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Join the American Friends of the Palestinian House of Friendship on May 22, 5:00 - 6:00PM EST

UNCCD Press Release - UN conference in Riyadh charts a path for global action on land, drought

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 14 December - After two weeks of intense negotiations on how to tackle land degradation, desertification and drought, the largest and most inclusive United Nations land conference wrapped up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The nearly 200 countries convening at the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) committed to prioritize land restoration and drought resilience in national policies and international cooperation as an essential strategy for food security and climate adaptation. Nations also made significant progress in laying the groundwork for  a future global drought regime, which they intend to complete at COP17 in Mongolia in 2026. In the meanwhile, more than USD 12 billion were pledged to tackle desertification, land degradation and drought around the world, especially in the most vulnerable countries.

Among the main agreements reached at COP16 were the creation of a Caucus for Indigenous Peoples and a Caucus for Local Communities to ensure that their unique perspectives and challenges are adequately represented; a continuation of the Convention’s Science-Policy Interface to strengthen science-based decision-making, and the mobilization of private sector engagement under the Business4Land initiative.

COP16 was the largest and most inclusive UNCCD COP to date: it attracted more than 20,000 participants, around 3,500 of them from civil society, and featured more than 600 events as part of the first Action Agenda to involve non-state actors in the work of the Convention.

In a prepared statement, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed emphasized “Our work does not end with the closing of COP16. We must continue to tackle the climate crisis—it is a call to action for all of us to embrace inclusivity, innovation, and resilience. Youth and Indigenous peoples must be at the heart of these conversations. Their wisdom, their voices, and their creativity are indispensable as we craft a sustainable future with renewed hope for generations to come.”

In his closing remarks, COP16 President, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Alfadley, said the meeting marked a turning point in raising international awareness of the pressing need to accelerate land restoration and drought resilience. 

“The Kingdom’s hosting of this important conference reflects its ongoing commitment to environmental issues and sustainable development. It reaffirms its dedication to working with all parties to preserve ecosystems, enhance international cooperation to combat desertification and land degradation, and address drought. We hope the outcomes of this session will lead to a significant shift that strengthens efforts to preserve land, reduce its degradation, build capacities to address drought, and contribute to the wellbeing of communities around the world.”

Addressing COP16 closing plenary, Under-Secretary-General and UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw stated: “As we have discussed and witnessed, the solutions are within our grasp. The actions we took today will shape not only the future of our planet but also the lives, livelihoods, and opportunities of those who depend on it.”

He further emphasized a significant shift in the global approach to land and drought issues, highlighting the interconnected challenges with broader global issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, food security, forced migration, and global stability.

Read more here.

News from Nablus - Palestinian House of Friendship

The Palestinian House of Friendship (PHF) is located in Nablus, a medium-sized city north of Jerusalem on the West Bank in Palestine. Mohammed Sawalha, founder and director of PHF, describes the current situation there as extremely dangerous throughout the city and region, with illegal settlers attacking villagers and Israeli soldiers patrolling the streets of Nablus day and night. The city is literally under siege these days, and it often takes two or three hours to cross it because of numerous checkpoints where settlers stand next to Israeli soldiers and verbally or physically humiliate travelers.

Soldiers have been particularly threatening to worshippers going to their local mosques to pray in the early morning before work. Recently they entered a neighborhood mosque for the first time, interrupted the prayers, and detained participants.

Most distressing is the collapse of the local economy, as small businesses are forced into bankruptcy, and unemployment skyrockets. It is difficult for Palestinians to obtain cash or building supplies, though recently the Israeli government announced construction of 2300 new housing units for settlers on the West Bank.

     

In spite of these stressors of daily life for people living in the Nablus region, PHF continues to offer programs for children and their families. This summer six smaller camps for 180-200 children took place within their communities, so parents could quickly collect them if danger developed. 120 Boxes of Love containing food, books, toys, and warm winter clothing were distributed to needy families over the past four months. 200 school backpacks have been donated to children who are able to return to school this fall. Dancing and singing groups continue to meet. After-school programs, Girl Scouts, and the music studio are in operation this fall. And three or four English conversation classes are being held in order to raise money for other programs.

Thanks to a generous donor, PHF has opened a small café near its offices in downtown Nablus where young people can drink coffee at discounted prices, use the internet, and study in a quiet, peaceful environment.

PHF has also initiated a series of “Democracy Building” workshops in Nablus and the wider region to train adults in how to become active participants in a civil society, learning how to vote, how to run for office, and how to develop legislative proposals. Planning for a future in which Palestine may someday become an autonomous state reinforces identity, dignity, and hope during stressful times.

Meanwhile families are anxious, some schools opened late or not at all, and people are living in a state of hypervigilance on the West Bank in the fall of 2024.

