Africa

As androids edge closer to reshaping how we work, interact, and manage conflict and resources, the absence of clear regulations leaves human rights, jobs, and social bonds unprotected. Credit: Shutterstock

By Joseph Chamie
PORTLAND, USA, Sep 23 2025 (IPS)

Despite anxieties, concerns, and warnings, androids or humanoid robots that rely on generative artificial intelligence (GAI) and advanced robotics are increasingly being integrated into the modern lives of human populations. This integration raises serious challenges regarding humanity’s future in an era where androids are emerging rapidly.

Some have expressed concerns that GAI and robots are embedding and intensifying existing societal biases, stereotypes, misogyny, and discrimination in the development of these new technologies.

Soon, androids are expected to change the nature of work, social interactions, conflict resolution, and resource management. However, guidelines, regulations, and protocols for their usage and protecting human rights, employment, and social relationships have not been established yet.

 

Growth

In response to the increasing need for automation in various sectors of society, coupled with declining production costs and increasing corporate investments, the use of androids is evolving rapidly. Breakthroughs in generative artificial intelligence have accelerated the development of androids.

At the start of the 21st century, the world’s population of humans was about 6.2 billion and, except in science fiction novels and movies, androids were essentially non-existent. By 2025, the world’s human population had increased to 8.2 billion, with the number of androids estimated to have grown to about 10 thousand.

By 2050, the global population of humans and androids is projected to reach 9.2 billion and 1 billion, respectively (Table 1).

Source: United Nations and Morgan Stanley.

With many countries facing demographic decline and population ageing, coupled with opposition to immigration in most destination countries, many governments, industries, and organizations are increasingly turning to technologies that incorporate generative artificial intelligence and advanced robotics.

The growth of androids is being driven by several factors, including substantial financial investments, decreasing production costs, and intense competition among countries in the humanoid market. Androids are increasingly being utilized in education, entertainment, healthcare, manufacturing, and household applications.

 

Reactions

The reactions of human populations to androids vary considerably. Many people have mixed feelings toward androids with artificial intelligence but see further developments as “inevitable”.

Although many people use artificial intelligence enabled technologies daily, they fear androids will lead to job displacement, rising unemployment, misuse, abuse, intrusive surveillance, and loss of human connection.

The increasing presence of androids is heightening competition for jobs in the labor market, especially among recent college graduates. This development is potentially leading to widespread unemployment, greater dependence on emerging technologies, and a significant rise in wealth inequality.

The reactions of human populations to artificial intelligence (AI) vary significantly across countries. A survey of views towards AI among 21 countries found significant differences between more developed and less developed countries.

While most of the public in less developed countries, like Brazil, China, and India, had positive views about AI, in more developed countries, like Germany, Japan, and the US, 40% or less of the public had positive views about artificial intelligence (Figure 1).

 

Source: Visual Capitalist.

 

Another survey of G7 countries in 2024 reported that 80% of the respondents feared androids would take away jobs, while 70% believed androids would dominate social interactions.

Furthermore, 60% of the respondents in the survey were uncomfortable with androids and preferred them not to resemble humans. This preference is believed to be partly due to the “uncanny valley” effect, which refers to the eerie or unsettling feeling some people experience in response to humanoid robots and lifelike computer-generated characters (Figure 2).

 

Source: Euronews.

 

Advancements

Further advances in the fields of robotics and GAI have also led to the emergence of Socibots. These androids are designed to be social robots. Utilizing GAI and advanced robotics, they are intended to function as an individual’s friend and offer companionship.

International Gallup surveys have found that approximately one-fifth of the global population experienced loneliness “a lot of the day yesterday”. The World Health Organization (WHO) also reports that social isolation and loneliness affect over one billion people worldwide.

Without proper regulations and guardrails focusing on safety, fairness, and basic human rights, it is uncertain how androids can integrate into human populations without posing risks to human wellbeing and the future of humanity

Equipped with sensors and GAI, Socibots are designed to interact and communicate with humans using social behaviors. They are intended to be companions, educators, and assistants, and are expected to be used in hospitals, schools, and homes as their capabilities improve.

Socibots are becoming more expressive, emotionally intelligent, and personable, specifically designed to be a person’s friend. Companies are investing billions of dollars into developing Socibots that can remember individuals, understand their emotions, and engage in natural conversation.

In contrast to Socibots, warbots are robots, unmanned vehicles or devices designed for military operations and warfare. These warbots are autonomous or remote-controlled mobile robots intended for military applications

Military and security forces around the world are currently utilizing autonomous weapons systems, or warbots, which can identify and attack targets with varying degrees of human oversight. These systems are rapidly advancing with the progress of generative artificial intelligence.

Although autonomous “killer robots” capable of selecting and engaging targets without human intervention are in development, they are not yet widely deployed on the battlefield. There is a growing focus on increasing the autonomy of warbots to operate independently and behind enemy lines.

 

Concerns

Over 120 countries and various organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, have called for an international ban on the development and use of autonomous warbots that can select and attack targets without human control.

However, some governments believe that an international ban is unnecessary. They maintain autonomous robotics could save the lives of soldiers who might otherwise be killed on the battlefield. They also stress that most military robots are tele-operated and unarmed, with many used for reconnaissance, surveillance, sniper detection, and neutralizing explosive devices.

Some individuals suffer from robophobia, an anxiety disorder characterized by an intense fear of androids and robots with generative artificial intelligence. Many of these individuals view the increasing presence of humanoid robots as creepy, hazardous, and a menace to society.

The increasing presence of androids is heightening competition for jobs in the labor market, replacing many human jobs, potentially leading to widespread unemployment, greater dependence on emerging technologies, and a significant rise in wealth inequality. Some individuals are concerned about the potential for social isolation, reliance, and loss of human connection as androids take on roles as companions and service providers.

The global efforts towards advancements in generative artificial intelligence are demanding substantial amounts of electricity. Many billions of dollars are reportedly flowing into the data centers needed to power artificial intelligence. The International Energy Agency projects that by 2030, data centers will require slightly more energy than Japan consumes today.

However, others, especially those benefiting financially, downplay the rising concerns and emphasize the potential benefits of androids. These benefits include increased efficiency, additional labor, higher productivity, business opportunities, enhanced safety, entertainment, personal help, and companionship.

Despite notable advancements, some observers have cautioned about the “humanoid hype”. They note that robots are not acquiring real-world skills as quickly as AI chatbots are gaining language fluency. They expect many more decades of research and development in robotics will be needed before androids can perform these necessary skills.

Some individuals, often referred to as doomsayers, have expressed concerns about the risks involved in the rapid growth of GAI, particularly warning about its potential for disruption and human manipulation.

The development of powerful generative artificial intelligence systems may eventually surpass human intelligence, reach singularity, and evade human control. Experts caution that this alarming progression could lead to catastrophic consequences for human populations.

 

Conclusions

Recent advancements in generative artificial intelligence and robotics have led to an increase in the introduction of androids into modern society. The emergence of androids presents significant challenges for human populations, especially concerning humanity’s future in a world dominated by generative artificial intelligence and humanlike robotics.

While some see further developments as inevitable, there is concern that future androids, possibly arriving within the next five years, could become excessively intrusive, disruptive, and replace many human jobs, particularly entry-level jobs in fields such as law, finance and consulting. Some have issued warnings about the rapidly expanding influence of robotics and generative artificial intelligence, approaching the likely scenario with caution rather than enthusiasm.

Additionally, there are concerns about potential social isolation, dependency, and a lack of human connection as androids take on roles as companions and service providers. However, some, particularly those with financial investments, downplay these concerns and emphasize the advantages and benefits of androids.

