Search This Blog

Monday, August 24, 2020

Svalbard

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Svalbard
A sign warning of polar bears on a road in Svalbard
A sign warning of polar bears on a road in Svalbard
Location of Svalbard in relation to Norway
Location of Svalbard (dark green)
– in Europe (green & dark grey)
– in Norway (green)
Sovereign state Norway
Svalbard Treaty9 February 1920
Svalbard Act17 July 1925
Administrative centre
and largest town
Longyearbyen
78°13′N 15°39′ECoordinates: 78°13′N 15°39′E
Ethnic groups
(2019)
56.9% Norwegian
43.1% other
GovernmentDevolved locally administered unincorporated area within a constitutional monarchy

• Monarch
Harald V
• Governor
Kjerstin Askholt
Area
• Total
61,022 km2 (23,561 sq mi) (not ranked)
Highest elevation1,717 m (5,633 ft)
Population
• 2020 estimate
2,939
• Density
0.044/km2 (0.1/sq mi) (248th)
CurrencyNorwegian krone (NOK)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)
UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Date formatdd.mm.yyyy
Driving sideright
Calling code+47
Postal code
917x
ISO 3166 code
Internet TLD
Svalbard (/ˈsvɑːlbɑːr/ SVAHL-bar, prior to 1925 known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Situated north of mainland Europe, it is about midway between continental Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range from 74° to 81° north latitude, and from 10° to 35° east longitude. The largest island is Spitsbergen, followed by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya. While part of the Kingdom of Norway since 1925, Svalbard is not part of geographical Norway proper; administratively, the archipelago is not part of any Norwegian county, but forms an unincorporated area administered by a governor appointed by the Norwegian government, and a special jurisdiction subject to the Svalbard Treaty that is, unlike Norway proper, outside of the Schengen Area, the Nordic Passport Union and the European Economic Area.
Since 2002, Svalbard's main settlement, Longyearbyen, has had an elected local government, somewhat similar to mainland municipalities. Other settlements include the Russian mining community of Barentsburg, the research station of Ny-Ålesund, and the mining outpost of Sveagruva. Other settlements are farther north, but are populated only by rotating groups of researchers.
The islands were first used as a whaling base by whalers who sailed far north in pursuit of whales for blubber in the 17th and 18th centuries, after which they were abandoned. Coal mining started at the beginning of the 20th century, and several permanent communities were established. The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 recognizes Norwegian sovereignty, and the 1925 Svalbard Act made Svalbard a full part of the Kingdom of Norway. They also established Svalbard as a free economic zone and a demilitarized zone. The Norwegian Store Norske and the Russian Arktikugol remain the only mining companies in place. Research and tourism have become important supplementary industries, with the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault playing critical roles. No roads connect the settlements; instead snowmobiles, aircraft and boats serve inter-community transport. Svalbard Airport, Longyear serves as the main gateway.
The archipelago features an Arctic climate, although with significantly higher temperatures than other areas at the same latitude. The flora take advantage of the long period of midnight sun to compensate for the polar night. Svalbard is a breeding ground for many seabirds, and also features polar bears, reindeer, the Arctic fox, and certain marine mammals. Seven national parks and twenty-three nature reserves cover two-thirds of the archipelago, protecting the largely untouched, yet fragile, natural environment. Approximately 60% of the archipelago is covered with glaciers, and the islands feature many mountains and fjords.
Svalbard and Jan Mayen are collectively assigned the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code "SJ". Both areas are administered by Norway, though they are separated by a distance of over 950 kilometres (590 miles; 510 nautical miles) and have very different administrative structures.

Etymology

The name Svalbard comes from an older native name for the archipelago, Svalbarð, composed of the well-attested Old Norse words svalr ("cold") and barð ("edge; ridge, turf, beard"). The name Spitsbergen originated with Dutch navigator and explorer Willem Barentsz, who described the "pointed mountains" or, in Dutch, spitse bergen that he saw on the west coast of the main island, Spitsbergen. Barentsz did not recognize that he had discovered an archipelago, and consequently the name Spitsbergen long remained in use both for the main island and for the archipelago as a whole.

Geography

The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 defines Svalbard as all islands, islets and skerries from 74° to 81° north latitude, and from 10° to 35° east longitude. The land area is 61,022 km2 (23,561 sq mi), and dominated by the island of Spitsbergen, which constitutes more than half the archipelago, followed by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya. All settlements are located on Spitsbergen, except the meteorological outposts on Bjørnøya and Hopen. The Norwegian state took possession of all unclaimed land, or 95.2% of the archipelago, at the time the Svalbard Treaty entered into force; Store Norske, a Norwegian coal mining company, owns 4%, Arktikugol, a Russian coal mining company, owns 0.4%, while other private owners hold 0.4%.
Since Svalbard is located north of the Arctic Circle, it experiences midnight sun in summer and polar night in winter. At 74° north, the midnight sun lasts 99 days and polar night 84 days, while the respective figures at 81° are 141 and 128 days. In Longyearbyen, midnight sun lasts from 20 April until 23 August, and polar night lasts from 26 October to 15 February. In winter, the combination of full moon and reflective snow can give additional light. Due to the Earth's tilt and the high latitude, Svalbard has extensive twilights. Longyearbyen sees the first and last day of polar night having seven and a half hours of twilight, whereas the perpetual light lasts for two weeks longer than the midnight sun. On the summer solstice, the sun bottoms out at 12° sun angle in the middle of the night, being much higher during night than in mainland Norway's polar light areas. However, the daytime strength of the sun remains as low as 35°.
Glacial ice covers 36,502 km2 (14,094 sq mi) or 60% of Svalbard; 30% is barren rock while 10% is vegetated. The largest glacier is Austfonna (8,412 km2 or 3,248 sq mi) on Nordaustlandet, followed by Olav V Land and Vestfonna. During summer, it is possible to ski from Sørkapp in the south to the north of Spitsbergen, with only a short distance not being covered by snow or glacier. Kvitøya is 99.3% covered by glacier.
The landforms of Svalbard were created through repeated ice ages, when glaciers cut the former plateau into fjords, valleys, and mountains. The tallest peak is Newtontoppen (1,717 m or 5,633 ft), followed by Perriertoppen (1,712 m or 5,617 ft), Ceresfjellet (1,675 m or 5,495 ft), Chadwickryggen (1,640 m or 5,380 ft), and Galileotoppen (1,637 m or 5,371 ft). The longest fjord is Wijdefjorden (108 km or 67 mi), followed by Isfjorden (107 km or 66 mi), Van Mijenfjorden (83 km or 52 mi), Woodfjorden (64 km or 40 mi), and Wahlenbergfjorden (46 km or 29 mi). Svalbard is part of the High Arctic Large Igneous Province, and experienced Norway's strongest earthquake on 6 March 2009, which hit a magnitude of 6.5.

