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MORNING - Human Rights Council Adopts Two Resolutions on Climate Change and on Maternal Mortality and Morbidity, Appoints Seven Special Procedure Mandate Holders, and Concludes Forty-Seventh Regular Session
14 July 2021
Meeting Summaries
The Human Rights Council this morning adopted two resolutions on human rights and climate change, and on maternal mortality and morbidity and human rights. It also appointed seven Special Procedure mandate holders and concluded its regular forty-seventh session.
In a resolution on human rights and climate change, the Council encouraged the continued discussions among States and relevant stakeholders on the possible creation of a new…
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Colombia peace process at critical juncture: UN envoy
13 July 2021
Events that were previously unthinkable in Colombia have been made possible through the historic 2016 peace agreement, the UN envoy for the country told the Security Council on Tuesday.
Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, briefed ambassadors on latest developments under the accord that ended five decades of fighting…
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UN chief says race to reach SDGs ‘can and must’ be turned around
13 July 2021
The COVID pandemic has taken four million lives, devastated the global economy, pushed a further 124 million people into extreme poverty and continues to inflict profound suffering – dramatically impacting progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN chief said on Tuesday at a key international forum.
“Nearly one person in three around the world could not access adequate…
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UNICEF chief Henrietta Fore resigns ‘with a heavy heart’
13 July 2021
The head of the UN Children’s Fund, Henrietta Fore, announced her resignation on Tuesday, in order to devote herself fulltime to caring for her husband, who is suffering from what she described as a serious health issue.
Ms. Fore said it had been “a difficult decision”, and in a message to staff, described holding the office of Executive Director as “a tremendous honour”.
With a heavy heart, I have…
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Afghanistan: 270,000 newly displaced this year, warns UNHCR
13 July 2021
The worsening security situation across Afghanistan in the wake of foreign troop withdrawal and Taliban advances, has forced an estimated 270,000 from their homes since January, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) reported on Tuesday, bringing the total internally displaced to more than 3.5 million.
The agency said that families were fleeing extortion by non-State armed groups and the dangers posed by…
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AFTERNOON - Rights Council Adopts Nine Texts: Establishes Mechanism to Protect Africans and People of African Descent against Excessive Use of Force by Law Enforcement Officers, Renews Mandate on Belarus
13 July 2021
Meeting Summaries
The Human Rights Council this afternoon adopted nine texts in which it, among other actions, established an international independent expert mechanism on promoting and protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Africans and people of African descent against excessive use of force and other human rights violations by law enforcement officers, and renewed the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Belarus for one year.
Other…
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UN body unveils new plan to end ecological destruction, ‘preserve and protect nature’
13 July 2021
Equitably “redirecting, repurposing or eliminating incentives” that harm biodiversity by at least $500 billion per year is just one of the 21 ambitious targets of a new draft agreement released by a UN body in the lead up to the landmark November climate conference, COP26, in the United Kingdom.
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat on Monday,…
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Countries urged to reopen classrooms, assess pandemic-related learning loss
13 July 2021
Around one in three countries are not yet implementing remedial programmes to help students catch up on their learning, in the wake of school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, two UN agencies and partners said in a report issued on Tuesday.
The finding is among the results of a survey conducted by the UN educational and cultural agency, UNESCO; the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF;…
1 month ago
Committee against Torture considers reports on follow-up to concluding observations, individual communications, and reprisals
13 July 2021
Meeting Summaries
The Committee against Torture this afternoon discussed follow-up to concluding observations, individual communications, and reprisals under the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov, Ad Interim Rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations under article 19 of the Convention, presenting his report, said that follow-up reports were received from Mauritania, Canada, Iraq, Mexico, Paraguay, Cameroon, Germany, Greece, the United Kingdom,…
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REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE
13 July 2021
Bi-Weekly Briefing
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired the hybrid briefing, attended by the spokespersons and representatives of the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
UNHCR warns of imminent humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan
Babar Baloch, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that a humanitarian crisis was looming in Afghanistan as the escalating…
