Rights of Persons with Disabilities Must be Protected During Climate Emergencies in Kazakhstan

January 16, 2025

Last year’s Baku Climate Conference, the 29th Conference of Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Conventions on Climate Change (UNFCCC), concluded with mixed outcomes. While the contentious negotiations on climate finance took center stage at COP29, the plights of the most climate-vulnerable groups, especially persons with disabilities (PWDs), were largely overlooked. PWDs were mentioned only twice in the COP29 outcomes—Global Goal of Adaptation and Gender and Climate. Can the aspirations of the PWDs be protected during the climate breakdown by both the UNFCCC and member countries?  

DTE: "Is Chennai prepared for a severe bout of northeast monsoon rainfall?"

November 11, 2021

Fears of floods of the scale of the 2015 deluge are looming over Chennai where at least five people have died in rain-related incidents since last week. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted widespread rainfall in Tamil Nadu in the coming days, with forecasts of heavy to very heavy rainfall in Chennai. 

The northeast monsoon unleashed its fury in the state last week, swamping large parts of residential areas and commercial centres. 

Safeguarding Interests: Chinese Media Censorship during Natural Disasters

The Chinese government has once again conveyed clear indication to the world its ability to administer the local media in its own favor during disasters, both natural and human. Even the government can mould the media reports for its own interest as it happened during Sichuan earthquake and thereafter. The Chinese media has shown contrasting behavior with respect to two disasters- the SARS epidemic (2003) and the Sichuan earthquake (2008).

Gunjan Singh

Cultural Blue Berets: The United Nations’ Way Towards Peace and Preservation

The history of the United Nations peacekeepers goes back to 1948, when 36 unarmed military observers went to supervise the Arab-Israeli war. Since then it has grown enormously for the cause of world peace, tranquility and larger benefit of humanity. The UN peacekeepers initiated as a task force working towards easing out the tension and prepare grounds for negotiated settlements, maintaining their impartial presence. There are 62,289 Military personnel and civilian police serving in 16 current peacekeeping operations as on 30 September 2004.

DEETI RANJITA RAY

Kyoto Protocol: An Intriguing Multilateral Environmental Pact

Climate change is not a prognosis for the future, as some irresponsible governments believe. All countries are affected by and contribute to the cause of climate change. Some 150,000 human lives are lost each year as a result of climate change. One heat wave killed 20,000 people in Europe alone in 2003. More often invincible (!), the US is more vulnerable to natural disasters than terrorists attack. The successive floods in Bangladesh present the single biggest threat to the national security of such low-lying countries.

AVILASH ROUL