News headlines in January 2023, page 6

KIGALI, Jan 25 (IPS) - A few months after German biotechnology company BioNTech announced the establishment of the first-ever local vaccine manufacturing in Rwanda, experts believe the successful implementation of such initiatives across the continent will require countries to acquire know-how while encouraging potential industrial partners in the pharmaceutical industry.

BRUSSELS, Jan 25 (IPS) - In 2022, Saudi Arabia “quietly” sentenced Salma al-Shehab to 34 years in prison over her Twitter activity, marking the longest Saudi sentence ever for a peaceful activist. Fast forward and award-winning Ugandan author Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was charged with two counts of "offensive communication" after making unflattering remarks about the president and his son on Twitter. The message is clear: your well-crafted 280 characters can land you in jail.

NEW YORK, Jan 25 (IPS) - The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the principal organ within the United Nations System that is mandated under the tenets of the UN Charter for maintaining international peace and security. The focus here is to prevent and resolve international conflicts and disputes – i.e., using diplomatic means and leverage, as well as international treaties and laws that protect human rights and govern the rules of war.

The UN must present “a united front” in the fight for women’s rights in Afghanistan, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said after returning from a two-week country visit spanning several continents. 

“Swift progress” has been made at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the trial against a former Janjaweed leader in Sudan’s Darfur region, but cooperation with the Government has deteriorated, the UN Security Council heard on Wednesday. 

Some 21.6 million people in Yemen – that’s two-thirds of the population – are going to need some kind of humanitarian assistance and protection services during the course of 2023, according to the UN’s Humanitarian Response plan published on Wednesday.

Almost twelve years into Syria’s devastating civil war, the country remains tattered and deeply divided, facing massive economic hardships, limited political progress and the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 70 per cent of the population now in need of humanitarian aid, senior UN officials told the Security Council on Wednesday.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the fight against terrorism will never succeed if we perpetuate the “denial and destruction” of human rights. 

Senior UN economists warned on Wednesday that intersecting crises are likely to add further damage to the global economy, with growth set to slow from three per cent in 2022 to 1.9 per cent this year.

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean “can and must step up” to tackle rising levels of hunger, poverty and inequality, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, said on Wednesday.