Civil aviation group ICAO mentioned that the numbers for the primary quarter of 2024 point out that airways will maintain the return to profitability recorded in 2023.

“The commitment of Member States to aligning their pandemic responses with the guidance developed by the ICAO Council has been crucial to the recovery of their air services,” mentioned Council president Salvatore Sciacchitano.

“The implementation of ICAO’s post-pandemic guidance is now equally crucial to ensuring the resilience and sustainability of this recovery.”

The company forecasts rising visitors development to round three per cent above 2019 ranges, and presumably 4 per cent if the tempo of restoration grows on routes which haven’t but returned to pre-pandemic ranges.

“The aspirational goals agreed upon by governments towards the decarbonization of air transport by 2050 are supporting the environmental sustainability of the recovery and future development of the global air transport network,” mentioned ICAO Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar.

The evaluation signifies that air visitors on most routes had already reached or surpassed pre-pandemic ranges by the tip of 2023.

Flying excessive

The main regional routes which handed the 2019 mark by the tip of final 12 months had been journey inside Europe; Europe to/from North America, the Middle East, southwest Asia and Africa; North America to/from Latin America and the Caribbean, southwest Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific; Middle East to/from Southwest Asia and Africa.

Most worldwide Asian routes, excluding these serving southwest Asia, proceed to have considerably decrease ranges of visitors in 2023 in comparison with pre-pandemic ranges.

UN rights chief slams ‘profoundly disturbing’ Ghana household values invoice

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday described a parliamentary bill in Ghana which introduces new prison sanctions in opposition to LGBTQ+ residents as “profoundly disturbing”, urging lawmakers to halt its passage.

Volker Türk mentioned the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill 2024 would broaden criminalization of lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, transexual and queer individuals “simply for being who they are”. The invoice additionally “threatens criminal penalties against perceived allies of LGBTQ+ people”, he warned.

Live free from discrimination

“I call for the bill not to become law. I urge the Ghanaian Government to take steps to ensure everyone can live free from violence, stigma and discrimination, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity”, mentioned Mr. Türk.

“Consensual same-sex conduct should never be criminalized.”

He expressed deep alarm that the invoice criminalizes the respectable work of human rights defenders, lecturers, medical professionals, landlords and folks in search of healthcare.

“The bill is contrary to Ghana’s own Constitution and freely undertaken regional and international human rights obligations and commitments, including to leave no one behind in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” mentioned the High Commissioner.

Mr. Türk burdened that the invoice is corrosive and may have a adverse affect on society as an entire.

He restated his workplace’s (OHCHR) dedication to work with the Government of Ghana and its nationwide companions to make sure it fulfils its human rights commitments and obligations.

Russia’s decade-long occupation of Crimea marked by widespread violations

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine on Wednesday revealed a brand new report documenting critical rights violations and infringements of humanitarian regulation in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

The violations have continued over a decade of occupation by Russian forces, with Moscow unlawfully imposing citizenship necessities, legal guidelines and establishments “across all spheres of life, suppressing opposition and dissent”, the mission mentioned in press launch.

The report reveals Russian efforts to limit civic area and restrict elementary freedoms. Crimean Tatar leaders, perceived as opposing occupation or Russian insurance policies, have been significantly impacted.

Those Tatars who fled the peninsula have been barred from returning whereas many Russians have been resettled in Crimea in a bid to alter the demographics of the area.

‘Grim harbinger’

“Over the past decade, we have documented efforts by the Russian Federation to impose the Russian language, culture and institutional framework on Crimea, while at the same time taking actions to erase the peninsula’s rich cultural, linguistic and religious heritage,” mentioned mission head Danielle Bell.

Any opposition has been met with harsh reprisals, says the report, with some subjected to rights violations, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and torture.

The findings are “not only alarming, but they are also a grim harbinger of the devastating and lasting impact Russian occupation may have on other occupied regions of Ukraine”, Ms. Bell mentioned.