Africa

UN Secretary-General António Guterres gets vaccinated against COVID-19 at Adlai Stevenson High School in the Bronx, New York. January 2021. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16 2021 (IPS)

As New York city struggles to cope with the widespread outbreak of the deadly new coronavirus Delta variant -– which has claimed more than 100,000 cases per day in the US— the United Nations is laying down strict guidelines at its headquarters (UNHQ) for staffers, diplomats and visiting delegates.

In a letter released August 13, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the Delta variant “is posing some challenges to our planning, and we will be taking additional precautionary measures to ensure a safe work environment for our personnel and delegates. “

The UN will continue to follow all restrictions imposed by New York, the host city for the world body. Under new restrictions announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio, proof of vaccination is mandatory to go to restaurants, bars, nightclubs, concerts, theatres and gyms—with more restrictions to follow. Those unvaccinated will be barred from these premises.

Conforming to city guidelines, the UN is expected to insist on proof of vaccination to use several of the dining facilities in the Secretariat building and also mandatory in-house mask-wearing.

“In order to align UNHQ’s approach to indoor dining with that of NYC’s guidance, we will soon require proof of vaccination for seated meals at cafeterias and other dining facilities on premises.,” says Guterres.

Further guidance on full return to work is being developed and will be issued in September.

To ensure adequate protection for all colleagues, effective August 13, all UN personnel must wear masks when indoors on premises. “We will reassess this requirement as conditions warrant.”

The letter says the most significant driver of COVID19-related risk is vaccination status. Accurate information on the vaccination status of staff is therefore essential to determine risk and appropriate mitigation strategies.

Aitor Arauz, President of the UN Staff Union in New York and Vice-President, UN International Civil Servants’ Federation (UNISERV), told IPS: “We are dealing with simultaneous crises in Haiti and Afghanistan, where the UN has a lot of staff currently in danger.”

“What I can say on the issue of dining facilities at UNHQ is that, as a general principle, since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the Staff Union has supported close alignment with host city and NY State guidelines; an approach that provides staff a sense of coherence and consistency”.

However, he cautioned, enforcement of these particular measures may prove a challenge given the particularities of our working environment.

Ian Richards, former President of the Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA) told IPS requiring proof of vaccination in duty stations where all have had a chance to get jabbed is a sensible way to get things up-and-running again while keeping staff and diplomats safe.

“We’re looking forward to similar measures in Europe and in due course elsewhere,” said Richards, who is based in Geneva.

Meanwhile, the UN has placed several TV monitors outside committee rooms, primarily aimed at diplomats and visiting delegates, with warnings that read: “No face to-face meetings unless individually risk-assessed; 2 people per elevator; Lower your mask and present your valid UN ID when requested by Security: By swiping your valid UN ID you confirm that in the past 14 days you have no Covid-19 symptoms, no positive Covid-19 rest result; and no close contact with a confirmed or suspected Covid-19 case.”

In several US cities and businesses, the ultimatum is more severe than the UN: “Get Vaccinated or Get Fired.”

At the Winchester Medical Center, nurses were told: “Get the shot or face termination”. In Sacramento, California, the Mayor has insisted that all new hires and current city employees should get vaccinated, or face being terminated. Both proposals are getting major pushback from unions, who say workers have the right to choose.

In Washington state, Governor Jay Inslee announced that some 60,000 employees will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they want to keep their jobs.

The governor’s proclamation has given state workers until Oct. 18 to become fully vaccinated, with few exceptions. And employees who do not provide proof of vaccination will be dismissed from employment, unless they qualify for a medical or religious exemption.

Since December last year, more than 353 million doses have been administered, fully vaccinating over 167 million people or 50.4% of the total U.S. population.

The rest remain unvaccinated– either for personal, political or medical reasons. But the UN does not have a head count as to how many of its more than 3,000 staffers in New York have been vaccinated.

Dr Palitha Kohona, a former Chief of the UN Treaty Section, told IPS that as a vital member of the New York community, the UN also has a responsibility to contribute to the city’s efforts to contain the spread of the dreaded Covid19.

“The UN enjoys wide immunities under international law but the virus does not recognize rights and immunities invented by man,” he pointed out.