Without proper regulations and guardrails focusing on safety, fairness, and basic human rights, it is uncertain how androids can integrate into human populations without posing risks to human wellbeing and the future of humanity. It is also unclear how individuals, especially children, will react to humanoid robots with advanced generative artificial intelligence offering assistance and making contributions.

 Joseph Chamie is a consulting demographer, a former director of the United Nations Population Division, and author of many publications on population issues, including his recent book, “Population Levels, Trends, and Differentials”.

 

By CIVICUS
Sep 23 2025 (IPS)

 
CIVICUS discusses Peru’s new amnesty law with Nadia Ramos Serrano, founder and researcher at the Leadership Centre for Women of the Americas, a civil society organisation working on democratic development and the role of women in politics.

Nadia Ramos Serrano

In August, the Peruvian government passed a controversial amnesty law that benefits military personnel, police officers and members of self-defence organisations accused of committing human rights violations during Peru’s internal armed conflict from 1980 to 2000. The law affects the search for justice for some 69,000 victims and has drawn national and international condemnation for institutionalising impunity.

What does the amnesty law establish?

The amnesty law exonerates from criminal responsibility members of the armed forces, the national police and self-defence committees who have been prosecuted and sometimes convicted for crimes committed during the internal armed conflict. Although in theory the law excludes crimes of corruption and terrorism, in practice it could benefit people involved in serious human rights violations including extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and torture.

The law re-victimises the victims. After over three decades of struggle, the state tells them that those who murdered and disappeared their relatives or subjected them to torture will not be punished and may be released. It is the state again causing harm rather than providing redress.

The law perpetuates impunity under the pretext of pacification and consolidates structural discrimination. The majority of victims were Indigenous Aymara and Quechua peasants, historically excluded groups. Relatives and victims feel the state is again abandoning them to protect the powerful, fuelling frustration, political disaffection and lack of trust in the system.

Does the new law comply with national and international law?

It doesn’t. The state cannot pardon itself for violating human rights: justice is not negotiable. This law seeks to normalise impunity and violates the principle of equality before the law. It weakens accountability and sends the dangerous message that those in power can violate fundamental rights and face no consequences.

This contravenes international law. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) has established that amnesty cannot be granted for crimes against humanity. One example is the case of Barrios Altos versus Peru, where the court condemned the Peruvian state for murdering 15 people and seriously injuring four others in 1991. The court has also declared that amnesty laws that seek to prevent the investigation and punishment of serious human rights violations are incompatible with the American Convention on Human Rights.

What has civil society’s response been?

Civil society has responded firmly. Academic institutions, citizen movements, family associations, human rights organisations and victims’ groups have rejected the law, which they consider a serious setback for struggles for justice and memory. The National Human Rights Coordination, alongside feminist and youth groups, have organised sit-ins, published statements and run public campaigns to denounce impunity.

The wounds of the conflict remain open. While some insist on focusing exclusively on the fight against terrorism, rendering state crimes invisible, thousands of families continue to wait for justice. Most of those responsible have never been brought to trial and over 20,000 people are still missing. For their families, this law reinforces the lack of justice and prolongs a mourning process that has already lasted for decades.

How does this situation compare with other transitional justice processes in the region?

Peru is experiencing a setback, while the regional trend is of progress in transitional justice processes. Argentina, for example, repealed laws that prevented those responsible for crimes against humanity committed during dictatorship from being tried, and hundreds of military personnel have been convicted as a result. Chile implemented policies of reparation and held trials against some people responsible for human rights violations. Colombia, with the creation of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace as part of the peace agreement with FARC guerrillas, has also shown it is possible to seek justice and reconciliation without resorting to blanket amnesties.

The international community has reacted strongly to Peru’s setback. The IACtHR issued an urgent resolution reminding the state it cannot apply amnesties in cases of crimes against humanity. The United Nations and organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have pointed out the law violates basic principles of international law, and foreign governments and human rights experts have warned about the deterioration of the rule of law in Peru.

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By Mandeep S.Tiwana
NEW YORK, Sep 23 2025 (IPS)

No leader responsible for mass atrocities enjoys greater impunity on the international stage than Benjamin Netanyahu. This is due to the strange stranglehold of the pro-Israel lobby on the two major political parties in the United States.

Unsurprisingly, the assertion by New York City mayoral candidate and front runner Zohran Mamdani on September 13 that he would order the arrest of Netanyahu if he ever came there, has attracted blowback from within the mainstream political establishments of both the Democratic and Republic parties, as well from extremist right-wing circles.

Legal experts have gone into a tizzy whether a future mayor of New York can arrest the leader of a foreign government. The unjustified blowback apparently in support of Israel’s televised genocide of the Palestinian people flies in the face of facts, basic principles of humanity and the shifting sands of public opinion in the United States.

A high- powered UN Commission of Inquiry led by a judge who investigated the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has recently concluded that Israel has committed genocide – the worst crime under international law – in Gaza.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has a standing arrest warrant against Netanyahu and his former defence minister for using starvation as a weapon of war and for deliberately killing thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. But bizarrely, it’s not Israel’s leaders but ICC judges and prosecutors who are being targeted through sanctions by the Trump administration.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu’s cruel war on Gaza is rapidly eroding American public support for Israel. According to the Pew Research Center’s latest findings more than half of American adults now possess an unfavourable opinion of Israel. Just 32 percent have confidence in Netanyahu himself.

However, the negative impacts of the damage done to American democracy by Netanyahu and his hardline supporters will linger on. Under the pretext of containing anti-Israeli sentiment, the Trump administration has attacked universities that were the site of sustained pro-Palestinian protests including Columbia and Harvard.

Academic freedom is a cherished American ideal but that hasn’t prevented the administration from threatening colleges and universities with federal funding cuts and placing restrictions on foreign students if they don’t toe the government’s line. Sadly, several pro-Palestinian student protest leaders have been arbitrarily detained in direct repudiation of constitutional protections on the freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest drawing criticism from UN experts.

Many of us in civil society have been pointing out for some time that the leaders of the two major political parties in the United States are so beholden to the moneyed interests of their donors that they have become out of touch with the needs and aspirations of the American people.

Indeed, Israel’s belligerence in continuing atrocities on the civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories of Gaza and the West Bank has been sharply rebuked by progressive groups like Jewish Voices for Peace and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice who support a new wave of politicians such as Mahmud Mamdani who are willing to stand up for human rights.

A generation of politicians who represent a more forward looking and inclusive vision for the United States and who enjoy widespread support in New York and beyond such as Alexandria Ocasio Cortez have rallied to Mamdani’s side.

Mamdani’s win in the Democratic primaries for the New York mayoral election was powered by a diverse coalition of supporters in America’s most diverse and vibrant city. He continues to be the front runner for the mayoral election slated on November 4.

So far, his focus has been on the issues that matter to most of the people of New York, such as the high cost of living and the ever- widening gap between millionaires and the rest of the country fueled by pro-big business policies and tax cuts.

Funnily, in blatant negation of diplomatic protocol, Netanyahu has jumped into the political fray by dubbing Mamdani’s proposals for New York City’s mayoral elections as ‘nonsense’.

Notably, Netanyahu is planning to come to New York to address the UN General Assembly on 26 September. When he speaks at the UN, it’s usually to disparage the institution, which will be marking 80 years of its founding from the ashes of war and the horrors of the holocaust.

Last year, a large number of delegates walked out of the UN hall when he came on stage. This year, Netanyahu emboldened by Trump’s support will try his best to repudiate the findings of the UN Commission of Inquiry on genocide in Gaza. Whether the delegates will pay attention is arguable.

However, one thing is certain. If Netanyahu attempts to go on to the streets of New York to campaign against Mamdani he will likely be met by mass protests.

