Peaceful Protesters Beaten, Arrested, and Harassed
The Vietnamese government should immediately release Roman Catholics arrested for holding peaceful prayer vigils in Hanoi and hold accountable police and others responsible for attacking Catholic parishioners, Human Rights Watch said today. The protesters have been calling for the return of church properties confiscated by the government....
Here are some interesting photos from Yemen.And here are the least interesting photos ever taken in......
A report prepared for the U.S. Conference of Mayors says the number of green jobs in the country could grow fivefold to 4.2 million by 2038 if aggressive steps are taken to rely more on renewable energy resources, use alternative fuels and conserve...
Malalai Kakar -- the hjghest ranking woman in the Afghan Police Department -- was shot and killed as her son prepared to drive her to work last week. Former NPR reporter Sarah Chase tells host Peggy Wehmeyer the Taliban has been trying to drive a wedge between the public and government and the police are closest to the people. That made Kakar an obvious target. Chase was a friend of Kakar’s and says her killing has left many in a state of...
On the outskirts of Jalapa, Mexico there are about a hundred families who live in a squatters’ settlement on unused government land and eke an existence without men around. They are all households headed by women because their husbands have left them to go work in the United States. The government was going to send the police in to kick them off the land, but a local politician got involved, legislation was passed, and now the women can stay on the land and even purchase their lots. Conrad Fox...
In mid-September, Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai signed a power sharing agreement that could help end the country’s political strife and bring about economic recovery. Zimbabwe is racked with 80% unemployment and an annual inflation rate of 11,000,000%. For the first time in two-years, reporter Tendai Maphosa returned to his native Zimbabwe where he is shocked at the lack of food in the supermarkets, the prices people pay for basic commodities, and how they cope in an economic nightmare. It’s a Reporter’s Notebook from a country that doesn’t like outside...
Returning home again is a quandary for thousands of refugees from Liberia’s long civil war. Some have grown up in a refugee camp and would rather go to Europe, Australia, or America rather than return to Liberia. Others want to return, but are afraid for fear of retribution for what they did during the war. Daniel Harvey...
The village of Bario, on the island of Borneo and deep in the Malaysian jungle, is accessible only by air or foot. That limits the types of imported food that’s available. Visitors and locals eat what nature provides. That includes greens from the jungle called “pa’ uh pa’” and a wild ginger flower called “wah lu do.” Reporter Nancy Greenleese samples some of the concoction in this segment of “What’s...
Teaching your child how to read without a book is a problem for many American families. They simply can’t afford $5 or $10 for reading materials. But there’s an innovative after school program in New York City’s East Harlem overcoming that obstacle. It’s called Sister Power. It has an arrangement with book publishers to send them copies free of charge. Children love coming to the storefront’s library to read. And if they like the book, they can keep it. Alex Goldmark...
Finding common ground and mutual respect is an everyday struggle in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. But some 300 children are learning how to do that at a unique school outside Bethlehem. Israeli and Palestinian students study and play together, learn about each other’s religions together, and learn to settle disputes and respect each other. Dale Gavlak reports on the Hope Flowers...
Music and social protest have been linked for years in America. Now, there’s an entire label devoted to African music and social protest. Two U.S. college students launched the label after going to Africa where they fell in love with the music and were touched by the overwhelming need for social justice. Their first CD already has raised $140,000 to feed refugees from the Darfur region of Sudan. Host Peggy Wehmeyer talks with one of the...
The report of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination has been issued (A/63/325). The report summarizes the activities of the Working Group and makes recommendations regarding the use of......
from Reuters By Laura MacInnis GENEVA - Paying hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue the world's financial industry looks set to squeeze humanitarian aid and crimp international efforts to fight disease, feed hungry children, and shelter refugees.Charitable giving and foreign aid flows are likely to dry up as the global economy sours, with rising unemployment and inflation pinching already-tight household budgets, and as big corporate bailouts push governments to the fiscal brink.Celine Charveriat, Oxfam's deputy advocacy and campaign director, warned of "disastrous consequences" for poor countries if the bank crisis and related belt-tightening prompt donors to cut aid from a current $104 billion a year, as many expect."Donors must not make overseas aid the first victim of the...
Address Rights Abuses and Hold Security Forces to Account
The Bangladesh interim government should use its last months in office to seriously address persistent rights abuses rather than deny that they are happening, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the government. Human Rights Watch remains deeply concerned about continuing reports of torture and extrajudicial killings by state security forces and the government’s failure to hold those responsible to account....
