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Camp Management Toolkit (NRC, June 2008) [access] Climate Change and Migration: Improving Methodologies to Estimate Flows, Migration Research Series, no. 33 (IOM, June 2008) [access] "Mental Health of Returnees: Refugees in Germany Prior to Their State-sponsored Repatriation," BMC International Health and Human Rights 2008, 8:8 [access via ReliefWeb] Neighbors in Need: Zimbabweans Seeking...

from Blooomberg By Brian Parkin and Thomas BauerMay 19 (Bloomberg) -- One in every eight residents of Germany lives at or below the poverty-line, after expansion in Europe's biggest economy in 2006 and 2007 did little to improve bottom-rung incomes, according to a Labor Ministry report.About 13 percent of Germany's 82.5 million people are poor, defined as living on 781 euros ($1,217) or less per month, Labor Minister Olaf Scholz told reporters in Berlin today. A quarter of the population would fall within the definition of poor if state benefits were excluded, Labor Minister Olaf Scholz said.Social Democrats such as Scholz are pressing for universal minimum wages, pension growth and higher taxes on top incomes to compensate for the erosion of real average incomes. That's exacerbated...

from SpiegelBy Rose-Anne ClermontGermany's children are poorer than they should be -- this is the conclusion that study after study has come to. Politicians in Berlin are beginning to address the problem, but the hurdles remain huge.The outrage last week was immediate. How could a five-year-old girl starve to death? In Germany, no less? And how could it happen just one week after social workers had visited her home near the northern German city of Schwerin?That, though, is exactly what happened, when the parents of little Lea-Sophie neglected their child for weeks until she eventually died last Wednesday. Since then, pundits and politicians have been demanding reforms in the way the state looks after children, with German Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen calling for a better system to...

from Reuters IndiaBy Dave GrahamBERLIN (Reuters) - Germany could soon become a geriatric society with a crumbling economy that depends on a dwindling supply of increasingly sickly and poorly educated workers unless things change fast.This is the bleak scenario depicted by the authors of a new report on children's welfare in Germany published this week."Germany is a colossus on the verge of collapse," Juergen Borchert, a judge and expert on welfare law who co-authored the report, told Reuters. "Economically, this country is heading down the tubes fast because the children are no longer there."The study, Kinderreport Deutschland 2007, said the proportion of children living off the lowest level of welfare support was nearly 16 times higher today than it was in 1965.Over the same period, the...

from FunctionpixArticle by Michael PetekDie WeltChild poverty in Germany is increasing in spite of a buoyant economy and falling unemployment. Since the introduction three years ago of the Hartz reforms of the social security system the number of boys and girls dependent on social security has doubled to over 2.5 million according to Thomas Krüger, the head of the children’s charity Kinderhilfswerk, at the presentation of a report on the state of the nation’s children. However, he added that labour market reforms were not the cause of child poverty - they had only made family poverty more visible.The report reveals that 14 per cent of all children in Germany are poor. In 1965 only one child in 75 below the age of seven was dependent on welfare. Today the figure is one in six and is...

from EarthtimesAfrican states are making progress on combating corruption, German Development Aid Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul has told a conference in Algiers, according to a statement released by her ministry in Berlin Tuesday. The African Peer Review Mechanism, an initiative aimed at curbing corruption, currently had 27 member states and more were considering joining, Wieczorek-Zeul said in the Algerian capital at the close of the 9th Africa Partnership Forum."Greater transparency is being achieved through this mechanism," she said.Under the mechanism, the governments of the member countries provide information to their populations on reforms and the use of international aid and private investment.In return, the Group of Eight (G8) countries - Germany holds the G8 presidency this...

from EarthtimesAlgiers - German President Koehler demanded fair trade terms for Africa Monday as he opened a partnership forum in the Algerian capital. Koehler urged the world's industrialized nations to remove tariffs on processed products at the Africa Partnership Forum which brings together the largest donor countries with African nations."We need policies and practices that ensure that Africa's riches in raw materials benefits the people there," Koehler said.Algeria derives a large income from exporting oil and gas, but the benefits do not seem to have reached the Algerian people.Koehler, who is visiting Algeria until Wednesday, is the first German president to make an official visit to the country.Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika stressed his country's aim of combatting...

