Africa

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jun 12 2025 (IPS-Partners)

As we mark today’s World Day Against Child Labour, we must confront an urgent global truth: over 160 million children around the world are engaged in child labour – many of them in the most dangerous, degrading and life-limiting conditions imaginable. These are children forced to work in fields, factories and conflict zones – deprived of their right to safety, to dignity and, above all, to an education.

At Education Cannot Wait (ECW), we know that education is the single most powerful tool we have to break this cycle of poverty, exploitation and lost potential. Education offers children worldwide a pathway to a better life: a life where their dreams, not their circumstances, define their future.

In crisis-affected contexts, where children are most at risk, access to quality education is truly a lifeline – shielding girls and boys from violence, forced labour, child marriage, trafficking and other atrocities.

Together, we are doing something about it. Delivered with our strategic donor partners, ECW’s investments have already reached over 11 million children and adolescents in crisis settings. This is an investment in an end to child labour, an end to unfair working conditions, an end to cycles of poverty, displacement, violence and chaos.

This global crisis demands global action. We must increase financing for education in emergencies and protracted crises, strengthen child protection systems, and empower communities to keep children – especially girls and boys living on the frontlines of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises – safe and in school.

ECW calls on world leaders, donors, civil society and the private sector to unite in solidarity and take bold, collective action. Every dollar invested in education is an investment in sustainable economic development, global security and resilient societies. Every dollar invested in education is an investment to end child labour – now and forever.

Let us act with urgency. Let us act with compassion. And let us act with the unwavering belief that every child – regardless of who they are or where they live – has the right to a quality education and the freedom to learn, grow and thrive.

 

Excerpt:

World Day Against Child Labour Statement by Education Cannot Wait Executive Director Yasmine Sherif

The boy travelled to Ghana from London in March 2024 after being told a relative was ill.

'Aulani Wilhelm (left) and Lysa Win (right) of Nia Tero in UNOC3. Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS

By Naureen Hossain
NICE, France, Jun 12 2025 (IPS)

The 2025 UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) has seen a significant presence from Indigenous peoples, who insist that their perspective and guidance be taken into account in the global efforts for sustainable ocean use and conservation. The sense of responsibility to the ocean and recognition of its history is an example that the international community can learn from.

What seems to be distinguishing UNOC3 from the previous ocean conferences is a greater motivation and recognition from world governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to work alongside Indigenous groups and local communities to reach global targets. As ‘Aulani Wilhelm, CEO of Nia Tero, told IPS, there has been a shift in the language from leaders calling for equity, justice, and the recognition of indigenous peoples in the ocean community.

“I think that there is increasing, kind of shared sentiment not only about what the threats are… but why we have to come together and not let the specific ideas and different segments of the ocean space hold us back and keep the arguments inside,” Wilhelm said at the conference. Nia Tero is an NGO dedicated to promoting the role and influence of Indigenous people as stewards and guardians of the natural world in protecting planetary life.

Some of the initiatives introduced during UNOC3 showcase the important role Indigenous peoples play in the agenda. There is the recently announced Melanesian Ocean Reserve, the first Indigenous-led, multinational ocean reserve, which will encompass the combined national waters of the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea, accounting for over 6 million square kilometers. Wilhelm also noted the formation of an indigenous ocean alliance, which organically took shape during the conference.

Some government leaders have stated that they will work with Indigenous peoples and local communities, which Wilhelm remarked was an important change in both language and intention.

“We’re no longer having the conversation of ‘let us do something for you, but let us look to indigenous leaders to lead and how can we work alongside them?’ That is it. That is a sea change—pun intended—of where the ocean community is going… We have a long way to go, but these are signals […], embers that are igniting, that are enabling this to happen. So let’s find those leaders and let’s back them up.”

“The only time-tested approach to really having healthy ecosystems and people is indigenous guardianship, so let’s invest there.”

What indigenous guardianship means to Wilhelm is the collective, intergenerational connection to the wider natural world, or a sense of place. “These places are their relations—they are kin. They are home. They are not separate,” she said. “Indigenous guardianship isn’t something we have to create. It is already there.”

“With indigenous guardianship, it is also about responsibility. It is a responsibility to take care of home and life around them,” said Lysa Win, Nia Tero’s Pasifik Director. “It is about people who have lived for centuries with place and have that deep connection and have built knowledge and systems.”

Win pointed to the example back in her home, the Solomon Islands, where Indigenous peoples still live in their territories, which they have sovereignty over and can apply their knowledge. Even when there are different knowledge systems, there can be a balance in employing that information without insisting that one is better than the other. “There’s different knowledge around, but to help complement it with what we have.”

There can be challenges in conveying the principles behind indigenous guardianship to people outside those communities, especially within the context of a climate forum. According to Wilhelm, there is the risk of presenting their worldview in a “reductionist” language for the sake of having to validate it, and that can be frustrating. Win told IPS that she is conscious of the language she uses when sharing her perspective as an indigenous woman because it can seem deceptively simple by comparison.

