Category: Education

A hospital unable to contact a doctor for emergency surgery. Voters deprived of information about candidates during an election. Students missing entry exams for academic programs. Atrocities in conflict zones covered up.

These are just a few examples of the profound damage to the daily lives and human rights of millions of people caused by government-imposed internet shutdowns, a new report of the UN Human Rights Office warns.

The report, Internet shutdowns: Trends, causes, legal implications and impacts on a range of human rights, aims to shed light on internet shutdowns, examining how they undermine a range of human rights, first and foremost the right to freedom of expression. It details how shutdowns undermine development and how some governments increasingly use the measure to stop protests and silence dissent.

“While internet shutdowns deeply affect many human rights, they most immediately impact freedom of expression and access to information – one of the foundations of free and democratic societies and an indispensable condition for the full development of the person,” the report states.

As digitalization advances in societies, the impact of internet shutdowns on people’s lives will increase, the report adds, bearing heavy costs on jobs, education, health, standard of living, political participation and social and cultural life.

“Internet shutdowns have emerged as the digital world has become ever more important, indeed essential, for the realization of many human rights. Switching off the Internet causes incalculable damage, both in material and human rights terms,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.

States should therefore refrain from shutting down the internet, the report urges.

Affected Elections

The report notes that the #KeepItOn coalition, which monitors shutdowns across the world, documented 931 shutdowns between 2016 and 2021 in 74 countries, with some countries blocking communications repeatedly and over long periods of time. Globally, all regions experienced multiple shutdowns, but the majority reported occurred in Asia and Africa.

The report adds that almost half of all shutdowns recorded by civil society groups in the last six years were carried out during protests and heightened political tensions to quell demonstrations on a vast range of social, political and economic grievances.

Shutdowns affected at least 52 elections between 2016 and 2021. In 2019 alone, the governments of 14 African countries disrupted access to the internet during electoral periods.

This was the case in Zambia, which held presidential elections in August 2021 under hurriedly passed cyberlaws to restrict internet, said Susan Mwape, founder and executive director of Common Cause Zambia, an organization that seeks to promote citizen participation.

Mwape said services such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were affected, with the consequence of undermining access to digital tools critical for campaigning and promoting public discussion.

“The cyberlaws were meant to weaponize internet and shut down those vocal against the government,” Mwape said.

The report points out that shutdowns have evolved from complete blackouts to more targeted disruptions, made possible by new digital tools and surveillance technologies. Governments increasingly resort to “throttling” of bandwidth, or limiting mobile service to 2G, which hinders meaningful use of the internet.

Raya Sharbain of the Jordan Open Source Association (JOSA), a nonprofit organization that advances digital rights in Jordan, said some countries that enforce controls on freedom of expression use vaguely formulated laws to restrict communications and often do not inform the public on the interventions they implement.

“Shutdowns can be difficult to detect – we receive complaints that communications are slowing down during a protest and have to conduct a technical analysis to identify which services are being affected,” Sharbain said.

Humanitarian work and atrocities

The report also gives examples of the impact of internet shutdowns on humanitarian work. In Somalia, aid workers reported that internet shutdowns hampered life-saving humanitarian assistance. In Myanmar, shutdowns endangered local aid organizations.

In conflict-affected areas, blocked access to digital tools that are used to document and report abuses may have contributed to further violence, including atrocities, the report states. Some shutdowns may have been implemented with the deliberate intent of covering up human rights violations, it adds.

Because of the increasing reliance of businesses and trade on digital technologies, disruptions of communications services have serious repercussions on the economy, undermining the flow of remittances and pushing start-ups to ruin, the report points out. The World Bank recently calculated that Internet shutdowns in Myanmar alone had cost nearly $2.8 billion between February and December 2021, reversing economic progress made over the previous decade.

Shutdowns and the way forward

The report addresses the ways companies, development cooperation agencies and civil society can help making it harder for shutdowns to keep occurring.

Stopping internet shutdowns needs to be thought of as an essential ingredient of the global efforts to close the digital divide, the report points out.

One key step to end shutdowns is ensuring greater visibility when and while they happen. The report points to the need for better real-time information on different types of shutdowns, and recommends establishing a collaborative mechanism to gather information on disruptions.

Source: UN Human Rights Council

GENEVA— The United Nations on Monday begged world trade ministers meeting at the WTO not to impose export restrictions on food for humanitarian purposes, amid a food security crisis.

