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By Jaya Ramachandran
GENEVA (IDN) – The world of work is deeply suffering from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Almost all of the planet's workers, some 94 per cent, were living in countries with some type of workplace closure measures in place in May 2020, according to the UN Secretary-General's Policy Brief on the World of Work and COVID-19 prepared with the International Labour Organization (ILO).
UN Chief António Guterres has, therefore, called for a three-phased response to the situation.
Viewpoint by Roseline Orwa *
BONDO, Kenya (IDN) – COVID-19, the deadly pandemic that has upended our world, is also, according to a new report, “a widow-making machine”. The emerging scientific evidence that many more men than women are dying from COVID-19 shows that the coronavirus crisis is creating new widows even as global economic turbulence affects women who have been struggling with poverty, discrimination and injustice for years.
International Widows’ Day on 23 June is a reminder of the challenges faced by the world’s 258 million formidable, courageous widows and the 585 million children in their care – and the pandemic makes those challenges even greater.
By Mark Leon Goldberg, UN Dispatch Podcasts
NEW YORK (IDN ) – The Black Lives Matter movement has spread quickly around the world. Over the last several weeks, there have been BLM demonstrations in nearly every major city in Europe. Tens of thousands of people showed up for protests in Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, and London, just to name a few. There were also many protests across Latin America, Australia – even Asian cities like Seoul and Tokyo saw Black Lives Matter protests.
So how did the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota spark an anti-racism and civil rights movement that extends far beyond the United States?
Viewpoint by Charles T. Hunt and Adam Day *
LONDON (IDN | The Conversation) – United Nations Peacekeeping may be entering a period of major change. Over the past four years, there has been a steady decline in the number of peacekeepers deployed worldwide. And two of the largest peacekeeping missions in history are beginning to draw down.
These two developments hint at the fact that UN peacekeeping may appear poised to shrink further. There are a number of factors driving this. They include budgetary pressures and a contested track record. Added to this have been the more recent financial and practical challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Caroline Mwanga
NEW YORK (IDN) – Twenty-two United Nations senior African officials who hold the rank of Under-Secretary-General have in their "personal capacity" signed "Joint Reflections" on the last few weeks of protests at the killing of George Floyd in the hands of police, which they say in no uncertain terms have left them all "outraged at the injustice of racism that continues to be pervasive in our host country and across the world".
"Now Is the Time to Invest in and Step Up Action for Nature"
By Rita Joshi
BONN (IDN) – At least 40 per cent of the world’s economy and 80 per cent of the needs of the poor are derived from biological resources. These include diversity within species, between species, and between ecosystems. The richer the diversity of life, the greater the opportunity for medical discoveries, economic development, and adaptive responses to such new challenges as climate change and disastrous viruses such as the COVID-19.
Viewpoint by René Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens
GENEVA (IDN) — "For nearly a half a century — almost as long as the United Nations has been in existence — the General Assembly has recognized the need to establish such a court to prosecute and punish persons responsible for crimes such as genocide. Many thought that the horrors of the Second World War — the camps, the cruelty, the exterminations, the Holocaust — could never happen again. And yet they have.
"In Cambodia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Rwanda. Our time — this decade even— has shown us that man’s capacity for evil knows no limits. Genocide is now a word of our time too, a heinous reality that calls for a historic response." — Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General from January 1997 to December 2006.
Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Ritesh Tandon*
Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. is an ex-diplomat, and Ritesh Tandon is the Republican Party Candidate for the U.S. Congress from 17th Dist. California.
CALIFORNIA (IDN) – Pursuit of Peace and Development has been cherished both by nations and the international community. The U.S. under the Trump administration, in particular, has made it a specific policy and manifested a synergy of both in the government's many decisions.
By UN Women
NEW YORK (IDN) – Although the Pacific has largely been spared by the spread of the disease relative to other regions around the world – with Fiji hardest hit of the six countries the UN Women’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girls programme works in, at 18 confirmed cases – all of which have since been cleared, and several countries without a recorded a case so far – the economic and social consequences have been deep.
This interactive WHO dashboard/map provides the latest global numbers and numbers by country of COVID-19 cases on a daily Basis.
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IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.
IDN-InDepthNews serves as flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate and its partner, the Global Cooperation Council, established in February 1983.