Mandeep S. Tiwana is a human rights lawyer and Secretary General of global civil society alliance, CIVICUS. He is presently based in New York.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The venue for the high-level meeting of the General Assembly, September 23-30, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations. The list of speakers includes 89 Heads of State, 5 Vice-Presidents, one Crown Prince and 43 Heads of Government. Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 23 2025 (IPS)

As the UN commemorates its 80th anniversary, at a high-level meeting of 138 world political leaders, one lingering question remains: is there any reason for a celebration– judging by the UN’s mostly failed political performances over the last eight decades?

When he remotely addressed the Security Council in April 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was dead on target: “Where is the peace that the United Nations was created to guarantee? And “where is the security that the Security Council was supposed to guarantee?”

The UN apparently failed on both counts.

But the UN’s declining role in geo-politics, however, has been compensated for, by its increasingly significant performance as a massive global relief organization, providing humanitarian aid to millions of people caught in military conflicts worldwide.

Still, politics, seems to be the primary focus of the 80th anniversary.

Dr. Stephen Zunes, a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, who has written extensively about the United Nations, told IPS: “As someone who has defended the United Nations and emphasized its successes ever since I first visited the UN Headquarters in 1964 at age 8, I have never been more pessimistic.”

The United Nations is no more effective than its member states, particularly the more powerful ones, allow it to be, he pointed out.

“Things have steadily gotten worse since the end of the Cold War. The U.S. invasion of Iraq and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have demonstrated the failure of the UN’s most fundamental mission of preventing aggressive wars”.

During these past two years, he argued, the United States has been the sole negative vote on no less than six UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, thereby vetoing the measure. And, given that four of these were under the Biden administration, it underscores how efforts to undermine the UN’s authority in ending armed conflict is bipartisan.

Even one of the UN’s greatest successes, overseeing decolonization, said Dr Zunes, has been compromised by its inability to force Morocco to allow the people of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara their right to self-determination, with the United States and an increasing number of European countries backing the Moroccans’ illegal takeover.

“The United States played a disproportionate role in the writing of the UN Charter and subsequent treaties, such as the Fourth Geneva Convention and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the United Nations is expected to uphold.”

Yet in recent years, the United States–under both Republican and Democratic administrations–has increasingly been attacking the United Nations and its agencies, including its judicial bodies, when it has sought to enforce its charter and international humanitarian law, declared Dr Zunes, who has served as a senior policy analyst for the Foreign Policy in Focus project of the Institute for Policy Studies.

Dr Richard J. Ponzio, Director, Global Governance, Justice & Security Program and Senior Fellow at the Washinton-based Stimson Center, told IPS the United Nations, besides representing the world’s most universal and hence legitimate international organization, has demonstrated time and again its indispensability in the areas of peacebuilding, fighting extreme poverty, and increasingly in the areas of climate action and digital (including AI) governance too.

Felix Dodds, Stakeholder Forum Fellow, told IPS in this time of uncertainty, when the world has not been so insecure since the Cold War period, “we need to bolster multilateralism and ensure that we learn the lessons from history. Working together, we will build a more just, equitable and sustainable world for not only us but for future generations,” he said.

Amitabh Behar, Oxfam International’s Executive Director, said: “As leaders come together for UNGA80, the UN is under tremendous strain: critical funding has been slashed as needs rise, and its ability to deliver peace and security has been called into question, with some permanent members of the Security Council complicit in violating international humanitarian law.

“At its 80th anniversary, governments have a unique and urgent opportunity to lay the foundation for the reform direly needed to strengthen the UN so it is equipped to lead us in tackling the polycrisis we face – extreme and growing climate catastrophes and inequality, attacks on democracy and rights, the erosion of women’s and gender rights and deadly conflicts and extreme hunger, among others.

“In spite of it all, we must remember the power of collective action – we know that our best chance is together. This week at the UN, organizations like Oxfam are here to voice our concerns, offer our partnership and solidarity, and outline our own solutions.

“Now we need leaders to boldly share their own vision for a secure and peaceful way forward – and what they will do to fight for it with us.”

But what was the state of the world before the creation of the United Nations?

As Annalena Baerbock, President of the General Assembly told delegates, September 22: “Nations in ruins; More than 70 million dead; Two world wars in a single generation; the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust, and 72 territories still under colonialism”.

“This was our world 80-years ago,” she said. “A desperate world grasping for any sign of hope’. But courageous leaders gave that hope through the Charter of the United Nations.

When signed, on 26 June 1945, it was more than yet another empty political declaration, she pointed out. It was a promise from leaders to their peoples, and from nations to one another, that humanity had learned from its darkest chapters.

“It was a pledge — not to deliver us to heaven — but to never again be dragged into hell by the forces of hatred and unchecked ambition,” Baerbock said.

Still, “We stand at a similar crossroads. We see children without parents, searching for food in the ruins of Gaza. The ongoing war in Ukraine. Sexual violence in Sudan. Gangs terrorizing people in Haiti. Un-filtered hatred online. And floods and droughts all over the world”.

Is this the world envisioned in our Charter she asked.

In a statement released last week, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said it is far from the first time in the post-Cold War era that the UN has gone through troughs of doubt and division.

Similar periods of uncertainty followed the peacekeeping failures in the Balkans and Rwanda in the 1990s, as well as the debates about the 2003 Iraq war.

But while those were bruising eras, the organisation’s members managed to rally, reconcile and institute important reforms on each occasion. It is not clear they will be able or indeed want to do so this time.

While UN members will attend a special Summit of the Future to discuss reforming the organisation, in addition to their usual high-level week commitments, in September, major transformations of the UN’s peace and security work are unlikely to emerge any time soon, the Group warned.

Negotiations leading up to the summit have, if anything, served to highlight the lack of common vision among states for the future of multilateralism

Meanwhile, UN’s efforts at providing humanitarian aid are led by multiple UN agencies such as the World Food Program (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN children’s fund UNICEF, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) , the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), among others.

These agencies, which have saved millions of lives, continue to provide food, medical care and shelter, to those trapped in war-ravaged countries, mostly in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, while following closely in the footsteps of international relief organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, international Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), CARE International, Action Against Hunger, World Vision and Relief Without Borders, among others.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Sep 23 2025 (IPS)

US President Trump’s snide barbs against his appointee, US Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Jerome Powell, have revived support for central bank independence – long abused by powerful finance interests against growth and equity.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Independent central banks are supposed to improve the quality, equity, and growth impact of monetary policy. Instead, they have primarily served powerful financial interests, with contractionary and regressive effects leading to slower, unequal growth.

Independent of whom?
Central banks were established to determine monetary policy to shape financial conditions to achieve national economic objectives.

In recent decades, the new conventional policy wisdom has been that independent central banks should set monetary policy. Thus, they have been influenced by powerful financial interests, typically foreign, in smaller, open developing countries.

In the last half-century, many governments have changed laws under the influence of international finance to legislate central bank independence from governments of the day, especially the executive and legislative branches.

Meanwhile, most central banks have come to equate financial stability with price stability as ‘inflation targeting’ became the leading policy fetish.

When inflation rises, central banks raise interest rates, which reduces economic activity. However, some central banks of open economies, especially those pegging to major international currencies, target the exchange rate.

Thus, reducing inflation by conventional means worsens contractionary pressures. Many governments now face the threat of ‘stagflation’, i.e., recession with inflation. Central banks recognise this trade-off regarding how much growth has to decline for inflation to fall.

With interest rate management as their primary policy tool, central banks may raise interest rates in anticipation of inflation, despite its adverse consequences for growth, income and employment.