The UN’s human rights chief Michelle Bachelet and its trade and development head Rebeca Grynspan said Russia’s war in Ukraine was increasing the risk of hunger and famine for tens of millions of people who are already food insecure or approaching food insecurity.

Countries meeting at the World Trade Organization’s ministerial conference in Geneva this week are trying to reach a consensus position on food security.

Mindful of less-developed countries, net food-importing developing countries and those reliant on the UN’s World Food Programme, the two UN chiefs said that in 2020, African countries imported about 80 percent of their food and 92 percent of their cereal from outside the continent.

They urged WTO members to “refrain from imposing export restrictions on essential foodstuffs purchased by LDCs and NFIDCs as well as those purchased by WFP for non-commercial humanitarian purposes”.

Russia’s invasion has heightened concerns for global food security as Ukraine’s Black Sea ports are blocked, preventing the country from exporting its produce.

Before the February invasion, Ukraine was the world’s fourth-largest supplier of wheat and maize.

India capped sugar exports to safeguard its own supplies and ease inflation, days after its ban on wheat shipments sent global prices soaring.

Immediately after the May 25 sugar announcement, WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala urged countries not to block or restrict exports of basic foodstuffs given the tensions on global food markets.

A decision on food security and export restrictions is one of the main expected outcomes at the WTO ministerial conference, which opened Sunday and runs until Wednesday.

A second text aims to ban export restrictions on WFP purchases but India and Tanzania oppose the move.

The UN leaders said they would work with WTO members to address anti-competitive and unfair business practices.

“Hoarding, excessive stockpiling of basic foodstuffs and associated speculation, especially during global food shortages, adversely affect the enjoyment of the right to food and erodes efforts to achieve food security for all,” they said.

EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis met India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal for talks at the WTO on Monday.

“We need all members to show the same level of ambition and spirit of compromise to make this WTO ministerial a success,” the EU executive vice president said afterwards.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rises, ocean heat levels and acidification, all set new records during 2021, while some glaciers reached the point of no return, according to the latest flagship report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), published on Wednesday.

The State of the Climate 2021 indicates that extreme weather – the day-to-day face of climate change – wreaked a heavy toll of human lives, triggered shocks for food and water security, and led to hundreds of billions of dollars in economic losses last year.

The report, which describes yet more clear signs that human activity is causing harm on a planetary scale - to our land, ocean and atmosphere - also confirms that the past seven years have been the warmest on record, with global temperature in 2021 reaching about 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels.

“It is just a matter of time before we see another warmest year on record. Our climate is changing before our eyes. The heat trapped by human-induced greenhouse gases will warm the planet for many generations to come”, warned WMO chief Petteri Taalas. “Sea level rise, ocean heat and acidification will continue for hundreds of years unless means to remove carbon from the atmosphere are invented”.

A plan for renewables

Calling the report, a “dismal litany of humanity’s failure to tackle climate disruption”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that while time is running out to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis, there is a ‘lifeline’ right in front of us.

“We must end fossil fuel pollution and accelerate the renewable energy transition before we incinerate our only home… Transforming energy systems is low-hanging fruit”, he emphasized in a video message.

Highlighting that renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar are readily available and in most cases, cheaper than coal and other fossil fuels, the UN chief proposed five critical actions to jump-start the energy transition, which he called the “peace project of the 21st century”.

1. Treating renewable energy technologies as essential global public goods

This means removing obstacles to knowledge sharing and technological transfer, including intellectual property constraints.

Mr. Guterres called for a new global coalition on battery storage led by governments and bringing together tech companies, manufacturers and financiers to fast-track innovation and deployment.

2. Secure, scale up and diversify the supply components and raw materials for renewable energy technologies

Supply chains for renewable energy technology and raw materials are concentrated in a handful of countries, and more international coordination is needed to overcome this obstacle.

3. Build frameworks and reform fossil fuel bureaucracies

The UN chief is calling for governments to fast-track and streamline approvals of solar and wind projects, modernize grids and set ambitious renewable energy targets that provide certainty to investors, developers, consumers and producers.

4. Shift subsidies away from fossil fuels

Each year, governments around the world pour around half a trillion dollars into artificially lowering the price of fossil fuels - more than triple the subsidies given to renewables.

“While people suffer from high prices at the pump, the oil and gas industry is raking in billions from a distorted market. This scandal must stop”, Guterres highlights.

