March 3, 2022 – ITV News has witnessed the aftermath of overnight Russian shelling of the Ukrainian village of Yakivlivka that left at least four people dead and decimated homes. We spoke to Natasha, she was sheltering nine people in her home, including young children, when the shelling hit. Shockwaves from the blast ripped through […]
World
Protect the defenders of the planet, UN rights chief urges
The world must be made a safer place for people working to protect the planet, who sometimes pay with their own lives for their activism, UN Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday. “Protecting the environment goes hand-in-hand with protecting the rights of those who defend it,” she told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which is […]
European Parliament: The Russian attack on Ukraine marks a new era for Europe, MEPs say
On Tuesday, the European Parliament held an extraordinary plenary session in Brussels to assess Russia’s military assault on Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Speaker of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (parliament) Ruslan Stefanchuk spoke live from Kiev. European Council and Commission Presidents Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, as well as the EU’s […]
IPCC report on Climate change: a threat to human wellbeing and health of the planet. Taking action now can secure our future
BERLIN, Feb 28 – Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks. People and ecosystems least able to cope are being hardest hit, said scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, […]
Statement by European Commission President von der Leyen on further measures to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine
February 27, 2022 – As the war in Ukraine rages on, and Ukrainians fight bravely for their country, the European Union steps up once more its support for Ukraine and the sanctions against the aggressor – Putin’s Russia. For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and […]
NATO Secretary General: “We are deploying elements of the NATO response force on land, at sea and in the air.”
February 25, 2022 – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: “We must stand ready to do more, even if it means we have to pay a price because we are in this for the long haul…We are deploying elements of the NATO response force on land, at sea and in the air.”
UN Human Rights Chief urges an immediate halt to the Russian Federation’s military action against Ukraine
GENEVA (24 February 2022) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Thursday said she was deeply alarmed about the Russian Federation’s military attack against Ukraine. “Civilians in various parts of Ukraine were awoken by sounds of heavy bombardment and are terrified of further escalation, with many fleeing their homes,” Bachelet said. “This […]
Number of Wildfires to Rise by 50% by 2100 and Governments are not Prepared, Experts Warn
Nairobi, 23 February, 2022 – Climate change and land-use change are projected to make wildfires more frequent and intense, with a global increase of extreme fires of up to 14 per cent by 2030, 30 per cent by the end of 2050 and 50 per cent by the end of the century, according to a […]
European Parliament Leaders: The decision of Russia’s President is a serious violation of international law
Leading MEPs strongly condemn the recognition of the non-government controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine as independent entities. The Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs David Mcallister (EPP, DE), the Chair of the Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee Witold Waszczykowski (ECR, PL), the Chair of the Delegation to the […]
Council of Europe Congress President condemns the recognition of the so-called ‘people’s republics’ of Donetsk and Luhansk by the Russian Federation
Strasbourg, 22.02.2022 – The President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, Leendert Verbeek, has made the following statement: “I strongly condemn the recognition of the so-called ‘people’s republics’ of Donetsk and Luhansk by the Russian Federation in flagrant violation of international law and the Minsk agreements. I join the Chair of […]
Madagascar: Red Cross teams rush to avert a tragedy as Tropical Cyclone Emnati approaches
Antananarivo/Nairobi/Geneva, 21 February 2022—Teams from the Malagasy Red Cross Society (MRCS) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in the eastern part of Madagascar are working around the clock to minimize the humanitarian impact of the fast-approaching Tropical Cyclone Emnati. Andoniaina Ratsimamanga, the Secretary General of Malagasy Red Cross said: […]
Munich Security Conference Live: Ukraine and European Security with Volodymyr Zelensky (VIDEO)
Ukraine and European Security w/ Volodymyr Zelensky and Christiane Amanpour.
Time to ‘seriously de-escalate’ tensions over Ukraine, Guterres tells Munich conference
With tensions continuing to mount over the Ukraine crisis, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday that he still believed military conflict in Europe “will not happen” – although if it did, “it would be catastrophic”. Addressing world leaders at the Munich Security Conference on Friday – amid an intense spike in shelling in eastern Ukraine by […]
Deadly wildfires, noise pollution and mismatches: UN report identifies looming environmental threats
Nairobi, February 2022 – Wildfires are burning more severely and more often, urban noise pollution is growing into a global public health menace, and phenological mismatches – disruptions in the timing of life-cycle stages in natural systems – are causing ecological consequences. These critical environmental issues, requiring greater attention, are highlighted in the new Frontiers […]
New Research: Equitable Global mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine Access Could Save Over A Million Lives
A new study released today by Public Citizen and researchers from Yale University, Stanford University, Brown University, and the University of Maryland estimates that reversing inequities in global COVID-19 vaccine access by providing two doses of mRNA vaccine to everyone in low and lower-middle-income countries (LIC/LMIC) tomorrow could avert 1.3 million deaths. Global vaccination would […]
Severe drought threatens 13 million with hunger in Horn of Africa
An estimated 13 million people are waking up severely hungry every day in the Horn of Africa, as the region grapples with a major drought caused by the driest conditions since 1981, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday. Three consecutive failed rainy seasons in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, have decimated crops and caused […]
Human rights organizations from Israel condemn vicious attacks on Amnesty International
February 3, 2022 – As human rights organizations based in Israel, striving to protect and defend the rights of all people in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, we are writing to express our grave concern about the vicious attacks on Amnesty International, following the publication of its report Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of […]
WHO funding model ‘left world ill-prepared’ for COVID
A key meeting of the WHO’s executive board has spawned an upswell of calls to overhaul the UN agency’s funding, with leaders saying failure to invest in global health left the world ill-prepared for the COVID-19 “tsunami of suffering”. A letter signed by a host of leaders including Helen Clark and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, co-chairs of the Independent Panel for […]
Famine, subjugation and nuclear fallout: How Soviet experience helped sow resentment among Ukrainians toward Russia
A statue commemorating the Ukrainian famine, in which millions died. Ukrainian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Emily Channell-Justice, Harvard University and Jacob Lassin, Arizona State University Ukraine and Russia share a great deal in the way of history and culture – indeed for long periods in the past, the neighboring countries were part of larger […]
Memory, dignity and justice – Bachelet on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Today we commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, a crime of shocking inhumanity that brutally murdered six million Jews, as well as Roma and Sinti people, Slavs, people with disabilities, LGBT people, prisoners of war and members of anti-Nazi networks from all over Europe. The UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were […]