States must prevent COVID-19 cultural catastrophe: UN expert
GENEVA (3 March 2021) – A UN expert today warned that COVID-19 may lead to a global “cultural catastrophe” with severe, long-lasting consequences for human rights if urgent measures, such as establishing a global cultural fund, are not implemented.
Karima Bennoune, UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, said in a report to the Human Rights Council that culture sectors have been among those hit hardest by the pandemic crisis.
“The cultural rights commitments of states under international law require them to take action so as to avoid catastrophe but also to lead to cultural renewal as an essential component of any efforts to build back better,” Bennoune said.
UN experts condemn Israel’s demolition of the Palestinian village of Humsa
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GENEVA (2 March 2021) UN human rights experts have called on the Government of Israel to immediately end its efforts to demolish the Palestinian village of Humsa – Al Bqai a in the northern Jordan Valley, and allow the residents to live undisturbed on their lands and homes. The ongoing destruction by the Israeli military of the homes, and the destruction and seizure of property, including humanitarian assistance, in Humsa – Al Bqai a has been causing great hardship to the approximately 60 villagers, including 35 children, said Michael Lynk, the Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, and Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context.
USA: Environmental racism in “Cancer Alley” must end – experts
GENEVA (2 March 2021) – UN human rights experts today raised serious concerns about further industrialisation of the so-called Cancer Alley in the southern US state of Louisiana, saying the development of petrochemical complexes is a form of environmental racism.
Originally called Plantation Country where enslaved Africans were forced to labour, the petrochemical corridor along the lower Mississippi River has not only polluted the surrounding water and air, but also subjected its mostly African American residents to cancer, respiratory diseases and other adverse health effects, the experts said. This form of environmental racism poses serious and disproportionate threats to the enjoyment of several human rights of its largely African American residents, including the right to equality and non-discrimination, the right to life, the right to health, right to an adequate standard of living and cultural righ
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