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Added on the 24/10/2017 17:10:52 - Copyright : AFP EN
The UN rights chief warns that the world needs to change paths to avoid a future filled with military escalation, repression, disinformation, deepening inequality and rampant climate change. "We are at a fork in the road: We can either continue on our current path — a treacherous ‘new normal’ — and sleepwalk into a dystopian future, or we can wake up and turn things around for the better, for humanity and the planet," Volker Turk tells the United Nations Human Rights Council. SOUNDBITE
Humanity is suffering an "extreme heat epidemic," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns, calling for action to limit the impacts of heat waves intensified by climate change. SOUNDBITE
UN climate chief Simon Stiell warns that global warming will "decimate G20 economies" without unity. "Sidelining climate isn’t a solution to a crisis that will decimate every G20 economy and has already started to hurt," he says during his address at the UK think tank Chatham House, London, UK. SOUNDBITE
With the war in Gaza entering its fifth month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns that if Israel pressed into the southern city of Rafah, as it reportedly plans to do, it "would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences." "It is time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages", he adds at the top of a speech to the General Assembly presenting his 2024 priorities. SOUNDBITE
"We do not need more warnings. The dystopian future is already here," UN right chief Volker Turk tells the United Nations Human Rights Council during the opening its the 54th session in Geneva. Climate change is sparking human rights emergencies in many countries, the UN rights chief added, also decrying widespread "nonchalance" to surging deaths of migrants. SOUNDBITE
The head of the IMF warns that Western subsidies to combat climate change and encourage the transition to clean energy sources risk hitting developing and emerging markets. "My biggest concern is that something that in principle is very good to accelerate the transition to the green economy by using public money to step up private investment... may not serve well the emerging markets and the developing world," Kristalina Georgieva says at the World Economic Forum in Davos. SOUNDBITE