African nations’ dash for gas exposes ‘hypocrisy’ in Europe
25/5/2022: Across Africa, the use of gas as a transitional source of energy dominated talks at the Sustainable Energy for All forum held in Kigali, Rwanda. Donor nations favour priority for renewable energy and green hydrogen, despite their own continued dependence on gas.
Source: Climate Home News
Executions increased 20% in 2021
24/5/2022: Amnesty International's annual review of the death penalty reports that at least 579 executions were known to have been carried out across 18 countries last year. Saudi Arabia executed 81 people in a single day in March. The figures exclude the thousands of people believed to have been executed in China.
Source: Amnesty International
Illegal immigration dilemma
23/5/2022: Illegal immigration in the 21st century poses a serious dilemma for the world. Governments in virtually every region of the globe appear to be at a loss on how to address the two central dimensions of the dilemma.
Source: Inter Press Service
Pandemic creates new billionaire every 30 hours
23/5/2022: For every new billionaire created during the pandemic, nearly a million people could be pushed into extreme poverty, reveals a new Oxfam brief published at the World Economic Forum. Oxfam says that the super-rich have seized a shocking amount of the world’s wealth, whilst gutting regulation and workers’ rights.
Source: Oxfam International
OSCE could fulfill its potential after Ukraine war ends
23/5/2022: The Ukraine war represents a setback for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the world's largest security body, established to prevent conflict and war in Europe. As both Russia and Ukraine are members, OSCE may have a longer term role to play.
Source: DW
World stumbling into a new era of risk
23/5/2022: World leaders are failing to prepare for a new era of complex and often unpredictable risks to peace as profound environmental and security crises converge. A new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute argues that cooperation is essential for managing the environmental and security crises, along with the risks they create.
Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
World health statistics to 2020
20/5/2022: Latest statistics published by the World Health Organization reveal the extent to which the Covid-19 pandemic has set back global progress on both life expectancy and healthy life expectancy. The two decades prior to the pandemic saw a doubling in global spending on health, of which approximately 80% occurred in high-income countries.
Source: World Health Organization
COVAX calls for urgent action to close vaccine equity gap
20/5/2022: Nearly 18 months after the first administration of a COVID-19 vaccine, only 16% of people in low-income countries have received a single dose – compared to 80% in high-income countries. Vaccine inequality continues to cost lives and increase the threat posed by potentially more dangerous variants of the virus.
Source: The Vaccine Alliance
UNDP calls for increased investment in energy access for all
19/5/2022: Finance for electricity is falling in the 20 sub-Saharan African and Asian countries with the highest proportion of people who lack energy access. The Sustainable Energy for All Forum in Rwanda has called for more investment to help 759 million people, 1 in 10 worldwide, do not have access to electricity.
Source: UN Development Programme
UN High Commissioner’s credibility at stake in China visit
19/5/2022: Michelle Bachelet's itinerary later this month includes the first visit to China by a UN human rights commissioner since 2005. Bachelet has previously asserted that she would require “unfettered” access to Xinjiang, the Uyghur region, but the terms of her visit have not been disclosed.
Source: Human Rights Watch