# NuseReal U.N. news
Collated by Peter Hulm
December 2024
31 December 2024
Protection and funding for human rights defenders: U.N. Rapporteur Mary Lawlor's list. — 31 December 2024 (LINK)
14 December 2024
Broken Chair
Topless anti-Russia protesters damage human rights Broken Chair outside UN in Geneva: four people brought in for questioning. — 14 December 2024 (LINK)
— Topless members of the Ukrainian feminist protest group Femen took chainsaws to a giant wooden sculpture outside the United Nations in Geneva on Friday, prompting police to intervene, witnesses said. The two women wearing the Ukrainian flag as garters shouted "Keep Russia out of the UN" and "Fuck Russia" as they sawed into a monument known as the Broken Chair, leaving over a dozen gashes.
— The three-legged structure, a work by Swiss artist Daniel Berset erected on the Place des Nations in 1997, has become a landmark in the city of Geneva. It was designed to raise awareness about the impact of landmines on civilians in conflict zones.
— Since it was founded in Kyiv in 2008, the Femen movement has won fame and notoriety in Europe for its protests — usually topless — against sex tourism, homophobia and religious institutions.
12 December 2024
Young diplomats on video
PassBlue New Short-Video Series 'Young Diplomats' Makes Its Debut. — 12 December 2024 (LINK)
— candid interviews with diplomats working for country missions to the United Nations. The series provides a platform for young delegates to share their unique perspectives on global diplomacy, their experiences navigating the UN system and the challenges and opportunities they face in shaping international policy.
9 December 2024
Human Rights Day
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights press conference ahead of Human Rights Day on 10 December: Türk calls for end to senseless conflicts and suffering "at a time when human rights are not only violated, but also increasingly instrumentalized". — 9 December 2024 (LINK)
— Three key issues that continue to have massive ramifications for human rights around the world:
- "The proliferation of armed conflict, the erosion of respect for international law in the conduct of hostilities, and the apparent indifference of powerful actors to immense numbers of casualties and suffering.
- The blurring of lines between reality and fiction. In this mega-election year, we witnessed an increase in the politics of diversion and even gaslighting, and the dangerous proliferation of disinformation.
- The focus on waging war and disinformation as a distraction from some of the biggest challenges to our long-term security – the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss, as well as the huge inequalities in the world."
— "Funding for human rights represents less than five percent of the total regular budget of the United Nations — and the liquidity crisis that has impacted the entire UN Secretariat has had significant consequences for the UN Human Rights Office."
9 December 2024
Afghanistan
UN experts reject ban on medical training for women as 'totally unjustifiable'. — 9 December 2024 (LINK)
— "If implemented, the reported new ban will be yet another inexplicable, totally unjustifiable blow to the health, dignity, and futures of Afghan women and girls. It will constitute yet another direct assault on the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan," the experts said.
— "It will undoubtedly lead to unnecessary suffering, illness, and possibly deaths of Afghan women and children, now and in future generations, which could amount to femicide."
—
8 December 2024
UNCCD
UNCCD Report: Invest in nature to cut billion-dollar costs of droughts. — 8 December 2024 (LINK)
— Droughts fueled by human destruction of the environment are projected to affect 3 in 4 people by 2050. Costs already exceed $ 307 billion per year globally.
— Drawing on a wealth of evidence and case studies from countries all around the world — like Chile, India, Jordan, Kenya, Spain, and Tunisia — the report makes the economic and business case for nature-based solutions (NbS) to drought. That is, for practices that restore ecosystem functions and soil health to enhance water flow, storage, and supply in support of human wellbeing — for example, reforestation, grazing management, and the restoration and conservation of watersheds.
— An economy that respects natural systems instead of undermining them could generate up to US$10.1 trillion annually in business value and create up to 395 million jobs by 2030. Tripling investment in Nature-based Solutions up to 2030 could generate 20 million additional jobs.
6 November 2024
Food
World food prices reached 19-month high in November on the back of surging vegetable oil prices, FAO says. — 6 December 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 33 media reports (LINK)
— Reuters: Cereal prices dropped 2.7% from October thanks to weaker wheat and rice prices, while sugar fell 2.4% from October as India and Thailand began crushing and concerns over Brazil's crop prospects eased.
— In a separate report, the FAO trimmed its forecast for global cereal production in 2024 from 2.848 billion metric tons to 2.841 billion, a 0.6% decline from last year but still the second largest output on record.
— World cereal utilisation, meanwhile, is set to increase 0.6% to 2.859 billion tons in 2024/25 thanks to growing consumption. As a result, the FAO expects the cereal stocks-to-use ratio to fall to 30.1% at the close of the 2025 season from 30.8% previously, but still indicating a "comfortable level of global supply".
