A genuinely regional approach could eventually include - besides Nepal, China and India - Bhutan and, where relevant, downstream institutions in Bangladesh. Organisations with established Himalayan expertise, particularly the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu, could offer scientific and institutional support.
The Himalayas are not collapsing because humanity exists, but humanity is creating a warmer world in which the Himalayas are becoming less predictable. The real question is no longer whether climate change will alter the mountains. It already is.
My eldest aunt was swept away. So was her son, my dai Madhu, and his wife. My other aunt — gone too, they told me. Her grandson Sijan and his wife, caught in the same water. His own son and daughter-in-law, unreachable, unaccounted for. My maternal uncle had gone out that morning to cut grass for the cattle. He never came back.
No technology can stop an avalanche. But the tragedy of events like Wednesday's is that the fatal interval between the trigger high in the mountains and the flood wave reaching villages downstream is often 20 minutes to a few hours. That window is exactly where artificial intelligence, coupled with sensors and satellites, earns its keep.
Father Stan Swamy, the Jesuit priest who died Tuesday while a court heard his bail plea, worked to “make the world a more just place” and the United States regularly took up with the Indian government his continued detention, according to a State Department spokesperson
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is “deeply saddened and disturbed” by the death of Stan Swamy, her spokesperson Liz Throssell said
As the world grapples unevenly with the effects of COVID-19, “a parallel and equally horrific pandemic” has threatened half the world’s population, the UN chief said on Tuesday, in the lead up to the Generation Equality Forum in France
India has called for international action to achieve a framework for global cybersecurity, raising an alarm about the emergence of cyberspace as a vehicle for cross-border terrorism by nations and terror organizations
Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has voiced his concern that the world is witnessing a dangerous trend of an increase in the number of children being recruited and involved in terrorism-related activities
The disregard for children’s rights amid war and upheaval “is shocking and heartbreaking”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday during a high-level open debate in the Security Council, held virtually
Radical policing reforms are needed to address systemic racism affecting people of African descent around the world, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Monday, as her Office published a series of recommendations prompted by the killing of George Floyd in the United States
Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds “enormous potential” for improving the health of millions around the world if ethics and human rights are at the heart of its design, deployment, and use, the head of the UN health agency said on Monday
The global climate crisis is “exacerbating and intensifying” water-related disasters, jeopardizing lives and livelihoods, the UN chief said on Friday at a major sustainable development symposium
Top UN rights experts appealed on Thursday for all governments to ensure that victims of torture receive the rehabilitation services they need, along with guarantees that those who help them do not suffer reprisals
Around 275 million people used drugs worldwide in the last year of unprecedented upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, up by 22 per cent from 2010
The European Union (EU) must use its leverage to ensure people everywhere have access to COVID-19 vaccines, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday
The United Nations Human Rights Office has dubbed as “selective” and “arbitrary” the presidential pardon granted to a former Sri Lankan MP convicted to life imprisonment for the murder of a fellow politician
The UNHRC Core Group on Sri Lanka has called upon the island nation’s government to address the harmful legacies of war and protect human rights, including those from religious minorities
Deborah Lyons, the United Nations envoy in Afghanistan, has criticized the Taliban’s recent “intensive military campaign”, warning that it would lead to continued violence in the country
