“When my parents passed away, I followed their wish for me to take care of our family home in Sudaji Village.
At that time, the village was already known as a tourism destination thanks to its cultural traditions and scenery and, in 2014 I started to realise my dream to develop homestays, where tourists stay with local families, in my village.
I was fully confident that I could succeed, based on my tourism and hotel background. I observed the operations of homestays and learnt how to transform my house into one.
Putu Sayoga for ILO
A bungalow at Esa di Kubu Homestay in Sudaji Village, Buleleng, Bali, Indonesia.
It was a success; my homestay, Esa di Kubu, was chosen by the Bali Tourism Office to represent Sudaju Village in a national tourism award, and was awarded second prize.
Afterwards, the Bali Tourism Office recommended that I take part in the International Labour Organisation’s Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) hospitality coaching programme.
The programme helped us to ensure that our facilities and equipment reached accepted ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) regional standards. We learnt about professional bedding, toiletries, food presentation, guest services and so forth. Every month, the trainer would coach us, and evaluate our progress.
The training also taught us the importance of digitalization and digital marketing, and I began promoting my homestay online. As a result, sales and visitor numbers increased, and I received high ratings on online tourism platforms.
Putu Sayoga for ILO
Dekha Dewandana makes a bed at Esa di Kubu Homestay in Sudaji Village, Buleleng, Bali, Indonesia.
‘We were all panicked and worried’
Then, at the end of 2019, COVID-19 hit. From January 2020, foreign guests began cancelling, and by March, when the Indonesian government declared a pandemic in the country, we had only five guests left, all of whom had found themselves trapped in Bali.
At the beginning of the pandemic, we received health protocol training from the ILO: we were taught how to protect ourselves by observing measures such as maintaining physical distance, using masks, and washing our hands. We maintained the protocols with the trapped guests, who continued to stay while finding ways to be repatriated.
Due to the global and national lockdown and mobility restrictions we had no guests and no income. We were all panicked and worried. I used my savings to buy daily needs, particularly food: I bought as much rice and instant noodles as possible, because the stores and markets were closed down.
I was contacted by my former overseas guests, asking about my condition and offering some help, which I felt grateful for. Their support helped my family to survive until the end of the 2020.
The first seven months of 2021 were the most difficult. We were planting vegetables to survive, but my fellow villagers and I barely ate during that period, and I began to lose hope.
Putu Sayoga for ILO
Dekha Dewandana and his wife greet their guests with traditional turmeric drink at Esa di Kubu Homestay in Sudaji Village, Buleleng, Bali, Indonesia.
‘My homestay has become alive again’
Eventually, conditions improved, restrictions were lifted, and we received assistance from the government. I never forgot about my homestay dream during this period, during which I repainted and fixed up the house.
Foreign visitors began to return, and in January 2022 I received a group of tourists from Denmark and Switzerland.
I’m glad that my homestay has become alive again.
As well as running my business, I am one of the founders of Sudaji Homestay, a group for homestay owners who have completed the ILO hospitality coaching programme.
Not all the homestay owners can speak English or have an understanding about marketing and digital marketing, and the group is there to share knowledge, and help members to maintain standards for their homestays.
I share my skills and knowledge so that we can continue to maintain our reputation as one of Indonesia’s leading tourism village, so that my fellow villagers do not have to find jobs elsewhere.”
Putu Sayoga for ILO
Dekha Dewandana arrange words with flowers at Esa di Kubu Homestay in Sudaji Village, Buleleng, Bali, Indonesia.
Due to its structure, methane traps more heat in the atmosphere per molecule than carbon dioxide (CO2) making it 80 times more harmful than CO2 during the 20 years after it is released into the atmosphere.. Credit: Bigstock
by Baher Kamal (madrid)
Inter Press Service
MADRID, Jul 29 (IPS) – Strangely enough, two major scientific findings, both announced in July, did not attribute the current dangerous world’s disasters to the proxy war unfolding in Ukraine.
One of them, released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), warns that the current, unprecedented heat waves hitting the Planet will be more severe, more frequent and more intense, and will last longer over several decades to come.
The other scientific study, launched by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), focuses on the dangers of what it calls: “secret methane leaks.” Methane is a colourless, odourless gas, responsible for more than 25% of the global warming the Earth is experiencing today.
Being both issues so highly interlinked and relevant to the present and the immediate future of life on Earth, here are some of their related key findings.
The “secret leaks”
The methane leaks are an open secret in the oil and gas industry and it is feeding the climate crisis, explains UNEP. Throughout its report, it provides the following information and explanations.
Massive methane leaks, known as super-emitter events, have been taking place at oil and gas fields all over the world, from the United States to Turkmenistan.
The releases, most of which can be traced to equipment failures, can last for weeks.
One outside of a storage facility in Los Angeles in 2015 haemorrhage almost 100,000 tonnes of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — into the atmosphere over the course of four months.