Many of the staff members, he said, live in communities scattered in places far from the Head Office and travel to work. They could be exposed to the virus.

“The restrictions imposed by the Organization are for the protection of all. Most importantly, the Organization must further refine options for working from home”.

“With modern technology, this should not pose too many difficulties”, said Dr Kohona, a former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, the letter from Guterres also says all staff at UNHQ, in consideration of the need to protect one another, will be required to report their vaccination status including through EarthMed with immediate effect.

In addition, any personnel who has been on site and has a positive COVID-19 or Antigen test result must report the results immediately to the Division of Healthcare Management and Occupational Safety and Health through the confidential self-reporting portal (medical.un.org) in order to ensure effective risk mitigation at the workplace.

“I continue to be very grateful to those staff who have been working on premises throughout the pandemic, either because their functions could not be performed remotely or when remote work would have impacted their effectiveness and efficiency,” says Guterres.

“I particularly commend those who did so when we did not have the protection of vaccination. As the presence of unvaccinated staff potentially increases the risk for other staff members, whether vaccinated or not, vaccinations will be mandated for staff performing certain tasks and/or certain occupational groups at UNHQ whose functions do not allow sufficient management of exposure.”

This mandate may be waived where a recognized medical condition prevents vaccination.

Those staff members who will be required to be vaccinated must receive the final dose of a vaccine no later than 19 September 2021.

Any COVID-19 vaccine that is recognized by the WHO, or under routine approved-use by a Member State’s national health authority, is accepted. Affected staff will be notified by their respective offices during the week of 16 August.

“As personnel serving in New York, we are privileged to have access to effective vaccines through local vaccination programmes. In addition to requiring certain staff to be vaccinated, I strongly encourage all personnel who have not already done so to take advantage of this opportunity to be vaccinated to promote your safety and health and all those around you.”

“The situation continues to be monitored and the possibility of additional measures announced will remain under consideration and will be reviewed and adapted as needed,” says Guterres.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that United Airlines, Amtrak, Capital One, McDonald’s, Facebook, Disney, Netflix and Google, among others, have joined a growing list of companies to mandate vaccines for all or some workers.

 

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Credit: UN Women

By Quratulain Fatima
ISLAMABAD, Aug 13 2021 (IPS)

The past weeks have been quite traumatic for the women of Pakistan. Recently, a young woman named Noor Mukadam was murdered and beheaded by her alleged partner in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital city. A few weeks ago, the prime minister’s statement on rape erroneously construed the crime as being the fault of the victim.

The domestic violence bill aimed at protecting women was sent to an all-male religious council for review. Additionally, a horrific video surfaced on social media where a group of so-called moral policing men harassing and assaulting a young woman.

The real problem which apparently was missed by such views is the widespread culture of impunity, low conviction rates for sexual crimes, women’s fear of reporting the crime and obscuration of social attitudes. Across the world, sexual violence is very difficult for women to address

These alarming incidents contribute to why Pakistan stands 153 out of 156 countries in the 2021 Global Gender Gap Report. Pakistan is among those countries where 70% of women and girls experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime by their intimate partners and 93% of women experience some form of sexual violence in public places in their lifetime.

Every other woman in Pakistan experience sexual violence at least once in her lifetime. Some like Noor Mukadam have lost their lives in the process.

Sexual harassment and sexual assaults are one of the biggest issues in Pakistan. This epidemic is spread from the streets and markets, all the way to the workplace — and in some cases even the home. Pakistan’s government had in 2020 passed a praiseworthy anti-rape legislation that mandates legal proceedings in such cases to be completed within 04 months. However, without implementation, it will serve no purpose.

Sadly, Pakistan’s culture often makes a woman’s chastity a matter of the whole society’s honour. As a direct consequence of this warped worldview, most Pakistani women are still reluctant to report domestic violence, sexual assault or harassment cases.

A cultural shift is slow and at times it seems to be reversing in with the rise of extremist and ultra-religious thought strains in the society. Pakistan’s official statistics show that at least 11 cases of rape are reported in country every day. However, conviction rate for rape remains at markedly low 0.3%.

All too often in our country, moral policing societies link sexual assault with clothing or a woman’s behavior. We must stop blaming women for sexual violence and start reforming the men who commit such violence.

