'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
With roadblocks continuing at the COP24 climate change conference over how to implement the historic 2015 Paris Agreement, United Nations chief António Guterres returned to Poland on 12 December 2018, to challenge the more than 100 Government leaders gathered in Katowice to find consensus and “finish the job.”
UNFCCC Secretariat/James Dowson | UN Secretary-General
“In my opening statement to this conference one week ago…I warned that climate change is running faster than we are and that Katowice must — in no uncertain terms — be a success, as a necessary platform to reverse this trend,” said Secretary-General Guterres.
12 December 2018 — Millions of jobs in the Asia and Pacific region have been put at risk by conflicts over trade, despite a recent agreement not to escalate tit-for-tat tariffs by the United States and China, according to a new regional UN report.
12 December 2018 — Nearly 30 million babies are born too soon, too small or become sick, requiring specialized care to survive beyond the first month of life, according to a new report by a global coalition that includes the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO).
“When it comes to babies and their mothers, the right care at the right time in the right place can make all the difference,” said Omar Abdi, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director. Yet,” he continued, “millions of small and sick babies and women are dying every year because they simply do not receive the quality care that is their right, and our collective responsibility.”
DAYLESFORD, Australia, 13 December 2018 – While it is now very late in the life cycle of homo sapiens, with extinction now due to consign us to Earth’s fossil record – see ‘Will humans be extinct by 2026?’ – I would like to make a belated pitch for the importance of the human individual and why nurturing each individual’s uniqueness is so important even if it is now probably too late.
Robert J. Burrowes
‘Why are you writing about this?’ you might ask, adding that many people accept that each one of us is unique, important and deserves the opportunities and support necessary to live a fulfilling life according to our own culture and choices.
It is just the sexists, racists, bigots (religious and otherwise), upper class, governments, corporations, members of the global elite, and some other categories of people, as well as many organizations, particularly those that are violent, that do not.
Well, I wish that this was true. But I am troubled by the overwhelming evidence that suggests it is not.
Key facts
7 December 2018 (WHO)* — More people can access essential health services today than ever before, but at least half of the world’s population still go without. Those living in the poorest countries, in the most marginalized communities, face the greatest challenges in access, the highest burden of disease, and the worst health outcomes.
Photo from WHO.
This year is an opportunity to stand up for their rights. It is the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, and the 70th anniversary of WHO. Both the Declaration and WHO’s Constitution, the organization’s founding document, assert that health is a fundamental right for all people.
These are the ABCs of what it will take to deliver the right to health.
Universal health care for all, leaving no one behind, by 2030: that’s the call going out on International Universal Health Coverage Day, which this year falls on Wednesday [12 December 2018]. Why 2030?
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Because that’s the target date for completion of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), one of which (SDG3), calls for the promotion of healthy lives and well-being for all.
The International Day is supported by UHC 2030, a global partnership consisting of Member States, several UN Agencies – including the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children’s’ Fund (UNICEF), and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) – and civil society organizations.
We should cherish dissenters trying to stop human rights abuses – not imprison them under anti-terrorism laws designed to prevent further Lockerbie bombings.