Mohammed, his staff, and the families of PHF all express their gratitude for your continuing generosity in supporting the Palestinian House of Friendship.

To read more about the Palestinian House of Friendship, click here.

Palestinian House of Friendship: News From Nablus

Dear Friends of the Palestinian House of Friendship,

The “silent war” against the West Bank city of Nablus and the entire region continues. In December 2022 Netanyahu named Bezalel Smotrich the Minister of Finance, and Itamar Ben- Gvir, Minister of National Security. Both men are right-wing extremists, lawyers in their 40s living in Israeli settlements on the West Bank, and both are committed to the expulsion of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank. Ben-Gvir has a criminal record and has turned over West Bank policing to armed Israeli settlers who grab Palestinian land, uproot olive trees, and often shoot Palestinians on sight. This is not hyperbole; as of mid-July 572 Palestinians (including 139 children) have been killed, 5,300 have been injured by settlers, and much city infrastructure has been destroyed

In the context of the war in Gaza in which close to 40,000 Palestinians (70% women and children) have been killed since October 2023 (with recent estimates being more like 180,000 people murdered), and the threat of imminent violence on the West Bank, the Palestinian House of Friendship (PHF) continues to offer a sense of safety and hope through activities for children and their families in Nablus, the nearby village of Asira al Shamaliya, and a number of refugee camps.

Smiling Faces summer camp has been reorganized into 8 smaller camps located in separate neighborhoods, giving parents the opportunity to pick up their children quickly, if there is any danger of violence in the community. These camps include traditional Palestinian music and dance, games, and a Green Hands Initiative (planting crops) for children.

PHF has also provided food, shelter, and support to about 80 people from Gaza who lost their jobs in Israel last fall and came to Nablus seeking shelter.

This includes children diagnosed with cancer who are now receiving medical treatment in Nablus hospitals. In addition, PHF has collaborated with the municipality of Asira to set up medical clinics to treat injured people injured by settler violencewhen access to hospitals may be impossible due to army or settler violence.

Mohammed Sawalha, Founder/Director of PHF, iscommitted to peace, and continues to create programs that will give children opportunities for joy and play throughout the long hot summer. But he also continues to think toward the future when there will someday be a free democratic Palestinian state. To this end PHF is offering workshops for adults this summer in which men and women can learn how to participate in a civil society, become trained in how to vote how to conduct elections, run for office, and develop democratic legislative initiatives.

Beginning in mid-August, Mohammed plans to offer these workshops in a pilot program that will initially reach 100 adults in the Nablus region. After evaluation of the pilot program, the workshops will be offered more broadly in the West Bank. The American Friends of PHF are researching possibilities for grants for this innovative project. If you would like to help out with this project, please reach out to Katharine Baker at [email protected].

Mohammed, his staff, and the families of PHF all express their gratitude for your continuing generosity in supporting the Palestinian House of Friendship.

For more info or to donate:

palestinianhouseoffriendship.com

UNCCD PRESS RELEASE: ‘Silent Demise’ of Vast Rangelands Threatens Climate, Food, Wellbeing of Billions

Rangelands cover 54% of all land; as much as 50% are degraded,
imperiling 1/6th of humanity’s food supply, 1/3rd of Earth’s carbon reservoir
UNCCD report points way to restore, better manage rangelands,
urges protection of pastoralism

Bonn/Ulaanbaatar 21 May 2024 – Degradation of Earth’s extensive, often immense natural pastures and other rangelands due to overuse, misuse, climate change and biodiversity loss poses a severe threat to humanity’s food supply and the wellbeing or survival of billions of people, the UN warns in a stark report today. 

Authors of the Global Land Outlook Thematic Report on Rangelands and Pastoralists,launched in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), say up to 50% of rangelands are degraded. 

Symptoms of the problem include diminished soil fertility and nutrients, erosion, salinization, alkalinization, and soil compaction inhibiting plant growth, all of which contribute to drought, precipitation fluctuations, and biodiversity loss both above and below the ground. 

The problem is driven largely by converting pastures to cropland and other land use changes due to population growth and urban expansion, rapidly rising food, fibre and fuel demands, excessive grazing, abandonment (end of maintenance by pastoralists), and policies that incentivise overexploitation. 

What are rangelands? 

The rangelands category of Earth’s land cover consists mostly of the natural grasslands used by livestock and wild animals to graze and forage.  

They also include savannas, shrublands, wetlands, tundra and deserts.   

Added together, these lands constitute 54% of all land cover, account for one sixth of global food production and represent nearly one third of the planet’s carbon reservoir. 