I know firsthand how nonsensical it is to blame women’s clothes for men’s behavior. Once a man  groped me in public while I was waiting for my parent’s arrival from the Hajj pilgrim at the airport. I was wearing head covering over a fully covered dress and I felt traumatized and humiliated by his actions.

So, when I hear the premium of Pakistan — or for that matter any men around me — speaking on rape and sexual assault as being somehow linked to wearing inappropriate clothing, I know from my core that this is wrong. It doesn’t matter what we wear, it still occurs.

Victim blaming is not new, of course. People often blame sexual assaults on women’s clothing or behavior and even their education, irrespective of cultures, countries or places. Since the beginning of time, women have been portrayed as the temptress, the ones who lured man out of the comforts of heaven.

Many people claim that sexual assault happens to women who make bad choices, who step out in the dangerous world without precautions. But this is a myth which has been debunked many times through various evidence based studies. Yet time and again, we hear statements blaming women’s dresses for the violence they suffer.

The real problem which apparently was missed by such views is the widespread culture of impunity, low conviction rates for sexual crimes, women’s fear of reporting the crime and obscuration of social attitudes. Across the world, sexual violence is very difficult for women to address.

Victims are often blamed for “provoking” the sexual abuse with their behavior or dress. Reporting sexual harassment and assault can mean that the victim is labelled as a person of “loose morals” or as “a liar”.

When these myths are endorsed from a position of power, like in the case of Pakistan’s premier, it kicks you in the gut unlike other victim blaming one might hear. A leader sets the tone for the country and him perpetuating victim-blaming myths is extremely harmful.

Most government and non-government campaigns for the safety of women revolve around how women should protect themselves. There is a fundamental flaw in this approach. We need to rethink and re assess it and focus on how to stop the harassing behavior irrespective of how women dress or act.

Rather than women, it is men who need to be educated to be non-violent. Good men need to not let criminal men hide behind their silence. Educational campaigns and societal views need a profound shift. At schools and at homes, young boys and men need to be educated to know the importance of consent, non-violence and of treating women as equal human beings.

There should also be a sex offender registry for countries like Pakistan and efforts to shame and name the perpetrators and not the victims. States need to take clear stance against rape and sexual harassment rather than having vague notions of honor we need solid policies and implementation to stop the violence. Only then women can be protected and feel safe as equal citizens.

Quratulain Fatima is Cofounder Women4PeaceTech and a policy practitioner working extensively in rural and conflict-ridden areas of Pakistan with a focus on gender inclusive development and conflict prevention. She is a 2018 Aspen New Voices Fellow.

Ghana's Tariqe Fosu admits he is going to have to step up a level as his Brentford team prepare for life in the Premier League.

Farmers attending a solar irrigation pump demonstration by Pumptech during a fieldtrip to Bawku, Ghana. Data-driven tools are helping solar irrigation companies target their products and services to the right people, in the right way. Credit: Thai Thi Minh / IWMI

By Thai Thi Minh and Cecily Layzell
ACCRA, Ghana, Aug 13 2021 (IPS)

‘Know your customers’ is arguably the first rule of marketing. By identifying and segmenting customer groups, companies can target their products and services to the right people, in the right way. This can open-up opportunities for growth, inform product development and improve customer retention.

But market segmentation is also easy to get wrong, often because of a lack of research and data. In Ghana, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is working with solar pump manufacturers and suppliers, farmers and other stakeholders in irrigated agriculture to boost the adoption of solar technologies that meet target users’ needs.

In many off-grid areas, petrol and diesel pumps are commonly used for irrigation. However, they are expensive to run and contribute to environmental pollution.

With the abundance of sunshine in Ghana, solar pumps offer small farmers a promising alternative – if they can afford the initial investment. To begin addressing this issue, IWMI joined forces with Pumptech, a distributor of solar pumps manufactured by the German company LORENTZ.

The pumps are designed for off-grid water pumping and several models are specifically aimed at smallholders.

Focusing on Ghana’s Upper East Region, which experiences high rainfall variability, IWMI then conducted a survey to determine the market potential for the pumps.

