Archive for ‘Mother Earth’

24/11/2020

‘COVID-19 Is Overshadowing What Has Become a “Pandemic of Femicide” and Related Gender-Based Violence against Women and Girls’

UN Women/Alfredo Guerrero | Labels with the names of victims of femicide, as well as the ‘unknown’ represent the victims of femicide at an exhibition in Mexico.

Ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, marked on 25 November, Ms. Šimonović said the rise in femicides and violence was “taking the lives of women and girls everywhere” around the world, as the coronavirus continues to rage out of control. 

23/11/2020

Carbon Dioxide Levels Hit New Record; COVID Impact ‘a Tiny Blip’ – World Meteorological Organization

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere hit a new record of 410.5 parts per million in 2019, and are expected to keep rising this year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin on Monday [23 November 2020].  

Unsplash/Johannes Plenio | Carbon dioxide levels continue at record levels, despite the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
“We breached the global threshold of 400 parts per million in 2015. And just four years later, we crossed 410 ppm. Such a rate of increase has never been seen in the history of our records. The lockdown-related fall in emissions is just a tiny blip on the long-term graph. We need a sustained flattening of the curve”, WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement. 
22/11/2020

The End of Illusion for Indigenous Peoples in Colombia

Human Wrongs Watch

20 November 2020 (IWGIA)* — The Peace Agreement signed in 2016 between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) raised hopes among the Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant populations and peasant communities that they might henceforward be able to live in peace on their territories.

Demonstration of Indigenous Peoples in Colombia. Photo: Archivo Semana

 However, Iván Duque’s new government has not fulfilled its side of the agreement and, far from incorporating areas abandoned by the guerrilla into the institutional life of the country, the end result is that these areas have been left to their own devices.

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22/11/2020

The Surprising Link between the Fight against Drugs, Land Dispossession and Attacks on Indigenous Rights Defenders in Peru

22/11/2020

Yemen Is in “Imminent Danger of the Worst Famine the World Has Seen for Decades”

‘Act urgently’ to stave off catastrophic famine in Yemen: UN chief to international community

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YPN for UNOCHA | A family in the Al Dhale’e camp for people displaced by the conflict in Yemen.

(UN News)* — Yemen is in “imminent danger of the worst famine the world has seen for decades”, the UN chief warned in a statement released on Friday [20 November 2020], calling for urgent action on the part of the international community to “stave off catastrophe”.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that without immediate action to protect civilians battered and starved, after more than five years of grinding civil conflict, “millions of lives may be lost.”

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21/11/2020

The Silence of the International Community on Western Sahara

Human Wrongs Watch

TINDOUF, Algeria, Nov 16 2020 (IPS)* – For my entire life, I have been forgotten. I am a Sahrawi refugee, born and raised in the Algerian desert, where my people have remained displaced for 45 years, awaiting the moment when we can finally return to our homeland, Western Sahara.

Women-in-Smara-camp_

Women in Smara camp – the largest of the five refugee camps – collect their monthly distribution of produce from humanitarian agencies. For many families, these are the only fresh vegetables they have access to, resulting in widespread health conditions related to nutritional deficiencies among the refugee population. Credit: Adad Ammi via Oxfam International

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21/11/2020

Kids United Sings against Child Labour

Human Wrongs Watch

French youth music group, Kids United New Generation, has lent their voices to the ILO’s global campaign to end child labour. Their latest song highlights the urgent need to take action and calls on governments and organizations around the world to do more. español | français | Türkçe 

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GENEVA, 20 November 2020  (ILO)* – The French musical group, Kids United New Generation , have joined the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) campaign to end child labour.

The singers have dedicated their latest song, Take a Stand, to the UN International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour , scheduled for 2021.

The new song highlights the urgent need to take action to address the problem and calls on governments and organizations around the world to do more.

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21/11/2020

This World Children’s Day, ‘Reimagine a Better Future’, for Every Child

UNICEF/Dejongh | A girl writes on a blackboard at a school in Fada, eastern Burkina Faso, after returning to her class. Schools in the country had been closed for months due to COVID-19 mitigation measures.

In a joint message, President of the European Parliament David Sassoli and UNICEFExecutive Director Henrietta Fore called for urgent investment to protect children’s futures.

As the world responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, “the rights of every child everywhere, need to come first in any recovery plan”, they stated.

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20/11/2020

A Six-Point Plan to Protect Our Children – World Children’s Day

Human Wrongs Watch

Global coordination is urgently needed to prevent the COVID-19 crisis from becoming a child-rights crisis.

A woman in Indonesia feeds her one-year-old son during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
UNICEF/UNI374528/Ijazah

(UNICEF)* — In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, governments around the world have mobilized billions of dollars to save their economies. But there is another impending and devastating loss if we do not act: a lost generation of children.

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20/11/2020

The Value of Nature

Photo: UNEP / 20 Nov 2020

20 November 2020 (UNEP)* — It is a global rallying cry for everyone – from governments to multinational companies, to school children – to get involved in reviving damaged ecosystems.

To mark World Children’s Day, which is 20 November, the United Nations Environment Programme recreated the journey of one young girl as she learns about the value of the natural world and how to protect it.

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