Such contractionary effects have reduced wages and jobs worldwide. Only a few, mainly large developed economies, have had other priorities, such as growth or employment.

Ironically, the end of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rates regime and the counter-revolution against Keynesian economics from the late 1970s ensured the irrelevance of Milton Friedman’s monetarist emphasis on central banks’ money supply targeting.

Worsening inequity
Central banks worldwide respond to and anticipate inflation by raising interest rates to curb inflation.

‘Inflation targeting’ causes significant collateral damage, typically reducing growth, income and employment. Poor households’ incomes are likelier to fall, especially with labour-displacing technological change, such as mechanisation, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

As unemployment increases, poor workers are more likely to lose jobs, especially hurting poorer families. Banks have typically profited handsomely from such situations, although most people are worse off.

With lending rates rising, banks get even more interest as borrowing rates lag, not increasing as much. Max Lawson cites an IMF study finding that the adverse effects of higher interest rates are “not counterbalanced by the positive effects of lower interest rates.”

The US Fed strongly influences central banks worldwide. Higher Fed interest rates from 2023, in response to minor inflationary pressures, have hurt developing countries, especially the poorest.

As most Global South companies and governments have incurred dollar-denominated debt, countries’ central banks raised interest rates to deter capital outflows.

Quantitative easing
‘Quantitative easing’ (QE) refers to central bank interventions buying financial assets. Such interventions were sought as it is difficult for central banks to cut interest rates below zero to revive economies. QE seemed to fit the bill.

Commercial banks typically get more for their deposits with the central bank when it raises interest rates. Thus, they receive considerable additional windfall interest payments from the central bank risk-free.

QE programmes seek to raise asset prices. Central banks buy assets such as government debt, inducing private investors to acquire riskier assets. US government debt is still the most important financial asset in the international monetary system.

Thus, QE tries to induce growth, presuming earlier contractionary policies will continue to curb or ‘moderate’ inflation. This has even been justified as prudent, as inflation rates were below target despite interest rates near zero.

Major Western central banks adopted QE following the 2008-09 global financial crisis. Many governments spent even more in response to the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020.

Such efforts sought to counter the downward spiral of falling financial asset prices. The US Fed’s QE intervention involved ‘portfolio rebalancing’. It bought over $600 billion in US Treasury bonds and almost $300 billion in mortgage-backed securities.

Wealth is concentrated in relatively few hands in most societies. Jordi Bosch showed the top ten per cent holding 11 times more wealth than the bottom half in the euro zone, while the bottom fifth had more debt than assets.

QE interventions increase financial asset prices, enriching owners, especially the rich, who have more assets. As prices rise, their worth generally increases. Hence, such central bank interventions further enrich the already wealthy.

As the world struggles to cope with challenges posed by the current conjuncture, we must not jump out of the frying pan back into the fire kindled by central bank independence.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Nepal’s urbanization has contributed to a growing prevalence of ultra-processed food, which in turn has led to an increase in noncommunicable diseases among children. A family in Nepal picks out fresh produce at a vegetable market in an effort to promote healthy diets. Credit: UNICEF/Bishal Bisht

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 22 2025 (IPS)

The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging global efforts to address and invest in tackling non-communicable diseases, and that by doing so, can yield economic benefits of up to USD 1 trillion by 2030.

Ahead of the upcoming United Nations (UN) General Assembly High-Level Meeting on the prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) on September 25, WHO released their newest report, Saving Lives, Spending Less: The Global Investment Case for Noncommunicable Diseases, during a virtual press conference on September 18. The report highlighted the global state of physical and mental health, calling for cost-effective interventions to reduce preventable deaths, accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and strengthen health systems worldwide.

According to the report, NCDs—which include cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular and lung diseases—are the leading causes of death in most countries, claiming over 43 million lives each year, including 18 million premature deaths. WHO further notes that hundreds of millions of people are currently living with at least one NCD, which significantly reduces both quality of life and lifespan.

Despite 82 percent of countries achieving reductions in NCD mortality between 2010 and 2019, the rate of progress has stalled significantly in the 2020s, with many countries recording higher numbers of NCD-related deaths post-pandemic. This is particularly dire for low-and middle-income countries, where the inadequate access to healthcare costs roughly 32 million lives each year. It is projected that over 150 million people could die prematurely from NCDs unless effective global action is taken.

“There is no country on earth that isn’t now, and in the coming years is going to be challenged by the issues of NCDs and mental health,” said Jeremy Farrar, a medical researcher and the Chief Scientist at WHO. “Demographic shifts, multimorbidity—where people have more than one condition—are going to be an issue for health systems all around the world, including for the richest countries in the world.”

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that over three million people die each year due to unsafe or inequitable access to healthcare. He further highlighted that more than one billion people face mental challenges worldwide, with suicide remaining one of the leading causes of death among young people.

“Noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions are silent killers, robbing us of lives and innovation,” said Ghebreyesus. “We have the tools to save lives and reduce suffering. Countries like Denmark, South Korea, and Moldova are leading the way, while others are stalling. Investing in the fight against NCDs isn’t just smart economics—it’s an urgent necessity for thriving societies.”

Global exposure to preventable risk factors — such as tobacco and alcohol use, unhealthy diets, excessive consumption of sugary beverages, and physical inactivity — kills more than 10 million people each year and continues to exacerbate health issues worldwide. WHO further attributes the proliferation of NCDs and mental health challenges to demographic shifts such as rapid urbanization, which has left many countries grappling with rising debt, economic pressures, and limited fiscal space—factors that hinder effective investment in sustainable development and healthcare.

“When we talk about NCDs, it is very important to recognize that we are going against very strong financial interests,” said Etienne Krug, WHO Director for health determinants, promotion, and prevention. “There are a whole series of unhealthy products on the market right now, ranging from tobacco, unhealthy foods, alcohol, etcetera. Acting against the interests of some of these powerful companies is not always approached with the same energy from different governments. Unless we do take action to promote healthy products and limit the sale of unhealthy products, we will not make progress in tackling NCDs — and not fast enough.”

WHO estimates that implementing relatively low-cost policies could yield significant returns, accelerating progress toward the SDGs while improving public health. According to the report, if every person invested just USD 3 per year, up to 12 million lives could be saved between 2025 and 2030—equivalent to roughly 150 million healthy life years. Economically, this could generate up to USD 1 trillion in benefits worldwide, representing a four-to-one return on investment. By 2035, these gains are estimated to grow even further, with every dollar invested yielding up to seven dollars in economic benefits.

Numerous low- and middle-income countries have reported significant gains in public health and the economy after implementing policy changes on access to unhealthy substances. In 2018, Brazil went from being the nation with the sixth-cheapest cigarettes in the world to implementing the highest tobacco tax rate in the Americas, leading to significant reductions in nationwide smoking rates.

Numerous low- and middle-income countries have reported significant public health and economic gains after implementing policies to limit access to unhealthy substances. In 2018, Brazil shifted from having the sixth-cheapest cigarettes in the world to imposing the highest tobacco tax rate in the Americas, resulting in a significant nationwide decline in smoking rates, saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

Similarly, the integration of hypertension control services into primary care in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and the Philippines has allowed millions of people with hypertension to manage their blood pressure. The most notable gains were recorded in the Philippines, where approximately 80 percent of patients have achieved controlled blood pressure since the implementation of these practices.

Despite these global gains, the United States continues to fall short in addressing the rise of NCDs. It is among the most NCD-affected countries in the world, with rates of obesity being particularly pronounced. Despite the U.S. allocating a disproportionately high expenditure for healthcare in comparison to other countries, its approach remains largely ineffective in maximizing public health outcomes. Ghebreyesus stated that investing in policies that promote healthy practices and disease prevention would address the root cause of NCDs, and possibly save millions of lives.