“When we cut down a forest, when we see a 100-year-old tree fall, it rightly evokes an emotional response in many of us. The conversion of ancient rangelands, on the other hand, happens in ‘silence’ and generates little public reaction,” says UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw.  

“Sadly, these expansive landscapes and the pastoralists and livestock breeders who depend on them, are usually under-appreciated,” Mr. Thiaw adds. “Despite numbering an estimated half a billion individuals worldwide, pastoralist communities are frequently overlooked, lack a voice in policy-making that directly affects their livelihoods, marginalised, and even often seen as outsiders in their own lands.” 

Mongolia Environment Minister H.E. Bat-Erdene Bat-Ulzii says: “As custodian of the largest grasslands in Eurasia, Mongolia has always been cautious in transforming rangelands. Mongolian traditions are built on the appreciation of resource limits, which defined mobility as a strategy, established shared responsibilities over the land, and set limits in consumption. We hope this report helps focus attention on rangelands and their many enormous values – cultural, environmental, and economic –  which cannot be overstated. If these rangelands cannot support these massive numbers of people, what alternatives can they turn to?” 

Mongolia will host the 17th UNCCD Conference of the Parties meeting in 2026, the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP), declared by the United Nations General Assembly on Mongolia’s initiative.

Read more here

Remembering and Honoring the Women of Gaza

March is Women's History Month, and I would like to start by acknowledging, saluting, and honoring Palestinian women for their immense contributions to the liberation movement for a free Palestine.  We also remember and mourn all the women poets, writers, artists, journalists, and aid workers killed by the Israeli bombardment in Gaza over the past 155 days.  We salute the women of Gaza for their struggle and resilience and, above all, for the humanity they have shown us during their daily fight for their families’ lives amid the horrific deprivation of food, safe drinking water, and healthcare that is being imposed on the people of Gaza. We salute the mothers who are forced to skip meals so they can feed their children, the mothers who carry their babies in their wombs only to have to carry them again to their burial ground, the pregnant mothers who have no safe place to give birth and no access to clean water, and the mothers who have watched their children being gunned down during the Israeli flour massacres. And we salute all the women who are protesting, speaking out, and raising their voices to demand an immediate ceasefire and an end to oppression, apartheid, and occupation. We are with you with every breath and every heartbeat.

During National Women’s History Month—and each and every day—we also acknowledge, salute, and honor all the amazing women who are part of the Interlink family: poets, novelists, journalists, children’s books authors and illustrators, cookbook authors and photographers, and many others who have enriched our lives through their work and for the important role they are playing in literary circles as well as for their efforts in driving change, advancing gender justice, and illuminating the terror of War.

In honor of Women's History Month, we are offering a 25% discount on all orders throughout the month of March. Enter discount code SISTERS25 at check out.

While we remain a long way away from achieving gender parity and equality, it is vital that we come together as a community in order to face the ongoing challenges and threats to women's rights. We have learned the hard way that rights simply won once is not enough; they must be safeguarded.

At Interlink, we firmly believe that the voices and stories of women—especially those from marginalized communities and often overlooked BIPOC writers—must continue to be amplified and widely shared.  Please check out my selection below of new and forthcoming Interlink titles that showcase important works by women—from fiction to cookbooks, memoirs to children’s books. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

 

Michel Moushabeck

Founder/Publisher/Editor

Interlink Publishing

 

Click here to see Michel's selection of new and forthcoming Interlink titles.

 

International Children's Peace Prize 2024: Deadline extended!

As advocates for children's rights, we are reaching out to share a unique opportunity that allows each one of you to play a part in recognizing the extraordinary efforts of courageous children around the world.

KidsRights annually awards the prestigious International Children’s Peace Prize to a child who fights for children’s rights. Winning the International Children’s Peace Prize gives the winner a global platform to promote their work. 

The winner also receives: 

• The “Nkosi” statuette which depicts a child that sets the world in motion; 
• The “Desmund Tutu” study and care fund to enable the child to obtain quality education; 
• A project fund of € 100.000, which is invested by KidsRights in relevant children’s rights projects that are closely connected to the winner’s area of work. 

The nominations are open until May 1st, 2024! 

Last year we received 140 nominations from 35 countries around the world. This year, make sure your country is represented in the nominations by nominating a young changemaker now! You can do so in 6 languages: English, Spanish, Hindi, French, Italian, and Dutch. 

Nominate your changemaker

Read about the nomination requirements here!

If you have any questions or comments, please read the FAQs or contact us by replying to this email. 

Please share this message with people within your network who may know someone they would like to nominate.

Read the inspiring stories of our previous winners and nominees

Taken from Kids Rights

Martin Luther King’s Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, 10 December 1964

“I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a
militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction… I believe that even amid
today’s mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I
believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations,
can be lifted from this dust of shame and reign supreme amongst the children of men. I
have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their
bodies, education, and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their
spirits.”

