United Nations: UNESCO unveils new AI roadmap for classrooms. “The UN convened the first ever global meeting with education ministers from around the world to explore risks and rewards of using chatbots in classrooms, announcing on Friday a new roadmap to chart a safer digital path for all.”
United Nations Global Compact: UN Global Compact launches Living Wage Analysis Tool. “The UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, today launched a new Living Wage Analysis Tool (‘the Tool’) to help companies identify actions and further opportunities to provide a living wage to ensure all workers, families and communities can live in dignity.”
University of Michigan News: Human rights a thing of the past? Google says: No. “Critics say the ‘human rights-based approach,’ defined by the United Nations as a ‘conceptual framework for the process of human development that is normatively based on international human rights standards,’ is no longer useful for people struggling to bring about change. But that’s not the story Google tells, according to political scientists Chris Fariss of the University of Michigan and Geoff Dancy of the University of Toronto. In response to a dearth of survey data, the researchers wanted to understand who was thinking about human rights, and where those people live.”
Out in Perth: New database tracks global progress and decline on LGBTI+ rights. “The ILGA World Database, a platform launched by ILGA World compiling laws, news, and references to human rights bodies and advocacy opportunities with the United Nations related to LGBTI+ people worldwide. The free, interactive, and collaborative platform gives details insights on the state of laws and proposed legislation concerning sexuality, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics issues in 193 UN member States and 47 non-independent territories.”
United Nations: Myanmar: Social media companies must stand up to junta’s online terror campaign say UN experts. “Myanmar’s military junta is orchestrating an online campaign of terror, and weaponising social media platforms to crush democratic opposition, UN experts* said today.” The * looks a little odd but it just leads to a footnote listing sixteen experts by name.
Associated Press: UN: Parts of internet becoming `toxic waste dumps’ for hate. “The U.N. chief warned on the day to remember victims of the Holocaust that ‘many parts of the internet are becoming toxic waste dumps for hate and vicious lies,’ and urgently appealed for guardrails against hate speech. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that anti-Semitism is everywhere, and it’s increasing in intensity.”
United Nations: ‘Urgent need’ for more accountability from social media giants to curb hate speech: UN experts. “In a detailed statement, more than two dozen UN-appointed independent human rights experts – including representatives from three different working groups and multiple Special Rapporteurs – called out chief executives by name, saying that the companies they lead ‘must urgently address posts and activities that advocate hatred, and constitute incitement to discrimination, in line with international standards for freedom of expression.’”
Reuters: COP27 | United Nations to launch public database of global methane leaks detected by space satellites. “The United Nation’s (U.N.) environment watchdog said, on November 11, it will launch a public database of global methane leaks detected by space satellites, as part of a new programme to encourage companies and governments to curb emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas.”
Associated Press: UN steps up satellite tracking of damage to Ukraine culture. “The U.N.’s cultural and satellite agencies have joined forces to more systematically track the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the country’s architecture, art, historic buildings and other cultural heritage, and have compiled an initial list of more than 200 sites that have been damaged or destroyed.”
United Nations Development Programme: New inclusive website provides Ukrainians with critical information on surviving the war. “A new website for Ukrainians affected by the war provides information on the legal rules for crossing the border, the procedure for obtaining the status of an internally displaced person (IDP), opportunities for receiving humanitarian aid and psychological support during wartime, advice on finding educational opportunities and work, and much more. The information is useful for refugees, the internally displaced and citizens in their home oblasts.”
UNESCO: UNESCO fights harmful content with a community-led initiative. “On 28-29 June, UNESCO in collaboration with the Center for Digital Society (CfDS) held a public conference and a roundtable discussion (closed session) in Jakarta on ‘Addressing Gaps in Regulating Harmful Content Online’. These were organized within the framework of the UNESCO project Social Media 4 Peace, in an attempt to respond to the rising hate speech and disinformation globally that have contributed to divisions in society and real-world violence.”
United Nations: Cultural destruction in Ukraine by Russian forces will reverberate for years, UN rights expert warns. “The attempted destruction of Ukraine’s historic culture by invading Russian forces, will have a devastating impact on the pace of recovery in the post-war era, an independent UN human rights expert warned on Wednesday.”
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: FAO unveils new public tool based on agricultural census data. “The new domain allows rapid access to knowing how many farms exist in a given country, what their sizes are, the tenure typology determining its ownership, the farmer’s gender, and how many people live and work on them, all sourced to national Agricultural Censuses.”
Baltic Times: Lithuanian minister in Kyiv: ‘absurd’ that Russia chairs UNESCO heritage committee. “Lithuanian Culture Minister Simonas Kairys, who is visiting Kyiv on Friday, described as absurd the situation where Russia, which waging war in Ukraine and destroying the country, is chairing UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee.”
AFP: UNESCO meeting in Russia on world heritage postponed indefinitely. “A meeting of the U.N. cultural agency’s World Heritage Committee scheduled to have been hosted by Russia in June has been postponed indefinitely, a source said Thursday, after weeks of intense diplomatic wrangling prompted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
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