In June this year, researchers at Spain’s Polytechnic University of Valencia, said they uncovered the latest known super-emitter event at an oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
The installation discharged 40,000 tonnes of methane during a 17-day spell in December 2021 — equivalent to 3% of Mexico’s total annual oil and gas emissions.
While the discharge was caught, it remains challenging to trace emissions of methane, which is colourless, odourless and responsible for more than 25 percent of the global warming the Earth is experiencing today, explains UNEP.
80 times more harmful
The UNEP study also warns that, due to its structure, methane traps more heat in the atmosphere per molecule than carbon dioxide (CO2) making it 80 times more harmful than CO2 during the 20 years after it is released into the atmosphere.
As countries develop plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the worst effects of climate change, experts say it’s vital to have a better handle on how much methane is being released into the atmosphere, including from super-emitter events.
Cutting human-caused methane by 45 per cent this decade would keep warming beneath a threshold outlined by the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Who are the “super-emitters”?
To track and measure methane emissions, the United Nations Environment Programme in October 2021 launched the International Methane Emissions Observatory. It catalogues discharges from the fossil fuel sector, and soon waste and agricultural releases as well.
“The oil and gas industries are major producers of methane, emitting the gas during drilling, production, and other parts of their operations. Methane is also sometimes released intentionally from oil and gas facilities for safety reasons.”
The agriculture sector is also “a large emitter of methane,” particularly from livestock and the growing of certain foods, such as rice.
“Waste is the third most common man-made source of methane as bacteria break down organic matter in landfills.”
The Planet is baking
One major consequence of the un-wanted-to-be controlled methane leaks, among too many other just profit-making driven activities, is the unrelentless climate emergency.
On this, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has also in July launched further scientific findings: heatwaves will be more intense, last longer, and will occur more and more frequently… for decades to come, into the 2060s.
The UN specialised body had earlier alerted on record-high temperatures in India and Pakistan, reaching up to 50 degrees Celsius.
Let alone the over four-long severe drought wave hitting the whole East of Africa, and the record high temperature registered in so many other world’s regions.
The findings take, among others, the case of the United Kingdom, which, with 40 degrees Celsius, has just issued “the first ever Red Warning for exceptional heat.”
In other European countries, such as Portugal and Spain, temperatures have reached highs up to around 46 degrees Celsius.
Degradation of air quality
It is worth pointing out that high temperatures are not the only adverse consequence of heat waves, says Lorenzo Labrador, Scientific Officer at WMO’s Global Atmosphere Watch Programme.
“The stable and stagnant atmosphere acts as a lid to trap atmospheric pollutants, including particulate matter, increasing their concentrations closer to the surface.”
Likewise, the abundant sunshine, high concentrations of certain atmospheric pollutants and stable atmosphere is conducive to episodes of ozone formation near the surface, which has detrimental effects on people and plants.
“We have broken an all-time high in the UK”, on 19 July said Petteri Taalas, WMO Secretary-General.
The new normal?
“In the future, this kind of heatwave is going to be normal. We will see stronger extremes. We have pumped so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that the negative trend will continue for decades. We haven’t been able to reduce our emissions globally” WMO’s chief warned.
“The negative trend in climate will continue at least until the 2060s, independent of our success in climate mitigation.”
Harvests at risk
The unduey addressed climate emergency also impacts the present and future of food.
In fact, “we are expecting to see major impacts on agriculture. During the previous heatwaves in Europe, we lost big parts of harvest. And under the current situation, this heatwave is going to have a further negative impact on agricultural activities”, warned Petteri Taalas.
Temperatures, higher in Europe than elsewhere
According to the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) temperatures will rise more quickly in European areas than elsewhere.
In the Mediterranean, a worrisome combination of climatic impact-driver changes (warming; temperature extremes; increase in droughts and aridity; precipitation decrease; wildfires increase; mean and extreme sea levels; snow cover decrease; and wind speed decrease) is expected by mid-century if global warming exceeds 2°C.
Respiratory, cardiovascular diseases
Health systems are also challenged by heatwaves.
“When a heatwave goes along with high levels of pollution it exacerbates respiratory, cardiovascular diseases and conditions especially in large urban spaces that are not adapted to cope with these high temperatures,” said Maria Neira, Director of Environment and Health at the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Reliable access to food and water is at stake, as with agricultural production levels at risk”, and there will be water scarcity for sure.”
“99% of the global population is breathing air that does not meet the health standards set by WHO, hugely impacting chronic respiratory and cardiovascular conditions.”
“Unprecedented danger will be the new normal if we don’t take urgent action to stop fossil fuel-driven climate change.”
From Canada and the United States to Russia and even the Arctic, adds Greenberg, record-breaking heat waves are putting lives, livelihoods, and communities at risk, says Greenberg.
