LONDON: Six million children worldwide died last year from preventable diseases and other complications, which was about half the number of similar deaths in 2000 when nations endorsed goals to end extreme poverty, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
World leaders adopted the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, a year in which 11.2 million children below age 15 died from preventable diseases, a lack of clean water, malnutrition and during birth.
That number fell to 6.3 million in 2017 — or one child dying every five seconds — according to the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, which published Tuesday’s report along with other agencies and the World Bank.
“Millions of babies and children should not still be dying every year from lack of access to water, sanitation, proper nutrition or basic health services,” said Princess Simelela of the World Health Organization.
Most deaths last year — 5.4 million — were children below the age of five, according to the report, which also found that babies born in sub-Saharan African or South Asian nations were nine times more likely to die than those from richer countries.
That number has fallen “dramatically” since 1990, when 12.6 million children under five died globally from preventable causes, according to the report.
“We have made remarkable progress to save children since 1990, but millions are still dying because of who they are and where they are born,” said Laurence Chandy, director of data and research for UNICEF.
“With simple solutions like medicines, clean water, electricity and vaccines, we can change that reality for every child,” he said in a statement.
The UN in 2015 replaced the MDGs with 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which set a deadline of 2030 to end poverty, inequality and other global crises, while promoting initiatives such as sustainable energy.
However, the UN said last year that progress has so far been too slow to meet the targets, mainly due to violence including war.
The sweeping 15-year agenda approved by the 193 UN member states tackles such issues including child mortality, climate change, education, hunger, and land degradation.
Child deaths from preventable causes cut by half since 2000: UN
Child deaths from preventable causes cut by half since 2000: UN
- In 2000, 11.2 million children below age 15 died from preventable diseases, a lack of clean water, malnutrition and during birth
- That number fell to 6.3 million in 2017, or one child dying every five seconds
UK pays Guantanamo detainee ‘substantial’ compensation over US torture questions
- Abu Zubaydah has been held at Guantanamo Bay without charge for 20 years
- British security services knew he was subjected to ‘enhanced interrogation’ but failed to raise concerns for 4 years
LONDON: A Saudi-born Palestinian being held without trial by the US has received a “substantial” compensation payment from the UK government, the BBC reported.
Abu Zubaydah has been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for almost 20 years following his capture in Pakistan in 2002, and was subjected to “enhanced interrogation” techniques by the CIA.
He was accused of being a senior member of Al-Qaeda in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the US. The allegations were later dropped but he remains in detention.
The compensation follows revelations that UK security services submitted questions to the US to be put to Abu Zubaydah by their US counterparts despite knowledge of his mistreatment.
He alleged that MI5 and MI6 had been “complicit” in torture, leading to a legal case and the subsequent compensation.
Dominic Grieve, the UK’s former attorney general, chaired a panel reviewing Abu Zubaydah’s case.
He described the compensation as “very unusual” but said the treatment of Abu Zubaydah had been “plainly” wrong, the BBC reported.
Grieve added that the security services had evidence that the “Americans were behaving in a way that should have given us cause for real concern,” and that “we (UK authorities) should have raised it with the US and, if necessary, closed down co-operation, but we failed to do that for a considerable period of time.”
Abu Zubaydah’s international legal counsel, Prof. Helen Duffy, said: “The compensation is important, it’s significant, but it’s insufficient.”
She added that more needs to be done to secure his release, stating: “These violations of his rights are not historic, they are ongoing.”
Duffy said Abu Zubaydah would continue to fight for his freedom, adding: “I am hopeful that the payment of the substantial sums will enable him to do that and to support himself when he’s in the outside world.”
He is one of 15 people still being held at Guantanamo, many without charge. Following his initial detention, he arrived at the prison camp having been the first person to be taken to a so-called CIA “black site.”
He spent time at six such locations, including in Lithuania and Poland, outside of US legal jurisdiction.
Internal MI6 messages revealed that the “enhanced interrogation” techniques he was subjected to would have “broken” the resolve of an estimated 98 percent of US special forces members had they been subjected to them.
CIA officers later decided he would be permanently cut off from the outside world, with then-President George W. Bush publicly saying Abu Zubaydah had been “plotting and planning murder.”
However, the US has since withdrawn the allegations and no longer says he was a member of Al-Qaeda.
A report by the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said Abu Zubaydah had been waterboarded at least 83 times, was locked in a coffin-like box for extended periods, and had been regularly assaulted. Much of his treatment would be considered torture under UK law.
Despite knowledge of his treatment, it was four years before British security services raised concerns with their American counterparts, and their submission of questions within that period had “created a market” for the torture of detainees, Duffy said.
A 2018 report by the UK Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee was deeply critical of the behavior of MI5 and MI6 in relation to Abu Zubaydah.
It also criticized conduct relating to Guantanamo detainee Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, widely regarded as a key architect of the Sept. 11 attacks, warning that the precedent set by Abu Zubaydah’s legal action could be used by Mohammed to bring a separate case against the UK.
MI5 and MI6 failed to comment on Abu Zubaydah’s case. Neither the UK government nor Mohammed’s legal team would comment on a possible case over his treatment.