5. Private and public investments in renewable energy must triple

The UN chief is calling for and adjustment to risk frameworks and more flexibility to scale up renewable finance.

“it’s time to jump-start the renewable energy transition before it’s too late”, the Secretary-General urged.

Climate emergency

The UN chief’s plan is long overdue, at a time when extreme weather continues to impact the lives of millions in recent weeks, as seen with the drought emergency in the Horn of Africa, the deadly floods in South Africa, and the extreme heat in India and Pakistan.

The WMO State of the Global Climate report complements the latest assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which only included data up to 2019, and it will be used as a negotiation document during the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Egypt (COP 27) later this year.

Here are some of its key findings:

• Greenhouse gas concentrations

Levels reached a new global high in 2020 and continued to increase in 2021, with the concentration of carbon dioxide reaching 413.2 parts per million globally, a 149% increase on pre-industrial levels.

"We have broken records in main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide and especially the record in carbon dioxide is striking; we haven’t seen any improvement despite of the lockdowns caused by COVID in 2020, so the concentrations continue growing”, explains WMO chief Petteri Taalas.

• Ocean heat

Another record high. The upper 2,000m depth of ocean water continued to warm in 2021 and it is expected that it will continue to warm in the future – a change which is irreversible on centennial to millennial time scales, and affects deeply marine ecosystems such as coral reefs.

• Ocean acidification

Because of the excess carbon dioxide (CO2) the ocean is absorbing (some 23% of annual emissions), its waters are increasingly acidifying.

This has consequences for organisms and ecosystems, and also threatens human food security and tourism.

The decreasing PH level also means the ocean’s capacity to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere also decreases.

"90 per cent of the excess heat that we have produced to the planet, they are stored in ocean”, informs Prof. Taalas.

• Sea-level rise

Sea level increased a record of 4.5 mm per year over the period 2013-2021, mainly due to the accelerated loss of ice mass from the ice sheets.

This has major implications for hundreds of millions of coastal dwellers and increases vulnerability to tropical cyclones.

• Cryosphere

The world’s glaciers that scientists use as a reference have thinned by 33.5 meters since 1950, with 76% happening since 1980.

In 2021, glaciers in Canada and the US Northwest had a record ice mass loss because of heatwaves and fires in June and July.

Greenland also experienced an exceptional mid-August melt and the first-ever recorded rainfall at its highest point.

• Heatwaves

The heat broke records across western North America and the Mediterranean in 2021. Death Valley, California reached 54.4 °C on 9 July, equalling a similar 2020 value as the highest recorded in the world since at least the 1930s, and Syracuse in Sicily reached 48.8 °C.

A heatwave in British Columbia, Canada caused more than 500 deaths and fuelled devastating wildfires.

• Flooding and Droughts

Flooding caused economic losses of US$17.7 billion in Henan province of China, as well as 20 billion in Germany. It was also a factor leading to heavy loss of life.

Droughts affected many parts of the world, including the Horn of Africa, South America, Canada, the western United States, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey.

The drought in the Horn of Africa has intensified through 2022. Eastern Africa is facing the very real prospect that the rains will fail for a fourth consecutive season, placing Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia into a drought of a length not experienced in the last 40 years.

"These [climate] impacts are unevenly distributed. If you’re living in Central America, South America, Central, East or West Africa, South Asia or in a Small Island Developing State, you’re 15 times more likely to die from climate-related impact or a climate-related weather extreme", explains Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Climate Action, Selwin Hart.

• Food security

The compounded effects of conflict, extreme weather events and economic shocks, further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, undermined decades of progress towards improving food security globally.

Worsening humanitarian crises in 2021 have also led to a growing number of countries at risk of famine. Of the total number of undernourished people in 2020, more than half live in Asia (418 million) and a third in Africa (282 million).

"There’s a component coming from this COVID crisis, and there’s a high risk now because of the war in Ukraine that we will see major hunger problems”, adds Prof. Taalas.

• Displacement:

Hazards related to water events continued to contribute to internal displacement. The countries with the highest numbers of displacements recorded as of October 2021 were China (more than 1.4 million), the Philippines (more than 386,000) and Viet Nam (more than 664,000).

Source: United Nations

WASHINGTON, Officially recorded remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are expected to increase by 4.2 percent this year to reach $630 billion. This follows an almost record recovery of 8.6 percent in 2021, according to the World Bank’s latest Migration and Development Brief released today.