History

Svalbard, here mapped for the first time, is indicated as "Het Nieuwe Land" (Dutch for "the New Land"), center-left. Portion of 1599 map of Arctic exploration by Willem Barentsz.
In the Golden Age of Dutch exploration and discovery (c. 1590s–1720s), Dutch navigators were the first non-natives to undisputedly explore and map many largely unknown isolated areas of the world, including the Svalbard archipelago and Jan Mayen in the Arctic Ocean.

Dutch discovery, exploration, and mapping of a terra nullius

The Dutchman Willem Barentsz made the first discovery of the archipelago in 1596, when he sighted the coast of the island of Spitsbergen while searching for the Northern Sea Route.
The first recorded landing on the islands of Svalbard dates to 1604, when an English ship landed at Bjørnøya, or Bear Island, and started hunting walrus. Annual expeditions soon followed, and Spitsbergen became a base for hunting the bowhead whale from 1611. Because of the lawless nature of the area, English, Danish, Dutch, and French companies and authorities tried to use force to keep out other countries' fleets.

17th–18th centuries

The whaling station of the Amsterdam chamber of the Northern Company in Smeerenburg, by Cornelis de Man (1639), but based on a painting of a Dansk hvalfangststation (Danish whaling station) by A.B.R. Speeck (1634), which represented the Danish station in Copenhagen Bay (Kobbefjorden)
Smeerenburg was one of the first settlements, established by the Dutch in 1619. Smaller bases were also built by the English, Danish, and French. At first the outposts were merely summer camps, but from the early 1630s, a few individuals started to overwinter. Whaling at Spitsbergen lasted until the 1820s, when the Dutch, British, and Danish whalers moved elsewhere in the Arctic. By the late 17th century, Russian hunters arrived; they overwintered to a greater extent and hunted land mammals such as the polar bear and fox.

19th century

After the Anglo-Russian War in 1809, Russian activity on Svalbard diminished, and ceased by the 1820s. Norwegian hunting—mostly for walrus—started in the 1790s. The first Norwegian citizens to reach Spitsbergen proper were a number of Coast Sámi people from the Hammerfest region, who were hired as part of a Russian crew for an expedition in 1795. Norwegian whaling was abandoned about the same time as the Russians left, but whaling continued around Spitsbergen until the 1830s, and around Bjørnøya until the 1860s.

20th century

Svalbard Treaty and Norwegian sovereignty

By the 1890s, Svalbard had become a destination for Arctic tourism, coal deposits had been found and the islands were being used as a base for Arctic exploration. The first mining was along Isfjorden by Norwegians in 1899; by 1904, British interests had established themselves in Adventfjorden and started the first all-year operations. Production in Longyearbyen, by American interests, started in 1908; and Store Norske established itself in 1916, as did other Norwegian interests during the war, in part by buying American interests.
Discussions to establish the sovereignty of the archipelago commenced in the 1910s, but were interrupted by World War I. On 9 February 1920, following the Paris Peace Conference, the Svalbard Treaty was signed, granting full sovereignty to Norway. However, all signatory countries were granted non-discriminatory rights to fishing, hunting, and mineral resources. The treaty took effect on 14 August 1925, at the same time as the Svalbard Act regulated the archipelago and the first governor, Johannes Gerckens Bassøe, took office. The archipelago has traditionally been known as Spitsbergen, and the main island as West Spitsbergen. From the 1920s, Norway renamed the archipelago Svalbard, and the main island became Spitsbergen. Kvitøya, Kong Karls Land, Hopen, and Bjørnøya were not regarded as part of the Spitsbergen archipelago. Russians have traditionally called the archipelago Grumant (Грумант). The Soviet Union retained the name Spitsbergen (Шпицберген) to support undocumented claims that Russians were the first to discover the island. In 1928, Italian explorer Umberto Nobile and the crew of the airship Italia crashed on the icepack off the coast of Foyn Island. The subsequent rescue attempts were covered extensively in the press and Svalbard received short-lived fame as a result.

Second World War

Demolition of the wireless station during Operation Gauntlet in 1941
Svalbard, known to both British and Germans as Spitsbergen, was little affected by the German invasion of Norway in April 1940. The settlements continued to operate as before, mining coal and monitoring the weather. In July 1941, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Royal Navy reconnoitred the islands with a view to using them as a base of operations to facilitate sending supplies to north Russia, but the idea was rejected as too impractical. Instead, with the agreement of the Soviets and the Norwegian government in exile, in August 1941 the Norwegian and Soviet settlements on Svalbard were evacuated, and facilities there destroyed, in Operation Gauntlet. However the Norwegian government in exile decided it would be important politically to establish a garrison in the islands, which was done in May 1942 during Operation Fritham.
Meanwhile, the Germans had responded to the destruction of weather station by establishing a reporting station of their own, codenamed "Banso", in October 1941. This was chased away in November by a visit from four British warships, but later returned. A second station, "Knospel", was established at Ny Alesund in 1941, remaining until 1942. In May 1942, after the arrival of the Fritham force, the German unit at Banso was evacuated.
In September 1943 in Operation Zitronella a German task force, which included the battleship Tirpitz, was sent to attack the garrison and destroy the settlements at Longyearbyen and Barentsburg. This was achieved, but had little long-term effect: after their departure the Norwegians returned and re-established their presence.
In September 1944, the Germans set up their last weather station, Operation Haudegen in NordOstLand; this remained functioning until after the German surrender. On 4 September 1945, the soldiers were picked up by a Norwegian seal hunting vessel and surrendered to its captain. This group of men were the last German troops to surrender after the Second World War.
After the war, the Soviet Union proposed common Norwegian and Soviet administration and military defence of Svalbard. This was rejected in 1947 by Norway, which two years later joined NATO. The Soviet Union retained high civilian activity on Svalbard, in part to ensure that the archipelago was not used by NATO.

