This is the News in Brief from the United Nations. 

UN health agency recommends adopting ‘mpox’ for monkeypox 

In an effort to stop online abuse linked to the monkeypox outbreak, the UN health agency on Monday urged the adoption of an alternative name: “mpox.” 

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that it was asked to decide on a new name after cases of the virus were reported in countries where it is not endemic, prompting “racist and stigmatizing language”. 

WHO held consultations with health experts, countries and members of the public before announcing the move. 

To mitigate concerns that the name change might spread confusion in the midst of a global outbreak, the UN health agency said that mpox will only replace monkeypox once and for all in a year’s time. 

Latest data indicates just over 81,000 confirmed cases of mpox worldwide, including 55 deaths. 110 countries have reported cases since 1 January across all six WHO regions. 

UN Women launches advice for protection of women rights defenders  

Women rights defenders need much better protection, particularly in migration settings, UN Women said on Monday, as it published new guidelines to boost protection. 

Although women play a crucial role in securing the rights of people on the move - by providing food, water, shelter and emergency medical supplies – they also face the threat of rape, extorsion and forced labour, said Inkeri Von Hase, Global Coordinator of the Making Migration Safe for Women project at UN Women: 

“They do this kind of work individually, but also collectively, as state as well as non-state actors and through professional and employment-related roles, but also voluntarily, just because they see a need for this work to be done and they do it.” 

Ms. Von Hase added that women migrant rights activists also accompany people on the move along dangerous transit routes, and they also search for people who are missing, among many other difficult tasks, despite a rise in attacks against them. 

‘Critical opportunity’ to strengthen Biological Weapons Convention, countries hear 

To Geneva, where the UN’s top disarmament official has urged all countries to push ahead with stalled plans to prevent biological weapons from being developed. 

In a speech to the Biological Weapons Convention, Izumi Nakamitsu explained that the issue of verifying whether biological toxins are being made has been deadlocked for 20 years. 

Novel ideas need to be found to leverage “the tools of modern science to develop a politically acceptable verification protocol”, Ms. Nakamitsu insisted, as countries gathered for three weeks of meetings – a once in every five year review of the Biological Weapons Convention, that was delayed by a further year, because of COVID-19. 

“No topic should be off the table in the quest to strengthen the Convention,” the UN disarmament official insisted, as she urged support for peaceful scientific cooperation, enhanced transparency in research and the promotion of emerging technologies for good. 

Daniel Johnson, UN News.