Ghebreyesus also expressed concern during the panel over the U.S.’s planned withdrawal from WHO next year, noting that the country has historically been the organization’s largest contributor and warning of the significant losses in public health that can be expected. According to Ghebreyesus, the new amendment to WHO’s policies includes critical information on global weaknesses that have been identified during the COVID-19 pandemic, which will prove to be crucial in tackling NCDs moving forward.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Female runners won six of Kenya’s seven gold medals at the World Athletics Championships, topping the podium in every event from 800m to the marathon in Tokyo.

Evans Kibet, now being held in Ukraine after surrendering, says he did not know he was signing up.

Evans Kibet, now being held in Ukraine after surrendering, says he did not know he was signing up.

Wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock reverses his retirement for one-day internationals and is recalled by South Africa.

As billions continue to breathe polluted air that causes more than 4.5 million premature deaths every year, according to the United Nations, UN climate experts have highlighted how damaging microscopic smoke particles from wildfires play their part, travelling halfway across the world. Credit: Climate Visuals/Anna Liminowicz. UN News September 2025

By Jan-Gustav Strandenaes
KNAPSTAD, Norway, Sep 22 2025 (IPS)

“We shall have to do more with less” was the summary message from a meeting in Oslo, Norway, this spring (2025), where the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway, Espen Barth Eide and Guy Ryder, Under-Secretary-General for Policy at the UN and Chair of UN80, both spoke about UN80 and the necessity to reform the UN.

The UN80 initiative is, according to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, “a system-wide push to streamline operations, sharpen impact, and reaffirm the UN’s relevance for a rapidly changing world”. “We will come out of this process with a stronger, fit-for-purpose UN, ready for the challenges the future will undoubtedly bring us,”

Ryder has said. The precarious financial situation of the UN family has, however, led many to say that these nice words are euphemisms for a dramatic UN reform, fearing a necessary downscaling of many of its important activities.

This article builds on previous articles on clustering around the Triple Planetary Crisis of pollution (see How Clustering Multilateral Environmental Agreements Can Bring Multiple Benefits to the Environment by Michael Stanley Jones), climate change (see UN 80: Clustering the Climate Change Conventions by Stacey Azores ), and biodiversity loss (see Towards Enhancing Synergies among Biodiversity-Related MEAs: Addressing Fragmentation with Strategic Coordination.

Clustering biodiversity conventions by Hugo-Maria Schally) and most recently, the article on the possibility of clustering the three science bodies (see Better Use of the World’s Expertise in Navigating the Polycrisis by Peter Bridgewater and Rakhyun Kim).

The UN 80 process enables us to look at some of the history of the UN Environment Programme and how to make it more “agile, integrated, and equipped to respond to today’s complex global challenges”. A historic lens is needed, and it would be wise to see if elements of this history can be resurrected and a debate around them can be reenergized to accomplish the goals of the present reform process.

The institutional constraints of UNEP

Where is UNEP in all this? UNEP is a Programme under the UN General Assembly, UNGA, one of the Charter Bodies. As such, any change in UNEP’s structure and status has to be recognised by the UNGA. The UNGA has the power to directly affect UNEP’s work, as well as the outcomes of the UN Environment Assembly, UNEA, even though UNEA is also a body with universal membership.

What was the Global Ministerial Environment Forum?

There is no positive and tangible results without continuity. Since its inception, UNEP has been run by the Governing Council, GC, which consisted of 54 member states elected for a three year period. The GC met in Nairobi every two years, effectively diminishing UNEP’s role as a consistent guardian of environmental issues, at least at the political level.

As environmental problems increased over the years, there was an increasing need for more continuous political decision-making to meet and solve environmental issues, and the Global Ministerial Environment Forum, the GMEF, was established, among others, in order to answer to this challenge.

Conceived as a Special Session, the 6th since the founding of UNEP, the first GMEF took place in the city of Malmoe in Sweden in the year 2000. It was hailed as a success, for several reasons. One notable aspect was that 73 Ministers of Environment attended and engaged in various debates, including exerting political leadership.

Even though 73 member states attended with their environment ministers – the highest ever at the time at an international conference – it is well to remember that the UN then consisted of 189 member states.

A significant outcome document was the Malmoe Declaration, which outlines in no uncertain terms the environmental challenges, that UNEP was the preeminent global organisation on environmental issues and that there is an urgent need for UNEP and all stakeholders to engage and work to safeguard the environment.

UNEP with increasing knowledge in environment, still lacking in authority

Knowledge and understanding of environmental issues grow constantly and makes clear to all its inherent complexity, resulting in new and sometimes divergent environmental themes demanding new political approaches.

On the verge of the 21st Century, and sensing new and dramatically different challenges, the then Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan, outlined these challenges in his report to the UN GA in 2000, called “We the peoples: The role of the UN in the 21st Century.” Here, he called for a Millennium Ecosystem Assessment to be delivered. New environmental issues were identified, and the multitude of these issues was another reason for establishing the GMEF in 2000. There was a need to try to develop policy coherence.

The third GMEF was held in Cartagena, Colombia, in February 2002, and nearly 100 Ministers of Environment attended. Again, the presence of Ministers proved advantageous to the deliberations and outcome results. This conference also became a an important informal preparatory meeting for the upcoming World Summit for Sustainable Development, WSSD, to be held later that year in Johannesburg.

The delegates at this GMEF emphasised the importance of this forum, and the proposal to organise a GMEF in odd years and not in Nairobi was tabled and agreed to. Annual high-level conferences on the environment were agreed as a necessity. Another interesting proposal tabled was that membership in the GMEF should be universal, an idea that took ten years to materialise. It was not until Rio+20 in 2012 that universal membership at a UN body dealing with environmental policies, the UNEA, was agreed to.

The 11th Governing Council and Global Ministerial Environment Forum was held in Nusa Dua, Indonesia in 2010. A simultaneous extraordinary Conference of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, three Multilateral Environmental Agreements, was held back-to-back with the GC/GMEF.

The conference had an overarching objective of enhancing cooperation and coordination and improving synergies in multilateral environmental agreements. As one report states, the meeting broke new ground and set an example of resource-saving coherence among MEAs and perhaps even within the UN system.

Without a seemingly proper analysis of the benefit of annual meetings, the GC/GMEF processes were discontinued with the adoption of the UN Environment Assembly, the UNEA, which held its first session in 2014, and the process was back to high level environment meetings every second year. As the UNEAs were to be held every other year, this decision actually lost the continuity which had been established with the GC/GMEF process.

With the increasing environmental challenges, not the least their complexity, maybe the time has now come to reinstitute annual UN environmental conferences and use the model which was established by the GC/GMEF process – every other year in Nairobi, and the intermittent year in a capital of a member state.

Strengthening UNEP and UNEA by re-establishing the GMEF.

If we re-establish the GMEF and combine it with the UNEAs, we would accomplish a continuity of high-level political and policy-oriented meetings for the environment. The UNEA would, if this were to take place, continue as it is presently organised, but the GMEF would be different. Two UN entities would play centre-stage: The MEAs and the Science-Policy Interfaces

UNEP has been designated by the governing bodies of eight MEAs, to provide secretariat functions to those conventions. This host relationship established with UNEP, means that UNEP is providing administrative and financial support for each secretariat to carry out its responsibilities.

UNEP has for a long time been at the forefront of scientific research on environmental issues. Three Science Policy Interface systems have been established and receive support from UNEP.

The oldest is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC established in 1988. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, the IPBES, is less known to the outer world compared to IPCC. It began functioning in 2014 with a secretariat based in Bonn.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste and Pollution, ISP-CWP, is a new, independent intergovernmental body established to strengthen the global science-policy interface. It began its official existence in June this year (2025).