“… The entire global community needs to demand that fossil fuel companies and corporate polluters stop accelerating climate change with reckless, profit-hungry drilling and burning of coal, oil, and gas.”
Other than the current dangerous climate crisis, greed and money-making have been pushing humanity towards its collapse.
In a letter to the Nicaraguan Government last Monday, the group of 16 UN experts upheld that the action “represents a clear pattern of repressing civic space”.
The UN experts echoed a statement earlier this year by the High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the crackdown.
They expressed shock over the extent of the shutdowns by the National Assembly at the request of the Government – counting more than 700 closures, 487 in just the past month.
Counter-terrorism and anti-money laundering legislation is being misused – UN experts
Bending laws
Even though room for non-governmental organisations to operate in has been reduced since political protests against the administration of President Daniel Ortega began in 2018, the recent enforcement of a 2020 Law on Foreign Agents and a 2022 Law on Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations (NPO) has accelerated closures.
Ahead of the NPO Law that entered into force in May, the experts provided legal analysis along with their concerns.
Specifically, the law imposes burdensome administrative and registration procedures, the disclosure of data of beneficiaries, and significantly restricts foreign funding.
To date, the experts have not received any response to their concerns.
“We regret to see that, once again, counter-terrorism and anti-money laundering legislation is being misused to unnecessarily and disproportionately restrict the activities of civil society and fundamental freedoms,” the experts said, highlighting a global trend.
Squashing rights
They maintained that the shutdowns have not only affected human rights organisations, including those working towards the rights of women and indigenous people, but also those that promote democratic values and counter the negative effects of climate change.
The move has also impacted associations that provide humanitarian aid and medical services as well as educational, cultural and artistic institutions, and religious foundations.
“This situation will have even more devastating consequences for marginalized individuals and groups who rely on those services for their survival, for instance, rural and indigenous communities, children and youth, women, migrants and asylum seekers,” the experts said.
Activists driven overseas
The UN experts expressed concern about the deterring effect that these shutdowns have on civil society, noting that hundreds of activists have already fled the country and sought refuge in neighbouring States to fear of reprisals.
“We urge the State to abstain from further closures and immediately reverse these severe restrictions on associations,” the experts said.
“A functioning, well-established and diverse civic and political space is key in any democratic country”.
Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not paid for their work.
The UN Committee against Torture on Friday concluded its current session by releasing findings on Botswana, Nicaragua, the State of Palestine and the United Arab Emirates
Ambassadors were briefed by UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo, who pointed to the recent agreement on the safe resumption of grain exports via the Black Sea as a bright light in the conflict, though acknowledging the dim prospects for peace.
“The grain agreement is a sign that dialogue between the parties is possible in the search to ease human suffering,” said Ms. DiCarlo, officially the Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs.
She added that the UN is making every effort to support implementation of the deal, which was signed last week in Türkiye.
Diplomatic efforts needed
The war’s impact globally is “glaringly clear”, said Ms. DiCarlo, noting that the consequences will only become more pronounced the longer fighting lasts, particularly with the onset of winter.
“Despite the encouraging developments on grain and fertilizers, we remain deeply concerned about the lack of prospects for a shift towards a meaningful resumption of diplomatic efforts to end the war,” she told the Council.
“Escalatory rhetoric from any side, including about expanding the conflict geographically or denying Ukraine’s statehood, is not consistent with the constructive spirit demonstrated in Istanbul.”
UNIC Ankara/Levent Kulu
Secretary-General António Guterres (left) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the signing ceremony of Black Sea Grain Initiative in Istanbul, Türkiye..
Attacks continue unabated
Ms. DiCarlo said that since her last briefing in late June, deadly attacks by Russian forces have continued unabated, reducing many Ukrainian cities and towns to rubble.
The number of civilians killed, wounded, or maimed has also increased. As of Wednesday, there were 12,272 civilian casualties, including 5,237 deaths, according to the UN human rights office, OHCHR.
“This represents at least 1,641 new civilian casualties since my last briefing: 506 killed and 1,135 injured. These are figures based on verified incidents; the actual numbers are considerably higher,” she said.
Winter threat
Ms. DiCarlo also warned of reported efforts to alter administrative structures on the ground, including attempts to introduce local governing bodies in Russian-controlled areas, which raise serious concerns about the political implications of the war.
“As the conflict enters a more protracted phase, attention is increasingly turning to its longer-term humanitarian, recovery, reconstruction, and socio-economic impact. As summer wanes, the need for winterization planning is also becoming pressing,” she said.
“Regrettably, political dialogue has virtually ground to a halt, leaving people without the hope that peace will come anytime soon.”
UN agencies also continue to document damage and destruction to civilian infrastructure such as homes, schools and healthcare facilities.
The impact on the health sector is “particularly alarming”, she said, as there have been 414 attacks so far, resulting in 85 deaths and 100 injuries.
