“The danger of an oil spill, posing a particularly critical environmental hazard, stays excessive,” mentioned IMO Secretary-Normal Arsenio Dominguez, emphasising that the tanker is carrying some 150,000 tonnes of oil on board.
“There’s widespread concern in regards to the injury such a spill would trigger throughout the area,” he added.
‘Unacceptable assault’
Referring to the state of affairs concerning the tanker MV Sounion which was focused whereas transiting the southern Purple Sea, he mentioned “that is yet one more unacceptable assault on worldwide delivery, placing the lives of harmless seafarers in danger.”
Because the warfare in Gaza erupted in October 2023 following Hamas-led assaults on Israel, the Houthis in Yemen have launched assaults in solidarity with the Palestinians within the besieged enclave in opposition to ships with ties to Israel.
“Service provider ships buying and selling important provides and the seafarers serving on them must be free to navigate worldwide unhindered by geopolitical tensions,” he mentioned, reiterating a name for “a direct finish to the unlawful, cowardly and unjustifiable assaults on worldwide delivery within the Purple Sea space”.
Mr. Dominguez expressed gratitude to all these concerned within the rescue efforts for making certain the seafarers have now all been safely evacuated, noting that IMO is in communication with nationwide, regional and UN entities in addition to different stakeholders concerning the continuing incident and can monitor the state of affairs carefully.
UN Girls deeply involved by new Afghanistan morality legislation
UN Women issued a press release on Wednesday expressing deep concern over a brand new morality legislation by the Taliban focusing on girls, which imposes in depth restrictions on private behaviour, “successfully erasing girls from public life”.
The legislation on the “promotion of advantage and the prevention of vice” considerably deepens the already extreme curtailment of the rights of Afghan girls and women, together with necessities for ladies to cowl their whole our bodies and faces, and it forbids girls’s voices in public, the gender equality company mentioned.
Girls are additionally prohibited from interacting with non-Muslims, utilizing public transport alone and taking a look at males to whom they aren’t associated by blood or marriage.
Over 70 legal guidelines erode girls’s rights
Over the previous three years since regaining energy, the Taliban have subjected Afghan girls and women to over 70 edicts, directives and decrees, stripping them of basic rights.
Based on a brand new UN Girls survey, just one per cent of ladies surveyed really feel like they’ve affect over resolution making of their communities, 64 per cent mentioned they don’t really feel secure leaving their houses by themselves, in comparison with two per cent of males, and eight per cent indicated figuring out not less than one girl or woman who has tried suicide since August 2021.
“UN Girls stands in unwavering solidarity with each Afghan girl and woman subjected to those measures and we are going to proceed to work with our companions to assist the complete realisation of their rights,” the assertion concluded.
Viet Nam in highlight over alleged misuse of counter-terrorism legislation
To Viet Nam, the place the authorities’ alleged misuse of counter-terrorism legal guidelines has prompted alarm from high impartial rights consultants.
In an alert over the therapy of the Montagnard Indigenous group and Christian non secular minorities within the southeast Asian nation, the rights consultants highlighted the mass trial by a cell court docket that convicted 100 folks on expenses linked to terrorism.
The listening to was in response to assaults on two police stations in Dak Lak province in June final yr, which led to 9 deaths.
The impartial rights consultants, who embrace Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, maintained that the authorities had incited civilian vigilantes from a majority ethnic group to “search out” suspects believed to be from the Montagnard neighborhood.
Torture, pressured confessions
“Some detainees have been subjected to torture and merciless, inhuman or degrading therapy or punishment in detention, together with pressured confessions. One detainee, additionally died in custody…after being tortured,” mentioned the consultants, who report back to the Human Rights Council in Geneva and should not UN workers.
They defined that the 100 convicted defendants have been “primarily charged with obscure and over-broad terrorism offences” in the course of the mass trial. They maintained that the cell court docket “lacked a transparent authorized foundation and was not impartial of political affect”.
Because the 2024 Paralympic Video games get underway in Paris, the top of the UN World Well being Group (WHO) has urged larger entry to the so-called “assistive know-how” aides that many individuals with disabilities depend on.
WHO Director-Normal Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus mentioned that the gadgets, which embrace working blades, wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs, have been massively vital for at this time’s Paralympians, “however around the globe, many individuals nonetheless would not have entry to essential assistive know-how because of its excessive price and low availability”.
Integration with major care
Tedros referred to as on governments, donors and civil society “to prioritise these uncared for however essential merchandise by integrating them in major care programmes” within the title of common well being protection, which is a key Sustainable Improvement Aim.
WHO estimates that greater than 2.5 billion folks would not have entry to assistive know-how at this time. Solely 5 to 35 per cent of the 80 million individuals who want a wheelchair even have entry to at least one, relying on the place they reside, and just one in 10 individuals who want listening to aids have them.