Both she and Wilhelm noted that in the global climate discussions, indigenous people’s engagement was just as important, if not more so, than the knowledge they brought to the table, and that they had to establish that they were not attending on behalf of their communities and did not speak for them entirely.

Indigenous guardianship is rooted in communities feeling an intrinsic connection to the natural world, and the knowledge and kinship that come from that connection are shared across generations. To Wilhelm, this is a mindset for how people have a relationship with place and recognize the value of the ocean.

“Helping other people see the importance of the ‘how’ and the time and the values that you would put into it, that is going to guide better decision-making,” she said. “People want to understand, ‘what is the magic of ‘indigenous guardianship?’ It’s really simple: it’s relationship-based. It’s really being values-led, values of continuing care, not exploitation and extraction… Being able to have enough and making sure we can thrive and that our ancestral components of nature can thrive.”

Win added that indigenous guardianship comes from a place of strength where the people adapt to the change and transformation happening to the ocean. “With these changes, we have created knowledge and transformed our knowledge over time as well, and that is what we’re bringing, sharing our stories here so that there is that place of hope. How can we [work] together to deal with this crisis?”

UNOC3 has provided the opportunity for the exchange of knowledge. It has also brought the opportunity to bring a perspective that prioritizes care for the ocean through the lens of knowledge from the past and consideration for the future, rather than to externalize the issue. It has brought generations together with vastly different perspectives on climate action. Win noted that the sense of responsibility to place and future generations is relevant for women community leaders.

This can be illustrated through the example seen in a panel event held at the sidelines of UNOC3, which included a screening for the documentary ‘Remathu: People of the Ocean,’ about Nicole Yamase, the first Micronesian woman to dive into the deepest parts of the ocean. Wilhelm described how Sylvia Earle, CEO of Mission Blue and a celebrated marine biologist, was in attendance, where she and other panelists were “really raw and really honest” about their experiences in the field and what that meant as a “show of support to younger women.”

“They came to make sure that Nicole Yamase didn’t face the same kind of challenges that they did when they were the pioneers in the field… that is the human experience about what does it feel like to not be enough when you are doing extraordinary things for the ocean, as examples for other women,” she said. “Women are not… just that sense of ‘not enough,’ and how do you break through it and how do you bring your community along? That story [film] wasn’t about Nicole; it was about her as a member of her community and what it means to be able to give back.”

Win said, “The indigenous voice that we’re bringing, it should not just be in text. It should not stop there. It should be global lessons and continually looking at each other, with us learning from them and them learning from us. Putting that into solutions and into texts at these global forums.”

“Our voices have not been heard, listened to, or included. I don’t say that as a victim; I say that as, ‘If we want to get on with this, we better get serious!’,” said Wilhelm. “These are the voices and knowledge-holders that will bring a different sense of what the problem is and the solutions that we need to fix it.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The move comes as the continent's exports face the possibility of high tariffs from the US.

Josephine Latu-Sanft, media and communications officer with the International Maritime Organization, poses with experts from the maritime industry during a panel discussion at UNOC3. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

By Kizito Makoye
NICE, France, Jun 12 2025 (IPS)

Once cast as a culprit of ocean degradation, the global shipping industry is quietly reshaping its image—with experts now betting on it as a key ally in saving our seas.

Transporting more than 80 percent of global trade and generating over USD 930 billion annually, shipping is often perceived as an invisible force behind the products we use daily. But at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, industry leaders and scientists gathered to ask a provocative question: Can shipping be part of the solution to the ocean’s mounting crises?

For Dr. Wendy Watson-Wright, Chair of the UN Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP), the answer is nuanced.

“If I could start with my usual rant—just a reminder that there is only one global ocean. Just as there’s no Planet B, there is no spare ocean,” she said, stressing that climate change, marine pollution, and invasive species are the most urgent threats facing ocean health today.

From her perspective, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the broader shipping sector are not standing still. “The IMO and maritime sector have been working to address many of these issues,” she explained, citing actions against marine plastic litter, biofouling, and greenhouse gas emissions. “GESAMP provides authoritative, independent scientific advice to support the protection of the marine environment. Our strength is our independence—and that we bring emerging issues to the table before they hit the headlines.”

Indeed, one of shipping’s major breakthroughs, the IMO’s Ballast Water Management Convention, was born out of scientific assessments provided by GESAMP. The convention aims to stem the tide of invasive aquatic species transferred between ecosystems via ships’ ballast tanks—waters that are taken on in one port to stabilize ships and released in another, often with unintended ecological consequences.

“Invasive species can devastate marine ecosystems when they’re introduced into environments without natural predators,” said Watson-Wright. “Once they’re established, you can’t get rid of them.”

