News headlines in 2022, page 245

BRATISLAVA, Mar 09 (IPS) - Roma refugees fleeing war-torn Ukraine are facing discrimination on both sides of the country’s borders at the end of often harrowing journeys across the country, rights groups have claimed.

Almost 500 million people have been infected with the coronavirus since March 2020 and new variants are still a threat. This Friday marks two years since the World Health Organization (WHO) characterised the global spread of COVID-19 as a pandemic. 

New guidelines on abortion are now available from the World Health Organization (WHO), in a bid to prevent more than 25 million unsafe terminations that happen each year.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, has said that it is taking measures as best it can, to try and protect some of Ukraine’s priceless heritage from destruction in the face of the Russian invasion, noting that the international community also has a duty to help protect and preserve the country’s historic buildings, and other treasures.

NEW YORK, Mar 09 (IPS) - Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was certainly not a surprise and has unambiguously exposed the West’s weakness. The question is what lesson the United States and its allies should learn from it and what measures they must now undertake to prevent Putin or any future ruthless Russian autocrat from ever daring to invade another country.

Top UN-appointed rights investigators on Wednesday urged renewed efforts for a political solution to Syria’s devastating war, which has been marked by an uptick of violence and a deepening humanitarian crisis in recent months.

The Belarusian Government’s continuing crackdown on political opponents, civil society, journalists and lawyers has seen the fundamental human rights of tens of thousands violated, with no sign of any of the perpetrators being held accountable, the UN rights office, OHCHR, reported on Wednesday.

NEW YORK, Mar 08 (IPS) - For decades now, world leaders have talked about ending hunger and poverty and building a new world order based on human rights and gender-equality.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has praised European countries welcoming people fleeing the war in Ukraine, whose numbers now surpass two million. 

Investing in women’s economic empowerment yields enormous dividends for peace and prosperity, the head of UN Women told the Security Council on Tuesday, stressing that countries where women are economically marginalized and shut out of the workforce are much more likely to go to war.