News headlines in 2021, page 206

United Nations independent human rights experts on Tuesday voiced serious concerns over recent appointment of new members to Nepal’s National Human Rights Commission, which they said “undermined its independence, integrity and legitimacy”.

In spite of the challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Abyei with other agencies, continue to provide vital protection, humanitarian and recovery assistance to vulnerable populations, senior UN officials told the Security Council on Monday.

The rights of indigenous people to make decisions about their cultural heritage and traditional way of life is being recognized in a United Nations photo exhibition.

A recent spike in inter-community violence in the eastern province of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is worsening the plight of children there, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said on Monday, urging greater international support. 

Forests are at the core of our efforts to restore our relationship with the natural world, the deputy UN chief said on Monday at the UN Forum on Forests. 

URBANA, Illinois, Apr 26 (IPS) - Recently, I participated in Kids Climate Summit 2021, a virtual event that gave younger students an opportunity to take a stance on climate change, express their concerns, and learn about global climate and the actions we all can take to mitigate climate change. 

NEW YORK, Apr 26 (IPS) - Despite the negotiation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), we are confronted by the increasing dangers of great power war, even nuclear war.

In his message for Chernobyl International Remembrance Day on Monday, the UN chief reminded that “disasters know no borders”. 

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Apr 26 (IPS) - Conventional wisdom is that the health of young children is not at great risk from COVID-19, but, in the Global South, the space constraints imposed on young children by the pandemic pose a significant risk to the stimulation on which brain development thrives. Early childhood development is further jeopardized by the pandemic’s impact on caregivers.

A UN-led global immunization strategy was unveiled on Monday to reach more than 50 million children who have missed lifesaving jabs against diseases such as measles, yellow fever and diptheria, in large part because of COVID-19 disruption.