Biomedical Research's Uncomfortable Secret

By Paige Higbie, UN Youth Rep Coordinator 

The United Nations has gotten much savvier about bringing private science and technology partners into the conversation about the Sustainable Development Goals. One of the major venues for this conversation is the Science Technology and Innovation Forum held at UNHQ every year.

An issue people may not be aware of, which I was...

Civil Society's Report Card on the SDGs

By Paige Higbie, UN Youth Rep Coordinator

A critical addition to the 2030 agenda has been the introduction of an annual report on the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals. Notorious as the not-for-profit sector is for lacking 'key performance indicators', the Annual Progress Report provides a notable exception. It is the annual report card on the global progress made...

Climate Induced Displacement

By Sammy Witt, UN Youth Rep

Since last month, I have been attending the NGO Comittee on Migration meetings. This relatively new and very active group has several subcommittees. I’m a member of the Committee on Climate Induced Displacement. Working with, and talking to, this group has inspired me to write this text.

Thirty four people recently died due to...

An Update on Maternal Mortality: Fulfilling SDG 3

By Sammy Witt, UN Youth Rep

In the WHO’s Constitution, it is stated that, “The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.” 1 Nevertheless, 800 women die from preventable maternal related illnesses every day.2

Improving maternal health was...

Putting an end to HIV

By Sammy Witt, UN Youth Rep

If, in the eighties, someone had said that AIDS would someday be as easy to treat as diabetes, for example, they would have been considered insane. But, now with antiretroviral therapies it is becoming that easy! But only if you have access to the right treatments.

Efficient treatment, however, doesn’t mean an end to...

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

By Sammy Witt, UN Youth Rep

The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 (or ICTY) held their twenty-fourth and last ever annual review at the General Assembly of the UN last week, and I had the opportunity to attend.

This was...

Slave Labor

By Sammy Witt, UN Youth Rep

The UN wants to be a forerunner in political trends and social developments. Thus, Human Trafficking, a great problem, is moving up on their agenda. Seventy-five percent

of trafficked humans are females, which makes the subject even more relevant to feminist and female-focused NGOs such as FAWCO.1

 Human trafficking is a very uncomfortable subject...

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