A Friend, Not a Foe

Simon Doran, Chair of the Global Industry Alliance for Marine Biosafety, admitted that shipping has not always been viewed kindly in environmental circles—but he believes the tides are turning.

“The perception out there was that the maritime industry was the villain. But today, shipping has the opportunity to be the good guy,” said Doran. “Shipping contributes only 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions—and we are on track to reduce that further. With IMO incentives and decarbonization goals, shipping will become net-zero. It would be good if other industries followed our lead.”

Doran pointed to the Ballast Water Convention as a success story, explaining how it compelled shipping companies to invest in new technologies that reduce the risk of alien species wreaking havoc on local ecosystems. “That was the first step. The next will be stronger policies and broader adoption of sustainable practices.”

Yet, the road to transformation is not without hurdles.

“The two biggest barriers are regulatory uncertainty and high commercial costs,” said Doran. “That’s where partnerships like the Global Industry Alliance come in—we bring together businesses, from coating firms to shipping operators, to share solutions and push for standards that make sustainability feasible.”

Bringing Developing Nations Onboard

Gyorgyi Gurban, Head of Project Implementation at the IMO, emphasized that while regulations are essential, the organization is equally focused on ensuring these policies are implemented—especially in developing countries.

“We are not just regulators; we are partners in implementation,” said Gurban. “We have growing portfolios of ocean-related projects in areas like ship recycling, greenhouse gas emissions, and marine litter.”

Gurban rejected the notion that shipping is a niche sector. “Shipping has always been central to global trade and sustainable development. While most of the companies may be headquartered in developed countries, the biggest ports and trade routes run through the Global South,” she said. “Developing countries have much to gain from shipping’s green transition—they could become providers of alternative fuels or hubs for sustainable port services.”

To that end, the IMO is working closely with governments and communities in developing nations to build capacity, transfer technology, and support local infrastructure.

“Our approach is twofold,” she explained. “International regulations apply to all ships, regardless of the flag they fly. But we also back this up with technical cooperation projects so that developing countries can effectively implement these rules.”

The Science-Policy Nexus

For Watson-Wright, the key to unlocking shipping’s potential lies in science-led policymaking.

“Everywhere you turn at this conference, people are talking about the importance of evidence-based decision-making,” she noted. “That’s music to my ears.”

Founded in 1969, GESAMP has long been the scientific conscience of the marine world, producing independent assessments that feed into UN policy debates. Its members, chosen for their expertise and not their nationality, provide unvarnished scientific input to nine UN agencies, including the IMO.

“Our advice must be authoritative and independent,” said Watson-Wright. “That’s what gives it strength.”

A Sector at a Crossroads

Despite the momentum, shipping’s journey toward sustainability is far from over. From decarbonization to digitalization and waste management, the sector must navigate a complex web of challenges.

But for Gurban, that’s precisely what makes the moment ripe for action.

“Shipping isn’t just about moving goods—it’s about enabling livelihoods, supporting economies, and now, safeguarding the ocean,” she said. “By linking robust regulation, cutting-edge science, and inclusive implementation, we can turn this global industry into a global solution.”

Backed by science and bolstered by international cooperation, shipping may not just carry goods across the seas—it could also help carry the world toward a more sustainable blue future.

“Shipping is no longer the villain,” said Doran. “We’re ready to be the hero the ocean needs.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Water floods in, showing how nature and people are at risk. Trees can't grow because of salt, leaving no protection. This photo warns about climate change's effect on the islands and atolls. Credit: Gitty Keziah Yee/Tuvalu

By Cecilia Russell
NICE, Jun 12 2025 (IPS)

Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Feleti Teo, describes himself as an optimist—despite the existential crisis his atoll nation faces with climate change-induced sea level rise and frustration with existing international financial mechanisms to fund adaptation and mitigation.

The 3rd UN Ocean Conference was a success, he told a press conference today, June 12. At the beginning of the week, he ratified an agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) and was also now party to the FAO’s international agreement to specifically target illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing—Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA).

These agreements were crucial.

“The ocean is everything to us—a source of protein, income, and fisheries. It represents  40 percent of the domestic budget. It plays a vital role,” Teo said. But it is a double-edged sword because it also represents the greatest threat because of climate change-induced sea level rise, which for the atoll nation means that more than 50 percent of the country will be regularly inundated by tidal surges by 2050.

So, he needs to contemplate services for the needs of his people in a region where there is no scenario of moving to higher ground—because there isn’t any.

Tuvalu is “totally flat.”

Teo said USD 40-million had been spent on the country’s flagship Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project, known as TK of which phase one was completed.

But behind the small success was a clear sense of frustration.

“The coastal adaptation projects will continue into the future,” Teo said. “But it is a very expensive exercise.

Feleti Teo, Prime Minister of Tuvalu, addresses the media at UNOC3. Credit: SPC

He made a quiet plea to development partners and financing mechanisms to be responsive.