Four market segments were identified among smallholders: resource-rich farmers, mobile farmers (who rent land each season), resource-limited individual farmers (who have permanent access to cultivated land) and groups of farmers (who are interested in investing in solar-powered irrigation but need time and self-organization).

Each segment is slightly different in terms of the amount of water needed, land access, pump preferences and capacity to pay for the technology.

Pumptech shared these insights during a meeting on market segmentation and the suitability of solar pumps for small-scale irrigation. The meeting is part of an ongoing series of multi-stakeholder dialogues in Ghana and Ethiopia.

Initiated in 2019 by IWMI under the USAID-funded Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small-Scale Irrigation (ILSSI), the dialogues bring together relevant actors to facilitate and accelerate farmer-led irrigation development both nationally and globally.

Customized solar suitability maps

Another insight that emerged was the benefits of customized solar suitability maps for business growth. In 2018, IWMI began mapping solar irrigation suitability in Ethiopia. These maps pinpointed areas for smallholder farmers to introduce solar irrigation without depleting water resources.

IWMI then refined the mapping framework to produce an online interactive tool for sub-Saharan Africa. Geospatial information on high-potential locations for solar irrigation pumps is now available for the entire region.

Most recently, IWMI has been working with solar manufacturing and distribution companies to demonstrate how the maps and tools can be customized and incorporated into companies’ sales zoning and marketing strategies.

One of these companies is PEG Africa, which operates in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Senegal. Using the maps, PEG Africa identified the areas of biggest opportunity for its pumps, based on water resource type and depth, and adapted its marketing strategy to focus on these areas.

The maps are also being used in Ethiopia by companies such as Rensys. But during a similar multi-stakeholder meeting organized with the World Bank’s 2030 Water Resources Group, stakeholders noted that the limited supply of solar pumps in Ethiopia is holding back market expansion.

Price is an issue, too. This is despite the government making agricultural water technologies tax exempt in 2019. It is hoped that the country’s soon-to-be-published National Water Policy and Strategy, which incorporates several IWMI recommendations, will remove many of these bottlenecks.

Making solar technologies inclusive

An area that participants at both events agreed needs extra attention is ensuring solar irrigation technologies are inclusive. Women in particular, are more likely to face difficulties accessing resources such as land, credit and information that would enable them to invest in irrigation.

As a first step to making solar pumps more accessible, IWMI has partnered with farmers and private companies to test innovation bundles that combine pumps with financing models like pay-as-you-own.

This model allows farmers to use the irrigation equipment while making regular payments until the total cost of the pump is paid off. Payments may be weekly, monthly, quarterly or scheduled around harvest times when cash flow is highest.

IWMI is currently working with several companies in West and East Africa to refine this payment plan, so that it can be tailored to each client, including women and resource-poor farmers.

Other companies interested in helping to expand small-scale irrigation in Africa and beyond are encouraged to get in touch.

Thai Thi Minh is Senior Researcher – Upscaling Innovations, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and Cecily Layzell, IWMI Consultant

 

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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2021 (IPS)

The annual high-level debate during the upcoming 76th General Assembly sessions beginning September 21 —which traditionally attracted over 150 world leaders in a pre-pandemic era– is now clouded in uncertainty.

Will it be in-person or via video conferencing? Or will it most likely be a hybrid session with a mix of the two options, as it was last year.

The uncertainty has been prompted by a fresh wave of the deadly Delta coronavirus variant which is threatening to either lock- down New York city—or undermine all plans to return to normalcy or near-normalcy.

Asked whether there is a list of world leaders who have decided to be at the session in-person, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on August 11: “The short answer is, I don’t have the list. … which is not to say the list doesn’t exist”

Pointing out the second wave of infections in the city, he said: “I think what we have to keep in mind is that the situation is extremely fluid with the Delta variant, and what plans and what people may announce now may very well change before 21 September”.

The plans may depend on what Member States decide to do at the last minute– given the situation in their own country, given the status of international travel and given what’s going on here, he said. “So, I think we just need to plan for the unexpected.”

Right now, he said, the format of the GA remains unchanged; “it’s what we had announced a few weeks ago, which is Member States will have the choice of either having an in person delivery of a speech or a video delivery of the speech”.

