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Tuesday’s Daily Brief: Hope for Myanmar, UN News sits down with new Assembly President, youth speak out on climate crisis

Rohingya refugees
WFP/Saikat Mojumder
Rohingya refugees

Tuesday’s Daily Brief: Hope for Myanmar, UN News sits down with new Assembly President, youth speak out on climate crisis

Human Rights

A recap of Tuesday’s top stories: Hope for justice in Myanmar rights violations; First major interview with new Assembly President; Youth activists want a platform in solving climate crisis; Five deaths every minute due to unsafe health care; Number of migrants outpacing world population growth.

Justice for Myanmar generals is coming, rights experts insist 

Rohingya refugees fleeing conflict and persecution in Myanmar (file photo).

Human rights violations against Myanmar’s ethnic minorities are continuing, top UN-appointed independent experts said on Tuesday, insisting that those responsible for abuses would face justice. 

Briefing journalists in Geneva, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, cited the involvement of the Myanmar military in operations against Rohingya communities in Rakhine state. 

The violence in Rakhine is “escalating” and there are credible reports of Rakhine men being tortured and dying in custody and Rakhine villages “being burned”, she said. 

First major interview with new GA President, Muhammad-Bande

General Assembly President-elect Tijjani Muhammad Bande speaks to UN News. (September 2019)

Poverty eradication, inclusion and quality education will be of top priority for the 74th session of the General Assembly, the new UN body’s President told UN News.

Back in June, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande was elected by acclamation to preside over this year’s General Assembly, which began on Tuesday.

Calling education “a complex matter”, he spelled out that “whoever is denied an education is denied almost everything”.

Go here for a full report on the opening of the new General Assembly.

Listen to the full interview on SoundCloud: 

Soundcloud

World leaders should 'take young people seriously' to fix planet’s climate crisis

Greta Thunberg (l) joins two other teenage climate activists in the UN General Assembly Hall in New York on 30 August 2019.

World leaders should “take young people seriously” to find solutions to the planet’s “existential” climate crisis, Swiss activist Marie-Claire Graf has said, before leaving for the UN’s first Youth Climate Summit in New York. 

Ms. Graf, 23, is one of 100 young advocates from the same number of countries given “Green Tickets” by the UN to attend Saturday’s meeting, where they can showcase their solutions and press decision-makers for concrete action.  

Other engaged youngsters, such as Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, are already in New York ahead of the youth summit, which precedes the Climate Action Summit, convened by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on 23 September. 

 

Five avoidable deaths per minute, patient safety needs urgent action

A woman and her child sit on a hospital bed in Makara, Cambodia, while a nurse reviews their medical charts. (file)

With at least five people dying every minute due to unsafe health care, the World Health Organization (WHO) is urging medical professionals, policy makers, caregivers and patients to take urgent action to ensure no one is harmed while receiving treatment.

“Speak up for patient safety!” is the slogan for the first World Patient Safety Day, observed this Tuesday, 17 September.

The objective is to prevent and reduce risks, errors and harm, such as dispensing the wrong medication due to a mix-up over similar packaging.

Get out full story here.

Number of migrants now growing faster than world population, new UN figures show

A migrant family looks out the window and take pictures as they undertake their journey for resettling. (20 December 2015)

The growing number of international migrants has now reached 272 million, outpacing the growth rate of the world’s population, according to new data from the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), released on Tuesday.

The figures reflect a jump from 2010, when the global number was at 221 million, and currently international migrants – defined as anyone who changes their “country of usual residence” – make up 3.5 per cent of the global population, compared to 2.8 per cent in the year 2000, according to the latest figures.

Get our coverage here.

Listen to or download our audio News in Brief for 9 September, on Soundcloud:

Soundcloud