“This includes 350 attacks on facilities in areas of conflict, where on average around 316,000 patients were treated per month,” she said.
Assistance to millions
Since the start of the war, the UN and humanitarian partners have provided aid to some 11 million people, including in the form of food and livelihood assistance, protection services, mine clearance, and in accessing safe water and sanitation.
Nearly six million Ukrainian refugees have found shelter across Europe. Since the war began on 24 February, border crossings from Ukraine have totalled more than 9.5 million, while crossings to Ukraine numbered 3.8 million.
“We are concerned that winter will make it harder for the displaced or the returnee community to have access to shelter and health care,” said Ms. DiCarlo.
A twelve-year-old boy visits his mother in hospital for the first time since she was injured a month ago, by flying shrapnel.
Impacts on women
She also drew attention to the war’s specific impact on women and girls, particularly in areas such as food security and health.
Women’s access to health services, including sexual and reproductive health, is rapidly deteriorating, as is access to newborn and child healthcare. They are also now largely responsible for home-schooling, as access to education is severely hindered due to the constant threat of bombing.
“Further, women in Ukraine face significantly increased safety and protection risks,” she added.
“Incidents of gender-based violence, including allegations of sexual violence in conflict have increased, but services for survivors are not provided in full. It is also likely that many victims and survivors are currently unable to report their cases.”
Ms. DiCarlo stressed that it is especially for these reasons why women must be meaningful participants in discussions and initiatives to shape the future of the country, including peace negotiations, recovery efforts, peacebuilding and accountability efforts.
Hope for grain shipments
The top UN humanitarian official in Ukraine, Osnat Lubrani, was in the port city of Odessa on Friday, together with the country’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and ambassadors from G7 countries, according to her official Twitter account.
It was an honor to talk to @ZelenskyyUa about the ongoing, wide-ranging #UN support to Ukraine. As I end my assignment in Ukraine today, I know our efforts will continue to grow under the leadership of my successor, Denise Brown, who assumes her position tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/Utky9asVmh
This week saw the start of an operation under the grain exports deal, known as the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC), which will monitor ships transporting grain, as well as related foodstuffs and fertilizers, from Odessa and two other ports along the Black Sea.
The JCC brings together representatives from Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and the UN.
Ms. Lubrani wrote that she was “very hopeful for the movements of ships to take place soon, taking much needed grain and related foodstuffs from Ukraine to countries that need them the most”.
She added that it was an honour to talk to President Zelenskyy and to reaffirm the UN’s ongoing support to Ukraine.
The visit took place on Ms. Lubrani’s final day as the UN’s Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine. Her successor, Denise Brown, will assume the post starting on Saturday.
Humanitarians call for greater access
The launch of the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) is an example of how the international community can affect change even amid the war in Ukraine, a UN humanitarian official said in the capital, Kyiv, on Friday.
Saviano Abreu of the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, was among representatives from six UN agencies who briefed journalists on their ongoing operations to assist millions both within and outside Ukraine whose lives have been uprooted by the conflict.
“Although the world’s attention seems to be moving elsewhere, the situation in the country is far from any change,” he said.
While humanitarians have provided support to 11 million people so far, he said “we do know that it is not enough”.
Mr. Abreu reported that since the start of the Russian invasion, aid workers have not been able to send relief items to areas beyond the government’s control.
He underscored the obligation to allow free and safe humanitarian passage to all people in need.
“We saw this week that when there is a will, things can change”, said Mr. Abreu, referring to the JCC launch.
“Now we have to go one step further and make sure that no one is left behind also here in Ukraine. We need the parties to gently agree on humanitarian access to all regions of Ukraine, so we can save lives and alleviate the suffering of people who have endured these five months of war.”
“With the increase in food prices across the world, many refugee families are struggling to meet their basic needs on a daily basis,” said Dominik Bartsch, UNHCR Representative in Amman. “There is of course food assistance provided, but overall, household incomes are declining rapidly and we’re seeing the level of poverty increasing in the camp.”
Debt woes
According to UNHCR, two in three refugee families in Za’atari say they are in debt and 92 per reported having to resort to negative coping strategies, such as reducing food intake or accepting high-risk jobs. These numbers have been going up at a worrying pace.
And after UN-led constitutional talks between Syria’s warring sides were postponed at the start of the week, a geopolitical casualty of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, humanitarians remain particularly worried for Syrian children housed at Za’atari, for whom the camp “has become their world”, said Mr. Bartsch.
“Prospects for return for the time being do not look promising. We are not seeing an environment in Syria that would be conducive to returns, but it is nonetheless reassuring that refugees when asked would they consider returning back home, overwhelmingly respond positively.”
Unsustainable pressure
More than 20,000 births have been recorded in Za’atari camp since its opening, Mr. Bartsch noted, before pointing to the “limited opportunities for the many children who are born in the camp and have seen no other environs than the camp itself”.