“I assume that a lot of plans will be made at the last minute because of the changing situation of the Delta variant in the four corners of the world… It is not for me to confirm the travel plans of a Head of State or Head of Government, especially this far out from the GA in a time where things are so volatile, in a sense, of what will happen”.

Health workers tend to patients in a temporary COVID-19 emergency ward, in New Delhi, India. Credit: UNICEF/Amarjeet Singh
Cases and deaths resulting from COVID-19 continue to climb worldwide, mostly fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant, which has spread to 132 countries, said the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) in July.

With specific exceptions, several US Presidential proclamations currently suspend and limit entry into the United States, including immigrants, nonimmigrants, or noncitizens who were physically present within specific countries during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), these restrictions apply to individuals and nationals from China, Iran, UK, Ireland, Brazil, South Africa, India and the European Schengen area which includes Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/map-and-travel-notices.html

But several lingering questions remain: will world leaders, billed as speakers at the General Assembly sessions, be exempted from these restrictions?

And are these leaders willing to take risks visiting a country with more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases per day, reaching that mark for the first time since February?

The New York Times reported on August 10 that America’s borders remain closed to most European travelers during the pandemic, even those fully vaccinated. With fears of the Delta variant raging, there appears to be no end in sight.

But nearly two months later, even as Europe has overtaken the United States in vaccinations, America’s borders remain closed to most European travelers, even ones with vaccinations. And with fears of the Delta variant of the virus raging, there appears to be no end in sight.

According to the Times, the US decision to remain largely closed has dismayed Europeans
and frustrated their leaders, who are demanding that Europe’s decision to open its borders be reciprocated.

When asked for an update on the format for the high-level week, the General Assembly Spokesperson Amy Quantrill told reporters on July 27 that the letter of 23 June was the latest formal correspondence on this matter.

The Spokesperson confirmed the honor system related to vaccination status will continue for the high-level week. By swiping their UN passes, staff and others are confirming they have not tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 10 days and have not had symptoms consistent with COVID-19 in the last 10 days.

For unvaccinated people, she said, swiping their pass means that they have not had close contact with a person with COVID-19 in the last 10 days.

Meanwhile, the staff at the UN secretariat, which provides services, directly or indirectly, to the GA sessions is not in full force. Since early July, UN staffers, numbering over 3,000, have been given the option of either working from home or in-person.

Guy Candusso, a former First Vice President of the UN Staff Union, told IPS that while staffers should return to work in-person, but that will depend on various factors—including what mitigation measures the UN has taken, and will take, if the situation gets worse.

If the outbreak makes the UN a hazardous work environment, he asked, will staff be able to stay home?

In any case, he pointed out, the Organization should have a policy to allow exemptions and accommodations for staff (including for medical reasons and domestic situations where children are still home from school)

In Geneva, which is the second largest UN city, things are virtually back to normal. The UN meetings were mostly online and also in a hybrid mode – both in-person and online.

Prisca Chaoui, president of the 3,500-strong Staff Union at the UN Office in Geneva (UNOG), told IPS there is a gradual return to the office, and currently about 50% of staff are back in their offices. This is also due to Swiss protective measures like physical distancing still being in place.

As for guidelines on wearing masks, UNOG is abiding by the recommendations of the Swiss authorities, and is in close contact with the World Health Organization (WHO) and following their advice. Staff have no concerns whatsoever as all the protection measures have been put in place and being implemented in full, she added.

While staff have never stopped working and delivering on the mandate of the Organization, many staff look forward to getting back to the office, Chaoui declared.

As the current 75th GA sessions comes to a close in early September, the outgoing President Volkan Bozkir said he advocated the value of in-person meetings throughout the 75th session and, following the application of appropriate measures, convened in-person meetings of the General Assembly throughout the year.

As the situation on New York improved, the President implemented an increase in the number of delegates in the General Assembly Hall from 1 to 1+1 and for the High-Level Week to 1+3.

To ensure that all Member States have an equal opportunity to participate in high-level week, the option for Member States to send a pre-recorded video statement was included, if delegations are unable to travel due to on-going COVID-related concerns.

This option, he said, was not intended to replace in-person attendance but rather provide delegations with an alternative means to attend that is mindful of the disparity in the implications of the pandemic on delegations, including due to the matter of vaccine equity.