Climate Governance Commission Report and MEGA: Proposals to better manage the global environment

The Climate Governance Commission (CGC) yesterday released Governing our Planetary Emergency. This is a ground-breaking report which highlights that current policies are failing to address the global climate emergency, and which puts forward a platform of climate governance proposals in order to ensure more effective cooperative action to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C or less.

“The world faces a deepening planetary emergency—and is on a reckless path toward runaway, catastrophic climate change—having already over-shot six of nine scientifically-identified Planetary Boundaries,” according to the Report. “Collectively, we must chart a safe and sustainable path for a workable future for all of humanity.”

The report was released two days prior to the start of the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP28) taking place in Dubai, with the aim to positively influence the deliberations and decision-making at the COP.

Global governance to protect the environment

The report provides a package of fifteen near-and-medium-term proposals for vital and substantial governance improvements across the international system. These include, amongst others, Climate COP reform, declaration of planetary emergency and establishment of an international court for the environment.

“The science is clear. It is telling us that we are already living within an extinction crisis and a climate crisis. Life on Earth as we know it, and even our own survival as a species, is at risk,” says María Fernanda Espinosa, Co-Chair of the Climate Governance Commission and President of the UN General Assembly 2018-2019. “What we need is a reflection on and reconsideration of our global governance architecture, to ensure it is fit for purpose and adequate to the tasks ahead."

Climate Governance Commission Proposals

Among the near-term recommendations proposed by the Commission of experts:

• Urgent improvements of climate COPs for delivery, action, and accountability to focus, reconfigure, and streamline the annual conference, currently expected to attract more than 70,000 delegates in its 28th year. 
• The declaration of a “planetary emergency” by the UN General Assembly at next year’s Summit of the Future, as well as the activation of an Emergency Platform, elaborating on a proposal by the UN Secretary-General.
• A Grand Bargain among the “Big Four” GHG-emitting nations (China, the U.S., India, and the EU), joined by other high-emission nations. 
• Establishment of institutional infrastructures to evaluate the climate performance of goods and companies, and for the responsible engagement by and accountability of fossil fuel companies, executives, and associations.
• Renewed efforts to bridge the great climate finance divide, including through debt forgiveness, reforms to multilateral development banks, and balanced global carbon taxes and tariffs to fund climate mitigation and adaptation in low and middle-income countries.

“We stand at the cusp of a green energy transformation, poised to shape a fairer, cleaner, healthier future. The means to finance the climate action we need to see are within reach, but it is good governance that holds the key,” says Mary Robinson, Commission co-chair, former President of Ireland and Chair of The Elders.

Advocating for change

The Commission will form diverse, high-level working groups to refine its recommendations and advocate for their associated transformations. This will be done in conjunction with Mobilizing an Earth Governance Alliance (MEGA) a new global alliance the Climate Governance Commission is establishing in partnership with the World Federalist Movement – Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP) and Citizens for Global Solutions with a number of other cosponsoring organizations.

At root, it is not an environmental crisis. Humanity has created a global governance crisis,” says John Vlasto, Chair of the WFM-IGP Executive Committee and Co-founder of MEGA. “Resolve this and we can unite to live in harmony with each other and with nature.”

The MEGA platform went live yesterday - in conjunction with the launch of the Climate Governance Commission Report - and will be publicly launched in the New Year.

For more information see Governing Our Planetary Emergency: Release of the Climate Governance Commission Report.

From UNFOLD ZERO. Read more here.

Introducing the Nominees of International Children’s Peace Prize 2023

We are excited to share the latest updates on the International Children’s Peace Prize 2023!

As you may know, the International Children's Peace Prize (‘ICPP’) is the most important award given to a young changemaker who has made an exceptional difference for the rights of the child and the position of vulnerable children, anywhere in the world.

The prize was launched in Rome during the 2005 World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev. Since then, each year the prize has been awarded by a Nobel Peace Laureate.

For the first time ever, this year’s awards ceremony for the winner of the 2023 International Children’s Peace Prize will take place on November 17th at the Palace of Whitehall, London. To ensure as many people as possible can join the ceremony, it will be held in a hybrid format.

For the ICPP 2023, we have received 140 nominations of young changemakers from 35 countries around the world! The nominees are working on a range of topics, including education, climate change, refugees and migrants, sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, non-discrimination against children of prisoners, indigenous people, and many more.

You can now see all their amazing stories on our website!

We hope that you will be inspired by their stories and encourage young people to continue their changemaking activities with more passion and rigor. You can also contribute to make this happen by donating on our website.

Learn more about Kids Rights here