WHO chief declares end to COVID-19 as a global health emergency

WHO chief declares end to COVID-19 as a global health emergency

“Last week, COVID-19 claimed a life every three minutes – and that’s just the deaths we know about”, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, briefing the media at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva. According to WHO’s Coronavirus Dashboard which has collated key statistics since early in the pandemic, the cumulative cases worldwide now stand at 765,222,932, with nearly seven million…

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USA: Slavery has left a deep and long-lasting legacy on the country, UN experts say

USA: Slavery has left a deep and long-lasting legacy on the country, UN experts say

During the visit, the Mechanism visited Washington DC, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, and New York City saying in a press release, that it had been pleased to learn about various promising initiatives that authorities have developed to combat racial discrimination affecting people of African descent. Urging accountability and support Members of the UN Human…

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WFP pauses food distribution in Ethiopia following ‘significant diversion’ of aid

WFP pauses food distribution in Ethiopia following ‘significant diversion’ of aid

“WFP takes this issue extremely seriously and will not tolerate any interference in its distribution of critical food aid to the most vulnerable women, men and children”, the agency said in a statement released on Wednesday night. The agency has already launched a comprehensive investigation, and “taken swift action to establish all the facts and…

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UNESCO calls for more protection for artists under attack

UNESCO calls for more protection for artists under attack

Emergencies tend to exacerbate the vulnerabilities people who work in the arts already experience, as they face multiple threats such as online and offline harassment, loss of income, legal prosecution, violence, censorship, and silencing.  Creatives also often lack minimal safety nets due to their precarious legal status, according to the report.  Artists under assault  In…

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UN in Ukraine ‘appalled and saddened’ at deadly airstrikes and attacks

UN in Ukraine ‘appalled and saddened’ at deadly airstrikes and attacks

According to news reports, Russian airstrikes targeted the capital Kyiv for the third time in four days, following on from what Russian authorities said was an assassination attempt by drone strike, on President Vladimir Putin, earlier on Wednesday. Ukrainian authorities, who deny any involvement in the drone incident in Moscow, said Thursday morning’s large-scale attack…

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Envoy ‘deeply disturbed’ by mounting violence between Israelis and Palestinians

Israel: UN experts demand accountability over death of Palestinian hunger striker

The 45-year-old Palestinian died in his prison cell on Tuesday morning following a nearly three-month hunger strike. He had been protesting Israel’s widespread policy of arbitrarily detaining Palestinians in “abhorrent conditions” and in violation of fair trial guarantees. The call for greater accountability came from the independent expert, or Special Rapporteur, on the situation of…

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