 

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Sania Farooqui is a journalist and filmmaker based out of New Delhi.

By Sania Farooqui
NEW DELHI, India, Aug 12 2021 (IPS)

Earlier in January, Indian journalist Nidhi Razdan found out she was a victim of one of the most sophisticated and elaborate cyber attacks. Razdan wrote in a piece that it was all an attempt to access her bank account details, personal data, emails, medical records, passport and access to all her devices, including computer and phone.

Nidhi Razdan

It all started in November 2019, when she was invited to speak at an event organized by the Harvard Kennedy School. Razdan was later contacted by an apparent organiser of the event, who asked if she would be interested in applying for a teaching position.

“I was interviewed online for 90 minutes, it all seemed legitimate, the questions were thorough and professional. I did a basic google search and found a journalism degree programme being offered by the Harvard Extension School, which lists 500 faculty of whom 17 are categorised as journalism faculty. A number of these people are working journalists. I believed I fit this profile,” Razdan wrote.

In an interview given to me here, Nidhi Razdan says, “I have been a victim of a horrible cyber crime and I am not going to be embarrassed about it, I am proud of being able to stand up, speak the truth and help other people who have been through cyber attacks to have the courage to raise their voice against it.

“I wasn’t the only target, there are other people, I have made my experience public, but most of the other victims are hesitant because of the reaction they would receive,” said Razdan.

Nidhi Razdan, a journalist based out of New Delhi, India has worked with one of the country’s leading broadcasters, NDTV 24×7 for 21 years, where she rose to the position of Executive Editor. Razdan has extensively covered Indian politics and foreign policy, reporting from Pakistan, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Afghanistan, China, Tibet and more.

“Journalism is not just a job, it’s your life”, Razdan says. At a time when the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom index in India has dropped two places and ranked 142 on the 180-country list, Razdan flags her concern on the state of journalism, “I feel as an institution the judiciary has failed us in upholding our rights.”

“Press freedom is difficult in India because of the constant need to control the narrative. The way reporters are being hounded with FIR’s in small towns and false cases for stories that they are working on, that kind of harassment is unjustified and uncalled for,” Razdan says.

In June 2020, a few months into the lockdown, 55 Indian journalists were arrested, booked, and threatened for reporting on COVID-19. According to this report, barely just 40 days into 2021 five journalists were arrested in India, highest in any year since 1992, including FIRs and sedition charges.

RSF in its report has described India as one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists trying to do their job properly. “They are exposed to every kind of attack, including police violence against reporters, ambushes by political activists, and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials.

“In 2020, the government took advantage of the coronavirus crisis to step up its control of news coverage by prosecuting journalists providing information at variance with the official position,” the report stated.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in its report, Getting Away with Murder, ranked India 12th on the index that fares the worst when it comes to prosecuting killers of journalists.

During the 2019 Indian general elections, journalists fighting fake news faced multiple threats and abuse. Several English-language journalists who report on politics and social issues, mostly all female, told CPJ that “online harassment was endemic to their work, while some said they felt the election had driven an increase in social media messages seeking to threaten, abuse, or discredit them.”

According to this report, hostility against women journalists by online trolls is ending up in physical attacks. “The death of Lankesh, which was associated with online violence propelled by Hindutva extremism, also drew international attention to the risks faced by another Indian journalist who is openly critical of her government: Rana Ayyub. She has faced mass circulation of rape and death threats online alongside false information designed to counter her critical reporting, discredit her, and place her at greater physical risk.”

Human Rights Watch in this report said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government has increasingly harassed, arrested, and prosecuted rights defenders, activists, journalists, students, academics, and others critical of the government or its policies.

“India continued to lead with the largest number of internet shutdowns globally as authorities resorted to blanket shutdowns either to prevent social unrest or to respond to an ongoing law and order problem,” the report states.

“In the last few years, and post 2014 in particular, we have definitely seen greater attempts to put pressure on the media in ways that I have not experienced before.

“For them (government), democracy means only praise of the leadership, praise of government schemes, in nation building they would like to define what nationalism is for all of us, so the media must fall in line, and communication must be one way. I think it comes from a deep sense of insecurity and the need to control the narrative all the time.

