UNHCR calls on UK to amend Nationality and Borders Bill
2/3/2022: The UN Refugee Agency calls on the UK government to back amendments made to the Nationality and Borders Bill which have been passed in the House of Lords. The Bill threatened to remove the rights of refugees claiming asylum in direct breach of the Refugee Convention.
Source: UN Refugee Agency
Time for a multi-phased reform strategy of the WTO
2/3/2022: The rules-based trading system is losing steam. If the World Trade Organisation is to reassume its role as the regulator of rules-based trade changes in both its substantive rules and institutions must take place.
Source: East Asia Forum
Ukraine exodus triggers refugee movement through Europe
1/3/2022: Around 660,000 refugees have now fled Ukraine to neighboring countries in the past six days according to the latest government data compiled by the UN Refugee Agency. At this rate the situation looks set to become Europe's largest refugee crisis this century.
Source: UN Refugee Agency
Standing with Ukrainian refugees should extend to all refugees
1/3/2022: European Union member states have relaxed cross-border controls in response to the movement of displaced Ukrainians. Why have borders not been opened or visas waived for Syrian and Kurdish refugees also victims of Russian military action? Why is solidarity reserved for white Europeans?
Source: African Arguments
Five takeaways from IPCC climate impacts report
28/2/2022: The UN's climate science body has released a major report that reflects large advances in scientific understanding of the effect global heating is having on us all. Although everyone is affected by climate change not everyone is affected equally.
Source: Climate Home News
US State of the Union: democracy and human rights
28/2/2022: By comparison with the dismal performance of former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden refreshingly promised a foreign policy guided by human rights. But despite some positive steps Biden's approach has been disappointingly conventional.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Russian censorship reaches new heights
28/2/2022: Russian authorities have threatened to fine or block 10 Russian independent media outlets if they do not delete publications about the war in Ukraine.
Source: Human Rights Watch
International Court to rule on case for justice for Rohingya
28/2/2022: Hearings at the International Court of Justice on Myanmar's objections to the case on alleged genocide against Rohingya Muslims have came to a close. The Court could take a year before it decides on whether the case can proceed.
Source: Human Rights Watch
UN sets up emergency General Assembly on Ukraine crisis
27/2/2022: Only 10 such emergency special sessions of the General Assembly have been convened since 1950. The text gives the Assembly the power to take up matters of international peace and security when the Security Council lacks unanimity among its five veto-wielding permanent members. Last week Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have deplored the aggression against Ukraine.
Source: UN News
US seeks to remove climate loss and damage from IPCC report
24/2/2022: An 18-chapter draft report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change addresses the scenario when adaptation measures are not enough to resist extreme weather events. Fearful of litigation the US insists that the term "losses and damages" be replaced with "impacts".
Source: Climate Home News