Week in Review

This year’s UN Climate Conference takes place in Sharm el-Sheikh, against a backdrop of extreme weather events worldwide, an energy crisis propelled by the war in Ukraine, and scientific data reiterating that the world is not doing enough to tackle carbon emissions and protect the future of our planet.

Some of the world’s most iconic glaciers are set to disappear by 2050, according to a new study by UNESCO, which highlights the accelerated melting of glaciers in World Heritage sites.

The UN Secretary-General on Wednesday issued a statement warmly welcoming Russia’s decision to resume its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which has allowed nearly ten million metric tonnes of vital foodstuffs to be shipped from Ukraine.

Russia’s decision to rejoin the Black Sea Grain Initiative and the Ethiopian agreement to end the war in Tigray demonstrate the power of multilateralism in action, said the UN chief on Thursday, in a call for countries to also rebuild trust between the North and South at the UN’s COP27 climate conference in Egypt.

Countries must urgently ramp up action to adapt to the current and future impacts of climate change, as efforts now are too little and too slow, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in its latest report, published on Thursday. 

Amid continuing gang warfare and a vacuum of law and order, Haiti is “on the verge of an abyss” said the UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Thursday, warning that any hope of a sustainable recovery requires “urgent and sustained action” to tackle the root causes of the overlapping crises afflicting the island nation.

A peace deal between the Ethiopian Government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed on Wednesday in South Africa, represents “a critical first step” towards ending the brutal two year war, said the UN chief.

Governments and the international community must take action to protect the people who bring us the news, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, observed on Wednesday. 

Just as racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination should have no place in the world, “povertyism” – or negative attitudes and behaviour towards poor people – should also be illegal. 

That’s the hope of Olivier De Schutter, the UN expert working to give greater prominence to the plight of the millions of people across the globe who are living in extreme poverty. 

Together with the head of the UN’s labour agency, ILO, he also advocates for supporting low-income countries to provide social protection for their populations, such as unemployment benefits and old age pensions. 

Mr. De Schutter, whose official title is Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, was at UN Headquarters recently to present his latest report to the General Assembly. 

He told Florence Westergard from UN News’s French Language Unit why abandoning a “charity” approach to poverty is the only effective way to eradicate it. 

Handling heavy machinery is not one of the first skills that comes to mind when we think of UN peacekeepers, but construction skills are an important component of the blue helmets’ competency toolkit.

On Friday, Judge Leonardo Brant was elected to serve on the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principle judicial organ of the UN, which settles legal disputes between Member States.

The Brazilian jurist joins a bench of 15 eminent justices from around the world, who hear cases that can often take years to work their way through the system, with profound consequences for not only the countries involved, but entire regions.

UN News recently sat down with the Registrar, or head of the ICJ, Philippe Gautier, at UN Headquarters in New York, who told us without the Court, there would be “no trust” in the international legal order, and “terrible consequences” for international peace and security.

Philippe Coste of our French service, began by asking him what role the Court could potentially play in bringing Russia to account for its illegal invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, on 24 February.

Temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average over the past 30 years – the highest of any continent in the world. As the warming trend continues, exceptional heat, wildfires, floods and other climate change impacts will affect society, economies and ecosystems, according to a report released Wednesday by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The 2022 opium crop in Afghanistan is the most profitable in years with cultivation up by nearly a third amid soaring prices, and despite the multiple humanitarian and economic crises facing the country and it’s Taliban rulers, said the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Tuesday.

Over 80 oil and gas companies across the world have committed to measuring and reducing their methane emissions, the second biggest driver of global warming, according to a new report by the UN environment agency (UNEP).

The UN Secretary-General has expressed deep concern over the uptick in fighting between Government troops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and M23 rebels in the east, which in the past ten days have seen multiple civilians killed, “massive displacement” and four peacekeepers from the UN Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) injured.

A two-day meeting of the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee in India has ended with the adoption of a document committing Member States to prevent and combat digital forms of terror, notably using drones, social media, and online terrorist financing.

Throughout Syria’s civil war, women have risked their security to mediate the various conflicts that have affected their communities. Since international efforts to end the fighting have stalled, their role has grown in importance.