Red Cross, Red Crescent: NATO renews pledge to strengthen training on International Humanitarian Law

NATO pledges to continue a substantive dialogue with the ICRC aimed at identifying areas where training and education provided by NATO on International Humanitarian Law may be further enhanced.

Last week in Geneva (9-12 December 2019), a NATO delegation attended the 33rd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, in an observer capacity.

NATO  formally pledged to continue a substantive dialogue with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to identify areas where training and education provided by NATO on international humanitarian law may be further enhanced. According to a NATO press statement


Humanitarian aspects of contemporary conflicts

The Conference, which meets every four years, is the supreme deliberative body of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. It “debates humanitarian issues and adopts resolutions that guide its participants in carrying out humanitarian activities. It promotes respect for, and contributes to the development of international humanitarian law.”

Participants include over 180 Red Cross and Red Crescent national societies and more than 190 states that are party to the Geneva Conventions; observers from other humanitarian organisations; and international organisations.

NATO’s dialogue with ICRC

The renewed pledge demonstrates the Alliance’s overarching support for the principles of international humanitarian law and its commitment to engage with the international community to promote these principles in practice. 

NATO is committed to including measures to protect civilians affected by armed conflict in the Alliance’s military doctrine, education, training, planning, exercises and conduct of operations.

NATO’s relations with the ICRC encompass staff-level engagements and regular exchanges between the NATO Secretary General and the ICRC President.



NATO PLEDGE

Considering:

NATO's commitment to abide by the rules and principles of International Humanitarian Law;

NATO's recognition of, and respect for, the ICRC's mandate and mission;

NATO's continued effort to address issues such as Children and Armed Conflict; Conflict Related Sexual and Gender Based Violence; Women, Peace and Security; Reduction and Mitigation of Civilian Casualties;

NATO's commitment to including measures to protect civilians affected by armed conflict in the Alliance's military doctrine, education, training, planning, exercises and conduct of operations;

NATO pledges to:

Continue a substantive dialogue with the ICRC aimed at identifying areas where training and education provided by NATO on International Humanitarian Law may be further enhanced;

In the context of the ICRC Health Care in Danger project, consider the findings of the 2014 ICRC report "Promoting Military Operational Practice that Ensures Safe Access To and Delivery of Health Care" in the revision of operational planning procedures and training standards.


NATO

UN climate talks a 'lost opportunity', says Guterres

Madrid (AFP) - A major climate summit wrapped up in Madrid Sunday with a compromise deal that left little to show, prompting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to lament a "lost opportunity" to act.

Almost a fortnight of COP25 talks just squeezed out hard-earned compromises from countries over a global warming battle plan that fell well short of what science says is needed to tackle the climate crisis.

"I am disappointed with the results of COP25," Guterres said. "The international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition on mitigation, adaptation and finance to tackle the climate crisis."

The summit's final declaration "expresses the urgent need" for new carbon cutting commitments to close the gap between current emissions and the Paris treaty goal of capping temperature at below two degrees, host country Spain said.

"Today, the citizens of the world are asking for us to move ahead faster and better," Carolina Schmidt, Chilean environment minister and President of COP25, told the closing plenary.

But Tina Eonemto Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, denounced the response as inadequate for facing an existential threat of rising sea levels.

"Unfortunately, the new text we adopted this morning does not reflect anything near what we would have wanted. It is the bare minimum and we regret that countries could not agree on a more ambitious text," Stege said.

Green youth activist Greta Thunberg -- named 2019 Person of the Year by Time magazine -- on Friday slammed world leaders for "still trying to run away from their responsibilities" while demanding a "year of action" in 2020.

Following a year of deadly extreme weather and weekly protests by millions of young people, Madrid negotiators were under pressure to send a clear signal that governments were willing to double down.

The summit -- moved at the last minute from Chile due to unrest -- at times teetered on the brink of collapse as rich polluters, emerging powerhouses and climate-vulnerable nations groped for common ground in the face of competing national interests.

"Based on the adopted text, there is a glimmer of hope that the heart of the Paris Agreement is still beating," Mohamed Adow, Director of Power Shift, said.

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Child killed as powerful earthquake strikes southern Philippines

A powerful earthquake hit the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on Sunday, killing a child, injuring dozens and damaging buildings in an area still recovering from a string of deadly quakes in October.

Police said a rescue operation had been launched at a heavily damaged market building in Padada near the 6.8 magnitude quake's epicentre, which is about 90 kilometres (55 miles) south of the major city of Davao.

Patients were evacuated from hospitals as a precaution and nervous crowds massed outside shopping malls after the jolt and dozens of smaller, but strong aftershocks.

