13/10/2012
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Trident Boat | JohnED76| Wikimedia Commons
The Norwegian Nobel Prize committee has again decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize award to a recipient with the intention to encourage the awardee to work for peace, rather than to reward an accomplishment.
The European Union was by its founders seen as a peace organization, but has since done little to promote peace or to achieve disarmament. Most important, the EU has not at all worked to diminish the greatest threat to mankind: nuclear war.
Two of the dominant members of the EU are nuclear weapon states, which have shown no intention to work to prevent a nuclear Armageddon. The EU has rather discouraged work by its member states against nuclear weapons.
The two European countries who have been most active for nuclear abolition, Switzerland and Norway, are not members of the EU.
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13/10/2012
Marking the International Day for Disaster Reduction, United Nations officials have called for women and girls to be at the forefront of reducing risk and managing the world’s response to natural hazards.
*Photo: UNICEF
“Across the world, women and girls are using their roles within families and communities to strengthen risk reduction,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his message for the Day, which falls on 13 October.
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12/10/2012
By Anna Polo | Pressenza* – The campaign “Breaking the Nuclear Chain” will be launched on 22 October 2012 by the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), IKV Pax Christi and Peace Boat.
We talk about this initiative and its objectives with Marte Hellema, Programme Manager Public Outreach at the GPPAC Global Secretariat.
Where did the idea get started?
Peace Boat, a GPPAC member and one of the organizations strongly involved in the campaign, has been working for a long time with Hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Organizing for them to be able to travel to world to tell people about what they went through and warn them about the dangers of nuclear weapons, to give testimony. Once you have ever met one of these people, it is very hard to deny their experience, and not recognize the inhumanity of nuclear weapons.
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12/10/2012
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reaffirmed his strong commitment to convene a United Nations-sponsored Conference on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction in Helsinki, Finland, in mid-December.
Ban (right) with Amb. Laajava, Facilitator for the 2012 Conference on the Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and other Weapons of Mass Destruction. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Ban on 11 October met with the Finnish Under-Secretary of State, Jaako Laajava, the Conference Facilitator, who briefed him on the preparations and prospects for convening the meeting after his talks this week in Cairo with senior representatives from the UN, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and the League of Arab States, the UN reported.
UN secretary-general underlined the importance of the Conference, which is a unique opportunity for all States of the region to collectively enhance their security. “He urges all States of the region to participate in it,” a statement issued by Ban’s spokesperson said.
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12/10/2012
By Shahira Amin*
Cairo – It’s been nearly two years since the mass uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, but Egypt’s film makers are still plagued by censorship they say is stifling their creativity. Religion and sex remain high on the censors’ list of “taboo issues” as a tide of conservatism sweeps the country under Islamist rule.
**Image: Wisekwai | Wikimedia Commons
The recent rejection by the censorship committee of film maker Amr Salama’s script for a film on sectarianism recently stirred a new wave of controversy, fuelling fears of further restrictions on free expression under new Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
Seeking to allay the concerns, Egypt’s newly appointed Minister of Culture Saber Arab has given the green light for Salama’s script, affirming that “no changes are needed”.
Salama’s new film features a Coptic Christian adolescent seeking acceptance from his classmates after being transferred to a public school. Belonging to a different social class, he initially finds it difficult to fit in and decides against revealing his faith for fear of further discrimination.
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11/10/2012
The UN marked on 11 October 2012t he first International Day of the Girl Child by calling for an end to child marriage, and stressing education as one of the best strategies for protecting girls against this harmful practice.
Girls learn to read in Bubel village in Orissa, India | UNICEF
“Education for girls is one of the best strategies for protecting girls against child marriage,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day. “When they are able to stay in school and avoid being married early, girls can build a foundation for a better life for themselves and their families.”
“Let us do our part to let girls be girls, not brides,” he stated, urging governments, community and religious leaders, civil society, the private sector, and families – especially men and boys – to promote the rights of girls.
Approximately 70 million young women today were married before age 18, according to the UN, which notes that child marriage denies a girl her childhood, disrupts her education, limits her opportunities, increases her risk of being a victim of violence and abuse, and jeopardizes her health, the UN reports.
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11/10/2012
By Bill Van Auken, WSWS* – In preparation for a direct US intervention in Syria and a wider war in the Middle East, the Pentagon has secretly deployed a 150-strong military task force in Jordan.
Middle East map. By: W123 | Wikimedia Commons
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Wednesday confirmed the existence of the task force, which was first reported by the New York Times.
Speaking to the media at the close of a two-day NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels, Panetta stated, “We have a group of our forces there working to help build a headquarters there and to insure that we make the relationship between the United States and Jordan a strong one so that we can deal with all the possible consequences of what’s happening in Syria.”
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10/10/2012
The inaugural International Day of the Girl Child will take place on 11 October 2012. For its first observance, this year’s Day focuses on child marriage, which is a fundamental human rights violation and has an impact on all aspects of a girl’s life, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
**© UNICEF Varanasi/2012/Madhok
“Child marriage denies a girl of her childhood, disrupts her education, limits her opportunities, increases her risk of violence and abuse, jeopardizes her health and therefore constitutes an obstacle to the achievement of nearly every Millennium Development Goal and the development of healthy communities.” For more information about child marriage, click here.
By Rajat Madhok* – Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, India – Pratigya hears that Chandra Devi is planning to marry off her daughter Basanti. She picks up her shoulder bag and calls on Chandra Devi.
What follows is a friendly, but uncomfortable, discussion. Basanti is barely 15 years old. Pratigya has come to discuss child marriage.
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10/10/2012
By Dr. Maung Zarni*, TRANSCEND – Following this summer’s [2012] rioting in western Burma, all eyes have been fixed on the government’s handling of the unrest in Rakhine state. With external pressure mounting, most specifically from the Islamic world, Burmese officials – from President Thein Sein in Naypyidaw to local security troops in western Burma – have been playing ostensibly the “humanist and humanitarian” card with the Rohingya.
**Mae La camp for Burmese refugees, Tak, Thailand. Photo: Mikhail Esteves from Bangalore, India
If the findings from various investigative missions turn out to be little more than public relations white-wash for Naypyidaw, more than a few Rohingya have expressed their concerns to me that their communities – the bulk of whom are barely surviving under the recently imposed martial law – will explode again.
When an oppressed and downtrodden people feel they have absolutely nothing more to lose but their captive lives in the iron cage of refugee camps set up by the predatory and repressive state, radicalism and violence are just a step away.
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10/10/2012
Concluding a four-day visit to Mali, a top United Nations human rights official cited ongoing abuses in the northern part of the country, and highlighted the plight of women, whose rights have been particularly restricted.
Women artisans in Mali making bracelets for sale to tourists using recycled plastic materials | United Nations
“Women are the primary victims of the current crisis and have been disproportionately affected by the situation in the north,” Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonovic said on 9 October in a news release. “Their human rights to employment, education and access to basic social services have been seriously curtailed.”
Fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels broke out in northern Mali in January.
The instability and insecurity resulting from the renewed clashes, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region, drought and political instability in the wake of a military coup d’état in March, have led over 250,000 Malians to flee to neighbouring countries, with 174,000 Malians estimated to be internally displaced, the UN reports.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 