Development Health Advice 

US state abortion bans ‘putting millions of women and girls at risk’

Since the start of the year, abortion has been banned in 14 states across the country, and the consequences of the Supreme Court decision has reverberated throughout the entire legal and policy system, the Human Rights Council-appointed experts said. “The regressive position taken by the US Supreme Court…by essentially dismantling 50 years of precedent protecting the right to abortion in… Read More
Development Health Advice 

UNAIDS celebrates Pride Month, demands decriminalization worldwide

Pride Month provides an opportunity to celebrate the resilience, diversity, and achievements of LGBTQI individuals, UNAIDS said in a press release, while also reflecting on continuing struggle for full equality, dignity and recognition. This momentous occasion also serves as a reminder of the important collective commitment to human rights, equality, and the urgent need to decriminalize same-sex relationships, the agency… Read More
Development Health Advice 

‘Safe digital public square’ never more important, says Türk

Volker Türk was issuing a clarion call to protect and expand civic space, arguing that it’s the only way to enable us all “to play a role in political, economic, and social life, at all levels, from local to global.” Hate speech going unchecked He said with more and more decision-making migrating online, “with private companies playing an outsized role,… Read More
Development Health Advice 

Guterres: ‘We can turn the tide’ towards ending colonialism

“Our shared goal is to give greater priority to the decolonization agenda and spur accelerated action,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Special Committee on Decolonization, or C-24, regional seminar. Established by the General Assembly in 1961, the Committee is mandated to examine the application of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. Since the… Read More
Development Health Advice 

World must be ready to respond to next pandemic: WHO chief

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was delivering his report to the 76th World Health Assembly, the UN agency’s decision-making body, which is meeting this week.  Threat still remains  “The end of COVID-19 as a global health emergency is not the end of COVID-19 as a global health threat,” Tedros told Member States.  “The threat of another variant emerging that causes… Read More
Development Health Advice 

Progress on human health ‘in peril’, warns UN chief

Secretary-General António Guterres was addressing the annual opening of the World Health Assembly, the decision making body of the WHO, and said that the agency was born out of a spirit of cooperation, leading to dramatic improvements in human health. “Global life expectancy – up over 50 percent; Infant mortality – down sixty percent in 30 years; smallpox – eradicated;… Read More
Development Health Advice 

G7 nations, ‘central to climate action’ says Guterres, calling for global reset

The G7, which consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, together with the European Union, is meeting in the city where the first atomic bomb was dropped in 1945, a place which Secretary-General António Guterres described, as a “testament to the human spirit”. “Whenever I visit, I am inspired by the courage and resilience of the… Read More
Development Health Advice 

Chronic diseases taking ‘immense and increasing toll on lives’, warns WHO

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the latest World Health Statistics check-up – covering data up to 2022 – “sends a stark message on the threat of noncommunicable diseases, which take an immense and increasing toll on lives, livelihoods, health systems, communities, economies and societies”. The report calls for a substantial increase in investments in health and health systems “to get… Read More
Development Health Advice 

One billion people in 43 countries face cholera risk, amid ‘bleak’ outlook

In a new alert, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that more countries now face outbreaks, increasing numbers of cases are being reported and the outcome for patients is worse than 10 years ago. Killing the poor in plain sight “The pandemic is killing the poor right in front of us,” said Jérôme Pfaffmann Zambruni, Head of… Read More
Development Health Advice 

Untested AI-based tools could harm patients, WHO warns

Cautionary measures normally applied to any new technology are not being exercised consistently with regard to large language model (LLM) tools, which use AI for crunching data, creating content, and answering questions, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned. “Precipitous adoption of untested systems could lead to errors by healthcare workers, cause harm to patients, erode trust in AI, and thereby… Read More