"We can no longer use our office because the walls cracked and the stairs collapsed," local police spokeswoman Lea Orbuda told AFP. "The power is off and the water taps are dry."

A provincial police commander said the number of injured across the hardest hit areas had reached 62, with one confirmed fatality after a child was crushed under a collapsed structure.

The commander, Alberto Lupaz, said there appeared to be some people trapped under the damaged market building but rescue efforts had been delayed.

"They (rescuers) were attempting to check the rubble... the aftershocks were too strong," Lupaz said.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who is from Davao, was caught up in the earthquake but was unharmed, officials said.

"The First Lady... said the car she was riding (in) was swaying," spokesman Salvador Panelo said. "They are unhurt."

There was no threat of a tsunami, said the US Geological Survey, which initially reported the magnitude at 6.9.

The Philippines is situated on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

Three quakes above 6.0 magnitude hit roughly the same area of Mindanao in a matter of weeks in October, killing some two dozen people and heavily damaging office buildings, schools and apartments.

Tens of thousands of people were forced into shelters by the string of tremors, the government said, either because their homes were damaged or they were too afraid to return.

Most of the deaths in October were due to collapsing walls and falling debris, including a teenage boy who was crushed by a falling wall as he tried to escape his school.

Other fatalities were attributed to rock and landslides unleashed by the violent shaking that injured at least 400 people.

The Philippines has been hit by several very powerful earthquakes in recent decades, including one of magnitude 7.8 that struck the northern resort town of Baguio in 1990.

That tremor toppled multi-story buildings and hotels, killing some 1,200 people.

A house pancaked by the earthquake in Padada on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao

Map locating a 6.8 magnitude earthquake which hit the southern Philippines on Sunday.

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COP25 meet hammers through contested climate deal: official

Madrid (AFP) – A marathon UN climate summit wrapped up Sunday with little to show, squeezing hard-earned compromises from countries over the global warming battle plan but falling well short of what science says is needed to tackle the emergency.

The COP25 deal “expresses the urgent need” for new carbon cutting commitments to close the gap between current emissions and the Paris treaty goals of capping global warming at below two degrees, host country Spain said in a statement.

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How Thousands of 'Penis Fish' covered Drakes Beach, 50 miles north of San Francisco

Los Angeles (AFP) - Thousands of marine worms dubbed "penis fish" for their shape and color appeared this week on a California beach after a strong winter storm exposed them.

The creatures -- more commonly known as fat innkeeper worms -- covered Drakes Beach, 50 miles north of San Francisco.

Despite their eye-catching appearance, the pulsating worms which reach around 10 inches are adept at digging U-shaped burrows on beaches and marshes, using the tunnels to catch food.

Found almost exclusively in California, they are themselves considered a culinary delicacy in South Korea, with reputed aphrodisiac effects.

"Yes, the physical design of the fat innkeeper worm has some explaining to do," wrote biologist Ivan Parr. "But the fat innkeeper is perfectly shaped for a life spent underground."

Parr explained in a column on the Bay Nature website this week that fossil evidence of the animals dates back at least 300 million years.

"They are preyed on by otters, flounders, sharks, rays, gulls, and humans," the latter of whom eat them as sashimi, fried or grilled.

In this case the worms were caught out by heavy rain.

"We're seeing the risk of building your home out of sand," noted Parr.

"Strong storms... are perfectly capable of laying siege to the intertidal zone, breaking apart the sediments, and leaving their contents stranded on shore.

The beach is named after Francis Drake, who is believed to have landed here in 1579 during his circumnavigation of the globe.


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EU president Ursula urges MEPs to back green growth plan for jobs, economic growth

Brussels (AFP) - The EU's top official Wednesday launched the bloc's new "Green Deal", hailing it as a strategy for jobs and economic growth, not just for cutting emissions.

Unveiling the plan to the European Parliament, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen also warned against the steep cost of inaction.

Earlier, she had compared the ambition of the plan to the 1960s US mission to the moon, but Green groups were quick to warn it does not go far enough.

The key element of the plan will be a law committing member states to build a carbon neutral economy by 2050 -- but first it will need the go-ahead from parliament and EU leaders.

"We do not have all the answers yet. Today is the start of a journey. But this is Europe's man on the moon moment," Ursula von der Leyen said.

She promised a "new growth strategy" that "gives back more than it takes away", aiming to mobilise around 100 billion euros to fund clean energy projects.

"We have to make sure no one is left behind," she told reporters. "This transition will either be working for all and be just, or it will not work at all."