“I’ve always urged or requested our development partners and our international financing mechanisms to be able to be more forthcoming in terms of providing the necessary climate financing that we need for us to be able to adapt and give us more time to continue to live in the land that we believe God has given us,” Teo said.

But he later admitted that the frustration with the Loss and Damage Fund and other climate financing mechanisms meant that applications could take as many as eight years to complete. This led to his Pacific partners establishing the Pacific Resilience Facility that would allow the Pacific to invest in small, grant-based but high-impact projects to make communities disaster-ready.

Teo said the UNOC3 had given them an opportunity to articulate their concerns, and he hoped that the states participating in the conference had listened to them.

“We don’t have that influence—except to continue to tell our story.”

The Pacific French Summit was a particular highlight and he believed that French President Emmanuel Macron had the region at heart.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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As four African sides prepare for the Club World Cup, BBC Sport Africa looks at what impact the expanded 32-team tournament could have on the continent.

As four African sides prepare for the Club World Cup, BBC Sport Africa looks at what impact the expanded 32-team tournament could have on the continent.

Fishers at Magogoni fish market. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

By Kizito Makoye
NICE, France, Jun 12 2025 (IPS)

Just before dawn, the worn wooden dhows begin gliding toward the shore at Magogoni fish market in Tanzania’s port city of Dar es Salaam. Their tattered sails flutter against the orange sky. Exhausted fishers step out onto the muddy sand, hauling frayed nets and plastic crates, their sun-creased faces tight with fatigue.

The Magogoni scene — women wrapped in colourful khanga bargaining over a modest catch, children darting between upturned buckets, and the pungent smell of raw sewage pouring into the sea through a rusted pipe — doesn’t deter anyone.

It is a struggle for survival for thousands of small-scale fishers who rely on the Indian Ocean to put food on their families’ dinner tables.

Yet today, one certain thing emerges.

More than 7,000 kilometres away in the French Riviera, global leaders, marine scientists, and policymakers gathered this week for the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference. The conference saw the launch of the Review of the State of World Marine Fishery Resources by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The report laid bare the crisis confronting the world’s oceans — and sounded a dire warning for fisher communities in Tanzania who rely on the sea to eke out a living.

According to the FAO, just 47.4 percent of fish stocks in the Eastern Central Atlantic are currently fished at sustainable levels. The rest are either overexploited or facing collapse, pushed to the brink by climate change, weak governance, and a lack of data.

“We now have the clearest picture ever of the state of marine fisheries,” FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu told delegates. “The next step is clear: governments must scale up what works and act with urgency.”

For fishers like Daudi Kileo (51), who has spent decades at sea, that urgency is overdue. “We don’t get enough catch these days, but we keep working hard,” he told IPS by phone all the way from Dar es Salaam; dragging a nearly empty net across the sand is disheartening, he said.

In Tanzania, most fishers operate informally. Their boats lack sensors or licences. Their harvests go unrecorded. There are no quotas, no conservation enforcement, and little training on sustainable practices. Each night, they sail into deep waters hoping to return with enough to make ends meet — increasingly, they don’t.

“Sometimes we come back with less than we need to feed our children,” Kileo says. “But we do not have a choice.”

While fishing  communities in Tanzania  are battling overfishing and declining catches, other parts of the world point to a different future. In Port Lympia, Nice’s harbour, the wafting air carries no pungent smell to disturb visiting dignitaries. Small boats bob idly; many seem to be ferrying tourists instead of chasing fish. It is a glimpse into what can be achieved when policies favour protection over exploitation and when economies evolve beyond extraction.

“There’s a future where the ocean can feed us sustainably,” said Professor Manuel Barange, Director of the FAO Fisheries Division. “But it requires deep, structural change — and fast.”

Leisure boats at Port Lympia, Nice, where the UNOC3 is being held. Credit: Cecilia Russell/IPS

Central to that change is the FAO’s Blue Transformation initiative, an ambitious strategy aimed at transforming aquatic food systems through sustainable practices, robust governance, and inclusion. The plan targets improved monitoring, ethical fishing practices, and expansion of responsible aquaculture while combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing — a major threat to fragile ecosystems and vulnerable communities.

However, turning that vision into reality in low-income countries like Tanzania remains a monumental challenge.

“We don’t have the tools or the support,” says Yahya Mgawe, a researcher at the Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute. “The fishers are many, our data is patchy, and enforcement is weak. We are falling behind,” he told IPS in Nice.

The consequences are  dire. Tanzania’s fisheries sector employs more than 180,000 people, the vast majority in small-scale operations. Fish provide not only income but vital nutrition, especially in rural areas. Yet as climate change alters fish migration and breeding patterns, and as competition intensifies in overfished waters, traditional knowledge is no longer enough to sustain livelihoods.