Crediting the camp with “saving thousands of lives and providing work and opportunities “for Jordanians and Syrians alike”, the UN refugee agency official warned that the situation was not sustainable, with its weather-beaten temporary shelters increasingly showing their limitations.
“The caravans, which replaced tents in 2013, have a normal life span of six to eight years meaning most of them are now in need of urgent repair…In 2021 alone, over 7,000 refugees requested support for maintenance as roofs and windows cracked and walls warped, leaving some residents exposed to the elements,” he explained.
Electricity is another area of concern. While a solar plant was opened to power the camp in 2017, its capacity was only able to meet the needs of all residents for 11.5 hours a day.
In recent months, as electricity demand increased for summer, UNHCR had to reduce this to nine hours per day to be able to cope with the additional electricity costs incurred, as the solar plant does not provide for all the camp’s needs.
UN Photo/Mark Garten
An aerial view of Zaíatri refugee camp near Mafraq, Jordan, host to tens of thousands of Syrians displaced by conflict. 7 December 2012.
Welcoming tradition
Jordan hosts 675,000 registered refugees from Syria, who began fleeing in 2011 when civil war erupted, causing terrible suffering, death and economic destruction. Most Syrian refugees in Jordan live in its towns and villages among local communities. Only 17 per cent live in the two main refugee camps, Za’atari and Azraq.
“It is a testimony, a testimony to the generosity of the Government of Jordan, which at the time 10 years ago, 11 years ago, allowed Syrian refugees access to its territory and then set up facilities that really are remarkable by global standards,” said Mr. Bartsch of Za’atari, speaking via video link from Amman to journalists in Geneva.
Humanitarian support for refugees in the camp is spearheaded by the Jordanian government and UNHCR, which has almost 1,200 staff from 32 different international and Jordanian organizations working there.
Start-up philosophy
“This humanitarian assistance would not have been possible without support from the international community,” said Mr. Bartsch, who also emphasised the determination and resilience of the camp’s residents that have seen almost 1,800 shops and businesses start from nothing.
“From cell phone stores to restaurants, bridal shops to mechanics, these businesses employ an estimated 3,600 refugees,” the UNHCR official continued. “But they do not operate in isolation.
Refugee entrepreneurs regularly engage with companies and clients in the nearby city of Mafraq and contribute to the Jordanian economy and host society.”
Za’atari has 32 schools, 58 community centres and eight health facilities that operate alongside civil defence and community police.
In addition to co-managing the camp with the authorities, UNHCR and its partners provide protection, health and cash assistance to the women, men, and children in the camp.
“In the long run, our projection is that a continued approach of gradual inclusion of refugees in national assistance is the pathway to follow,” Mr. Bartsch said, praising Jordan for allowing “from early very”, access of refugees to education, health and the labour market.
“Tragically, it is also a problem that is growing worse – especially for women and girls, who represent the majority of detected trafficked persons globally”.
Separated and vulnerable
Conflicts, forced displacement, climate change, inequality and poverty, have left tens of millions of people around the world destitute, isolated and vulnerable.
And the COVID-19 pandemic has separated children and young people in general from their friends and peers, pushing them into spending more time alone and online.
“Human traffickers are taking advantage of these vulnerabilities, using sophisticated technology to identify, track, control and exploit victims,” explained the UN chief.
IOM Port of Spain
Venezuelan migrant Manuela Molina (not her real name) was promised a decent job in Trinidad, but minutes after her arrival she was forced into a van and taken to a secret location.
Cyber space trafficking
Often using the so-called “dark web”, online platforms allow criminals to recruit people with false promises.
And technology anonymously allows dangerous and degrading content that fuels human trafficking, including the sexual exploitation of children.
This year’s theme – Use and Abuse of Technology – reminds everyone that while it can enable human trafficking, technology can also be a critical tool in fighting it.
Join forces
The Secretary-General underscored the need for governments, businesses and civil society to invest in policies, laws and technology-based solutions that can identify and support victims, locate and punish perpetrators, and ensure a safe, open and secure internet.
“As part of 2023’s Summit of the Future, I have proposed a Global Digital Compact to rally the world around the need to bring good governance to the digital space,” he said, calling on the everyone to “give this issue the attention and action it deserves and work to end the scourge of human trafficking once and for all”.
Tech dangers
In her message for the day, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Ghada Waly, spoke more about the theme.
Acknowledging that digital technology has been “a vital lifeline” during pandemic restrictions, she warned that they are “being increasingly exploited by criminals”.
The borderless nature of information and communications technologies (ICT) enable traffickers to expand their reach and profits with even greater impunity.
More than 60 per cent of known human trafficking victims over the last 15 years have been women and girls, most of them trafficked for sexual exploitation.
And as conflicts and crises increase misery, countless others are in danger of being targeted with false promises of opportunities, jobs, and a better life.
