routine for people such as Roda whose teashop was destroyed by fighting — the World Food Programme is at hand but requires urgent funds to assist
With her bare hands, Roda clears debris and forages scraps from her wrecked teashop after attackers scorched Gumuruk, a town in the Greater Jonglei region where conflict frequently disrupts daily life and stifles progress.
The 36-year-old mother of six is just one of countless South Sudanese stuck in a tiring cycle of destruction and rebuilding.
WWF and UNEP report says the problem is as much a development and humanitarian issue as a conservation concern and risks derailing the Sustainable Development Goals.
Gland (UNEP)* – Conflict between people and animals, from China’s famed wandering elephants raiding farms for food and water to wolves preying on cattle in Idaho is one of the main threats to the long-term survival of some of the world’s most emblematic species, warns a new report from WWF and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), out 8 July 2021.
(UN News)* — The world’s running out of time to limit global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius, a matter of life or death for climate vulnerable countries on the front line of the crisis, the UN Secretary General reiterated on 8 July 2021.
Speaking to the first Climate Vulnerable Finance Summit of 48 nations systemically exposed to climate related disasters, António Guterres said they needed reassurance that financial and technical support will be forthcoming.
“To rebuild trust, developed countries must clarify now, how they will effectively deliver $100 billion dollars in climate finance annually to the developing world, as was promised over a decade ago”, he said.
(UN News)* — A new study released on 8 July 2021 by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) illustrates the devastating impact of COVID-19 on victims and survivors of human trafficking and highlights the increased targeting and exploitation of children during the course of the pandemic.
The study further assesses how frontline organizations responded to the challenges posed and continued to deliver essential services, despite restrictions across and within national borders.
Meanwhile, traffickers took advantage of the global crisis, capitalizing on peoples’ loss of income and the increased amount of time both adults and children were spending online.
8 July 2021 (WMO)* — The record-breaking heatwave in parts of the US and Canada at the end of June would have been virtually impossible without the influence of human-caused climate change, according to a rapid attribution analysis by an international team of leading climate scientists. Climate change, caused by greenhouse gas emissions, made the heatwave at least 150 times more likely to happen.
– When the Bangladesh Forest Department felled Basanti Rema’s banana orchard, Rema, a Garo indigenous forest-dweller of Madhupur Forest, felt she was living a nightmare.
Indigenous people form a human chain in Tangail district, Bangladesh as they demand legal rights to their ancestral forest land. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS
Rema, from Pegmari village in Madhupur, Tangail district, had cultivated the banana plants on half an acre in the Madhupur Forest. But the Forest Department claimed that the land on which the bananas were cultivated belonged to the department.
Energy transit as the strategic opportunity for Serbia
7 July 2021 (Wall Street International)* — Based on the fact that three EU energy corridors pass through it, the Balkans nowadays represent a significant potential energy hub.
Along with the importance of Central-South-Eastern Electricity connection and the North-South gas interconnections and Oil supply, the justification in proving the statement could unambiguously be found in the emerging Southern Gas Corridor, which will supply the countries of Central and Western Europe with gas, and is expected to soon be not only a geopolitical but also an important energy bridge connecting Europe with the wider regions of the Caucasus and the Middle East.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 