Post-war

Abandoned aerial tramway previously used for transporting coal
After the war, Norway re-established operations at Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund, while the Soviet Union established mining in Barentsburg, Pyramiden and Grumant. The mine at Ny-Ålesund had several fatal accidents, killing 71 people while it was in operation from 1945 to 1954 and from 1960 to 1963. The Kings Bay Affair, caused by the 1962 accident killing 21 workers, forced Gerhardsen's Third Cabinet to resign. From 1964, Ny-Ålesund became a research outpost, and a facility for the European Space Research Organisation. Petroleum test drilling was started in 1963 and continued until 1984, but no commercially viable fields were found. From 1960, regular charter flights were made from the mainland to a field at Hotellneset; in 1975, Svalbard Airport, Longyear opened, allowing year-round services.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union comprised about two-thirds of the population on the islands (Norwegians making up the remaining third) with the population of the archipelago slightly under 4,000. Russian activity has diminished considerably since then, falling from 2,500 to 450 people from 1990 to 2010. Grumant was closed after it was depleted in 1962. Pyramiden was closed in 1998. Coal exports from Barentsburg ceased in 2006 because of a fire, but resumed in 2010. The Russian community has also experienced two air accidents, Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, which killed 141 people, and the Heerodden helicopter accident, which killed three people.
Longyearbyen remained purely a company town until 1989 when utilities, culture, and education was separated into Svalbard Samfunnsdrift. In 1993, it was sold to the national government and the University Centre was established. Through the 1990s, tourism increased and the town developed an economy independent of Store Norske and the mining. Longyearbyen was incorporated on 1 January 2002, receiving a community council.

Population

Demographics

The dock house in Barentsburg
In 2016, Svalbard had a population of 2,667, of which 423 were Russian and Ukrainian, 10 Polish, and 322 non-Norwegians living in Norwegian settlements. The largest non-Norwegian groups in Longyearbyen in 2005 were from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Thailand.

Settlements

Company homes in Longyearbyen
Longyearbyen is the largest settlement on the archipelago, the seat of the governor and the only town to be incorporated. The town features a hospital, primary and secondary school, university, sports center with a swimming pool, library, culture center, cinema, bus transport, hotels, a bank, and several museums. The newspaper Svalbardposten is published weekly. Only a small fraction of the mining activity remains at Longyearbyen; instead, workers commute to Sveagruva (or Svea) where Store Norske operates a mine. Sveagruva is a dormitory town, with workers commuting from Longyearbyen weekly.
Ny-Ålesund is a permanent settlement based entirely around research. Formerly a mining town, it is still a company town operated by the Norwegian state-owned Kings Bay. While there is some tourism there, Norwegian authorities limit access to the outpost to minimize impact on the scientific work. Ny-Ålesund has a winter population of 35 and a summer population of 180.  The Norwegian Meteorological Institute has outposts at Bjørnøya and Hopen, with respectively ten and four people stationed. Both outposts can also house temporary research staff. Poland operates the Polish Polar Station at Hornsund, with ten permanent residents.
The abandoned Soviet mining town of Pyramiden
Barentsburg is the only permanently inhabited Russian settlement after Pyramiden was abandoned in 1998. It is a company town: all facilities are owned by Arktikugol, which operates a coal mine. In addition to the mining facilities, Arktikugol has opened a hotel and souvenir shop, catering for tourists taking day trips or hikes from Longyearbyen. The village features facilities such as a school, library, sports center, community center, swimming pool, farm, and greenhouse. Pyramiden features similar facilities; both are built in typical post-World War II Soviet architectural and planning style and contain the world's two most northerly Lenin statues and other socialist realism artwork. As of 2013, a handful of workers are stationed in the largely abandoned Pyramiden to maintain the infrastructure and run the hotel, which has been re-opened for tourists.

Religion

Most of the population is Christian and affiliated with the Church of Norway. Catholics on the archipelago are pastorally served by the Territorial Prelature of Tromsø.

Politics

MS Nordsyssel, the Governor's vessel, docked at Ny-Ålesund
The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 established full Norwegian sovereignty over the archipelago. The islands are, unlike the Norwegian Antarctic Territory, a part of the Kingdom of Norway and not a dependency. The treaty came into effect in 1925, following the Svalbard Act. All forty signatory countries of the treaty have the right to conduct commercial activities on the archipelago without discrimination, although all activity is subject to Norwegian legislation. The treaty limits Norway's right to collect taxes to that of financing services on Svalbard. Therefore, Svalbard has a lower income tax than mainland Norway, and there is no value added tax. There is a separate budget for Svalbard to ensure compliance. Svalbard is a demilitarized zone, as the treaty prohibits the establishment of military installations. Norwegian military activity is limited to fishery surveillance by the Norwegian Coast Guard as the treaty requires Norway to protect the natural environment. There are no restrictions on foreigners migrating in, and hence no visa requirement.
The Svalbard Act established the institution of the Governor of Svalbard (Norwegian: Sysselmannen), who holds the responsibility as both county governor and chief of police, as well as holding other authority granted from the executive branch. Duties include environmental policy, family law, law enforcement, search and rescue, tourism management, information services, contact with foreign settlements, and judge in some areas of maritime inquiries and judicial examinations—albeit never in the same cases as acting as police. Since 2015, Kjerstin Askholt has been governor; she is assisted by a staff of 26 professionals. The institution is subordinate to the Ministry of Justice and the Police, but reports to other ministries in matters within their portfolio.
Since 2002, Longyearbyen Community Council has had many of the same responsibilities of a municipality, including utilities, education, cultural facilities, fire department, roads, and ports. No care or nursing services are available, nor is welfare payment available. Norwegian residents retain pension and medical rights through their mainland municipalities. The hospital is part of University Hospital of North Norway, while the airport is operated by state-owned Avinor. Ny-Ålesund and Barentsburg remain company towns with all infrastructure owned by Kings Bay and Arktikugol, respectively. Other public offices with presence on Svalbard are the Norwegian Directorate of Mining, the Norwegian Polar Institute, the Norwegian Tax Administration, and the Church of Norway. Svalbard is subordinate to Nord-Troms District Court and Hålogaland Court of Appeal, both located in Tromsø.
Although Norway is part of the European Economic Area (EEA) and the Schengen Agreement, Svalbard is not part of the Schengen Area or the EEA. Non-EU and non-Nordic Svalbard residents do not need Schengen visas, but are prohibited from reaching Svalbard from mainland Norway without such. People without a source of income can be rejected by the governor. No person is required to have a visa or residence permit for Svalbard. Everybody can live and work in Svalbard indefinitely regardless of citizenship. Svalbard Treaty grants treaty nationals equal right of abode as Norwegian nationals. So far, non-treaty nationals were admitted visa-free as well. "Regulations concerning rejection and expulsion from Svalbard" in force. Russia retains a consulate in Barentsburg.
In September 2010, a treaty was made between Russia and Norway fixing the boundary between the Svalbard archipelago and the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Increased interest in petroleum exploration in the Arctic raised interest in a resolution of the dispute. The agreement takes into account the relative positions of the archipelagos, rather than being based simply on northward extension of the continental border of Norway and Russia.