“Everything is shifting,” says Nancy Iraba a  marine ecologist at the University of Dar es Salaam. “Species that were once common are disappearing. Fish are getting smaller. And the time and effort fishers must invest is increasing, with diminishing returns.”

The FAO report highlights that in regions with better regulation and investment in science — such as the Northeast Pacific — over 90 percent of fish stocks are harvested sustainably. These gains, experts say, come from stringent quotas, real-time data collection, and cooperation across borders.

But in Africa and other parts of the Global South, the disparity is widening.

“The fishers of Tanzania are not the cause of ocean depletion,” says Iraba. “But they are among the first to pay the price.”

Recognising this injustice, FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu used the conference platform to champion small-scale fishers as “guardians of biodiversity” and crucial actors in global food security. He urged countries to include them in decision-making processes and policy implementation.

“Fishers are not just producers,” Dongyu said. “They are nutrition providers and economic anchors in coastal societies. Transformation must be environmental, social, and economic — all at once.”

He also made a call to invest in youth participation, noting that as the global population nears 10 billion, young people must be empowered to innovate within the marine sector. “They must be leaders, not just observers,” he emphasised.

Yet progress remains slow. While sustainable fishery landings now represent 82.5 percent of global totals — a modest improvement — the share of overfished stocks globally still stands at 35.4 percent. And despite ambitious global targets to protect 30% of marine areas by 2030, only 2.7% of oceans are currently effectively protected.

The financial gap is just as wide. Experts estimate that up to USD 175 billion a year is needed to achieve sustainable fisheries transformation, but pledges remain far short of that figure.

As the conference concludes on Friday, FAO marked its 80th anniversary and 30 years of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries with a renewed push for innovation, including a new recognition programme for responsible aquaculture.

“Effective management is the best conservation,” Dongyu reminded delegates. “Our oceans, rivers, and lakes can help feed the world — but only if we use their resources responsibly, sustainably, and equitably.”

Back in Dar es Salaam, the boats of Magogoni are already being readied for another night. The sun rises higher, casting long shadows across the fish-streaked sand.

“We hear empty talk of big meetings and policies all the time,” says Kileo. “But nobody comes here to ask us how we survive. Nobody helps us when the fish disappear.”

His words hang in the salty air, a quiet reminder that unless the voices of small-scale fishers are included in the global vision for sustainable seas, the transformation may leave the most vulnerable behind.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

 

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The scene of a destruction caused by the war in Ukraine. Credit: UNOCHA/Dmytro Filipskyy

By the Peace Research Institute Oslo
OSLO, Norway, Jun 12 2025 (IPS)

The world is experiencing a surge in violence not seen since the post-World War II era. 2024 marked a grim new record: the highest number of state-based armed conflicts in over seven decades.

A staggering 61 conflicts were recorded across 36 countries last year, according to PRIO’s Conflict Trends: A Global Overview report. “This is not just a spike – it’s a structural shift. The world today is far more violent, and far more fragmented, than it was a decade ago,” warned Siri Aas Rustad, Research Director at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and lead author of the report.

“Now is not the time for the United States – or any global power – to retreat from international engagement. Isolationism in the face of rising global violence would be a profound mistake with long-term human life consequences.”

The report is based on data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program. It shows that while the number of battle-related deaths in 2024 held steady at approximately 129,000 – matching the devastating toll of 2023 – this level of violence was far above the average for the past three decades. 2024 was the fourth most deadly year since the Cold War ended in 1989.

Two major wars dominated the battlefield: Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine claimed an estimated 76,000 lives, while the war in Gaza killed 26,000. But these headline conflicts are only part of the picture. What is increasingly alarming is the multiplication of conflicts within individual countries.

More than half of all conflict-affected states now face two or more separate state-based conflicts, which are internal conflicts where the government is one of the warring parties. In nine countries, there were three or more state-based conflicts.

This reflects a deepening complexity in global conflict dynamics – where state fragility, transnational actors and local grievances feed into overlapping crises that are harder to contain, let alone resolve.

“Conflicts are no longer isolated. They’re layered, transnational and increasingly difficult to end,” said Rustad. “It is a mistake to assume the world can look away. Whether under President Trump or any future administration, abandoning global solidarity now would mean walking away from the very stability the U.S. helped build after 1945.”

The data also identified a rise in militant group activity as a key driver of new and sustained violence. While the Islamic State (IS) remained active in at least 12 countries, other groups like Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) expanded its footprint. JNIM operated in five West African countries in 2024.

Africa remained the most conflict-affected region last year, with 28 state-based conflicts recorded, nearly double the number from a decade earlier. Asia followed with 17, the Middle East with 10, Europe with 3 and the Americas with 2.

“Our analysis shows that the global security landscape is not improving, it’s fracturing. And without sustained international engagement, the risks to civilians, regional stability and international order will only deepen,” warned Rustad.

• Click here to download the whole PRIO report, Conflict Trends: A Global Overview, 1946-2024.

