January 27, 2020 No comments
‘Green economy’ pioneer Pavan Sukhdev wins 2020 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement
INTERNATIONAL, 27 January 2020, Climate Change - Renowned environmental economist and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Goodwill Ambassador Pavan Sukhdev was awarded on Monday the 2020 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, recognizing his groundbreaking ‘green economy’ work. Mr. Sukhdev, who received the award alongside conservation biologist Gretchen C. Daily, was the Special Adviser and Head of UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative, a major project launched by then-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to demonstrate that greening of economies is not a burden on growth but rather a new engine for growing wealth, increasing decent employment, and reducing persistent poverty. He was also appointed Study Leader (2008-2010) of the landmark initiative on ‘The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity’ (TEEB), a global UNEP-hosted study. When the first TEEB report was published, during the peak of the 2008 global financial crisis, news outlets around the world began to dedicate headlines to the staggering cost of deforestation to the...
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January 27, 2020 No comments
Societies must unite against ‘global crisis of antisemitic hatred’, Guterres urges
INTERNATIONAL, 27 January 2020, Human Rights - Commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, and the six million Jews and others murdered on Nazi orders during the Holocaust, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told a ceremony in New York on Monday that the world must “re-commit to preventing any repetition of those crimes”. “Our solidarity in the face of hatred is needed today more than ever, as we see a deeply worrying resurgence in antisemitic attacks around the world, and, almost unbelievable, also around us here in New York”, he said on Monday, Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Kaddish resonates in the General Assembly Hall as the United Nations marks the 75th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. #HolocaustRemembrance Noting a rising trend in antisemitic hate...
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January 27, 2020 No comments
Libya: UN report urges accountability for deadly attack against migrant centre
INTERNATIONAL, 27 January 2020, Human Rights - Warring parties in Libya, as well as foreign governments supporting them, are being urged to investigate deadly airstrikes last July which killed at least 53 migrants and refugees at a detention centre in the northwest of the country. The appeal was made by the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the UN human rights office in Geneva, which on Monday published a joint report calling for accountability for the attack targeting the Daman building complex, which houses the detention centre. “As I have said previously, the Tajoura attack, depending on the precise circumstances, may amount to a war crime,” said Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “Libyans, migrants and refugees are trapped amid violence and atrocities that are in turn fuelled by impunity. Those guilty of crimes under international...
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January 26, 2020 No comments
End discrimination against women and children affected by leprosy
INTERNATIONAL, 26 January 2020, Health - Governments must put an end to the informal segregation and institutionalized neglect of hundreds of thousands of women and children affected by leprosy, an independent UN human rights expert said on Sunday, World Leprosy Day. “Too many women and children affected by leprosy – also known as Hansen's disease – are victims of stereotypes, physical and verbal abuse, delays of diagnosis and lack of adequate care”, declared Alice Cruz, UN Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members. The UN expert expressed concern over the “complete lack of specific plans by States to address the particular needs of women and children affected by leprosy and to end discrimination and violence against them”. Today is #WorldLeprosyDay....
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January 25, 2020 No comments
UN heath agency: The time is now to 'act as one' in fighting infectious coronavirus
INTERNATIONAL, 25 January 2020, Health - 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. 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. Virus infections have now been reported on four continents, including in Australia, France and the United States, among recent travelers to China. Several other countries in Asia have reported cases as well. WHO’s Regional Office for Europe has officially been notified of the first novel #coronavirus cases in Europe. Three cases have been...
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