Economy

Tourists viewing a glacier
The three main industries on Svalbard are coal mining, tourism, and research. In 2007, there were 484 people working in the mining sector, 211 people working in the tourism sector, and 111 people working in the education sector. The same year, the mining gave a revenue of 2.008 billion Norwegian kroner (US$227,791,078), tourism 317 million kroner ($35,967,202), and research 142 million kroner ($16,098,404). In 2006, the average income for economically active people was 494,700 kroner; 23% higher than on the mainland. Almost all housing is owned by the various employers and institutions and rented to their employees; there are only a few privately owned houses, most of which are recreational cabins. Because of this, it is nearly impossible to live on Svalbard without working for an established institution.
Since the resettlement of Svalbard in the early 20th century, coal mining has been the dominant commercial activity. Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani, a subsidiary of the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry, operates Svea Nord in Sveagruva and Mine 7 in Longyearbyen. The former produced 3.4 million tonnes in 2008, while the latter uses 35% of its output to fuel the Longyearbyen Power Station. Since 2007, there has not been any significant mining by the Russian state-owned Arktikugol in Barentsburg. There have previously been performed test drilling for petroleum on land, but these did not give satisfactory results for permanent operation. The Norwegian authorities do not allow offshore petroleum activities for environmental reasons, and the land formerly test-drilled on have been protected as natural reserves or national parks. In 2011, a 20-year plan to develop offshore oil and gas resources around Svalbard was announced.
NASA research facility in Ny-Ålesund
Svalbard has historically been a base for both whaling and fishing. Norway claimed a 200-nautical-mile (370 km; 230 mi) exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around Svalbard in 1977, with 31,688 square kilometres (12,235 sq mi) of internal waters and 770,565 square kilometres (297,517 sq mi) of EEZ. Norway retains a restrictive fisheries policy in the zone, and the claims are disputed by Russia. Tourism is focused on the environment and is centered on Longyearbyen. Activities include hiking, kayaking, walks through glacier caves, and snowmobile and dog-sled safari. Cruise ships generate a significant portion of the traffic, including both stops by offshore vessels and expeditionary cruises starting and ending in Svalbard. Traffic is strongly concentrated between March and August; overnights have quintupled from 1991 to 2008, when there were 93,000 guest-nights.
Research on Svalbard centers on Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund, the most accessible areas in the high Arctic. The treaty grants permission for any nation to conduct research on Svalbard, resulting in the Polish Polar Station and the Chinese Arctic Yellow River Station, plus Russian facilities in Barentsburg. The University Centre in Svalbard in Longyearbyen offers undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate courses to 350 students in various arctic sciences, particularly biology, geology, and geophysics. Courses are provided to supplement studies at the mainland universities; there are no tuition fees and courses are held in English, with Norwegian and international students equally represented.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a seedbank to store seeds from as many of the world's crop varieties and their botanical wild relatives as possible. A cooperation between the government of Norway and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, the vault is cut into rock near Longyearbyen, keeping it at a natural −6 °C (21 °F) and refrigerating the seeds to −18 °C (0 °F).
The Svalbard Undersea Cable System is a 1,440 km (890 mi) fibre optic line from Svalbard to Harstad, needed for communicating with polar orbiting satellites through Svalbard Satellite Station and installations in Ny-Ålesund.
The Arctic World Archive, a huge digital archiving concern run by Norwegian private company Piql and the state-owned coal-mining company Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani, opened in March 2017. In mid-2020, it acquired its biggest customer in the form of GitHub, a subsidiary of Microsoft.
One source of income for the area was, until 2015, visiting cruise ships. The Norwegian government became concerned about large numbers of cruise ship passengers suddenly landing at small settlements such as Ny-Ålesund, which is conveniently close to the barren-yet-picturesque Magdalena Fjord. With the increasing size of the larger ships, up to 2,000 people can potentially appear in a community that normally numbers less than 40. As a result, the government severely restricted the size of cruise ships that may visit.
Unemployment is effectively banned, and there is no welfare system.

Transport

Snowmobiles are an important mode of transport in Svalbard, such as here at Longyearbyen.
Within Longyearbyen, Barentsburg, and Ny-Ålesund, there are road systems, but they do not connect with each other. Off-road motorized transport is prohibited on bare ground, but snowmobiles are used extensively during winter—both for commercial and recreational activities. Transport from Longyearbyen to Barentsburg (45 km or 28 mi) and Pyramiden (100 km or 62 mi) is possible by snowmobile in winter, or by ship all year round. All settlements have ports and Longyearbyen has a bus system.
Svalbard Airport, Longyear, located 3 kilometres (2 mi) from Longyearbyen, is the only airport offering air transport off the archipelago. Scandinavian Airlines has daily scheduled services to Tromsø and Oslo. Low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle also has a service between Oslo and Svalbard, operating three or four times a week; there are also irregular charter services to Russia. Finnair operated service from Helsinki, operating three times per week between June and August 2016, but Norwegian authorities did not allow this route, citing the 1978 bilateral agreement on air traffic between Finland and Norway. Lufttransport provides regular corporate charter services from Longyearbyen to Ny-Ålesund Airport and Svea Airport for Kings Bay and Store Norske; these flights are generally not available to the public. There are heliports in Barentsburg and Pyramiden, and helicopters are frequently used by the governor and to a lesser extent the mining company Arktikugol.