Safeguard online spaces
To protect people, digital spaces must be shielded from criminal abuse by harnessing technologies for good.
“Partnerships with tech companies and the private sector can keep traffickers from preying on the vulnerable and stop the circulation of online content that amplifies the suffering of trafficking victims,” said Ms. Waly.
With the right support, law enforcement can use artificial intelligence, data mining and other tools to detect and investigate trafficking networks.
“On this World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, let us commit to preventing online exploitation and promoting the power of tech to better protect children, women and men, and support victims”, she concluded.
Trafficking in conflict
A group of UN-appointed independent human rights experts underscored that the international community must “strengthen prevention and accountability for trafficking in persons in conflict situations”.
Women and girls, particularly those who are displaced, are disproportionately affected by trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced and child marriage, forced labour and domestic servitude.
“These risks of exploitation, occurring in times of crisis, are not new. They are linked to and stem from existing, structural inequalities, often based on intersectional identities, gender-based discrimination and violence, racism, poverty and weaknesses in child protection systems,” the experts said.
Structural inequalities
Refugees, migrants, internally displaced and Stateless persons are particularly at risk of attacks and abductions that lead to trafficking.
And the dangers are increased by continued restrictions on protection and assistance, limited resettlement and family reunification, inadequate labour safeguards and restrictive migration policies.
“Such structural inequalities are exacerbated in the periods before, during and after conflicts, and disproportionately affect children”, they added.
Targeting schools
Despite links between armed group activities and human trafficking – particularly targeting children – accountability “remains low and prevention is weak,” according to the UN experts.
Child trafficking – with schools often targeted – is “linked to the grave violations against children in situations of armed conflict, including recruitment and use, abductions and sexual violence,” they said.
“Sexual violence against children persists, and often leads to trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy and forced marriage, as well as forced labour and domestic servitude”.
Heat waves increase the risks of crop failures, threatening food security for billions of people. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS
Opinion by Esther Ngumbi (urbana, illinois, usa)
Inter Press Service
URBANA, Illinois, USA, Jul 29 (IPS) – Across the U.S., and around the world, particularly Europe, heat records are being shattered. Accompanying these extreme temperatures are fires caused by the heat that are burning both homes and forests. While extreme heat is impacting some areas of the world, flooding is impacting other areas including Colorado and Virginia in the U.S., and in other countries around the world including Brazil and Ecuador.
These climate-linked events that are occurring in regions and areas that have never been impacted before send the signal that no one is immune to climate change. All countries and citizens must act with urgency to mitigate this existential threat.
Indeed, these historical catastrophes create an important moment for all of us, including policy makers at both the state and federal level, to roll out bold reforms on many issues, including heat and agriculture.
As countries consider climate mitigation initiatives, they need to be sure to strengthen agricultural crops’ resilience to extreme heat, drought, insect herbivory and flooding, that have become increasingly common. These crops include maize, rice, soybeans, wheat and tomatoes.
Like humans, crops are sensitive to extreme heat. When temperatures increase, crops wither, their health deteriorates, and normal development is affected. Studies have shown that crops and crop varieties that are susceptible to heat stress are impacted the most.
Heat stress causes the deterioration of several important plant physiological processes including photosynthesis, respiration, and transpiration. Further, it causes the accumulation of toxic substances in plant cells including phenolic compounds and reactive oxygen species.
Plants’ ability to grow is affected and their life cycle is shortened. Ultimately, crop yields are reduced with consequences for food supply and agriculture, an important sector of the economies of many countries including the US, the UK, Spain, France and many African countries.
In the US, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, agriculture and related industries contributed $1.055 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020. In the UK, in 2021, agriculture contributed around 0.5% to the economy.
Heat waves increase the risks of crop failures, threatening food security for billions of people.
Indeed, scientists around the world have generated evidence of the crop and yield losses associated with heat waves and extreme temperatures. A 2017 study that examined extensive published results showed that temperature increase reduces global yields. Similarly, a 2018 study that examined more than 82,000 yield data from 17 European countries also found the same trend.
Crop failures and productivity losses due to excessive heat, drought and flooding are taking place in many countries. The magnitude of these crop failures, however, varies enormously depending on the region and its wealth.
It’s clear that as governments begin to strategize on how to mitigate heat waves, and other climate change brought about extremes, they must not forget agriculture.
Strengthening agricultural resilience can include developing disaster preparedness and response plans, continuing to fund agricultural research and other climate change research and accelerating outreach and education about climate-smart practices.
Climate-smart practices that can alleviate crop failures when extreme temperatures arise are diverse and include:
Planting heat and drought tolerant crop varieties that have been bred to enhance their photosynthetic capacities and water use efficiencies when periods of stress occur
Using inoculants made from naturally occurring beneficial soil microbes that can confer tolerance to heat and drought among other stressors.
Thankfully science researchers around the world continue to advance our understanding of crops response to climate-linked stresses. We can learn from them.