What could the agenda for the Forum be? It would have to complement and support the upcoming UN Environment Assembly. There would also be other overarching thematic priorities – the Triple Planetary Crises, the current Medium-Term Strategy and the Programme of Work.

The GMEF could be a place where the three established clusters of MEAs, focusing on pollution (chemicals and waste), biodiversity, and climate change, could meet to address synergies, gaps, and potential areas for collaboration.

The MEAs could identify relevant work of a common nature that exists between the conventions and explore interlinkages between them. All this could be informed by the first day of a GMEF when the three science bodies could have identified and presented crucial environmental issues to be solved.

As the meeting would take place midway between the HLPF, the outcome report could also deal with the environmental elements of the SDGs to be dealt with by the next HLPF.

This proposed agenda involves clustering around themes of the Triple Planetary Crisis of pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change, ideas, and implementation across science and environmental governance to influence political priorities.

As the GMEF would begin with presentations by the three science bodies outlining urgent issues relating to the Triple Planetary Crises, their presentations could inform the discussions throughout the week but also support any member state in their negotiations at the GMEF as all stakeholders would discuss common problems.

Focus of a systemic nature could be on the inherent inefficiencies in use of financial resources, the MEAs could look at inconsistencies in the international legal systems, they all could discuss functional inefficiencies, but most importantly identify their failures to address interlinkages.

When “forced by a common agenda”, they would all have to focus their priorities on the same themes and thus cluster their input.

An example of an area addressed by the three clusters together could be that of nitrogen, currently under discussion, which exemplifies a cross-cutting theme that could challenge all the UN units mentioned here to explore their approach to addressing it. And if all are assembled in a five-day conference, that could quite possibly happen.

Could such a meeting be financed? The old GMEF was partly financed by the hosting city and country. These cities gave generous grants to the conference, knowing full well that they would earn ten-fold in return as a consequence of participation from 193 member states delegations coming to their city.

The best outcome for UNEP in UN80

UNEP and UNEA lacks proper funding, but perhaps its biggest weakness, which hampers its many efforts to be the preeminent global environment organisation, is UNEP’s lack of authority and political status. This is perhaps the major reason that hampers its efforts to improve its own system.

Substantial improvements in its internal institutional system will always be difficult as long as UNEP is merely a programme under the General Assembly. The GA’s own rules of procedure, its standing in the UN system, and its geographical placement in New York, makes it the key organisational body of the UN, which, by its own position in the UN hierarchy, also makes it a rigid organisation. Whereas UNEP hosts delegations from ministries of the environment, the UNGA delegations are from ministries of foreign affairs.

These ministries address environmental problems in different ways. Whereas foreign offices are among the most important government entities in a country and have, by and large, a generalist understanding and competence on environmental issues, environmental ministries have environmental expertise but are weak in terms of political clout. During the last two decades, environment ministries have also suffered a serious reduction of political influence in several countries, a few have even been closed down.

UN80 can start the process of finishing the work of Klaus Toepfer and Achim Steiner, two former Executive Directors at UNEP, on clustering the biodiversity conventions, and if UNFCCC comes under UNEP, it will provide an opportunity for a cluster on climate change. The creation of a more coordinated and effective science platform will help member states to have the right information and address the environmental issues they raise in a coordinated way.

By focusing on conventions under UNEP management, we gain a more coherent approach, albeit one that does not cover all relevant conventions, but one that will have a greater impact on addressing the Triple Planetary Crisis of pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change. The proof of concept for the chemicals and waste cluster successfully carried out at the 11th GMEF in 2010 should show us the way.

The re-establishment of the Global Environmental Ministers Forum enables member states at a high level to address the interlinkages, gaps and work programmes of the three established clusters. Wouldn’t it be great to have this ready for 2030 when we will address the future approach to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development? A stronger UNEP has been the vision for many people for a long time. UN80 enables the chance to make that a reality.

Jan-Gustav Strandenaes is a Senior Adviser, Stakeholder Forum. In 2018, he was appointed by the German Government to a peer group assessing its national Sustainability Strategy.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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President Duma Boko congratulates the men's 4x400m relay team for winning gold at the World Athletic Championships.

A child being screened for malnutrition as part of Action Against Hunger’s work in Isiolo County, Kenya. — February 5, 2025. Credit: Abel Gichuru for Action Against Hunger

By Michelle Brown
NEW YORK, Sep 22 2025 (IPS)

As world leaders convene in New York, September 22-30, for the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, they will confront a humanitarian sector in crisis. With only 9% of the $47 billion requested for global humanitarian needs currently funded, the sector faces what UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher calls “a crisis of morale and legitimacy” alongside devastating funding cuts. So where do we go from here?

The UN’s Humanitarian Reset, launched this past March, represents the most ambitious attempt in decades to transform how we deliver aid. Rather than viewing this as just another round of reform, we must see it as an opportunity to build something fundamentally better: a system that is locally-led, globally supported, and dramatically more efficient.

The Crisis Driving Change

The scale of today’s humanitarian challenge is daunting. Humanitarian needs continue to increase while funding dwindles, forcing impossible ethical choices about which kinds of programs to prioritize and which communities to serve.

Recent cuts to US foreign aid have accelerated this crisis, leaving organizations scrambling to maintain essential services while thousands of humanitarian workers face layoffs.

Critics have claimed that we are a wasteful, divided bureaucracy. Our response must be to demonstrate that we are efficient, united, independent, and saving lives. If this moment of constraint is forcing our sector to confront uncomfortable truths, it also may unleash us to more fully deliver on our promise.

Reimagining Roles for Maximum Impact

The reset’s core insight is that each actor in the humanitarian ecosystem has unique strengths. Rather than competing for the same roles, we should optimize for what each does best.

• UN agencies excel at diplomacy, coordination, and norm-setting. Their relationships with national authorities and convening power are irreplaceable. But direct implementation often isn’t their strength, and their structures can be prohibitively expensive with high overhead costs and complex security requirements.

• International NGOs bring technical expertise, can access hard-to-reach areas, and maintain principled independence. They can bridge global knowledge with local realities, strengthen national systems, and operate in contexts where civic space is restricted.

• Local and national organizations are the frontline responders with deep community knowledge and long-term presence. They understand cultural dynamics, can negotiate access more effectively, and provide the foundation for sustainable systems.
Communities in access-constrained areas have built schools through diaspora funding, negotiated their own security arrangements, and created supply chains that reach areas many international organizations cannot.

This clarification of roles should drive funding decisions.

If the role of UN agencies is focused on norm and standard-defining, coordination, and pass-through, more resources will be available for international, national, and local actors to drive implementation. The goal isn’t to bypass the UN, but to optimize the entire system. Fund UN agencies for diplomatic engagement and coordination. Fund international NGOs for implementation and technical assistance. Fund local organizations for community engagement and sustainable service delivery.

Cash, Data, and Dignity

Three innovations deserve acceleration regardless of funding levels.

Cash-based programming, particularly multi-purpose transfers, exemplifies the reset’s principles. It’s cost-effective, context-sensitive, and upholds recipient dignity while promoting local ownership. We should shift towards cash-transfer programming where possible.

Similarly, better data sharing and early warning systems can dramatically improve targeting and coordination. Donors should continue to fund a more harmonized data collection and data sharing system for better diagnosis, targeting and coordination of needs, reducing duplication while improving effectiveness.

Critically, as the system streamlines, we cannot lose sight of how central protection must be to all of our work. Most humanitarian crises are protection crises, even if they aren’t acknowledged as such. Gender-based violence services, child protection, and civilian safety aren’t add-ons to humanitarian response—they’re foundations that enable all other interventions to succeed.

