Rashad Sami Barsoum, a pioneer in nephrology Egypt and Africa, former secretary general of the International Society Nephrology inaugural past president African Association Nephrology, died on 25 October 2022, at age 81.

When former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan was seen leaving a conference in Geneva in November 2005 clutching maps of the south Asia earthquake disaster, it was evidence that satellites – as a key weapon in humanitarian emergencies – had arrived. In the hours and days after the October 8 quake struck killing more than 73 000 people and injuring some 150 000, experts from France, Germany, the U...

We cannot stop natural calamities, but we can and must better equip individuals and communities to withstand them. Those most vulnerable to nature’s wrath are usually the poorest, which means that when we reduce poverty, we also reduce vulnerability. Kofi Annan, Former UN Secretary-General, October 12, 2005 Kofi Annan’s 2005 International Day for Disaster Reduction message followed a year of na...

Royal visit as Hancock says farewell to RCNPrincess Anne visited the RCN's refurbished headquarters in London last week to perform the official opening. She is pictured with student Peace Ajiboye in the new library. Later, health and political leaders were among guests at a reception to mark the departure of RCN general secretary Christine Hancock. Miss Hancock is pictured with her local MP and...

In his report on the 'Strengthening of the United Nations-an agenda for further change', UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan identified migration as a priority issue for the international community. Wishing to provide the framework for the formulation of a coherent, comprehensive and global response to migration issues, and acting on the encouragement of the UN Secretary-General, Sweden and Switzer...

The activities of human rights defenders concern all categories of human rights: civil, cultural, economic, political, and social. Inspired and guided by human rights standards, human rights defenders act against the serious problems that affect the life of people throughout the world, such as hunger and poverty, intolerance and discrimination, abuse of power and corruption, insecurity, conflic...

News Q: How did you first become interested in working in emergencies? A: When I started out as a physician during the early 1970s, I wanted to work with communities, rather than in hospitals , particularly in places where people were unable to access health services. I worked in Kurdistan in northern Iraq in 1974, in rural Nepal, eastern India and then Bangladesh. But my interest in community ...