Swiss ambassador Jürg Lauber will take over as president of the Human Rights Council in January 2025. Pictured at Switzerland’s permanent mission in Geneva, 5 December 2024. (Christophe Chammartin / Le Temps)

🇨🇭Swiss ambassador elected president of Human Rights Council. Jürg Lauber, Switzerland’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, was elected on Monday to preside over the Human Rights Council in 2025. The role represents a recognition for both the 61-year-old who is passionate about international negotiations and cooperation, and for Switzerland.

🇺🇳UN rights chief: accountability for atrocities crucial to Syria’s post-Assad future. As the collapse of the Assad regime propels Syrians into an uncertain future and the prospects of a fierce power struggle, Volker Türk, UN high commissioner for human rights, urges accountability to remain a priority for Syria’s political transition.

🏜️Drylands now make up 40 per cent of land on Earth, excluding Antarctica, study says. An area of land nearly a third larger than India has turned into drylands over the past three decades, scientists warned on Monday in an analysis released on the first day of the UN’s annual summit to combat desertification, Cop16, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

💸 Sustainable finance: overcoming the ESG management calamity. Geneva’s Building Bridges conference, which opened Monday, hopes to convert finance professionals to climate and nature solutions. But the fact that many in the sector are still discovering sustainability is concerning. The real question the conference should ask is why have these solutions not really been used until now?

🔍Undiagnosed disease in DRC puts malnourished children at risk, WHO says. A mysterious illness that has affected more than 400 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo is spreading mainly among children and putting severely malnourished people at risk, according to the World Health Organization, which sent experts to the region to investigate the outbreak.