Conference in Berlin to Discuss War Crimes Court The International Criminal Court (ICC) has made important progress since its creation five years ago, but the court continues to face major challenges, said Amnesty International, the German Red Cross, the United Nation Association of Germany and Human Rights Watch in a joint statement today. This message will be the theme of a two-day conference that the organizations are convening in Berlin on September 21-22, to galvanize public support in Germany for the International Criminal Court....

from Medical News TodayBritish Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday announced a global health campaign aimed at increasing aid to fight HIV/AIDS and other diseases in developing countries, Reuters reports. The campaign, titled the International Health Partnership, will bring together donor nations -- such as Britain, Canada, Germany and Norway -- as well as the World Health Organization and the World Bank. The partnership, which also aims to reduce child and maternal mortality in developing countries, officially will be launched on Sept. 5. Under the partnership, donor nations will submit long-term health plans, and international groups will pledge to better coordinate funding and on-the-ground efforts (Reuters, 8/22).Fighting diseases such as...

from AFP via Yahoo News LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday set out details of a new global initiative aimed at boosting healthcare for the world's poorest nations.Ahead of talks at Brown's Downing Street office in London, the pair said "urgent action" was needed to tackle diseases like HIV/AIDS and cut child and maternal mortality rates in developing countries.Tackling disease and reducing child and maternal mortality rates are among the eight UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed by the international community in 2000 which aim to reduce world poverty by 2015.But a mid-term report on the goals has assessed that progress is "off-track" with those on health the least likely to be met.An international health...

German Policy Fails to Account for Continuing Violence, Persecution in Iraq Germany should immediately stop revoking the refugee status of Iraqi refugees and should reconsider the cases of more than 18,000 Iraqis who have been stripped of their refugee status, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to German authorities....

from The Daily StarGerman President Horst Köhler has sought advice from micro-credit guru Prof Muhammad Yunus on what the industrialised countries should do on reduction of poverty, globalisation, trade, climate change and the environment.All these issues are likely to come up for discussion at G8 Summit that began yesterday in Heiligendamm in northern Germany.The Nobel laureate was a guest of President Horst Köhler on Tuesday at the Bellevue Castle in Berlin, according to information received from Prof Yunus's secretariat here.Explaining the poverty reduction strategies in Bangladesh, Yunus requested the German president to discuss at the G8 Summit setting up of a micro-finance fund for Africa, which is a priority area for Germany.He said in order to make globalisation meaningful, the...

Failure to Prosecute Undermines Commitment to International Justice Uzbek survivors of torture and the 2005 massacre of unarmed protesters in Andijan have appealed a decision by Germany’s federal prosecutor not to open an investigation against former Uzbek Interior Minister Zokir Almatov, Human Rights Watch said today....

from Deutsche WelleThis month’s publication of a new report on poverty in Europe has attempted to prize open a nation of resolutely blind eyes to a harsh reality of life in contemporary Germany: life on the breadline.Poverty is a moveable famine. In a world where one man’s penury is another man’s wealth, geographical location dictates what constitutes destitution. And although on paper, Germany is one of the world's wealthier nations, it is nonetheless home to throngs of people struggling to make ends meet. What is more, if the findings in the Federal Statistics Office’s “Life in Europe” report are anything to go by, millions more are at risk of becoming officially “poor.”The breadline quoted in the report is 856 euros ($1,135) for a person living alone and 1,798 euros for...

from BloombergBy Brian Parkin About one person in eight in Germany is threatened by poverty, according to a survey conducted for the first time by the Federal Statistics Office.In 2004, penury loomed over 10.6 million people whose monthly net income is 60 percent or less than a national mean of 1,427 euros ($1,891), the office said. That's about 13 percent of the 82 million people in Europe's biggest economy. Poverty may have even spread in 2005, said the office's deputy president.Income levels show that ``aspects of life in Germany are closed to some people,'' the office's Deputy President Walter Rademacher told reporters in Berlin. The threat of poverty may have grown last year after cuts in jobless benefits, he said.Germany has cut jobless benefits for people unemployed for more than...

Almatov Case Tests Commitment to International Justice Germany’s new federal prosecutor should reverse a decision not to open a criminal investigation into former Uzbek Interior Minister Zokir Almatov’s responsibility for crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in a legal brief challenging the refusal. The new federal prosecutor, Monika Harms, took office this month, succeeding Kay Nehm....

Almatov Decision Hurts Berlin’s Reputation The decision by Germany’s federal prosecutor not to open an investigation against former Uzbek Minister of Interior Zokirjon Almatov for crimes against humanity will be challenged by Human Rights Watch. The prosecutor’s decision is a blow for victims in Uzbekistan and damages Germany’s reputation as a principled leader on behalf of international justice, Human Rights Watch said today....