This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.
Michelle Bachelet on ‘momentous’ guilty verdict in George Floyd case
The guilty verdict against Derek Chauvin in the George Floyd murder trial has been welcomed by United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, who said that “any other result would have been a travesty of justice”.
"This is a momentous verdict," Michelle Bachelet said in a statement on Wednesday – her comments coming a day after Mr. Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police officer was convicted of murdering African American man in May 2020.
He was filmed kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes, sparking mass protests against racism.
Ms. Bachelet praised the “courage and perseverance of George Floyd’s family and many others in calling for justice”.
But she said that “the fight for justice goes on” for “countless other victims of African descent and their families”, adding that existing reforms of policing departments across the United States had been “insufficient”.
More than 5.2 million cases of COVID-19 infection in a week: WHO
COVID infections rose for the eighth consecutive week globally, with over 5.2 million new cases reported in the last seven-day period.
According to the UN health agency, WHO, which published the data late on Tuesday, the number of deaths also increased for the fifth consecutive week, with over 83,000 fatalities reported.
All regions except Europe and the Western Pacific reported a spike in the number of weekly deaths. The largest increase was in South-East Asia, owing to an increase in deaths in India, followed by the Eastern Mediterranean, largely because of higher fatalities in Iran.
Data also showed that the pace of deaths is accelerating, WHO said, as it took nine months to reach one million deaths, four more to pass the two million mark – and only another three to reach three million deaths – that threshold being crossed last week.
A malaria-free future is possible: Guterres
From one health crisis to another, malaria continues to claim the lives of more than 400,000 people a year, mainly young children in Africa.
In a call for action from Member States to eradicate the disease altogether, UN chief António Guterres insisted on Wednesday that it can be defeated with “robust” political commitment and sufficient funding.
A growing number of countries are achieving malaria elimination, said Mr. Guterres, and they’d done it by providing prevention and treatment to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay for care.
Coinciding with the Secretary-General’s comments, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the launch of a bid to halt malaria transmission in 25 more countries by 2025.
Of the 87 countries where malaria is still endemic, 46 reported fewer than 10,000 cases of the disease in 2019, compared to 26 countries in 2000, the UN health agency said.
By the end of 2020, 24 countries had reported interrupting malaria transmission for three years or more; of these, 11 were certified malaria-free by WHO.
“At a time when global progress in malaria control has stalled, the protection provided by the RTS,S malaria vaccine, when added to currently recommended malaria control interventions, has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives per year,” WHO said in a statement.
Katy Dartford, UN News.
