22/03/2013
By Tianjie Ma*, Greenpeace, 22 March 2013 – We live on a wet planet, and without that water we would not be able to survive. But in places like China where I live, industries such as textile facilities are pumping a nasty cocktail of toxic chemicals into our water – you only need to see the photos below to get an idea of just how critical the situation is.
Dye Factory in Shaoxing © Lu Guang / Greenpeace
At Greenpeace, we’re campaigning to Detox our water: exposing brands that are sourcing from polluting facilities and highlighting the disastrous effects of hazardous chemicals in our waterways. So for this World Water Day we thought we would share with you ten facts about water that you probably didn’t know… but really should.
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22/03/2013
By EurActiv*, 22 March 2013 – Half of humans lack safe drinking water, while competition for water from agriculture and industry could put more people at risk in years to come, says a Portuguese lawyer who is the United Nations’ independent advocate for the right to water.
Catarina de Albuquerque, speaking ahead of World Water Day on Friday (22 March), said the official UN figure – 800 million – doesn’t provide a full picture of water poverty, estimating that some 3.5 billion people lack a safe supply.
“We know that not everybody who is getting water gets safe water,” de Albuquerque, the UN’s special rapporteur for the rights to water and sanitation, said by telephone from Lisbon.
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22/03/2013
Forests cover one-third of the globe, provide three-fourths of freshwater and are the most biologically diverse ecosystems on land. They are home to more than half of the terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects, and around 1.6 billion people – including more than 2,000 indigenous cultures – depend on forests for their livelihood. Nevertheless, some 13 million hectares of forest are destroyed every year.
Photo: IRIN/Angela Dewan
This is what a UN report says on the occasion of the first-ever International Day of Forests. “Forests are vital for our well-being. They cover nearly a third of the globe and provide an invaluable variety of social, economic and environmental benefits,” UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said in a message marking the Day on 21 March 2013.
Forests are the source of three-fourths of freshwater, stabilize slopes and prevent landslides, and protect coastal communities against tsunamis and storms. In addition, more than three million people use forest wood for fuel, said UN chief. And forests help combat climate change as they store more carbon than is in the atmosphere.
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21/03/2013
This year, the global campaign for a world free from nuclear weapons seems unstoppable. After a week of intensive activities in Oslo during the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons -which followed the Civil Society Forum-, major anti-nuclear campaigners moved to Bahrain, in yet another step towards the abolition of the “most inhumane” killing tools in the history of humankind. Now the campaign will move to Geneva before going to Mexico.
The radioactive incineration of cities | Image source: ICAN
In fact, following on from the success of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) Civil Society Forum in Oslo (2-3 March), and the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons (4-5 March), the anti-clear campaign gained further support also in Manama.
There, the Exhibition “From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace: Towards a World Free from Nuclear Weapons” is now being shown during the period 13-23 March, organised by the Tokyo-based y the Tokyo-based non-governmental civil society association Soka Gakkai International (SGI), with the support of ICAN, among others.
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20/03/2013
By Roberto Savio*
Rome, March 2013 – What is Hugo Chávez’s legacy to Latin America? The best way to evaluate a head of state is to examine what is left behind after his or her death. In the case of Chávez, his image is obscured by a series of ideological and cultural prejudices that hide a clear perception of who he was.
**Photo: Jean-Marc /Jo BeLo/Jhon-John
Chávez’s obvious faults have been exaggerated out of proportion by the ideological radicalisation that accompanied him. He was provocative to the point of using Iran, Libya and Syria to symbolise his independence from the United States.
However, his goal was not to find legitimacy as an international leader, but as a regional one. For this reason, he tried to highlight everything that could show up Washington’s impotence and decline.
His foreign policy, focused essentially on Latin America, was very simple: let us recover the message of our liberator, Simón Bolívar, to unite our peoples and free ourselves from the historic domination of the United States.
