Opinion

Political will needed to improve rural women’s plight

Few may have noticed, but last Sunday was International Day of Rural Women, while the following two days were also related to rural women and their lives: World Food Day and International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.Unfortunately, though they constitute about 25 percent of the world’s p...

Opinion

Achieving UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

Global leaders are next week expected to participate in a special summit called by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to take stock of the world’s progress, or rather lack of it, toward meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.In many ways, the stock-taking meeting will not be s...

Opinion

Developing nations must speak with one voice

Leaders of the G20 — a grouping of the world’s 19 largest economies and the EU — who have travelled to New Delhi for the 2023 summit hosted by India, represent almost 67 percent of the global population, 75 percent of international trade and 80 percent of total economic output.Over...

Opinion

World must act on climate change now

The UN this week released a document, “General Comment No. 26,” which highlighted children’s rights and the environment, with a special focus on climate change. The document, which has been in the making for years, as is the norm at the UN, stated that the extent and magnitude of t...

Opinion

We must protect children from extreme heat

July was the hottest month ever recorded, globally, and the media has been full of stories from around the planet about how people, animals and nature are suffering through yet another record breaking hot summer with relentless, ever-longer and more intense heat waves.Studying the short and long-ter...

Opinion

Saving mangroves is possible but it requires joint action

These days, positive news about ecology is a rare thing, as most reports deal with catastrophes and dire warnings. Thus, it was heartening when, on July 26, which is recognized as the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN r...

Opinion

Take control of AI before it takes control of us

This week, the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization announced that it would support 50 countries in their efforts to formulate legislation and policies to regulate the development and deployment of artificial intelligence.This is the first time that a global, intergovernmenta...

Opinion

EU states should be increasing migration, not fighting to curb it

The wave of violence that gripped France for more than a week following the police shooting of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old of North African descent, has sparked yet another virulent debate on migration. Right-wing and far-right politicians across Europe are blaming the violence on migrants and call...

Opinion

Gaping global gender gap demands urgent action

On the face of it, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023, published last week, should bring cheer to the organizations and individuals that are striving for gender equality and parity. After all, progress has been made across the board, on almost every single parameter, as t...

Opinion

Wildfires: We need global action to minimise the risks

Ranvir S. NayarOne of the main global media headlines over the past week has been the uncontrolled wildfires in Canada that have resulted in dense clouds of smoke blanketing large swathes of the northeastern US, most notably New York and New Jersey, leaving more than 100 million people struggling to...