November 29, 2021 No comments
World ‘dangerously unprepared’ for future pandemics unless leaders tackle inequalities, UNAIDS warns
INTERNATIONAL, 29 November 2021, Health - Unless leaders tackle stark inequalities, the world could face 7.7 million AIDS-related deaths over the next 10 years, the Joint UN Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) warned on Monday in a new report. In an urgent call to action ahead of World AIDS Day on 1 December, the agency focused on ending the disease as a public health threat by 2030, said that if transformative measures are not taken, the world will stay trapped in the COVID-19 crisis and remain dangerously unprepared for all future pandemics. Infection every 2 minutes The message comes as the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that at least 310,000 children were newly infected with HIV in 2020, or one child every two minutes. Another 120,000 children died from AIDS-related...
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November 29, 2021 No comments
Financing sustainable development needed more than ever, says UN deputy chief Mohammed
INTERNATIONAL, 29 November 2021, SDGs - Securing the funding needed for sustainable development by involving as many actors from different sectors as possible, is more urgent than ever, amid a widening “trust deficit” between the haves and the have-nots, the UN Deputy Secretary-General said on Monday. Speaking at the Building Bridges Summit for sustainable finance in Geneva, Amina Mohammed urged all those present from Government, the private sector, international organisations and civil society, to do more to push ahead with a common investment framework to improve people’s lives everywhere. More ambition, action “We need more ambition, more action, more scale, greater urgency in delivering the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement – and we certainly need more fuel, more financial resources and more investments,” she said. “The good news is that we already have...
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November 29, 2021 No comments
UN chief calls for nuclear weapons-free Middle East
INTERNATIONAL, 29 November 2021, Peace and Security - The UN Secretary-General on Monday called on all Middle East States to transform the vision of a region with no nuclear weapons, or other weapons of mass destruction, into a working reality. Antonio Guterres was speaking in New York at the second session of the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction. Since 1967, five such zones have been established around the world: Latin America and the Caribbean, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Africa and Central Asia. They include 60 per cent of all UN Member States and cover almost all of the Southern Hemisphere. For the Secretary-General, expanding such zones would help build a safer world. “That is particularly the case in the Middle East, where concerns over nuclear programmes persist, and where conflicts and civil wars are causing widespread civilian casualties...
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November 29, 2021 No comments
IOM scales up aid at EU-Belarus border, as migrant hypothermia deaths tick up
INTERNATIONAL, 29 November 2021, Migrants and Refugees - The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and partners, are scaling up aid along the border between the European Union and Belarus, amid worsening winter weather, which is leading to rising deaths due to hypothermia among asylum seekers stranded there. It is estimated that there are up to 2,000 migrants and refugees at the border with Poland, predominantly Kurds from Iraq, but also Syrians, Iranians, Afghans, Yemenis, Cameroonians and others. There are large numbers of women and children among them. For António Vitorino, Director General of IOM, the “priority is the safety of these stranded migrants, upholding their human rights and preventing more deaths as temperatures remain well below freezing.” “We are committed to providing humanitarian assistance and working with authorities on both sides of the border, and those who wish to return...
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November 29, 2021 No comments
Violations of Palestinian rights puts two-State solution at risk UN chief warns
INTERNATIONAL, 29 November 2021, Peace and Security - The situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, continues to pose a significant challenge to international peace and security, United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, said on Monday. In a message to mark International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The UN chief warned that persistent violations of the rights of Palestinians, along with the expansion of Israeli settlements, risk eroding the prospect of a two-State solution. Despite being ‘encouraged’ by recent engagements between senior Israeli and Palestinian officials, the UN chief said that “containing the situation is not sufficient”. Two States Mr. Guterres reiterated that the overall goal of two States living side-by-side in peace and security remains. This includes fulfilling the “legitimate national aspirations of both peoples, with borders based on the 1967 lines and Jerusalem as the...
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