Climate

Spitsbergen during August
The climate of Svalbard is dominated by its high latitude, with the average summer temperature at 4 to 6 °C (39 to 43 °F) and January averages at −16 to −12 °C (3 to 10 °F). The West Spitsbergen Current, the northernmost branch of the North Atlantic Current system, moderates Svalbard's temperatures, particularly during winter. Winter temperatures in Svalbard are up to 2 °C (4 °F) higher than those at similar latitudes in Russia and Canada. The warm Atlantic water keeps the surrounding waters open and navigable most of the year. The interior fjord areas and valleys, sheltered by the mountains, have larger temperature differences than the coast, giving about 20 °C (36 °F) warmer summer temperatures and 3 °C (5 °F) colder winter temperatures. On the south of Spitsbergen, the temperature is slightly higher than further north and west. During winter, the temperature difference between south and north is typically 5 °C (9 °F), and about 3 °C (5 °F) in summer. Bear Island has average temperatures even higher than the rest of the archipelago.
Svalbard is where cold polar air from the north and mild, wet sea air from the south meet, creating low pressure, changeable weather and strong winds, particularly in winter; in January, a strong breeze is registered 17% of the time at Isfjord Radio, but only 1% of the time in July. In summer, particularly away from land, fog is common, with visibility under 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) registered 20% of the time in July and 1% of the time in January, at Hopen and Bjørnøya. Precipitation is frequent, but falls in small quantities, typically less than 400 millimetres (16 in) per year in western Spitsbergen. More rain falls on the uninhabited east side, where there can be more than 1,000 millimetres (39 in).
2016 was the warmest year on record at Svalbard Airport, with a remarkable mean temperature of 0.0 °C (32.0 °F), 7.5 °C (13.5 °F) above the 1961–90 average, and more comparable to a location at the arctic circle. The coldest temperature of the year was as high as −18 °C (0 °F), warmer than the mean minimum in a normal January, February or March. In the same year, the number of days when there was rainfall equalled the number of days when there was snowfall, a significant deviation from the usual pattern whereby there would be at least twice as many snow days.
Global warming has resulted in noticeable climatic changes on Svalbard. Between 1970 and 2020, the average temperature on Svalbard rose by 4 degrees Celsius, and in the winter months by 7 degrees. On July 25, 2020, a new record temperature of 21.7 degrees Celsius was measured for the Svalbard archipelago, which is also the highest temperature ever recorded in the European part of the Arctic; In addition, temperatures of over 20 degrees were measured four days in a row in July 2020. As in large parts of the Arctic, the ice–albedo feedback effects can also be noticed on Svalbard: Due to the substantial ice melt, ice surfaces are transformed into open water, the darker surface of which absorbs more solar energy instead of reflecting it back; as a result, these waters heat up and further ice in the area melts faster and faster, creating more open waters, etc. A temperature increase of between 7 and 10 degrees is expected on Svalbard by the end of the century.

Nature

In addition to humans, three primarily terrestrial mammalian species inhabit the archipelago: the Arctic fox, the Svalbard reindeer, and accidentally introduced southern voles, which are found only in Grumant. Attempts to introduce the Arctic hare and the muskox have both failed. There are 15 to 20 types of marine mammals, including whales, dolphins, seals, walruses, and polar bears.
Polar bears are the iconic symbol of Svalbard, and one of the main tourist attractions. The animals are protected and people moving outside the settlements are required to have appropriate scare devices to ward off attacks. They are also advised to carry a firearm for use as a last resort. A British schoolboy was killed by a polar bear in 2011. In July 2018, a polar bear was shot dead after it attacked and injured a polar bear guard leading tourists off a cruise ship. Svalbard and Franz Joseph Land share a common population of 3,000 polar bears, with Kong Karls Land being the most important breeding ground.
Female polar bear with cub
The Svalbard reindeer (R. tarandus platyrhynchus) is a distinct subspecies; although it was previously almost extinct, it can be legally hunted (as can Arctic fox). There are limited numbers of domesticated animals in the Russian settlements.
Tundra at Bellsund
About eighty species of bird are found on Svalbard, most of which are migratory. The Barents Sea is among the areas in the world with most seabirds, with about 20 million individuals during late summer. The most common are little auk, northern fulmar, thick-billed murre, and black-legged kittiwake. Sixteen species are on the IUCN Red List. Particularly Bjørnøya, Storfjorden, Nordvest-Spitsbergen, and Hopen are important breeding ground for seabirds. The Arctic tern has the furthest migration, all the way to Antarctica.  Only two songbirds migrate to Svalbard to breed: the snow bunting and the wheatear. Rock ptarmigan is the only bird to overwinter. Remains of Predator X (Pliosaurus funkei) from the Jurassic period were discovered here; it is one of the largest dinosaur-era marine reptiles ever found.
Western coast of Bünsow Land. Located at Isfjorden in Spitsbergen
Svalbard has permafrost and tundra, with both low, middle, and high Arctic vegetation. 165 species of plants have been found on the archipelago. Only those areas which defrost in the summer have vegetations, which accounts for about 10% of the archipelago. Vegetation is most abundant in Nordenskiöld Land, around Isfjorden and where affected by guano. While there is little precipitation, giving the archipelago a steppe climate, plants still have good access to water because the cold climate reduces evaporation. The growing season is very short, and may last only a few weeks.
There are seven national parks in Svalbard: Forlandet, Indre Wijdefjorden, Nordenskiöld Land, Nordre Isfjorden Land, Nordvest-Spitsbergen, Sassen-Bünsow Land and Sør-Spitsbergen. The archipelago has fifteen bird sanctuaries, one geotopic protected area and six nature reserves—with Nordaust-Svalbard and Søraust-Svalbard both being larger than any of the national parks. Most of the nature reserves and three of the national parks were created in 1973, with the remaining areas gaining protection in the 2000s. All human traces dating from before 1946 are automatically protected. The protected areas make up 65% of the archipelago. Svalbard is on Norway's tentative list for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The total solar eclipse of 20 March 2015 included only Svalbard and the Faroe Islands in the band of totality. Many scientists and tourists observed it.

