16 children from 12 countries sue world on climate crisis

Agencies
September 24, 2019

United Nations, Sept 24: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, 16 child petitioners, including Sweden's Greta Thunberg and American Alexandria Villase, from 12 countries presented a landmark official complaint to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (OHCHR) to protest aginst the lack of government action on the climate crisis.

In the complaint filed on Monday through the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the petitioners, aged between eight and 17, have alleged that member states' failure to tackle the climate crisis constitutes a violation of child rights.

The Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child is a voluntary mechanism which allows children or adults on their behalf to appeal directly to the UN for help if a country that has ratified the Protocol fails to provide a remedy for a rights violation.

They urged the independent body to order the member states to take action to protect children from the devastating impacts of climate change.

"Change needs to happen now if we are to avoid the worst consequences. The climate crisis is not just the weather. It means also, lack of food and lack of water, places that are unliveable and refugees because of it. It is scary," said the 16-year-old Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg.

Announced at a press conference hosted at the UNICEF Headquarters in New York, the complaint aims to inspire the urgent action needed to curb global heating and mitigate the impact of the climate crisis.

"Thirty years ago, world leaders made a historic commitment to the world's children by adopting the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Today, the worldaes children are holding the world accountable to that commitment," said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Charlotte Petri Gornitzka.

"We fully support children exercising their rights and taking a stand. Climate change will impact every single one of them. It's no wonder they are uniting to fight back."

In addition to Thunberg and the 14-year-old American climate activist Alexandria Villasenor, the 14 other child petitioners were from India, Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, the Marshall Islands, Nigeria, Palau, South Africa, Sweden, Tunisia and the US.

They were represented by global law firm Hausfeld LLP and Earthjustice.

UNICEF supports the child petitioners exercising their right to bring complaints via the communication procedure of the Third Optional Protocol.

However, UNICEF is not a party to the complaint. Itis neutral and plays no part in the adjudication process by the OHCHR.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

New Delhi, Jul 28: India on Wednesday reported 47,704 more COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the country's count of coronavirus cases to 14,83,157, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Out of the total cases, there are 4,96,988 active cases in the country while the number of patients cured/discharged and migrated stands at 9,52,744.

With 654 deaths due to COVID-19 in the country reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll rises to 33,425.

The recovery rate among COVID-19 patients has increased to 64.23 per cent. The recoveries to deaths ratio is 96.6 per cent:3.4 per cent, informed the Centre.

As per the data provided by the Ministry, Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state from the infection with 1,48,905 active cases and 13,656 deaths due to COVID-19. Tamil Nadu has a total of 53,703 active cases and 3,494 deaths.

Delhi has a total of 11,904 active cases and 3,827 deaths.

The Health Ministry further informed that more than 5 lakh COVID-19 tests were conducted in a single day over two consecutive days. On 26th July, India tested a total of 5,15,000 samples and on 27th July, a total of 5,28,000 samples were tested.

The total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to July 27 is 1,73,34,885 including 5,28,082 samples tested yesterday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

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News Network
June 8,2020

Hundreds of thousands of people across the world are joining the anti-racism demonstrations days after the killing of George Floyd in United Sates. 

The protests are being held in cities including London, Manchester, Cardiff, Leicester and Sheffield.

Demonstrators attached ropes to the statue of Edward Colston before pulling it down to cheers and roars of approval from the crowd. Images on social media show the statue was eventually rolled into the city's harbour. 

It was not the only statue targeted on Sunday. In Brussels, protesters clambered onto the statue of former King Leopold II and chanted "reparations".

The word "shame" was also graffitied on the monument, reference perhaps to the fact that Leopold is said to have reigned over the mass death of 10 million Congolese.

In London, thousands of people congregated around the US embassy for the second day running.

While protests were mainly peaceful, there were some scuffles near the office of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and outside the Parliament gates.

In Hong Kong, about 20 people staged a rally in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement on Sunday outside the US consulate in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

"It's a global issue," Quinland Anderson, a 28-year-old British citizen living in Hong Kong, told The Associated Press news agency.

"We have to remind ourselves despite all we see going on in the US and in the other parts of the world, Black lives do indeed matter."

Several dozen demonstrators took part in a Black Lives Matter protest held in Tel Aviv's central Rabin Square.

A rally in Rome's sprawling People's Square was noisy but peaceful, with the majority of protesters wearing masks to protect against coronavirus. Participants listened to speeches and held up handmade placards saying "Black Lives Matter" and "It's a White Problem".

In Spain, several thousand people gathered on the streets of Barcelona and at the US embassy in Madrid.

Many in Madrid carried homemade signs reading "Black Lives Matter", "Human rights for all" and "Silence is pro-racist".

"We are not only doing this for our brother George Floyd," said Thimbo Samb, a spokesman for the group that organised the events in Spain mainly through social media. "Here in Europe, in Spain, where we live, we work, we sleep and pay taxes, we also suffer racism."

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News Network
June 17,2020

Beijing, Jun 17: China said Wednesday it wanted to avoid further clashes with India along their border after the first deadly confrontation between the two nuclear powers in decades.

The two countries have traded blame for Monday's high-altitude brawl that left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead, with China refusing to confirm so far whether there were any casualties on its side.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian insisted again Wednesday that it was Indian troops who illegally crossed the border and attacked the Chinese side.

This led to "a serious physical confrontation between both sides that caused deaths and injuries", Zhao said at a regular briefing, without providing more details about the casualties.

He said China urges India to "strictly restrain frontline troops, do not illegally cross the border, do not make provocative gestures, do not take any unilateral actions that will complicate the border situation".

But he added that the two sides "will continue to resolve this issue through dialogue and negotiations".

"We of course don't wish to see more clashes," Zhao said.

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Indian baba
 - 
Wednesday, 17 Jun 2020

we have 56 inch chest man as our leader...he alone will fight the war and give victory to india..jai bakth

 

 

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