Tread Softly

6/11/2025: In the last week, the US and the Russian Federation have flouted the regulations and norms around nuclear non-proliferation and are flirting more openly with nuclear might. The NEW-Start treaty, the last remaining arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia, is set to expire in February 2026.

Source: Inter Press Service

5/11/2025: Amnesty International calls on governments attending COP30 to resist aligning with US President Trump’s denial of the accelerating climate crisis. It also appeals for significant new climate finance, in the form of grants, not loans, from states that are the worst culprits for greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: Amnesty International

5/11/2025: The Baku to Belem Roadmap, published for the UN Climate Conference (COP30), aims to present how to increase climate finance for developing countries to at least US1.3 trillion annually by 2035. Greenpeace welcomes recognition that the UN tax convention could address concessional climate finance.

Source: Greenpeace International

4/11/2025: Human Rights Watch alleges that the Tanzanian authorities’ violent response to election-related protests further undermines the credibility of the electoral process, in which the incumbent president gained 98 percent of the vote. It appears that no journalists working for international media were pemitted to cover the elections.

Source: Human Rights Watch

3/11/2025: The 2025 State of Food and Agriculture report published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization finds that agricultural productivity, rural livelihoods and food security are impacted by human-induced land degradation, affecting approximately 1.7 billion people. The report defines land degradation as a long-term decline in the land’s ability to deliver essential ecosystem functions and services.

Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization

3/11/2025: Overall global maternity mortality declined by 41% between 2000 and 2023. New research provides clear evidence that this decline in maternal deaths has been driven by improvements in both family planning and maternity care.

Source: World Health Organization

31/10/2025: Pressure applied by Washington on the United Arab Emirates to halt supplies to the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan is seen as potential leverage to stop the fighting and atrocities.  But the US is partnering with the UAE to secure its supply chain for critical minerals to use in semiconductors and defense technologies. And The New York Times has reported how the US relationship with the UAE has expanded the Trump family’s private crypto and real estate businesses.

Source: PassBlue

31/10/2025: A research partnership between over 20 organizations tracking civic freedoms finds that civil society is under attack in 116 of 198 countries and territories. When civil society attempts to expose corrupt relationships within authoritarian regimes, it becomes a target.

Source: Inter Press Service

31/10/2025: Total climate finance approvals for 2025 of $3.26 billion represent a record high for the Green Climate Fund, welcome news amid declining official development assistance and tightening global budgets. The Fund was established in 2010 to serve the Paris Agreement by increasing access to climate finance for developing countries.

Source: Devex

31/10/2025: US airstrikes against alleged drug trafficking boats has drawn sharp criticism from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Commissioner asserts that illicit drug trafficking is a law-enforcement matter, for which the use of lethal force is lawful only as a last resort.

Source: UN News