News headlines in 2023, page 19

Invoking a rarely used article of the UN Charter, Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday called on the Security Council to “press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and unite in a call for a full humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants.

The UNESCO committee that protects so called Intangible Cultural Heritage met in Botswana this week to add new entries to the UN culture agency’s list of world treasures, some of which must be “urgently” safeguarded.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Wednesday condemned serious sexual violations allegedly carried out by Hamas militants during their terror attacks in southern Israel on 7 October, while humanitarians in Gaza said conditions for civilians there had hit “rock bottom”, amid continued bombardment and mass displacement in the south.

UN climate chief Simon Stiell said on Wednesday that COP28 delegates are not in Dubai to “score points” and play at “lowest-denominator politics”; they must take ambitious action on curbing global warming and ending the climate crisis.

DUBAI, Dec 06 (IPS) - Although long profiled as the face of climate change, a high-risk continent with a pipeline of unbankable green projects, there are areas where Africa is leading the world. The 1987 accidental discovery of the first deposit of natural hydrogen during a water drilling campaign in Bourakebougou village, Mali, is today proving that Africa can export viable green solutions.

DUBAI, Dec 05 (IPS) - Across the African continent, many first-born children in poor and vulnerable households do not go to school as they spend their school days collecting biomass fuel. The regional average of the amount of time spent collecting firewood is 2.1 hours, robbing women and girls in particular of hundreds of hours in a year and crippling their capacities to engage in learning and productive activities.

DUBAI, Dec 05 (IPS) - Women bear the brunt of the climate crisis, and inclusion at both the highest level and in the community is key to mitigating its impact. Today, the announcement of the COP28 Gender Responsive Just Transitions and Climate Action Partnership put women at the centre of climate solutions—with a collective endorsement that symbolized a paradigm shift in global commitment.

YEREVAN, Armenia, Dec 05 (IPS) - Every evening, the smell of Indian food takes over Yerevan's northwestern district of Halabian. Indian workers who left early in the morning are back home.

London/New York, Dec 05 (IPS) - “The one international language the world understands” wrote Eglantyne Jebb, founder of Save the Children, “is the cry of a child,” and the evidence is accumulating that children are not only the innocent victims of conflict whose pleas need to be heard, but also the most vulnerable victims of climate change.

BRATISLAVA, Dec 05 (IPS) - A major advocacy group has demanded an overhaul of global drug policies as a landmark report is released showing how governments’ complacency has perpetuated a failed ‘war on drugs’ despite its devastating consequences for millions of people around the world.