News headlines in June 2023, page 15

With an estimated 3.5 billion people living in “climate hot spots”, related peace and security risks are only set to heighten, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the Security Council on Tuesday, warning that action must be taken to avert ever-worsening effects.

An unprecedented funding crisis in Syria has forced the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to announce cuts to aid being provided for 2.5 million of the 5.5 million people who rely on the agency for basic food needs.

A “cascade of crises” is putting global progress towards ensuring the rights of persons with disabilities in danger, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Tuesday in New York.

Wider inclusion of persons with albinism can go a long way towards ensuring they live free from fear and discrimination, a UN human rights expert has said.

Disease outbreaks, a mental health crisis and lack of access to care are among the devastating health impacts of the destruction of the Kahkovka dam in southern Ukraine a week ago, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 13 (IPS) - The United Nations system has an agreed leadership framework that is inclusive and respectful of all personnel and stakeholders, embracing diversity and rejecting discrimination in all its forms.

BONN, Germany, Jun 12 (IPS) - Prof. Helen Roy, Prof. Peter Stoett, and Prof. Anibal Pauchard – Co-Chairs of the IPBES Invasive Alien Species AssessmentNature is declining rapidly, and the rate of species extinction is accelerating. The Global Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) (2019) revealed that one million species are at risk of extinction. Invasive alien species, alongside climate change, changing use of sea and land, direct exploitation of organisms and pollution, are all major causes of the unprecedented and ongoing declines in biodiversity and ultimately the nature crisis that we are facing now.

NAIROBI, Jun 12 (IPS) - Deep in the Egyptian desert, the SEKEM community celebrates its first wheat crop – grown to alleviate shortages and price increases caused by the war in Ukraine, and the latest crop in a 46-year history of regenerative development, which has effectively made the desert bloom. On another continent, a consumer who buys acai collected and produced by the Yawanawá in Brazil helps protect 200,000 acres of land.

Although the UN tribunal prosecuting decades-old war crimes in Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia is moving closer to completion, much remains to be done, the Security Council heard on Monday.

Heavy rains and thunderstorms in the area of the Kakhovka dam disaster in southern Ukraine aggravated the humanitarian situation there on Monday, making evacuations and aid distribution harder.