Education

Longyearbyen School serves ages 6–18. It is the primary/secondary school in the northernmost location on Earth. Once pupils reach ages 16 or 17, most families move to mainland Norway. Barentsburg has its own school serving the Russian community; by 2014 it had three teachers, and its welfare funds had declined. A primary school served the community of Pyramiden in the pre-1998 period.
There is a non-degree offering tertiary educational institution in Longyearbyen, University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), the northernmost tertiary school on Earth.

Sports

Association football is the most popular sport in Svalbard. There are three football pitches (one at Barentsburg), but no stadiums because of the small population. There is also an indoor hall adopted for multiple sports including indoor football.

Free migration

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Magna Carta or "Great Charter" was one of the world's first documents containing commitments by a sovereign to his people to respect certain legal rights

Free migration or open immigration is the position that people should be able to migrate to whatever country they choose.

Argument for free migration

Economic considerations

According to John Kennan’s (2012) data simulations (collected in multiple countries to simulate the effects of open borders), there would be large economic gains between Mexico and the United States of America through the implementation of open borders. Liberal economic reasoning advocates for open borders to prevent economic inequality between countries where country A is more efficient than country B due to restrictions on immigration creating production efficiency gaps between the two countries. Labor share data estimates that there would be more economic gains through free migration between countries. These gains are expressed through the economic and labor growth in the country along with economic gain for foreign and resident workers in that country. Economic simulations show that migration lowers the real wage for both countries receiving and sending immigrants; however, the effect of this decrease is based on the goods and services consumed by an individual. According to Kennan “these gains are associated with a relatively small reduction in the real wage in developed countries, and even this effect disappears as the capital–labor ratio adjusts over time.” Therefore, the number of workers in both receiving and sending countries would double by the current population of workers. Although the two are not the same issue, free migration is similar in spirit to the concept of free trade, and both are advocated by free market economists on the grounds that economics is not a zero-sum game and that free markets are, in their opinion, the best way to create a fairer and balanced economic system, thereby increasing the overall economic benefits to all concerned parties.

Notwithstanding noteworthy differences among these political ideologies, many libertarians, liberals, socialists, and anarchists advocate open immigration, as do Objectivists.

Some free market economists believe that competition is the essence of a healthy economic system, and that any short-term negative impact on individual economic factors that is caused by free migration is more than justified by the prospects of long-term growth for the economy as a whole.

Human rights perspective

From a human-rights perspective, free migration may be seen to complement Article 13 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights:

  1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.
  2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Arguments against free migration

Arguments against free immigration are usually economical, cultural or security-related. Hans-Werner Sinn, president of Ifo Institute for Economic Research has declared "Welfare states are fundamentally incompatible with the free movement of people" which was similar to Milton Friedman statement "It's just obvious you can't have free immigration and a welfare state". Some arguments are nationalistic or what some critics claim to be "xenophobic", or ones similar to arguments against free trade, favoring protectionism.

Examples of Free migration

Free migration of war/political refugees

War-related chaos can lead to the breakdown of borders and allow for de facto free immigration. The natural attempts to flee strife, or escape a conquering enemy, can quickly lead to millions of refugees. Even where border controls are in place they can be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people. Once settled into refugee camps, these reluctant immigrants may take decades to be either repatriated back or naturalized into their new country. This has been the situation with the Palestinians in Jordan.

During the Cold War, a migration paradox arose in which some of the communist states forbade emigration, while the "Free World" would freely accept the defectors. This policy persists for Cubans and the Hmong, who are both allowed particular forms of free immigration to the United States based on their automatic refugee status.

Areas with free internal migration

Areas with free external migration

Law and ethics

Many nation states have agreed and disagreed on the topic of open borders and free migration, with some countries allowing people to travel freely from country to country and state to state without the risk of deportation or punishment. The consensus within the open borders debate is to “establish a view of migration that reflects the liberal commitment to the equal moral worth of all people which applies to a truly global view of migration.” Various ideas have been applied to a global view of migration, such as the ideas of other journalists such as Johnathan Wolff and Avnir De-Shalit to migration. Wolff and De-Shalit’s state that the use of law and ethics is a positive factor in the debate over free migration. The debate of free migration does not apply to a specific country but extends beyond, and continues on to a broader spectrum for introducing a freedom of movement amongst all people, for all countries. However, this concept is especially significant to the places that experience the most migration-including both host and receiving countries or states. Free migration is not limited to a certain time period, but has been more relevant and controversial in recent years, especially in the United States. In the U.S., it has become a more controversial topic since 9/11.

Free migration is a concept to consider when comparing basic human rights and migration. "Constraining movement in most cases is therefore, unjustified and immoral". The topic of free migration is not a matter to be only exclusively debated amongst national governments of varying nations, but a worldwide discussion for all people of all nations on the debate of open borders and free migration. In that case, nations and people from all over the world can learn from each other where everyone is involved in the attempt to come to a just conclusion and solution to the problems surrounding both immigration and free migration alike. Free Migration has been slowly restricted throughout recent history due to the inevitable progression of society, causing more independent societies to create tighter laws, policies, and regulations concerning immigration. With nations closing themselves off and shutting their borders from non-residents, it is difficult for free migration to become secure, as well as having members of society prioritize an institutional issue such as this.

Immigration officers and agents must maintain a code of conduct based on policy to provide equal treatment to any and all immigrants. Officers must put their political views behind them and revert to policy law; leaving behind their personal moral conflicts and ethics to abide by law and policy. Political philosophers focus on free movement as a human right and aid for those in poverty or serious global inequality. Although there is not a necessary definition for something considered to be morally, ethically, or legally accepted in a society, everyone has an individual connection to what may be considered good for society and what may be considered bad for society. The United States government has placed many strict laws on immigration that it proposes will produce a better immigration system. Other countries, through United Nations consensus, allow a minimum two year system for refugee relocation, with other countries such as Canada and Switzerland operating within a four year system.

