COVID-19 pandemic
Caribbean Leaders Urge Global Response to COVID Pandemic
Call for Addressing Inequality, Unsustainable Debt and Socio-Economic Disparities By Reinhard Jacobsen Caribbean leaders have joined the United Nations in calling for solidarity and increased funding, as some of the world’s most vulnerable countries scale up their efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. At a virtual summit in Kenya’s capital… »
Kremlin expands online voting possibilities amid COVID-19 fears
Moscow takes its latest step towards digitising elections In Russia, socially distanced voting has just become a lot easier. Russia’s parliament has passed a law to extend the possibility of “distance voting” — particularly online. The amendments to the country’s Law on the Basic Guarantee of Electoral Rights now allow… »
Ensuring Biodiversity Now will Prevent Pandemics Later
A future repetition of the current COVID-19 pandemic is preventable with massive cooperation on international and local levels and by ensuring biological diversity preservation around the world, experts recently said. How to prevent the current crisis in the future According to the World Health Organisation… »
Open letter to U.N. Secretary-General H. E. Mr. António Guterres and in copy to the U.N. General Assembly
His Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres Secretary-General United Nations Headquarters New York City Dear Mr. Secretary-General, We are writing to you as International Fellowship of Reconciliation, a global movement seeking to transform, through nonviolence, the world away from endless cycles of violence towards justice, reconciliation, and lasting peace. As… »
Call: “Nobel Peace Prize for the Cuban doctors”
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire world, regardless of latitude, longitude, national borders, or levels of technological and economic development. At an unexpected speed, the virus has spread exponentially among populations, often finding the health systems of many countries unprepared, including European and North American ones. In order to… »
Ellen ‘t Hoen on the initiative of a global patent pool to combat covid-19
Ellen ‘t Hoen, is a lawyer who has been advocating for public health issues for more than 30 years, specializing in policies related to the pharmaceutical industry and intellectual property. She has worked as a consultant to governments, international organizations and civil society organizations. From 2009 to 2012, she joined… »
Coronavirus vaccine search: how we’re preparing to make enough for the whole world
There are 102 candidate vaccines being explored as a means of ending the COVID-19 pandemic, as of April 30. Eight of these have already made it to clinical trials in humans, and another 94 are in the pre-clinical evaluation stage. These candidates also fall into eight different categories of… »
Hungary Rejects Opportunity to Protect Women from Violence
Government Blocks Key Treaty as Covid-19 Exposes Scale of Domestic Abuse Hillary Margolis Amidst a disturbing global uptick in reports of domestic violence during Covid-19 lockdowns, Hungary has taken a leap backwards in protecting women. On May 5, parliament, where ruling party Fidesz has… »
Russians under lockdown (re)create famous artworks online
The Izoizolyatsiya Facebook group has become a national obsession In 1868, Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote that “beauty will save the world.” A hundred and fifty years later, that remains to be seen; but one thing’s for certain — it can definitely distract us from the world outside during a global pandemic. »
Military Spending on the Rise while Health Budgets Remain Insufficient in Confronting the COVID-19 Pandemic
With the release of SIPRI’s newest report, showing global military spending in 2019 at a new high of US$1,917 billion, the International Peace Bureau (IPB) is calling for an end to the military spending pandemic, starting with an annual reduction of military expenditure of 10% and a complete ban on… »