A participant examines pamphlet at the 15th Annual International Human Rights Summit 2018, which focused on Youth for Human Rights. UN Photo/Loey Felipe
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10 December 2020 (United Nations)* — The Universal Declaration of Human Rights holds the Guinness World Record as the most translated document. Yet, far too many people are still unaware of their basic rights as human beings.
Drafted by representatives of diverse legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration sets out universal values and a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. It establishes the equal dignity and worth of every person.
10 December 2020 (United Nations)*— Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December — the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Green pandemic recovery essential to close climate action gap – UN report
Nairobi, 9 December 2020 (UNEP)* – A green pandemic recovery could cut up to 25 per cent off predicted 2030 greenhouse gas emissions and bring the world closer to meeting the 2°C goal of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report finds.
UNEP’s annual Emissions Gap Report 2020 finds that, despite a dip in 2020 carbon dioxide emissions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is still heading for a temperature rise in excess of 3°C this century.
In Ukraine, youth work on anti-corruption. We are promoting collective action against corruption through multi-stakeholder engagement with governments, businesses and civil society and empowering communities, with a focus on women and youth to strengthen social accountability. Photo: UNDP Ukraine
This International Anti-Corruption Day is an opportunity for us to recommit to collective action in preventing and addressing corruption, as we reflect on the devastating consequences of COVID-19 on governance institutions, the economy, and society.
9 December 2020 (UN News)* — Not only has the coronavirus crisis unleashed immense social and economic suffering, it has created opportunities for corruption to thrive, the UN Secretary-General has said, underscoring that measures to prevent and fight such unscrupulous activities must be included in recovery from the pandemic as well as in the development and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
World Bank/Philip Schuler | A billboard in Namibia, which calls on everyone to neither offer nor accept bribes.
(New York) – The Bangladesh government should immediately halt imminent relocations of Rohingya refugees to remote Bhasan Char island, Human Rights Watch said on 3 December 2020.
7 December 2020 – The head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), has voiced concerns over the reported relocation of some Rohingya refugees by Bangladeshi authorities, to an island off the country’s coast, in the Bay of Bengal. (*)
UNICEF/Roger Lemoyne | Shelters housing Rohingya refugees at the Unchiprang camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. (file photo)
“Any transfer must follow a voluntary, informed decision”, Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said on Twitter on Sunday [7 December 2020].
According to media reports, about 1,600 Rohingya refugees have moved from camps in Cox’s Bazar to the Bhasan Char island in the Bay of Bengal, a low-lying island said to be vulnerable to cyclones and flooding.
8 December 2020 – Writer Neil Gaiman launches animated version of ‘What You Need to Be Warm’ to raise life-saving funds for Syrian refugees left out in the cold.
“A baked potato of a winter’s night to wrap your hands around or burn your mouth. A blanket knitted by your mother’s cunning fingers. Or your grandmother’s. A smile, a touch, trust, as you walk in from the snow or return to it, the tips of your ears pricked pink and frozen.”
(Stockholm) — Sales of arms and military services by the sector’s largest 25 companies totalled US$361 billion in 2019, 8.5 per cent more than in 2018. The largest companies have a geographically diverse international presence. This is according to new data released on 7 December 2020 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. Photo: Flickr/Robert Sullivan
7 December 2020 (UNEP)* — The record-breaking wildfires that engulfed the western United States this year show the danger from global heating and ecosystem decline, but also light up opportunities for forest and landscape restoration to reduce the threat of catastrophic fires.
Reuters / Mario Anzuoni / 01 Dec 2020 (Posted here fromUNEP’s article).
Altered rainfall patterns are lengthening fire seasons from the Mediterranean to Australia. Record heat and drought are sucking moisture from trees and undergrowth. And some regions are seeing more violent thunderstorms, whose lightning can provide a fateful spark.
Scientists say forest restoration and other natural solutions could provide up to one-third of the mitigation needed to keep global warming below 2°C.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 