Spiritual perspectives on migration

Through numerous situations and encounters, immigration can be a test of mental fortitude rather than physical ability. In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is considered to be a guide to awakening and to the Pure Lands. "The Buddha declares that we are all bodhisattvas destined to attain full Awakening. It seems that each of us, then, is engaged in 'spiritual immigration'. The Buddha asserts that everyone is a bodhisattva, or a 'spiritual immigrant', who must attain various virtues which ultimately leads to prajnaparamita, or 'transcendent wisdom'. The existence of Buddhas and Mahasattvas—'great beings' who have achieved a high level on the path to awakening—have created various branches of belief like Mahayana Buddhism, which is a form of 'spiritual immigration'. "Buddhism is a type of immigration from the world of suffering to nirvana....We are all immigrants who, paradoxically, are seeking to and the land in which we already dwell". In terms of 'spiritual immigration', the path of the bodhisattva is a change of mental capacity rather than cosmic location.

According to Buddhist teaching, the purpose of a 'spiritual immigration' is to help guide the individual onto their future path. The Pure Land is the state of untainted mind: reaching this land of purity requires persistent effort and practice. Along the journey, individuals learn to envision their future as a land of opportunity. The intention of the pure land is to assure that the individual achieves their personal goals in life—the betterment of oneself in order to reach nirvana. Alongside these goals, practitioners also learn about the relationship of 'self' and 'others', resulting in the renewal of all beings. The concept of the pure lands enforces the idea of 'spiritual immigration' as a form of mental encouragement.

Migration is a spiritual journey that establishes a point of communication between the human and divine. Religious figures migrate from one place to another as immigrants: "In Christianity, God migrated to this world in the form of human Jesus; the Hindu God Krishna descended to earth to become a charioteer, a human being (Bhagavad Gita 1:20-47); and the Buddha 'becomes Awakened' when he became a wanderer and a stranger". Adherents believe that religious figures have travelled from an unpurified state to a purified state: Buddha traveled from his privileged life to a life of poverty to gain divinity and knowledge; therefore divine figures like Gautam Buddha viewed migration as purification. The Qur’an states that "they could migrate from their oppressed positions to another land of God".

The doctrine of Hijrah suggest that freedom of movement is a human right as well as a duty to God. Globalization affects religious perspectives on migration which seek to prevent the "destruction to the sanctity of human life and dignity". Religious figures like Buddha and Jesus practised "a theology of migration". According to adherents, immigrants should have the same rights as legal residents because world religions believe everyone is divine. It is also mentioned in the Qur’an that "strangers are entitled to the equal distribution of wealth". Despite the acquisition of wealth in verse 8:41, the Qur’an states that "know that one-fifth of your battle gains belongs to the God and the messenger, to close relatives and orphans or to the needy and travellers (strangers).”

According to Collier and Strain, the Roman Catholic Church has been helping migrants for decades. The Christian faith receives a sense of justice for migrants from Abrahamic faith traditions. Catholics follow these guidelines to help immigrants: "for all persons on the move". The reasons to help those on the move were established in 1952 when leaders of the Roman Catholic Church published written material that reinforced the teachings of the church. One of the quotes from the Bible used to justify hospitality is "when an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as a citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 19:33).

Strangers or those on the move should be treated equally, no less than anyone else. The modern nation state should open its borders because people may be migrating due to unfavorable circumstances. The Catholic Church believes everyone has a right to migrate to support their families; this idea of free migration allows "the human person [to precede] the state".” In some circumstances, the Church provides assistance to migrants and refugees. Some Catholic organizations offer educational activities on the legal process of immigration to the United States. Other types of aid include spiritual companionship, ESL classes for those who want to learn to speak better English, basic hygiene, and food. The Roman Catholic Church believes that helping those in need enables the growth of the human spirit.

Before the Columbian exchange, there was an open border policy in the Americas that gave Native Americans access to travel freely and have open trade with other cultures. There was widespread trade among many First Nations that created free movement and travel for many foreigners. At the time, there was little border control which allowed migrants to travel to various areas to settle. Immigration policy shifted towards control and nationalism after 1492. In the 20th century, immigration policy solidified borders in America, but many Native Americans advocated free movement and hospitality towards strangers. Native Americans historically have welcomed strangers with hospitality, sometimes making them relatives through an informal adoption system. Migration in America can be understood through the religious and cultural perspectives of Native American.

Most Native American groups have shown hospitality towards strangers, and guests are given gifts from the host, which are known as 'give-aways'. Hospitality to visitors and other members of one's community is a value of many Native Americans groups, and they consider their belongings and other possessions as blessings. The concept of borders and walls (both artificial and real) were not practised in pre-Columbian times when Native Americans inhabited present day Canada, Central Amaerica, Mexico, and the U.S. Instead, hospitality and gift giving were the traditions that were honored and shared among visitors and other people.

 

Sunday, August 23, 2020

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sexual and reproductive health and rights or SRHR is the concept of human rights applied to sexuality and reproduction. It is a combination of four fields that in some contexts are more or less distinct from each other, but less so or not at all in other contexts. These four fields are sexual health, sexual rights, reproductive health and reproductive rights. In the concept of SRHR, these four fields are treated as separate but inherently intertwined.

Distinctions between these four fields are not always made. Sexual health and reproductive health are sometimes treated as synonymous to each other, as are sexual rights and reproductive rights. In some cases, sexual rights are included in the term sexual health, or vice versa. Not only do different non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and governments organisations use different terminologies, but different terminologies are often used within the same organization.

Some of the notable global NGOs that fight for sexual and reproductive health and rights include IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation), ILGA (International Lesbian and Gay Alliance), WAS (World Association for Sexual Health - formerly known as World Association for Sexology), the Center for Health and Gender Equity, and International HIV/AIDS Alliance.