6 December 2024
Net-zero
Goldman Sachs quits UN net-zero global climate coalition for banks without providing any explanation. — 7 December 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 12 media reports (LINK)
— Bloomberg: Increasingly complex regulations and US political attacks lead some of the financial industry's biggest firms to rethink such affiliations.
— "The bank's decision to leave the Net-Zero Banking Alliance was mainly motivated by the need to comply with mandatory reporting guidelines, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations at the bank. The person pointed to the rollout of the European Union's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive as a key development guiding Goldman's approach to the matter."
6 December 2024
Nuclear
IAEA sounds alarm on Iran's uranium enrichment "to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade". — 6 December 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: 128 media reports (LINK)
International Court of Justice (ICJ) to begin hearings on landmark Pacific-led climate change case. — 2 December 2024 (LINK)
— ICJ to hear submissions from more than 100 groups in campaign to provide an advisory opinion on states' obligations for climate harm
— After years of lobbying by island nations, the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ last year for an opinion on "the obligations of States in respect of climate change."
4 December 2024
Humanitarian action
2025 Global Humanitarian Overview: EU Commissioner Lahbib calls for the respect of International Humanitarian Law and for boosting efforts to address the humanitarian funding gap. — 7 December 2024 (LINK)
— In 2025, 305 million people will require urgent humanitarian assistance and protection, out of which 190 million people will be facing life-threatening needs. OCHA estimates that over $47 billion would be required to save these people lives.
— The EU's Commissioner for Preparedness, Crisis Management and Equality, Hadja Lahbib: "As we enter 2025, the gap between humanitarian needs and humanitarian funding is growing. This impacts our ability to uphold International Humanitarian Law, protect civilians, and deliver life-saving assistance. We must focus on two areas: first, increasing funding, expanding the donor base and working more efficiently. And second, we must reduce humanitarian needs, often caused by conflict and the climate crisis."
4 December 2024
Climate action
EEAS: "International Geneva Unites for Climate Action". — 4 December 2024 (LINK)
— "International Geneva has adopted its Climate Action Plan on 4 December 2024, with 36 participant institutions (permanent Missions, international Organizations, Academia and civil society entities) firmly determined to reach their climate objectives, in accordance with the Paris Agreement and in line with Switzerland, State and City of Geneva's climate strategies."
— Together, the participant institutions have pledged to implement over 1,000 actions aiming for an average 32% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, which represents a decrease of 53,000 tonnes of CO2 e.q., comparable to the yearly emissions of 4,100 Swiss residents.
— From energy-efficient buildings to greener mobility, responsible food systems, biodiversity protection, sustainable IT, and improved waste management, the adopted action plans reflect the determination of each institution to operate within planetary boundaries. With clear milestones set for 2025, 2028, and 2030, these plans represent a collective effort to tackle the pressing environmental challenges of our time.
2 December 2024
Desertification
Desertification talks open in Saudi Arabia as experts fire warning. — 2 December 2024 (LINK)
— The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which brings together 196 countries and the European Union, now says 1.5 billion hectares (3.7 billion acres) must be restored by decade's end to combat crises including escalating droughts.
— UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called it a "moonshot moment": a 12-day meeting for the UNCCD, looking to protect and restore land and respond to drought amid the onslaught of climate change.
— The last such meeting, or "Conference of the Parties" (COP) to the convention, held in Ivory Coast in 2022, produced a commitment to "accelerating the restoration of one billion hectares of degraded land by 2030".
— A day before the COP16 talks in Saudi Arabia, home to one of the world's biggest deserts, a new UN report warned that forest loss and degraded soils were reducing resilience to climate change and biodiversity loss.
— Matthew Archer, assistant professor in the Department of Society Studies at Maastricht University and author of "Unsustainable: Measurement, Reporting and the Limits of Corporate Sustainability", was dismissive of the Saudi meeting. It is part of the "COP charade (that) is totally incapable of facilitating the kind of political action that might sufficiently address the socioecological crises we are facing", he told AFP. "I wouldn't hold my breath for COP16 to yield a tenable solution to desertification," added Archer.
International talks on curbing plastic pollution fail to reach agreement: Chairof talks in Busan says progress has been made but 'a few critical issues' are unresolved. — 1 December 2024 (LINK)
UNRWA says it is halting aid deliveries through main Gaza crossing due to threats from armed gangs. — 1 December 2024 (LINK) — ground.news: media reports (LINK)
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