IPS UN Bureau

 

A UN official warns that hundreds of thousands in the sprawling camp are "slowly starving".

A UN official warns that hundreds of thousands in the sprawling camp are "slowly starving".

A UN official warns that hundreds of thousands in the sprawling camp are "slowly starving".

South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada joins an elite Lord's club to increase the number of members to two, thanks to a five-wicket haul in the World Test Championship final.

South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada joins an elite Lord's club to increase the number of members to two, thanks to a five-wicket haul in the World Test Championship final.

Panelists engaged in a discussion with reporters about plastic pollution. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

By Kizito Makoye
NICE, France, Jun 11 2025 (IPS)

As the sun peeked through the French Riviera clouds and a dozen reporters sipped orange juice aboard the WWF Panda Boat docked at Port Lympia, Frankie Orona, a Native American rights advocate from the Society of Native Nations in San Antonio, Texas, stunned the room into a moment of absolute stillness.

“Imagine a baby in the womb, completely reliant on its mother for air, water, and nutrients—and yet, plastic chemicals are already finding their way into that sacred space,” he said, his voice trembling with emotion. “That baby has no choice. And neither do future generations if we don’t act now.”

Orona’s stark imagery marked a powerful appeal to the high-level delegation at the UN Ocean Conference on June 10 in Nice, where ministers and representatives from 95 countries backed The Nice Wake-Up Call—a collective demand for an ambitious, legally binding U.N. plastics treaty that addresses the full lifecycle of plastic pollution.

For Orona, the issue is deeply personal and spiritual. “In our culture, the womb is the beginning of the circle of life. Polluting it with plastics is like violating a sacred trust,” he said.

A Crisis in the Making

Plastics are now everywhere—in our oceans, our food, and even our bodies. In 2019 alone, an estimated 28 million metric tons of plastic ended up in the environment—equivalent to dumping the weight of the Titanic into nature every day. Without aggressive intervention, that figure could nearly double by 2040.

For  Orona, who doubles as UNEP co-chair of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group, the negotiations unfolding ahead of the August talks in Geneva are a fight for survival.

Speaking to reporters aboard the WWF Panda, Orona, a descendant of the Tonkawa and Apache tribes, did not mince words. “For Indigenous peoples and frontline communities, plastic pollution is not just an environmental issue—it is a human rights crisis that has been going on for generations,” he said.

With the Mediterranean breeze brushing across the harbor, Orona’s voice cut through the chatter of press briefings and policy handouts. “Our communities live near the extraction sites, the refineries, the chemical plants, the incinerators, and the waste dumps. We are the first to feel the impacts—in our lungs, our water, our food, and our children’s health. And too often, we are the last to be consulted.”

The declaration known as The Nice Wake-Up Call, endorsed by 95 countries at the conference, was a welcome shift in tone for many in the Indigenous rights movement. “It sends a strong signal that many governments are now recognizing what we’ve been saying for decades—that ending plastic pollution means addressing the full life cycle of plastics: from extraction to production to disposal,” Orona said.

From Environmental Damage to Systemic Injustice

Orona, who also represents the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Plastics and is part of the Plastics Environment Justice Delegation, emphasized that plastic pollution must be understood in the context of historical and ongoing systems of exploitation.

“This is a continuation of environmental racism and systemic injustices. The human rights violations and violence that have been normalized in our communities for generations must stop,” he said.

Citing the disproportionate exposure of Indigenous populations to toxic chemicals used in plastics—some linked to cancer, reproductive harm, and endocrine disruption—he called for a global ban on these additives. “Many of these chemicals are dumped, burned, and leached into our waters, into our sacred lands,” Orona said. “We cannot talk about justice if these harms continue.”

A Just Transition Rooted in Indigenous Knowledge

While many governments are pushing for ambitious production caps and bans on single-use plastics, Orona warned that these measures must not shift the burden onto those least responsible for the crisis.

“A just transition means phasing out fossil fuel-based plastics while investing in community-led solutions, including Indigenous knowledge and science,” he said. “This isn’t just about cleaning up trash; it’s about restoring balance and protecting future generations.”

In a system long dominated by fossil fuel interests and extractive economies, Indigenous communities have often led the way in conservation and sustainable living. “Our knowledge systems are not just cultural—they are scientific. They are proven. And they are part of the solution,” Orona noted.

Follow the Money—and Ensure It Reaches the Frontlines

Orona’s final message was financial. Any treaty, he insisted, must include a mechanism that guarantees direct access to funds for Indigenous and frontline communities.

“Too often, we are shut out of global financing streams—even when we are the ones on the front lines, creating the very solutions the world needs,” he said. “That must end.”

While images of floating plastic bottles and entangled turtles often dominate headlines, experts at the Nice panel were adamant: the crisis begins long before a straw hits the ocean.

