Zero Waste Day: UN calls for a war on garbage

Earth’s ‘life support system’ is being destroyed by global business paradigm, UN expert warns

In a hard-hitting report to the Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur David Boyd underscored that current business practices, particularly large coporations, pose a severe threat to the planet’s ecological integrity. ‘Colossal impacts’ of the ultrarich Mr. Boyd emphasized the “colossal impacts” on natural resources, which are being consumed six times faster than the planet can…

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Stories from the UN Archive: UN General Assembly’s first female president

Stories from the UN Archive: UN General Assembly’s first female president

Ms. Pandit was a veteran politician and leader in her own right but also came from a family background steeped in politics, including her brother, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister following the country’s hard-won independence from a near century of British rule. An active Indian nationalist, she was also the first Indian woman to…

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Allow more aid into Gaza now, pleads UN health agency chief

Allow more aid into Gaza now, pleads UN health agency chief

These are “children who survived bombardment, but may not survive a famine”, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros said on X, formerly Twitter.  Accompanying the WHO chief’s warning, video testimony from Kamal Adwan Hospital’s paediatric unit highlighted the massive scale of needs which UN humanitarians and partners have been unable to relieve, citing aid…

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UN envoy calls again for removal of restrictions on Afghan women

UN envoy calls again for removal of restrictions on Afghan women

Briefing ambassadors in the Security Council, Roza Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), said that recent arbitrary arrest of Afghan women for alleged Islamic dress code violations was having a chilling effect among the wider female population, “many of whom are now afraid to move in public,” she said. “The denial of women and…

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World News in Brief, deadliest year for migrants, Syria refugee support crisis, Shamima Begum appeal

World News in Brief, deadliest year for migrants, Syria refugee support crisis, Shamima Begum appeal

Nearly 8,600 people on the move died in 2023, a 20 per cent increase from 2022, according to the UN agency’s Missing Migrants Project online platform. It details the global movement of people risking their lives to escape conflict, economic crisis and natural disasters, including drought and flooding linked to climate change. IOM says the…

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