News headlines in December 2021, page 11

Four UN independent human rights experts called on Thursday for Morocco to reverse its decision to extradite a Uyghur Muslim to China as his return would place him under threat of serious human rights violations.

After one of the busiest years in the history of the Human Rights Council, President Nashat Shameem Khan insisted on Thursday that the UN forum remains more relevant than ever, citing action on COVID-19 vaccine inequity, climate change and no less than five Special Sessions in Geneva. 

Nairobi, Kenya, Dec 16 (IPS) - Rahab Munene’s shoe selling business crumbled at the height of COVID-19 in 2020. She traded the enterprise for a mobile grocery along the Thika Superhighway, Kiambu County.

Arguing that the world “cannot defeat a pandemic in an uncoordinated way”, the UN Secretary-General said on Thursday that countries “must take concrete action in the coming days” to vaccinate 40 per cent of the world’s population by the end of the year.  

The World Health Organization (WHO) is reminding Europeans to remain vigilant against COVID-19 spread as they round out the year with friends and family. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the key role that migrant workers play in the global economy, as well as the “terrible risks” that they are forced to take, to find work.

BANGKOK / MELBOURNE, Dec 16 (IPS) - Amid several disappointments of the 2021 UN climate conference in Glasgow, one sign of hope was the agreement on financing for adaptation to climate change. Developed countries agreed to double adaptation finance for poorer nations by 2025, from 2019 levels.

The latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) North Kivu Province that began in October, is officially over, national health authorities announced this Thursday.  

MEXICO CITY, Dec 15 (IPS) - The effects of the covid-19 pandemic and high energy prices have had an impact on the consumption of polluting fuels in Latin America and the Caribbean, exacerbating energy poverty in the region.

Venezuela violated a jurist’s right to be tried by an independent tribunal and his right to the presumption of innocence, the UN Human Rights Committee said on Wednesday.