Disproportionate Impacts

Plastic production facilities are often located in marginalized communities—adding a layer of environmental injustice to the crisis.

“Indigenous peoples, rural communities, and minority populations suffer the worst impacts,” said Orona. “We’re talking about asthma, cancers, and cardiovascular diseases—especially in children. These are not abstract consequences; these are lived experiences.”

Reporters on the Panda Boat scribbled notes between bites of Mediterranean pastries, visibly moved by Orona’s personal account.

“This is genocide by pollution,” he added. “Our people are dying, and it’s largely invisible to the rest of the world.”

Wildlife at Risk

The panel also underscored the devastating effects of plastic on marine life. Every species of sea turtle has been documented ingesting or getting entangled in plastic. For blue whales, the planet’s largest animals, the reality is even more daunting—they are believed to ingest up to 10 million pieces of microplastic every day, sometimes weighing as much as 44 kilograms.

The next round of negotiations for the plastics treaty is scheduled for August in Geneva, where pressure is mounting to solidify a legally binding agreement that includes all five critical points outlined in the Nice declaration.

The sense of urgency also echoes in the corridors of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the U.N. agency overseeing the global shipping industry. Tasked with ensuring environmental safety on the high seas, the IMO has stepped up efforts to address plastic waste, among other pressing marine threats.

In response to a question about the devastating 2021 marine spill in Sri Lanka—where a burning cargo vessel released over 1,680 metric tons of plastic pellets into the Indian Ocean—IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez noted that the agency has been developing new regulations specifically targeting the handling, packaging, and cleanup of plastic pellets. These measures, initially adopted by the European Union, mark a significant step in tightening maritime controls on plastic pollution.

Dominguez stressed that tackling marine pollution also demands inclusive governance. The IMO is increasingly encouraging the participation of Indigenous communities and young people—groups historically sidelined from international maritime decision-making. Their voices, he said, are crucial for shaping policies that are both just and effective.

Next Steps

Professor Bethany Carney Almroth—a renowned environmental toxicologist and one of the leading scientific voices in the negotiations—believes the business world is not the obstacle many assume it to be. Instead, she says, it’s a matter of giving business the legal clarity to act.

“Business follows the rule of law,” she said. “The situation we have today is a mix—some laws are written, others are absent. That’s the problem. If we create new regulations, then it’s no longer a question of whether businesses are voluntarily doing enough. It becomes a question of compliance.”

Carney Almroth, who has worked extensively on the science-policy interface for chemicals and plastics, said that a strong, enforceable treaty is essential to shift the status quo.

“The status quo is broken,” she said plainly. “We need to change the framework so regulations guide businesses to do the best thing possible—for the economy, for the environment, and for people.”

As one of the few experts who has consistently called for systemic reform in how plastics are managed, Carney Almroth said that relying on voluntary industry movements is simply not enough.

“We’ve seen global treaties deliver meaningful results before,” she said. “The Montreal Protocol worked. It changed how we handled chlorofluorocarbons, and it protected the ozone layer. People may not even realize how much their lives have improved because of those decisions—but they have.”

The Hidden Cost of Profit

Responding to a question about the profitability of the plastics industry—especially in countries where it contributes significantly to government revenues—Carney Almroth offered a sobering perspective.

“When we say plastics are profitable, that’s only because we’re not accounting for the real costs,” she said. “Those costs aren’t paid by the companies producing plastics. They’re paid by nature, and they’re paid by people.”

She cited staggering health implications, pointing out that plastics contain thousands of chemicals—many of which are toxic, carcinogenic, or endocrine-disrupting. “The human healthcare costs associated with exposure to these chemicals are astronomical—running into billions of dollars each year. But they’re not included in the price tag of plastic production.”

Building Standards that Protect People and the Planet

So what does it take to eliminate hazardous plastics from global markets?

According to Carney Almroth, we’re still missing a critical piece: effective, fit-for-purpose international standards.

“Right now, most of the existing standards—developed by organizations like ISO or OECD—are geared toward material quality or industrial use. They were never designed to protect human health or the environment,” she explained. “We need new standards. Ones that are developed by independent experts and shielded from vested interests.”

For such standards to be truly effective, she said, they must be holistic and interdisciplinary. “We need to move away from just focusing on economic sustainability. That’s what we’ve done in the past—and it’s failed us. Environmental and social sustainability must be given equal weight.”

As the panel wrapped up, Orona gazed over the Port Lympia waters.

“We have a choice right now,” he said. “To continue poisoning the womb of the Earth—or to become caretakers, protectors.”

