World news in brief: 1.3 billion youth suffer from mental disorders, Russia’s indigenous people face ‘extinction’, Belarus rights update

WHO Failure to address adolescent mental, sexual and reproductive health will have “serious and life-threatening consequences for young people”, said Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. It will also have a huge cost to society, which justifies huge public investment from governments around the world.

Tedros noted that anemia among adolescent girls remains “widespread” and at similar levels to 2010, while nearly 1 in 10 adolescents are obese.

STDs are on the rise

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including syphilis, chlamydia, trichomoniasis and genital herpes that are common among adolescents are also on the rise.

If left untreated, they can “cause lifelong health effects,” the WHO chief said, citing new data.

Tedros also spoke out against efforts to “restrict” young people’s access to sexual and reproductive health care and sex education in response to growing opposition to gender equality and human rights.

Any policy restricting the age of consent would limit young people’s access to vital services, including sexually transmitted infections and HIV prevention, he said.

WHO notes that adolescence is a unique and important period of human development, involving major physical, emotional and social changes, and is a key time for laying the foundations for long-term good health.

“Promoting and protecting the health and rights of young people is essential to building a better future for our world,” said Tedros.

“On the contrary, failing to address the health threats facing adolescents – some long-standing, some emerging – will not only have serious and life-threatening consequences for young people themselves, but will also create skyrocketing economic costs.”

Profits that can be achieved

The publication was launched at a United Nations sideline event. Summit of the Future.

“Adolescents are powerful and incredibly creative forces for good as they can shape the agenda for their well-being and future,” said Rajat Khosla, chief executive of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, which co-hosted the launch.

“Leaders must listen to what young people want and ensure they are active partners and decision-makers,” she added.

Indigenous Russians face ‘extinction’ from Ukraine’s mobilization

Russia’s indigenous peoples are facing “extinction” as they have been subjected to “massive” mobilisation to fight in the war in Ukraine, a leading independent human rights expert said on Monday.

The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Russia, Mariana Katzarova, asserted that much of the mobilisation of minorities is forced.

“The mobilization of indigenous peoples, especially from less populated countries, is huge and the mortality rate is also huge, threatening their extinction,” she said, citing civil society data.

‘Almost no Slavic faces’ on the front lines

The independent rights expert, who does not work for the UN or receive a salary from the organisation, said that after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, she saw “almost no Slavic faces” in images broadcast from the front line, but instead images of ethnic minorities in Russia.

“It is the Buryatians, the Kalmyks, the Chechens, and the ethnic minorities in Russia,” she stressed.

Speaking in Geneva, Ms Katzarova said Russian authorities had gone to “remote corners” of the country to look for new recruits.

“The mobilization was not so brutal in Moscow and St. Petersburg…These were the most sophisticated places, where people knew their rights.

“But when you go 100 miles by train from Moscow and St. Petersburg and not to mention the remote parts of Siberia… people don’t even feel like they have a choice. They don’t even know their rights.”

The independent rights expert said she had documented cases where the army had gone “house to house” looking for soldiers and “just dragged the men out of indigenous villages”.

Ms. Katzarova will present her report to Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

Belarusian authorities quash ‘all avenues of dissent’, UN Human Rights Council hears

Serious rights violations continue against civil society and critics of the Government of Belarus, UN Human Rights Council heard on Monday.

Appointed by the Geneva-based Council, the Group of Independent Experts on Belarus has highlighted numerous serious abuses related to protests against President Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed re-election in 2020.

These included deaths, torture, gender-based violence and deprivation of the right to a fair trial, said Karinna Moskalenko, chair of the independent panel of experts.

Climate of fear

She said the government “continues to sow a widespread climate of fear by silencing all avenues of dissent, including in the digital space. New electronic intelligence equipment appears to have been pursued to increase surveillance of online activities, ahead of the presidential election.”

Ms. Moskalenko, in her capacity as an independent expert not working for the United Nations, continued to assert that President Lukashenko’s government “bears responsibility for the near-total destruction of public space and fundamental freedoms in Belarus.”

She noted that most of those who opposed the government had been “imprisoned or forced into exile since the 2020 election.”