The arrival of former U.S. president George W. Bush was providential for Chávez: as the worst face of the United States, he was a useful confirmation of the Venezuelan president’s denunciations. With President Barack Obama, in contrast, he had to tone down his criticism.
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20/03/2013
“The plight of Palestinian refugees spans several decades dating back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict and resulting in a 65 year-old diaspora which has seen the Palestinians scattered across the Middle East – from blockaded Gaza to the West Bank to Jordan and Lebanon, where they are provided basic services and humanitarian relief by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA),” says a top UN official.
As the violence in Syria has intensified, the Palestinian community in the country has become extremely vulnerable and profoundly traumatised. Photo: UNRWA
But it is the 525,000 Palestinian refugees residing in Syria,who are now in need of priority attention as the escalating violence threatens to entrap them in the midst of a bloody conflict with no end in sight, adds UNRWA Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi in an interview* with the UN News Centre.
With the conflict steadily eroding all semblance of normalcy and destroying the economy, jobs and food in Syria are becoming increasingly scarce., he stressed.
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20/03/2013
The United Nations human rights chief urged Israel to prosecute settlers who carry out violent acts against Palestinians, while also calling on Government forces to refrain from using excessive force and to guarantee adequate handling of child detainees, following reports of ill-treatment.
Ofer military court and prison in the West Bank. Photo: UNICEF-oPt/Ennaimi
“On the Israeli side, settler violence continues to be perpetrated with impunity,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the Human Rights Council in Geneva. “And Israel needs to hold perpetrators accountable. While investigations are not opened into most incidents of settler violence, between 2005 and 2011, only 9 per cent of the investigations opened resulted in an indictment.”
In her presentation on 18 March 2013 of the report on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, she noted that, during the reporting period, 383 acts of settler violence resulted in injury to 169 Palestinians, damage to more than 8,000 of their olive trees – which represent a significant part of their livelihoods – and damage to other properties such as churches and mosques.
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20/03/2013
The international community must continue its efforts to help feed people in the Sahel, the head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said, following a visit to the West African region marred by high levels of food and nutrition insecurity, as well as the effects of the conflict in Mali*.
Displaced children in the Mali capital, Bamako, eat a welcome meal. Photo: UNHCR/H. Caux
“The Sahel is facing a double threat: instability, caused by a conflict that has sent refugees across its borders, and chronic hunger, caused by cycles of drought and poor harvests. Last year the international community helped avert a crisis in the Sahel, but our work is not over,” WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin said in a news release.
She spent five days in Burkina Faso and Mali, which along with Cameroon, Chad, the Gambia, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal, comprise the Sahel. Last year the international community provided $1.2 billion in assistance to feed around 10 million people in the region.
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17/03/2013
Editorial by Johan Galtung*, TRANSCEND – That his life and his deeds had black dots is part of the story; but that should not block seeing the greatness of a maker of history.
**Photo credit:José Cruz/ABr | Source: Agência Brasil – Foto no:130922 | Wikimedia Commons
First, in his own society, Venezuela, he lifted the bottom people up from misery, into economic wellness, political participation, cultural pride (of their often African, or Indian, blood), social dignity; much beyond Gini coefficients to measure increasing equality. Even the rich human rights language is too bland to reflect all that.
Second, he did the same for Latin America; he helped lift the bottom countries up, also under the name of the iconic Simón Bolívar: Cuba and Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia, Brazil to mention some.
Of course the two policies are related. Colombia with its immense record of violence 1948-2013, is a pariah country and can only be lifted up by lifting its bottom up, attacking flagrant inequality.
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15/03/2013
Norway, Australia and the United States lead this year’s Human Development Report 2013 rankings, the annual United Nations measure of progress in human well-being, while Niger, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Mozambique are at the bottom.
**Location of Norway, Europe | Credit: Hayden120 and NuclearVacuum | Wikimedia Commons
The new HDI figures, launched on 14 March 2013 in Mexico City by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), combines measures of life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. This year 187 countries and territories were measured.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 