NEW YORK CITY – World leaders issued a political declaration Monday warning that the world is nowhere close to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) it set in 2015. The declaration, adopted at the first UN high-level political forum on the SDGs since 2019, comes at a time when progress on the goals has been […] Continue reading ->
Election fever is sweeping through the World Health Organization (WHO) in three of its six regions – Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), South-East Asia (SEARO), and Western Pacific (WPRO). It matters who becomes their regional directors because they have considerable decentralised authority to influence the health chances of billions. Its regions also make or break WHO globally. […] Continue reading ->
European air quality activists have won a key victory in the European Parliament, which approved tough new air pollution rules that would require countries to meet stricter WHO air quality guidelines by 2035, and allow EU citizens to sue for financial compensation for air pollution-related health damage. But the draft legislation still faces an uphill […] Continue reading ->
Lawrence O. Gostin is “confident” that countries will adopt a pandemic accord at the 2024 World Health Assembly. The question is whether it will include the kind of “robust norms” necessary to ensure that the new accord is “transformative” with respect to correcting disparities and injustices uncovered in the last pandemic, and effective in its […] Continue reading ->
Small Group of Indian Politicians Show Rare Bipartisan Unity to Fight a Common Enemy – Air Pollution
NEW DELHI – In the bitterly divided politics of India there’s an unusual ray of hope. Heading into a major election next year, the national parliament hardly functions, sitting for fewer days and working fewer hours than in years before. Yet a bipartisan group of Members (MPs) has joined hands to tackle one of the […] Continue reading ->
Over 20 African countries unanimously adopted the Nairobi Declaration on Wednesday, a document that sets out the continent’s demands for climate finance and debt relief ahead of the United Nations climate negotiations in Dubai later this year. The declaration calls for a global carbon tax on the use and trade of fossil fuels, low-interest loans […] Continue reading ->
A draft political declaration on pandemics, due to be adopted by the United Nations General Assembly later this month, offers “little hope” that the UN process will make a difference in global pandemic preparedness, global health experts said on Friday. The document, made public on Thursday, is long on words but short on commitments. The […] Continue reading ->
As United Nations (UN) member states meet in New York on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the political declaration to be adopted at the General Assembly’s High-Level Meeting (HLM) on Pandemics in September, there are growing concerns that the current draft is weak and proposes an over-reliance on the World Health Organization (WHO) to manage […] Continue reading ->
After almost 20 years of negotiations, the United Nations has adopted a legally binding treaty to protect the marine biodiversity of sea outside national borders known as the high seas, which cover two-thirds of the world’s oceans. The High Seas Treaty was adopted by consensus at the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond […] Continue reading ->
Late-night screaming matches and days of delays dogged the adoption of the budget of the International Labour Organization (ILO) this week after some Arab and African member states objected to a clause related to LGBTQ rights. The single offending clause committed the body to support those “affected by discrimination and exclusion, including on the grounds […] Continue reading ->