History

Government-run family planning programs first began in the 1950s. However, the main objectives of these programs were often centered around population control for economic growth and development. In 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt marked a significant shift in perspective in regards to reproductive health and is considered to be the birth of the modern SRHR movement. Over the course of the conference, debates surrounding family planning shifted from that of economics to that of public health and human rights. A Program of Action (PoA) was developed by the end of the ICPD and was approved and adopted by 179 countries. The PoA affirmed sexual and reproductive health as a universal human right and outlined global goals and objectives for improving reproductive heath based around central themes of free choice, women's empowerment, and viewing sexual and reproductive health in terms of physical and emotional well-being. The PoA outlined a series of goals, based on a central mission of achieving universal access to reproductive health worldwide, that were aimed to be accomplished by 2015. In 2000, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were developed, and although reproductive health was not explicitly stated as one of the goals, it became an important component to Goals 3, 4, and 5. In 2010, the original PoA was revisited by the United Nations and updated to reflect their objective of achieving universal reproductive health care by 2015. When the MDGs and ICPD PoA phased out in 2015, the next objectives for SRHR were folded into the Sustainable Development Goals, the next iteration of the MDGs which outline objectives to combat poverty through 2030.

Sexual health

The World Health Organization defines sexual health as: "Sexual health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality. It requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination and violence."

Sexual rights

Unlike the other three aspects of SRHR, the struggle for sexual rights include, and focus on, sexual pleasure and emotional sexual expression. One platform for this struggle is the WAS Declaration of Sexual Rights.

The World Association for Sexual Health (WAS) was founded in 1978 by a multidisciplinary, world-wide group of NGOs to promote the field of sexology. 

The Platform for Action from the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women established that human rights include the right of women freely and without coercion, violence or discrimination, to have control over and make decisions concerning their own sexuality, including their own sexual and reproductive health. This paragraph has been interpreted by some countries as the applicable definition of women's sexual rights. The UN Commission on Human Rights has established that if women had more power, their ability to protect themselves against violence would be strengthened.

A significant shift occurred in the Association's history when in 1997, the World Congress of Sexology issued the Valencia Declaration of Sexual Rights. This was a visionary move on the part of Maria Perez Conchillo and Juan Jose Borras Valls (congress presidents) that shifted WAS to more of an advocacy organization championing sexual rights as fundamental to the promotion of sexual health and the field of sexology.  A press conference was held during the Congress to publicize the adoption of the Valencia Declaration and received world-wide attention.

This declaration has had world-wide impact in the recognition of the importance of sexual rights as human rights.  Besides the tremendous impact on WHO, our declaration provoked IPPF to issue its own declaration of Sexual Rights in 2008.

Subsequently, WAS made some revisions to the Valencia Declaration and proposed a WAS Declaration of Sexual Rights which was approved by the General Assembly at the 14th World Congress of Sexology (Hong Kong, 1999). The WAS adopted the Declaration of Sexual Rights, which originally included 11 sexual rights. It was heavily revised and expanded in March 2014 by the WAS Advisory Council to include 16 sexual rights:

  1. The right to equality and non-discrimination
  2. The right to life, liberty and security of the person
  3. The right to autonomy and bodily integrity
  4. The right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment
  5. The right to be free from all forms of violence and coercion
  6. The right to privacy
  7. The right to the highest attainable standard of health, including sexual health; with the possibility of pleasurable, satisfying, and safe sexual experiences
  8. The right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its application
  9. The right to information
  10. The right to education and the right to comprehensive sexuality education
  11. The right to enter, form, and dissolve marriage and similar types of relationships based on equality and full and free consent
  12. The right to decide whether to have children, the number and spacing of children, and to have the information and the means to do so
  13. The right to the freedom of thought, opinion, and expression
  14. The right to freedom of association and peaceful assembly
  15. The right to participation in public and political life
  16. The right to access to justice, remedies, and redress

This Declaration influenced The Yogyakarta Principles (which were launched as a set of international principles relating to sexual orientation and gender identity on 26 March 2007), especially on the idea of each person's integrity, and right to sexual and reproductive health.

In 2015 the U.S. government said it would begin using the term "sexual rights" in discussions of human rights and global development.

Reproductive health

Within the framework of the World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, reproductive health, or sexual health/hygiene, addresses the reproductive processes, functions and system at all stages of life. Reproductive health, therefore, implies that people are able to have a responsible, satisfying and safer sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. One interpretation of this implies that men and women ought to be informed of and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of birth control; also access to appropriate health care services of sexual, reproductive medicine and implementation of health education programs to stress the importance of women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth could provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant. On the other hand, individuals do face inequalities in reproductive health services. Inequalities vary based on socioeconomic status, education level, age, ethnicity, religion, and resources available in their environment. It is possible for example, that low income individuals lack the resources for appropriate health services and the knowledge to know what is appropriate for maintaining reproductive health.

Reproductive rights

Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows:

Reproductive rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. They also include the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence.

The area of sexual and reproductive rights is influenced by contextual cultural and social norms, socioeconomic factors and existing laws and regulations. The social-structural climate may affect both the access to and quality of sexual and reproductive health care and interventions.

Goals and objectives

Despite frequent changes to frameworks, overall goals for SRHR remain little changed. As first stipulated at the ICPD, universal reproductive health care remains the ultimate objective, and with each new framework, targets are developed to progress towards this. In the original ICPD Program of Action, the primary call was for universal access to healthcare, including reproductive healthcare, family planning and sexual health. Over time, these have expanded to include the right to access education regarding sexual and reproductive health, an end to female genital mutilation, and increased women's empowerment in social, political, and cultural spheres.

Special goals and targets were also created to address adolescent sexual and reproductive health needs. Adolescents are often the most vulnerable to risks associated with sexual activity, including HIV, due to personal and social issues such as feelings of isolation, child marriage, and stigmatization. Governments realized the importance of investing in the health of adolescents as a means of establishing future well-being for their societies. As a result, the Commission on Population and Development developed a series of fundamental rights for adolescents including the right to comprehensive sex education, the right to decide all matters related to their sexuality, and access to sexual and reproductive health services without discrimination (including safe abortions wherever legal).

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the environment

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_COVID-19_pandemic_on_the_envi...