In the race to mitigate climate change brought about heat waves, we must not forget strengthening agriculture.
Dr. Esther Ngumbi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and a Senior Food Security Fellow with the Aspen Institute, New Voices.
LONDON, Jul 29 (IPS) – Until Russia went to war on Ukraine in February, Ukraine was known as the “breadbasket of Europe”. One of the largest grain exporters in the world, it provided about 10 per cent of globally traded wheat and corn and 37 per cent of sunflower oil, United Nations figures show. The yellow and blue of its flag mimic its rolling golden fields under blue summer skies.
The war has darkened this picture beyond recognition.
Despite the conflict, Ukrainian farmers are still growing grain, at levels estimated to be around three-quarters of a normal year. But, with Russia blockading the Black Sea ports through which Ukraine would usually export about 5 million tonnes a month, the country is now struggling to get just 2 million tonnes a month out westward by choked road, rail and river routes.
This is not only an existential problem for Ukraine, whose grain exports are one of the biggest contributors to its economy, but also for the millions of people worldwide who would normally import and eat this grain. The World Food Programme (WFP) says that as many as 47 million people, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, are at risk of acute hunger.
Addressing this food security risk is a double challenge for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which works both in Ukraine and neighbouring countries affected by the war, and in southern and eastern Mediterranean countries which are struggling to import food.
Vanora Bennet. Credit: EBRD
Inside Ukraine, 18 million tonnes of grain from last year’s crop are waiting in siloes for export. Space is at a premium and the squeeze is getting worse. The figures become still more dizzying once you add in the winter wheat and barley crop now being harvested, and the spring crop including sunflower and corn that will also join the queue in a couple of months’ time.
“The biggest issue is storing the grain. There is some warehouse and silo capacity free, but not enough for the harvest taking place now. We’ve been told they are missing 15 million tonnes of capacity, even before the spring crop harvest that’s coming in in two months’ time,” says Jean-Marc Peterschmitt, EBRD Managing Director for Industry, Commerce and Agribusiness. “It is unclear how it will play out.”
“For now, the only solution is temporary storage – silo bags or floor storage or even storage in the field with some basic covers, which obviously will deteriorate the quality of grain,” says Natalia Zhukova, EBRD Director, Agribusiness. “Silo bags can pretty much preserve the quality for 12 months because they are hermetically sealed so infections or pests cannot develop inside. But simple silos without proper drying or ventilation will obviously have problems.”
“Getting grain out of the country and being able to store the harvest inside the country are the mirror image of each other, because whatever you get out is freeing up storage capacity for the next harvest,” adds Peterschmitt. “Getting it out so far has been not a great experience. But it’s vital to find more ways to do that.”
As the quantity of Ukrainian crops waiting for export and potentially rotting in siloes and fields increases, hopes that Ukraine could soon resume exports in something like their usual quantities rose briefly last week when a tenuous U.N.-brokered deal to lift the blockade on the key Ukrainian port of Odessa was agreed in Turkey on 22 July.
Less than 24 hours later, however, Russian cruise missiles hit Odesa. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, saying the attack cast serious doubt on the credibility of Russia’s commitment to the deal, accused Russia of “starving Ukraine of its economic vitality and the world of its food supply.”
Yet, by 25 July, Ukraine said it still hoped to start implementing the deal within as little as a week, and was making preparations including demining essential sea areas, and setting up naval corridors for the safe passage of merchant vessels and a coordination centre in Istanbul.
Still, for now, amidst the uncertainty, it’s back to working within the limits of wartime.
Within Ukraine, a significant part of the €1 billion of EBRD investment pledged for this year is earmarked to support domestic food security. As part of the EBRD’s Resilience and Livelihoods Framework (RLF), a €200 million multi-instrument Food Security Guarantee works across the food chain in Ukraine, both helping farmers buy fertiliser and retailers get food into the shops.
And there are other, smaller, freight transport options out of Ukraine for grain export if access to Black Sea ports continues to be blocked. The Danube River, whether in Ukraine or neighbouring Moldova or Romania, could be one option.
Throughput at Moldova’s Giurgiulesti Port on the Danube has already doubled in 2022. Another possibility might be supporting improvements to road and rail exports to help carry more freight overland.
In the southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region where the EBRD also works, meanwhile, all countries rely on imports to make enough dietary energy available domestically. The level of reliance on Russian and Ukrainian grain is unusually high.
Food prices are currently at an all-time high, making sourcing scarce imports from elsewhere ruinously expensive.
As the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s senior economist, Katya Krivonos, told a panel discussion at the EBRD Annual Meeting in May, Egypt, which has 5.4 million undernourished people, usually sources more than 40 per cent of its calorie imports from Russia and Ukraine.
