The United Nations General Assembly voted to hold a summit of heads of state and other world leaders next year to find fair, long-lasting solutions for the global inequities and inadequate responses that the COVID-19 pandemic has all too painfully highlighted. Delegates to the 193-nation assembly overwhelmingly approved the resolution in a consensus vote on […] Continue reading ->
A new UN report showing that half of the world’s health care facilities fail to meet the basic standard for providing hygiene services like soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub highlights the widespread global risk of disease spread and infections to patients and health care providers. About two-thirds of all health care facilities […] Continue reading ->
Ethiopia’s Tigray region suffers from “the worst catastrophe on Earth” due to a devastating mix of factors such as government neglect, drought, and racism, World Health Organization Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press briefing Wednesday. Tedros grew emotional at the end of the briefing as he described the humanitarian crisis facing […] Continue reading ->
Citizens and NGOs welcomed the United Nations Human Rights Council’s adoption of a much-debated draft resolution that calls on nations to ensure everyone has access to medicines and vaccines. The resolution was adopted by consensus Friday shortly before the close of the HRC’s 50th session, sending what proponents called a “clear message” that access to […] Continue reading ->
The world’s transport ministers pledged to cut road traffic deaths and injuries by 50% by 2030, as part of a political declaration adopted at the first-ever United Nations High Level Meeting on Global Road Safety, which opened Thursday in New York City.   The debate came as a new Lancet series suggested that some half a million […] Continue reading ->
A new app for mobile phones that provides localized information on ultraviolet (UV) radiation levels has been created by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Meteorological Organization, and the International Labour Organization (ILO).  The app is available free of charge on both the Apple App and Google Play […] Continue reading ->
GENEVA –Russia’s war in Ukraine grabbed centre stage at the World Health Assembly Thursday as delegates prepared to take up competing draft resolutions on Ukraine’s health emergency: one denouncing Russia and supported by Turkey, Ukraine, the United States and all European Union members except for Hungary; the other co-sponsored only by Russia and Syria. Although […] Continue reading ->
Amid huge global contestation over abortion, the Kenyan High Court recently affirmed that women’s “access to safe abortion services is a human right” as enshrined in the country’s Constitution, and directed parliament to enact laws in this regard. Malindi High Court Judge Reuben Nyakundi made the ruling late last month in a case involving a […] Continue reading ->
In advance of critical biodiversity negotiations in Geneva, over twenty former headers of state, ministers, and environmental and indigenous leaders urgently called on governments – including their own – to back the protection of at least 30% of the planet by 2030.  Led by former US Senator Russ Feingold and comprised of either former Heads […] Continue reading ->