Remittances to Ukraine, which is the largest recipient in Europe and Central Asia, are expected to rise by over 20 percent in 2022. However, remittance flows to many Central Asian countries, for which the main source is Russia, will likely fall dramatically. These declines, combined with rising food, fertilizer, and oil prices, are likely to increase risks to food security and exacerbate poverty in many of these countries.

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered large-scale humanitarian, migration and refugee crises and risks for a global economy that is still dealing with the impact of the COVID pandemic,” said Michal Rutkowski, Global Director of the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice at the World Bank. “Boosting social protection programs to protect the most vulnerable, including Ukrainians and families in Central Asia, as well as those affected by the war’s economic impact, is a key priority to protect people from the threats of food insecurity and rising poverty.”

During 2021, remittance inflows saw strong gains in Latin America and the Caribbean (25.3 percent), Sub-Saharan Africa (14.1 percent), Europe and Central Asia (7.8 percent), the Middle East and North Africa (7.6 percent), and South Asia (6.9 percent). Remittances to East Asia and the Pacific fell by 3.3 percent; although excluding China, remittances grew 2.5 percent. Excluding China, remittance flows have been the largest source of external finance for LMICs since 2015.

The top five recipient countries for remittances in 2021 were India, Mexico (replacing China), China, the Philippines, and Egypt. Among economies where remittance inflows stand at very high shares of GDP are Lebanon (54 percent), Tonga (44 percent), Tajikistan (34 percent), Kyrgyz Republic (33 percent), and Samoa (32 percent).

“On the one hand, the Ukraine crisis has shifted global policy attention away from other developing regions and from economic migration. On the other hand, it has strengthened the case for supporting destination communities that are experiencing a large influx of migrants,” said Dilip Ratha, lead author of the report on migration and remittances and head of KNOMAD. “As the global community prepares to gather at the International Migration Review Forum, the creation of a Concessional Financing Facility for Migration to support destination communities should be seriously considered. This facility could also provide financial support to origin communities experiencing return migration during the COVID-19 crisis.”

Globally, the average cost of sending $200 was 6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, double the SDG target of 3 percent, according to the Bank’s Remittances Prices Worldwide Database. It is cheapest to send money to South Asia (4.3 percent) and most expensive to send to Sub-Saharan Africa (7.8 percent).

The costs of sending money to Ukraine are high (7.1 percent from Czech Republic, 6.5 percent from Germany, 5.9 percent from Poland, and 5.2 percent from USA). The global goodwill towards refugees and migrants from Ukraine opens an opportunity to develop and pilot programs to facilitate their access to jobs and social services in host countries, apply simplified anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing procedures for small remittance transactions to help reduce remittance costs and mobilize diaspora bond financing.

The war in Ukraine has also affected the international payment systems with implications for cross-border remittance flows. The exclusion of Russia from SWIFT has added a national security dimension to participation in international payments systems.

“Lowering remittance fees by 2 percentage points would potentially translate to $12 billion of annual savings for international migrants from LMICs, and $400 million for migrants and refugees from Ukraine,” added Ratha. “The cross-border payment systems, however, are likely to become multipolar and less interoperable, slowing progress on reducing remittance fees.”

World Bank Launches International Working Group to Improve Data on Remittances

The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have further highlighted the need for frequent and timely data. In April, the World Bank, under the auspices of KNOMAD and in collaboration with countries where remittances provide a financial lifeline, launched an International Working Group to Improve Data on Remittance Flows. Having improved data on remittances can directly support the Sustainable Development Goal indicators on reducing remittance costs and help increase the volume of remittances. This will also support the first Objective of the Global Compact on Migration, to improve data.

Regional Remittance Trends

Remittance flows to the East Asia and Pacific region fell 3.3 percent following a 7.3 percent drop in 2020. Flows reached $133 billion in 2021, close to 2017 levels. Excluding China, remittances to the region grew by 2.5 percent in 2021. Remittances to the Phillipines benefitted from job creation and wage gains in the United States where a large number of Filipino migrants live. Among economies where remittance inflows constitute a high percentage of their GDP are Tonga, Samoa, the Marshall Islands, the Philippines, and Fiji. Excluding China, remittance inflows are projected to grow by 3.8 percent in 2022. The average cost of sending $200 to the region fell to 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to 6.9 percent a year earlier.

