Inclusion for people with disabilities means education, health care access
For the International Day Of Persons With Disabilities, a message from UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who’s called for greater inclusion for all those with a handicap, along with greater recognition and protection of their rights.
Specifically, Mr Guterres said that these rights included the right to go to school, live in the community, access health care and start a family.
Everyone should have the right to engage politically, to play sport, travel and have decent work, the UN chief insisted, in his message for the international day on 3 December.
He explained that people with disabilities had been among the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and that they are more likely to live in poverty and experience higher rates of violence, neglect and abuse.
Mooted Bangladesh island relocation of Rohingya refugees, must respect rights: UN
To reports now that Bangladesh authorities may be preparing to move Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar to an island in the Bay of Bengal.
Nearly 900,000 Rohingya refugees live in the Cox’s Bazar settlements; in 2017, hundreds of thousands fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar following a reported military clearance operation in August 2017, during which numerous alleged human rights abuses were committed.
In a statement, the UN office in Bangladesh said that it had not been involved in preparations for the movement of, nor the identification of refugees to the new destination, Bhasan Char.
It added that refugees who choose to move there “should have basic rights and services on the island”; these should include freedom of movement to and from the Bangladesh mainland, “as well as access to education, health care” and work.
These would help to lay the foundations for a productive and secure community on the island, the UN office said, before noting that “comprehensive …protection assessments” should be carried out on Bhasan Char before any relocation happens.
COVID crisis set to drag 32 million of world’s poorest back into extreme poverty: UNCTAD
More than 32 million of the world’s poorest, face being pulled back into extreme poverty because of COVID-19, leading UN economists have said.
In a call for urgent investment from the international community, the UN trade and development agency, UNCTAD, said that the pandemic is likely to cause the worst economic crisis in decades among Least Developed Countries.
It warned that the new coronavirus risked reversing years of “painstaking progress” in poverty reduction, nutrition and education, with per capita economic output shrinking by 2.6 per cent this year.
An estimated 1.06 billion people live in the 47 Least Developed Countries, which account for less than 1.3 per cent of global economic turnover.
In 2019, average earnings in these countries – which are mainly in Africa - was around $1,000 compared with the world average of $11,000, the UN agency said.
Extreme poverty is defined as having an income lower than $1.90 per day.
UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said that countries which had invested most in boosting production capacity were the ones that were likely to weather the global downturn caused by COVID-19.
Senegal was one of only a few to have done so, Mr. Kituyi said, it had produced cheap and rapid COVID testing kits, while Bangladesh and Ethiopia had repurposed garment factories to produce personal protective equipment.
Daniel Johnson, UN News