“There is also this certain ecosystem that doesn’t like independent, outspoken women at all, unfortunately that includes women trolls as well,” says Razdan.

In an interview given to me earlier, Geeta Seshu, a journalist who specialises in freedom of expression, working conditions of journalists, gender and civil liberties said, “The internet has always held out the promise of democratic communication.

Organised groups use the internet to incite hatred and abuse. When no action is taken against these vigilante groups by either the state or by private companies, they jeopardise and end up destroying all democratic space,” Seshu said.

As for Razdan, the cyber attack is still being investigated, she says, “it was a very unpleasant experience, I am used to being trolled, but I have been a victim of a very horrible crime. I hope it serves as a lesson and if it can help even one person out there, who has been through a bad experience, then it’s worth speaking up.”

 

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Excerpt:

Sania Farooqui is a journalist and filmmaker based out of New Delhi.

The payment marks the end of a long-running legal battle over a spill during the 1967-70 Biafran War.

Flood damage in Hagen, Germany. Credit: Bärwinkel,Klaus, Creative Commons.

By External Source
Aug 11 2021 (IPS)

The world watched in July 2021 as extreme rainfall became floods that washed away centuries-old homes in Europe, triggered landslides in Asia and inundated subways in China. More than 900 people died in the destruction. In North America, the West was battling fires amid an intense drought that is affecting water and power supplies.

Water-related hazards can be exceptionally destructive, and the impact of climate change on extreme water-related events like these is increasingly evident.

In a new international climate assessment published Aug. 9, 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that the water cycle has been intensifying and will continue to intensify as the planet warms.

The report, which I worked on as a lead author, documents an increase in both wet extremes, including more intense rainfall over most regions, and dry extremes, including drying in the Mediterranean, southwestern Australia, southwestern South America, South Africa and western North America. It also shows that both wet and dry extremes will continue to increase with future warming.

 

Why is the water cycle intensifying?

Water cycles through the environment, moving between the atmosphere, ocean, land and reservoirs of frozen water. It might fall as rain or snow, seep into the ground, run into a waterway, join the ocean, freeze or evaporate back into the atmosphere. Plants also take up water from the ground and release it through transpiration from their leaves. In recent decades, there has been an overall increase in the rates of precipitation and evaporation.

 

Some key points in the water cycle. NASA

 

A number of factors are intensifying the water cycle, but one of the most important is that warming temperatures raise the upper limit on the amount of moisture in the air. That increases the potential for more rain.

This aspect of climate change is confirmed across all of our lines of evidence: It is expected from basic physics, projected by computer models, and it already shows up in the observational data as a general increase of rainfall intensity with warming temperatures.

Understanding this and other changes in the water cycle is important for more than preparing for disasters. Water is an essential resource for all ecosystems and human societies, and particularly agriculture.

 

What does this mean for the future?

An intensifying water cycle means that both wet and dry extremes and the general variability of the water cycle will increase, although not uniformly around the globe.

Rainfall intensity is expected to increase for most land areas, but the largest increases in dryness are expected in the Mediterranean, southwestern South America and western North America.

 

Annual average precipitation is projected to increase in many areas as the planet warms, particularly in the higher latitudes. IPCC Sixth Assessment Report

 

Globally, daily extreme precipitation events will likely intensify by about 7% for every 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) that global temperatures rise.

Many other important aspects of the water cycle will also change in addition to extremes as global temperatures increase, the report shows, including reductions in mountain glaciers, decreasing duration of seasonal snow cover, earlier snowmelt and contrasting changes in monsoon rains across different regions, which will impact the water resources of billions of people.

 

What can be done?

One common theme across these aspects of the water cycle is that higher greenhouse gas emissions lead to bigger impacts.

The IPCC does not make policy recommendations. Instead, it provides the scientific information needed to carefully evaluate policy choices. The results show what the implications of different choices are likely to be.

One thing the scientific evidence in the report clearly tells world leaders is that limiting global warming to the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 C (2.7 F) will require immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Regardless of any specific target, it is clear that the severity of climate change impacts are closely linked to greenhouse gas emissions: Reducing emissions will reduce impacts. Every fraction of a degree matters.

Mathew Barlow, Professor of Climate Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.