Progress made at COP25, despite lack of agreement to increase climate ambition

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15 December 2019
Climate Change
Negotiations at the COP25 UN climate conference in Madrid finally ended on Sunday, wrapping up an event which saw much progress made by the private sector, and by national, regional and local governments. However, there was widespread disappointment that no overall consensus was reached on increased climate ambition.
UN chief António Guterres expressed his feelings on Twitter, but refused to see the conference as a defeat, and wrote that he is “more determined than ever to work for 2020 to be the year in which all countries commit to do what science tells us is necessary to reach carbon neutrality in 2050 and a no more than 1.5 degree temperature rise”.
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As COP25 goes into the night, Guterres calls for more climate ambition

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13 December 2019
Climate Change
With national delegations thrashing out an outcome agreement at the UN COP25 climate change conference in Madrid, the UN chief has called on countries to be more ambitious, side strongly with science, and commit to stronger action.
“Today is the last day of the COP25 in Madrid”, said Secretary-General António Guterres. “And I appeal to the delegates of all Member States to convey a message of ambition to the world”.
He urged all to align “their objectives with science” to make sure that “temperatures will not rise above 1.5C at the end of the century”.
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UN human rights report cites ‘multiple root causes’ of deadly Chile protests

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13 December 2019
Human Rights
During the recent mass protests which led Chile to declare a state of emergency, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a report published on Friday that international human rights norms had been violated by both police and army personnel, which should be prosecuted.
The 30-page report based on research during the first three weeks of November, extensively details multiple allegations, including torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence by the police against people held in detention.
The leader of the UN mission, Imma Guerras-Delgado, told journalists in Geneva, that the overall management of demonstrations by the police “was carried out in a fundamentally repressive manner.”
When a student protest in October over subway prices turned into a nationwide movement against the Government, peaceful demonstrations swept across the country.
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Unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Mali revealed in new report

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Escalating violence and insecurity in Mali have sparked an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, rendering 3.9 million people in need of assistance and protection – an increase of 700,000 since the beginning of the year, the UN said on Thursday.
Citing a recent report from the NGO Refugees International, Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told correspondents in New York that the number of internally displaced people has also jumped from around 80,000 to nearly 200,000 in one year with more than half being children and women.
The data shows that 650,000 people face food insecurity, compared to 185,000 at the same time last year and that number is projected to nearly double to 1.2 million by June 2020.
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Three million undernourished people in Asia-Pacific need to be lifted out of hunger every single month until the end of 2030 to achieve Sustainable Development Goal

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UN agencies warn on the state of malnutrition across the world’s hungriest region and call for nutrition to be placed at the heart of social protection programmes
10/12/2019 Bangkok, Thailand
Three million undernourished people in Asia and the Pacific must be lifted out of hunger each month from now on, if the region is to meet the SDG 2 Zero Hunger goal by the end of 2030, says a new report released today by four United Nations agencies.
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Universal Health Coverage will ‘drive progress’ on 2030 Development Agenda

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11 December 2019
Health
Last September world leaders at the United Nations endorsed an ambitious political declaration on universal health coverage, “reaffirming that health is a human right”, Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday in his message for International Universal Health Coverage Day.
He called the agreement “a significant achievement that will drive progress over the next decade on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and asked leaders to “keep the promise and ensure health for all is a reality for everyone, everywhere”.
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Failure to register newborns leaves millions ‘invisible’ warns UN Children’s Fund

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10 December 2019
Human Rights
While the number of registered births has significantly increased over the past decade, one quarter of children globally remain unaccounted for, leaving them vulnerable and “invisible”, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.
UNICEF reports that the births of one in four children under-five, or some 166 million children globally, have never been officially recorded.
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‘World has failed’ victims of genocide too often: Guterres

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9 December 2019
Human Rights
Too often, “the world has failed” populations under threat of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing, Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message for the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of Genocide on Monday.
Marking the day at a round table event, Chef de Cabinet Maria Luiza Viotti spoke on behalf of the UN chief, saying that, genocide remains “a scourge…causing great suffering”.
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Measles ‘misinformation campaigns’ through social media, fuel rising toll

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6 December 2019
Health
Measles deaths and infections in 2019 are set to “substantially exceed” last year’s toll when more than 142,000 people died from the preventable disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
In a warning over dangerously low vaccination levels and large outbreaks in several countries – spurred on by social media “misinformation campaigns” – the UN health agency insisted that anything less than 95 per cent coverage risked sparking an outbreak.
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