Human Welfare

The United Nations (UN) has urged the Australian Government to address the collapsing health situation among refugees and asylum-seekers at its offshore detention centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Although according to a Guardian report at the weekend, the Department of Home Affairs of Australia said in a statement that it took refugee health and welfare “seriously,’’ the UN ...

The City of San Francisco in California, USA, has joined several other cities in the country to proclaim October 8th as Indigenous Peoples Day. On Monday, October 8, 2018, during a celebration coordinated by the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) in Yerba Buena Gardens, Mayor London Breed accompanied by Board of Supervisors Vallie Brown and Malia Cohen delivered a Proclamation stating ...

The United Nations (UN) on Friday, October 5, 2018 called for stronger partnership with stakeholders to address humanitarian crisis caused by Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East region. Achim Steiner, the UN Development Administrator and Mark Lowcock, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, made the call at a joint press conference in Maiduguri, Borno State. Steiner stressed the need for national and ...

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator, Mr Achim Steiner, and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mr Mark Lowcock, will visit Nigeria and Chad on a mission to highlight and support joint humanitarian and development efforts in these countries. Mr Lucky Musonda, UNDP Communications Specialist, said this in a statement on Thursday, October 4, 2018 in Abuja. He said the UN joint mission ...

Seventeen years of long and arduous negotiations later, peasants and other people working in rural areas are only a step away from having a UN Declaration that could defend and protect their rights to land, seeds, biodiversity, local markets and a lot more. On Friday, September 28, 2018 in a commendable show of solidarity and political will, member nations of ...

Twelve countries – from Antigua to Mexico to Argentina – on Thursday, September 27, 2018 signed the Escazú Agreement during the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly. Said to be a first-of-its-kind human rights treaty, the agreement gives community members in these countries more say over projects or development that impact them and their environment. The agreement also makes it clear that these governments ...

Communities defending their human rights in areas of certified palm oil plantation will now be better protected under new policy announced by the RSPO at the Global Land Forum in Indonesia The global palm oil certification system (the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, RSPO) has adopted a new policy to provide anonymity and security to human rights defenders, in the ...

The 2018 World Social Science Forum was officially opened on Tuesday, September 25, 2018 by Their Imperial Highnesses the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Japan. In his opening speech, Crown Prince Naruhito noted the importance of the Forum as an international arena for social scientists, adding that the creation of the International Science Council was “of great significance”. Under ...

Half of those living in poverty around the world are under 18 years of age, according to UN data released on Thursday, September 20, 2018. The UN said that the data was based on a multidimensional poverty index compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI). It said that 1.3 billion people ...

People living on less than $1.90 a day have fallen to record low of about 655 million – or nine per cent of the world’s population. Meanwhile, a global target of ending extreme poverty by 2030 is unlikely to be met, the World Bank said on Wednesday, September 19, 2018. Without significant shifts in policy, about 480 million people – ...