And as the reporters descended the gangway of the Panda Boat, the symbolism was not lost: we’re all adrift in this ocean of plastic. Whether we sink or swim depends on what happens next.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The Artificial Intelligence for Inclusion:Strengthening Workforce Participation for Persons with Disabilities side event, held at the United Nations Headquarters. Credit: UN Web TV

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 11 2025 (IPS)

On June 10, the United Nations (UN) held a conference titled Artificial Intelligence for Inclusion: Strengthening Workforce Participation for Persons with Disabilities. This conference, which was organized by the Permanent Mission of Canada to the UN, featured a discussion by a panel of experts from various sectors, looking to shed light on the ways AI tools can be used to create inclusive workforces that maximize fairness and accessibility.

Since the mainstream adoption of generative AI systems in the early 2020s, many industries have been restructured. For many workers around the world, the implementation of AI tools have streamlined work processes, making once tedious tasks easier than ever before. Efficiency has been revolutionized, with many human workers being pushed to higher-level positions and creating a host of new jobs across numerous industries.

Despite these benefits, AI systems produce risks of unintentional bias and discrimination, particularly during the hiring process, limiting inclusivity and merit-based employment in the workforce. Additionally, AI systems that have been designed for able-bodied users have effectively shut out members of the disabled community.

Throughout this conference, the panel of experts discussed the methods through which AI systems can be transformed to benefit disabled individuals who have been disproportionately affected by job displacement and discrimination. Due to AI tools being a relatively new development in the global workforce, many industries lack the necessary structures to keep them from compromising a fair and equitable work environment.

“AI is transforming the way that we live, not just how we do business. Because of its rapid arrival to users, because of its regulation, free space is posing huge questions around inclusion, ethics, privacy, and some of our most fundamental institutions,” said Patty Hajdu, Canada’s Minister of Jobs and Families.

According to Dr. Jutta Treviranus, the Director and Professor at Inclusive Design Research Centre, OCAD University, the majority of AI tools used in the workforce use algorithms that create biases for those that are considered different from the vast majority. Treviranus states that roughly 90 percent of U.S. organizations rely on AI tools to hire and determine disciplinary action for employees. These systems are often trained to detect individuals who are perceived as outliers and cast them aside, creating “organizational monocultures” which harm the disabled community.

“Bias toward optimal patterns means bias towards difference. As AI gets better and better, it gets better at discrimination. Many of you are using programs that help with efficiency and help produce systems that eliminate anyone that is not optima,” said Treviranus. “We have created an international community that hopes to address statistical inequality and cumulative harm. In U.S.risk and impact assessments, anything that happens to an outlier is deemed to be statistically insignificant. We are facing statistical discrimination with these protections as well.”

Additionally, AI systems that are designed to support disabled individuals often only account for physical disabilities while neglecting individuals with intellectual disabilities. Disabled women are also disproportionately affected by data bias. Without considering these groups, AI systems are effectively working against promoting a diverse array of perspectives in the workplace, which in turn, hurt decision-making processes and innovation.

“AI can be a powerful equalizer and tool, only if it is developed with intentionality,” said A.H. Monjurul Kabir, the Senior Global Adviser and Team Leader at Gender Equality and Disability Inclusion at UN Women. “It is critical that (AI) does not deepen existing stigma, discrimination, and inequalities, especially for women and girls who face compounded layers of discrimination.”

“The unfortunate thing is that even if proportional representation was possible, AI will still rule against outliers and small minorities. It’s extremely difficult to get cluster analysis in disability…We need to look at what is done with that data and how it’s analyzed. Privacy protections do not work if you are highly unique. Differential privacy removes the pieces of data that are helpful to create AI data that will serve you,” added Treviranus.

Furthermore, disabled individuals around the world lack adequate access to AI-powered assistive technologies. With AI tools being implemented in all major sectors of industry, it is imperative that disabled workers are supplied with tools that streamline their work processes and keep their physical and/or intellectual conditions in mind.

“To some extent, addictive tech is a broken business model. The weight of the costs is on disabled individuals and public service…People with disabilities are paying far more for access that works poorly and is often broken,” said Treviranus. “AI using these life changing technologies usually work the least from people who need them the most. The farther you are from the average, the less it works. If the products you have are in a different language or your environment is poor, it will not work well,” she added.

According to Jürgen Dusel, theFederal Government Commissioner for Matters relating to Persons with Disabilities for Germany, workers with intellectual disabilities are currently receiving tablets that help them navigate their daily responsibilities in hotel jobs. Additionally, Hajdu states that in many parts of the world, disabled individuals face limited access to breathing technologies due to a lack of electricity in their environments.

To create comprehensive systems that benefit a wide spectrum of individuals, AI technology must be accessible for the most underserved communities. With disabled individuals persisting in every corner of the world, there must be reforms in accessibility to ensure that all people are afforded a fair chance to survive and succeed in their fields.

“The unexplored knowledge terrain is that entire area that faces intersectional barriers…..If you work with individuals who experience greatest barriers you will create a much more adaptive system with less need for help. In the long term, you are saving money and you don’t need to engage so many people. …I think there is an imperative to do this work we need to ensure these people creating this intelligence actually act intelligent,” said Treviranus.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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