The Path Forward

The humanitarian reset isn’t about doing less with less; it’s about doing differently with what we have. It’s about moving from a system driven by the money we can raise to one based on greatest need, even more rooted in and responsive to the communities we serve.

As member states discuss UN80 reforms during this General Assembly session, they must resist the temptation to simply cut programs. Instead, they should invest in the transformation needed to make humanitarian aid more efficient and effective. Member states attending UNGA 80 must champion a humanitarian system that measures success not by institutional survival, but by lives saved and communities empowered.

This means supporting innovative funding mechanisms, investing in local capacity, and having the courage to redistribute power from global headquarters to frontline communities. Fundamentally, radical reform requires those with power to give it away.

The choice facing world leaders in New York is clear: continue with a system that struggles to meet growing needs, or embrace a reset that puts communities at the center and optimizes every actor’s unique contribution.

The humanitarian sector’s breaking point can become its transformation moment, but only if we have the courage to truly reset how we work.

Michelle Brown is Associate Director of Advocacy, Action Against Hunger

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Eunice Dumbuya, a young activist in Freetown, Sierra Leone, still remembers being called promiscuous after getting a contraceptive implant a few years ago. She knew the risks of an unplanned pregnancy in her conservative country, so she made a choice. “I had to go with my aunt to the hospital for contraceptives because my mom […]

Kenya make it a clean sweep at the Berlin Marathon with Sabastian Sawe winning the men's race and Rosemary Wanjiru triumphing in the women's.

Friends of the stabbed 21-year-old Kenyan woman recount to the BBC events on the night she went missing.

Charlie Weimers with EU flag and the Sweden Democrat’s party symbol, a bluebell.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Sep 19 2025 (IPS)

On September 11, Charlie Weimers, a Swedish Member of the European Parliament and active within the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, rose up during a Parliamentary session and asked for a minute of silence to honour the memory of Charlie Kirk, who the day before had been shot and killed during a political meeting at the Utah Valley University in the U.S.

“Madam President, dear colleagues, the murder of political activist Charlie Kirk, a husband, loving father and patriot has shocked the world. We must strongly condemn political violence and rhetoric that incites violence. Will you stand with me in reflection and prayer in his honour, and I yield the rest of my time for a moment of silence.”

Charlie Weimers began his political career as a member of the Swedish Chrisitan Democrat Party, but later switched to the Sweden Democrats, a nationalist, right-wing populist party, which in spite of efforts to tune it down finds its roots in Neo-Nazi fringe organizations. It is now Sweden’s second largest political party with more than 20 percent of the electorate behind it.

There is nothing wrong in condemning murder political violence and defend freedom of speech, but this cannot hinder us from scrutinizing who is canonized as a victim of radical aggression. Charlie Kirk was 33 years old when he was murdered, leaving a wife and two small children behind. He had admitted that when he in 2012 started Turning Point USA, which eventually would become a rich and powerful organization, he had “no money, no connections and no idea of what I was doing.” At that time, Kirk had dropped out of college and been rejected by The U.S. West Point Military Academy. Nevertheless, he had rhetorical gifts for countering progressive ideas, being sensitive about cultural tensions, and endowed with an aptitude for making provocative declarations that resonated with frustrated college audiences, who followed and agreed with his web postings. Kirk’s frequent college rallies eventually attracted tens of thousands of young voters, as well as the attention and financial support of conservative leaders. President Trump was not wrong when he declared that:

The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.

After his death Kirk has been praised for showing up at campuses where he talked with anyone who would approach him. Conservative journalists have declared him to be one of the era’s most effective practitioners of persuasion. Kirk’s message was readily embraced by youngsters who accepted his view that Democrats had spent hundreds of billions of dollars on illegal immigrants and foreign nations, while the young “lost generation” of the U.S. had to pinch their pennies, but would not be able to own a home, never marry, and even be forced to work until they died, abused and childless. However, he also gave them hope, telling these unfortunate youngsters that they did not have to stay poor and accept being worse off than their parents. They just had to avoid supporting corrupt political leaders, who were lying to them only to take advantage of their votes. Kirk assured his young audience that it is an undeniable fact that cultural identity is disappearing, while sexual anarchy, crime and decadence reign unabated, private property is a thing of the past, and a ruling “liberal” class controls everything. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was probably right when she said that Kirk had inspired millions of young people “to get involved in politics and fight for our nation’s conservative values.”

Kirk allied his Turning Point USA not to any poor radical fringe groups, but to conservative, wealthy donors and influencers. He preached a “Christian Message” well adapted to several members of such groups, declaring that Turning Point USA was dedicated to “recruiting pastors and other church leaders to be active in local and national political issues.”

Kirk fervently defended the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, i.e. “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed “, declaring that it was worth “a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can keep a Second Amendment which protect our other God-given rights”.

However, Kirk was not happy about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed “discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin in employment, education, and public accommodations.” He stated that the Civil Rights Act was a “huge mistake” and declared that if the majority of Americans were asked if they respected the Civil Rights Act the answer would have been a “no”. Adding the caveat that “I could be wrong, but I think I’m right.”

Undoubtedly, there was a racist ingredient in Kirk’s ideology. He did for example state that the concept of white privilege was a myth and a “racist lie”. In October 2021, he launched an Exposing Critical Racism Tour to numerous campuses and other institutions, to “combat racist theories”, by which he meant the propagation of an understanding of the relationships between social conceptions of race and ethnicity, social and political laws and mass media, all of which Kirk considered to be propaganda and an unfounded brainchild of liberal Democrats. He blamed the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programmes for threatening U.S. competitiveness and security, even claiming that upon sitting in a plane and realising that the pilot was “Black”, he could not help thinking “’Hey, I hope he’s qualified”.

Like most populist, “patriotic”, European right-wing political parties, not the least the Sweden Democrats, though they nowadays try to hide it more carefully than before, Kirk endorsed the so-called “great replacement theory”. This way of thinking assumes that powerful, nefarious actors, for some obscure reason, are trying to replace an upright indigenous, generally white-skinned population with immigrants of “doubtful” origin. Kirk did not even hesitate to state that Democrats supposedly wanted to make the U.S. “less white”.

Kirk also argued that humans have no significant effect on global climate change and joined antivax activists by, among other statements, calling the mandatory requirements for students to get the COVID-19 vaccine “medical apartheid”. Kirk was outspoken when it came to claim that Trump’s loss in the president elections of 2022 was due to fraud, supported the “stop the steal” movement and denied that the violent attacks on the Capitol were an insurrection.

Opposing political violence and supporting free speech does not mean that you have to sanctify a victim like Charlie Kirik, who after all was a racist and an incendiary agitator against underprivileged groups, as well as he degraded scientists who warned against climate change and vaccine denial. It is not defensible that such a voice, no matter how despicable it might be, is silenced by violence and murder. However, we cannot refrain from pointing out the great harm the kind of agitation Kirk devoted himself to can cause. As an educator, I have often been forced to experience how children suffer from racism and bigotry preached and condoned by influencers like Charlie Kirk. Accordingly, to sanctify such persons and tolerate their prejudiced ideology is hurtful and dangerous.

Furthermore, let us not be fooled by deceitful propaganda trying to convince us that Charlie Kirk’s so called “debates” were neither aggressive, nor mendacious. They were brutally provocative; opponents were shouted down, or belittled. The rhetoric was hateful, contempt was poured out over women, Black people, immigrants and Muslims, queer and trans people. Liberals were branded as enemies, science demeaned. And, yes – Charlie Kirk turned to young people, who felt frustrated, marginalized and despised, telling them that he wanted to give them hope and a will to fight injustice. But at what price? Based on what truth? Incitement to violence and contempt for humanity might be safeguarded in the name of free speech, but it should never be accepted and defended. It must be attacked through an unconstrained press based on facts, a well-founded science, and an unfaltering respect for human rights.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Luca Zidane, the son of France's World Cup-winning playmaker Zinedine, switches his international allegiance from France to Algeria.