“Climate conditions in SEMED don’t really allow them to grow grain. In arid countries, the question is how in the longer term to become more food secure, in a more sustainable way. We are looking at ways to help these countries find the commodities that they need,” says Iride Ceccacci, the EBRD’s head of Agribusiness Advisory.
In this region, the Bank is looking at expanding its work on agribusiness and food security beyond its current focus on the private sector to support SEMED countries to secure import of grains in this context of unprecedented high prices.
In Tunisia, 50 percent of all food calories are imported. Jordan imports approximately 90 percent of wheat and barley, which are essential staples and water intensive crops to produce. Morocco, which is generally less reliant on imports, is facing one of the worst droughts in decades.
In May, the EBRD joined forces with other international financial institutions – the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group – to formulate an IFI Action Plan to Address Food Insecurity.
“People in SEMED are very frustrated that they came out of the COVID-19 pandemic, having coped with it with a lot of resilience, and were looking forward to some positive growth.
But instead, they’re now getting this massive new hit, mainly through high food prices but also through high energy prices, which affect fertiliser prices so will also have an impact on domestic food production,” says Heike Harmgart, Managing Director, SEMED, at the EBRD.
She adds: “Now middle-class people in Egypt are buying less meat because food price inflation has been so high in the supermarket. And governments are worried because high food prices were one of the triggers of the Arab Spring in 2011, and there’s a very clear connection between political unrest and high bread prices”.
“What everyone wants to avoid is social unrest. The EBRD has been working on urgent food security response projects to support SEMED countries, with a first transaction now Board approved for Tunisia. These investments include technical assistance designed to promote sustainable solutions for grain supply chains in the region.”
Gérald Theis, Chairman of CereMed UK Ltd, a big grain trader, vividly describes working first with the supply problems of the Covid era, which raised prices and the threat of protectionism, and then the war on Ukraine, which began on 24 February.
“February 24 was like 9/11, or a tsunami,” he told the EBRD Annual Meeting’s food security panel. “We didn’t sleep much for a while. In eight days, we saw a move of nearly US$ 200 dollars per tonne – a percentage rise of 160 per cent.”
Asked what his sense was of where food security was heading next season, he replied: “I’m sorry to say I don’t know, if we speak about long-term. Today I would say a day is like a month used to be before. Nobody knows when this war will end or how it will end.”
“Even if it stopped tomorrow, we traders don’t think that things will go back to normal – there are too many issues with logistics, broken bridges and railways, silos and sanctions. In this environment, we believe prices will stay at a high level and it’s going to be extremely volatile.”
Source: EBRD
Vanora Bennett is EBRD Green spokeswoman / Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Georgia and Armenia
Nazeri Bin Lajim, a Malay Singaporean national, was arrested in April 2012 for trafficking more than 33 grammes of diamorphine. He was executed last Friday.
“Under international law, States that have not yet abolished the death penalty may only impose it for the ‘most serious crimes’, involving intentional killing,” the experts said. “Drug offences clearly do not meet this threshold.”
Discrimination against minorities
They also noted the sharp rise in execution notices issued in Singapore this year.
“We are concerned that a disproportionate number of those being sentenced to death for drug-related offences are minority persons and tend to be from economically disadvantaged backgrounds like Mr. Nazeri Bin Lajim,” the experts said.
“The practice amounts to discriminatory treatment of minorities such as Malays and vulnerable persons.”
The experts said enforcement of Mr. Bin Lajim’s execution proceeded despite claims that he had been suffering from long-term drug addiction, and that most of the diamorphine would have been for his personal use.
Activists intimidated
Additionally, the rest of the narcotics in his possession would not have met the 15 gram threshold for imposing Singapore’s mandatory death penalty.
“We are also extremely concerned by reports about increasing pressure and acts of intimidation by the authorities against activists, journalists, legal professionals and human rights defenders who peacefully advocate against the death penalty and/or represent persons on death row, and the chilling effect such acts have on civic space,” they said.
“The act of expressing one’s opinion and protesting against the death penalty should be tolerated in a democratic country.”
Suspend further executions
The experts urged Singapore to suspend the further execution of individuals on death row for drug offences and instead commute their sentences to imprisonment, consistent with international human rights law and standards.
They also called for the authorities to immediately establish a moratorium on all executions with a view to fully abolishing the death penalty.
The Government was also urged to review the scope of the death penalty, particularly with regard to drug-related offences, in order to ensure that its imposition and implementation are strictly limited to cases involving intentional killing.
“We reiterate that the mandatory use of the death penalty constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of life, since it is imposed without taking into account the defendant’s personal circumstances or the circumstances of the particular offence,” the experts said.
“Mandatory death sentences are arbitrary in nature and not compatible with the limitation of capital punishment to the ‘most serious crimes.’”
The 11 experts who issued the statement were appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor and report on specific thematic issues such as extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
They are independent of any government, serve in their individual capacity, and are neither UN staff nor are they paid for their work.
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