The US Senate last Thursday passed a temporary extension of programs providing preferential access to the US market for developing countries. This is better than letting these programs expire but not as good as putting them on a more permanent footing.
The Generalized System of Preferences, which was last extended in 2006, and a regional program covering Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, which has been extended four times in the past two years, were extended for up to one more year. The House followed suit on Friday before leaving town to campaign, and the bill now goes to President Bush for his signature.
The goal of these preference programs, along with separate regional programs for sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, is to encourage investment and job...
Water, it is often said, will be the oil of the 21st century. With climate change and global economic growth, water is being used at rates never before...
LILONGWE, Malawi, 6 October 2008 – From a distance, Miteme Junior Primary School looks like a marketplace with vendors in school uniform. On close inspection, one realizes this is a school without a single classroom. Classes one to five are all held under trees; only class five has desks....
JOHANNESBURG, 6 October 2008 (IRIN) - The reliability of HIV diagnoses obtained from finger prick tests has come into question with the recall of a brand of rapid HIV test kits used at public testing sites in two South African...
MEPs will tomorrow (7 October) vote on key legislation designed to slash the EU's CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020. But the vote comes amidst a worsening economic crisis, with several member states indicating that they want to put the brakes on any rapid adoption of the...
SATIPO, Peru, Oct 6 (IPS) - Small farmers from Peru’s impoverished Andean
highlands provinces of Ayacucho are moving into indigenous land
in the country’s central jungle region to grow...
Last month I speculated about the effects that the subprime crisis might have on developing countries in a post called Creative destruction on Wall Street. What lessons would emerging markets take from government interventions in the U.S. and Europe? Bill Easterly picks up where I left off in a recent article arguing that Development Doesn't Require Big Government. Easterly concludes that:[W]e do know that the free market has a long-run track record of creating prosperity -- even with the occasional crash. The Depression's deceptive intellectual legacy is that development flows from all-knowing states rather than creative individuals. Here's hoping that the backlash to today's crash will not spawn another round of bad economics for the poor.To the issue of increased government regulation...
from the Independent, UgandaOxfam International’s head of research, author Duncan Green visited Uganda last week to launch and discuss his 2008 publication From Poverty to Power; How Active Citizens and Effective States can Change the World. He spoke to The Independent.When did writing this book start and what is the inspiration for it?Writing began in 2006. We had the idea of building an NGO narrative which links current debates with Oxfam’s experience on the ground in over 70 countries.You suggest in your book that big International organisations like UN, Oxfam, WTO, WHO G8, don’t rule the world, but the UN and America influence the world in different ways, how is this?Development is primarily national, based on the interaction between citizens and states. Rich countries and the...
LILONGWE, 6 October 2008 (IRIN) - Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has pledged to embark on a "green belt" programme to enable the country, in the long run, to say goodbye to hunger and international food...
GULU, 6 October 2008 (IRIN) - As calm returns to northern Uganda, tens of thousands of people previously living in camps for internally displaced persons (IDP) camps are now in satellite camps mid-way between the IDP camps and their villages. The new camps are less crowded and people can cultivate their land, but the lack of healthcare is problematic....
GULU, 6 October 2008 (IRIN) - With the return of relative peace to northern Uganda, thousands of people displaced by the conflict have started the long journey home. Many are now living in transit camps between the mother camps and their villages. Christine Atto, who has lived in an IDP camp for over 20 years, told IRIN/PlusNews that since moving to a resettlement camp, she has to walk 36 kilometres every month to fetch her antiretroviral medication....
Nearly two months after the beginning of the conflict that displaced thousands, people have begun to return to villages north of Gori. The ICRC continues to distribute food and household items to those most in need and inform the population about mines and unexploded ordnance....
All air travel accounts for only a few per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions, but its projected expansion means it will become a much bigger source of emissions within 20 years. Flying also produces much more carbon dioxide than some other forms of...
A new report on Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa has been issued by the UNEP-UNCTAD Capacity-building Task Force on Trade, Environment and Development (full text, pdf, 463 KB). The report discusses the many factors related to food security and the impact of organic agriculture on foo......
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has issued a report on Donor Support for Contraceptives and Condoms for STI/HIV Prevention in 2007 (full text, pdf, 1.44 MB). The report provides statistics and analyses trends extracted from a database that tracks procurement records of contraceptives, condoms for HI......