Julia Francisco Martínez stands at the graveside of her husband Juan, a Honduran Indigenous defender who was found murdered in 2015. Credit: Giles Clarke / Global Witness

By Umar Manzoor Shah
LONDON & SRINAGAR, Sep 19 2025 (IPS)

At least 146 land and environmental defenders were murdered or forcibly disappeared in 2024 for standing up against powerful state and corporate interests, according to a new report released by Global Witness.

The findings, published under the title Roots of Resistance, expose a persistent global crisis that has claimed 2,253 lives since 2012, and show that violence against those protecting land, forests, and communities continues with little sign of justice.

Although the 2024 figure is lower than the 196 killings recorded in 2023, Global Witness cautions that this does not represent progress. Instead, it reflects chronic underreporting, difficulties in verifying cases in conflict zones, and a climate of fear that silences victims’ families and communities.

Latin America: The Epicenter of Attacks

The report shows that 82 percent of documented killings took place in Latin America. Colombia once again topped the global list, with 48 killings accounting for nearly a third of all cases worldwide. The victims were mostly community leaders, Indigenous defenders, and small-scale farmers confronting mining, agribusiness, and organized crime.

Despite government pledges of reform, Colombia’s weak state presence in former conflict zones has allowed armed groups and criminal networks to dominate. This has created a deadly environment for activists who resist environmental destruction.

Mexico followed with 19 cases, including 18 killings and one disappearance. It marked the second most lethal year for Mexican defenders in the past decade. Brazil recorded 12 killings, half of them small-scale farmers.

The most alarming rise was seen in Guatemala, where killings spiked from four in 2023 to 20 in 2024, giving the country the highest per capita murder rate for defenders worldwide. This escalation took place despite the election of President Bernardo Arévalo, who had promised to curb corruption and inequality.

“Eighty-two percent of recorded attacks in 2024 were in Latin America, where we have consistently seen the highest proportion of cases for over a decade,” said Laura Furones, Senior Advisor at Global Witness and one of the report’s authors, in an interview with Inter Press Service. “Killings were concentrated in four countries, which together accounted for around 70 percent of the murders: Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Brazil.”

According to Furones, Latin America’s rich natural resources, combined with strong civil society movements and widespread impunity, make it both a hotspot for extraction-related conflicts and for reporting of violence. “High levels of impunity mean there is little disincentive for violence to stop,” she said.

Who Are the Victims?

The report found clear patterns in who is most targeted. In 2024, 45 Indigenous defenders and 45 small-scale farmers were killed or disappeared. Together, they made up nearly two-thirds of all cases.

These killings are closely linked to profit-driven industries. Mining was identified as the deadliest sector, connected to 29 killings. Logging was tied to eight deaths, agribusiness to four. Organized crime was implicated in nearly a third of all attacks, often working with or tolerated by state forces.

State actors themselves, including police and military, were linked to 17 killings. In Colombia, only 5.2 percent of murders of social leaders since 2002 have been resolved in court, leaving the intellectual authors of the crimes almost untouched.
“Impunity fuels this cycle of violence,” the report notes. “Without justice, perpetrators feel emboldened to repeat attacks.”

Documenting Violence in Hostile Environments

Global Witness compiles its data through a systematic process of reviewing public information, analyzing datasets, and collaborating with local and regional organizations in more than 20 countries. Each case must be verified by credible sources with detailed information about the victim and the link to land or environmental defense.

Still, Furones acknowledged that many attacks go undocumented, particularly in authoritarian states, regions with limited civil society, or conflict zones. “These figures are likely underestimates,” she said.

Personal Stories Behind the Numbers

Beyond the statistics, the report highlights individual defenders whose struggles illustrate the human cost of the crisis.

In Nigeria, the Ekuri community has spent decades protecting one of West Africa’s last tropical rainforests. Activists like Louis Friday, Martins Egot, and Odey Oyama face threats from armed loggers and corrupt officials. Oyama was arrested in January 2025 by a masked police squad and charged with “promoting inter-communal war,” a crime that carries a life sentence. He says the charges are retaliation for his conservation work.

In Chile, 72-year-old Mapuche leader Julia Chufil disappeared in November 2024 while fighting to reclaim ancestral land from forestry companies. She had faced harassment and bribery offers for years. Her family, leading the search for her, say authorities have treated them as suspects rather than victims.

In Colombia, campesino leader Jani Silva has been under state protection for over a decade due to death threats tied to her defense of the Perla Amazónica Peasant Reserve. While protection measures have kept her alive, Silva describes them as isolating and burdensome, underscoring the inadequacy of current mechanisms.

Expanding Tactics of Repression

The report stresses that lethal attacks represent only the most visible form of violence. Defenders face a spectrum of threats including harassment, sexual violence, smear campaigns, and criminalization.

“Of particular concern is the rising trend of criminalization, as restrictive laws are increasingly enacted worldwide to make peaceful protest a crime,” Furones said.

She added that toxic anti-defender narratives, combined with Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), further erode protections.

Authorities in several countries have adopted laws specifically targeting protestors, intensifying crackdowns on land and climate activists. “States are unwilling to protect those who stand up for rights,” Furones said. “Instead, they use the law as a weapon against them.”

A Global Failure of Protection
The report warns that international agreements designed to safeguard defenders are being weakened. Nearly 1,000 defenders have been killed in Latin America since the adoption of the Escazú Agreement in 2018, which was meant to ensure their protection.

Global Witness calls for urgent action from governments and businesses. States must recognize land rights, strengthen laws against corporate abuse, and build effective protection mechanisms. Companies must respect Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, conduct rigorous human rights due diligence, and adopt zero-tolerance policies for attacks on defenders.

Indigenous Peoples are identified as especially vulnerable, living across 90 countries and managing more than a third of Earth’s protected land. Research shows Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities achieve better conservation outcomes than many official protected zones. Yet they often defend their territories with little state support, while their voices are excluded from decision-making.

“Particular protection of Indigenous Peoples requires breaking the cycle of violence,” Furones said. “This means respecting their right to self-determination and ending impunity.”

She cited the recent sentencing of illegal loggers in Peru for the murder of four Indigenous Saweto leaders as a rare but important example of accountability. “It shows the judiciary can play a role, even if justice comes only after a long and painful wait.”

Protection Mechanisms: Lifelines With Limits

State protection measures for defenders vary widely, from providing bulletproof vests and security escorts to emergency relocations. However, most programs are designed for individuals, not communities, despite the collective nature of defenders’ work.

As the case of Jani Silva shows, these measures can protect lives but also isolate defenders from their communities and impose psychological costs. Global Witness calls for expanding and improving protection systems to meet collective needs.

The Road Ahead

The report concludes that defenders remain at the frontline of protecting ecosystems and confronting the climate crisis, yet are increasingly under siege. Without stronger protections and accountability, the risks they face will persist.

Furones stressed that breaking the cycle of violence requires political will, robust legal systems, and corporate responsibility. “Study after study shows Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendant communities are the best guardians of forests and natural resources,” she said. “Protecting them is not just about human rights; it is also about protecting the planet.”

Furthermore, the Roots of Resistance report  has laid stress on the fact that  while governments and corporations profit from resource extraction, those who safeguard the environment pay with their lives. The global community now faces a choice and that is to strengthen protections and enforce accountability, or allow the cycle of violence to continue unchecked.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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