In parliament, she said: "Some say the cost of this transition is too high, let us never forget what the cost of non-action would be. It is rising by the year."

The document is the first major political challenge for the former German defence minister since she took charge of the European Commission this month.

And it comes as a UN global climate summit is under way in Madrid -- focusing attention on the crisis -- and on the eve of von der Leyen's first EU summit.

Various leaked versions of the plan have been flying around Brussels for weeks, and lobby groups from all sides of the debate have been piling on pressure.

The European Parliament was the first to officially receive the plan.

"At this point, we can't yet say if it's a Green Deal or green washing," said French Green MEP Karima Delli as associations feared the proposals did not go far enough.

The leaders of EU member states will hear it on Thursday at their Brussels summit and von der Leyen's deputy Frans Timmermans will take it to this week's COP25 forum in Madrid.

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UN to test impact of mosquito sterilisation on disease spread

Geneva (AFP) - The UN said Thursday it was preparing to test a sterilisation technique targeting mosquitoes that could help rein in the spread of a range of devastating diseases such as dengue and Zika.

A form of insect "birth control", called Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), has been used for decades to control crop-killing pests like fruit flies and moths.

Now it is being evaluated in a species of mosquito as a potential key tool in halting the spread of human diseases.

"It could be really, really significant," Florence Fouque, a scientist at the UN's Special Programme for Reasearch and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), told reporters.

TDR has partnered with the World Health Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to develop a pilot programme for countries interested in using SIT on mosquitoes to test its impact on disease transmission.

Fouque said a number of countries were being evaluated and that the participants should be chosen in early 2020 for tests lasting several years.

The mosquitoes targeted are species that are particularly difficult to control in the Aedes family -- including the Asian tiger mosquito -- which are a major vector for diseases including Zika, dengue and chikungunya.

Researchers have found a way to sterilise male mosquitoes using radiation, and tests have shown the technique can significantly reduce populations.

- Dengue cases explode -

Dengue fever has exploded in recent years, with the disease now seen threatening about half of the world's population.

Raman Velayudhan of the UN health agency's Neglected Tropical Diseases division told reporters that three million cases of dengue are reported from some 110 countries each year.

"But this year we may go beyond 3.5 or even four million cases, because the number has increased dramatically," he said, stressing that only around 20 percent of cases are ever reported, so the actual disease burden is far higher.

While the researchers are expected to take several years to obtain enough data to reach a clear conclusion on the impact on the spread of human diseases, experts voiced optimism the technique would prove highly effective.

"From the WHO's point of view, one of our realistic goals is to reduce the number of (dengue) cases by at least 25 percent from 2025 to 2030," Velayudhan said.

SIT works by releasing radiation-sterilised male mosquitoes into an environment to mate with wild females. Over time, the mosquito population decreases as the females fail to reproduce.

Tests have already shown that the technique can reduce mosquito populations by more than 90 percent, but it remains unclear if this could translate into fewer human infections.

"We already have evidence that SIT is able to reduce the density of mosquitoes very significantly," said Jeremy Bouyer, a medical entomologist in a joint FAO/IAEA division for Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture.

"Now we must prove that it will also impact the transmission of the disease," he told reporters.

There were initially concerns that SIT reduced the mating competitiveness of the test mosquitoes as well as their survival rates, undermining the technique's effectiveness.

But Bouyer insisted the technique has been refined, noting also that small drones had been developed to gently release sterile mosquitoes into wild populations.

'Ocean Cleanup' ship sweeps first Pacific plastic

Rotterdam (Netherlands) (AFP) - A special ship designed to clean the oceans has harvested its first plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch since setting sail from San Francisco last month, its Dutch inventor said Wednesday.

The project by The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch non-profit group, involves a supply ship towing a floating boom that corrals marine plastic with the aim of cleaning half of the infamous patch within five years.

"Today we announce that our cleaning system in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has been catching plastic for the first time," Boyan Slat, the 25-year-old Dutch CEO and founder of The Ocean Cleanup, told a press conference in Rotterdam.

"It's the first time actually anyone harvests plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. So we think that we can actually clean the oceans."

Slat came up with the idea seven years ago, and the system has been undergoing tests for the past year.

The Maersk Launcher ship finally sailed from San Francisco on September 9 for trials on cleaning the patch, a floating trash pile twice the size of France that swirls in the ocean halfway between California and Hawaii.

It was towing a 600 metre(2,000-foot)-long boom device designed by Slat dubbed System 001, aimed at containing floating ocean plastic so it can be scooped up and recycled.

The system includes a tapered three-metre skirt to catch plastic floating just below the surface.

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