Remittance inflows to Europe and Central Asia increased by 7.8 percent in 2021, reaching historic highs of $74 billion. The growth was due in large part to stronger economic activity in the European Union and rebounding energy prices. In 2021, Ukraine received inflows of $18.2 billion, driven by receipts from Poland, the largest destination country for Ukrainian migrant workers. Personal transfers constitute a vital source of finance and growth for the economies of Central Asia, for which Russia is the prime source. As a share of GDP, remittance receipts in Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic were 34 percent and 33 percent respectively in 2021. Near-term projections for remittances to the region, which are expected to fall by 1.6 percent in 2022, are highly uncertain, dependent on the scale of the war in Ukraine and the sanctions on outbound payments from Russia. By contrast, remittance flows to Ukraine are expected to increase by over 20 percent in 2022. The average cost of sending $200 to the region fell to 6.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 from 6.4 percent a year earlier.

Remittance flows to Latin America and the Caribbean surged to $131 billion in 2021, up 25.3 percent from 2020 due to the strong job recovery for foreign-born workers in the United States. Countries registering double-digit growth rates included Guatemala (35 percent), Ecuador (31 percent) Honduras (29 percent), Mexico (25 percent), El Salvador (26 percent), Dominican Republic (26 percent), Colombia (24 percent), Haiti (21 percent), and Nicaragua (16 percent). Recorded flows to Mexico include funds received by transit migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba, and others. Remittances are important as a source of hard currency for several countries for which these flows represent at least 20 percent of GDP, including El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, and Haiti. In 2022, remittances are estimated to grow by 9.1 percent, though downside risks remain. The average cost of sending $200 to the region was mostly unchanged at 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to a year earlier.

Remittances to the developing countries of the Middle East and North Africa region grew by 7.6 percent in 2021 to $61 billion, driven by robust gains into Morocco (40 percent) and Egypt (6.4 percent). Factors supporting the flows were economic growth in host countries in the European Union as well as transit migration which further boosted inflows to temporary host countries such as Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. In 2022, remittance flows will likely ease to a 6 percent gain. Remittances have long made up the largest source of external resource flows for developing MENA—among ODA, FDI, and portfolio equity and debt flows—accounting for 61 percent of total inflows in 2021. The cost of sending $200 to MENA fell to 6.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 from 6.6 percent a year ago.

Remittances to South Asia grew 6.9 percent to $157 billion in 2021. Though large numbers of South Asian migrants returned to home countries as the pandemic broke out in early 2020, the availability of vaccines and opening of Gulf Cooperation Council economies enabled a gradual return to host countries in 2021, supporting larger remittance flows. Better economic performance in the United States was also a major contributor to the growth in 2021. Remittance flows to India and Pakistan grew by 8 percent and 20 percent, respectively. In 2022, growth in remittance inflows is expected to slow to 4.4 percent. Remittances are the dominant source of foreign exchange for the region, with receipts more than three times the level of FDI in 2021. South Asia has the lowest average remittance cost of any world region at 4.3 percent, though this is still higher than the SDG target of 3 percent.

Remittance inflows to Sub-Saharan Africa soared 14.1 percent to $49 billion in 2021 following an 8.1 percent decline in the prior year. Growth in remittances was supported by strong economic activity in Europe and the United States. Recorded inflows to Nigeria, the largest recipient country in the region, gained 11.2 percent, in part due to policies intended to channel inflows through the banking system. Countries registering double-digit growth rates include Cabo Verde (23.3 percent), Gambia (31 percent), and Kenya (20.1 percent). Countries where the value of remittance inflows as a share of GDP is significant include the Gambia (27 percent), Lesotho (23 percent), Comoros (19 percent), and Cabo Verde (16 percent). In 2022, remittance inflows are projected to grow by 7.1 percent driven by continued shift to the use of official channels in Nigeria and higher food prices – migrants will likely send more money to home countries that are now suffering extraordinary increases in prices of staples. The cost of sending $200 to the region averaged 7.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, a small decline from 8.2 percent a year ago.

Source: World Bank

Some significant rains received during the month is likely to improve part of the late planted crop which is not stunted and potential yield. However, the long dry spell experience in February into the first week of March, had already resulted in yield reduction and in so1lne cases permanent wilting of crops especially for the rain dependent communal farmers. Although current estimates from field observation point to a reduced yield compared to the last season, the ongoing 2022 Second Round of Crop and Livestock Assessment will give comprehensive details on the harvest and livestock performance and implications for the 2022/23 consumption period. The government has indicated that some areas will require assistance and is preparing to expand the assistance program.

Source: World Food Programme