Migrants’ remittances are expected to reach US$ 436 billion in 2014 and US$ 540 billion by 2016. Financial education can not only provide useful support to migrants’ families back home but also help migrants in destination countries manage their own budgets.
**Remittance advertising in Oxford Street, London with Polish and Russian slogans | Source: Kaihsu Tai | Author: Kaihsu Tai | Wikimedia Commons.
Geneva, December 2014 (ILO)* – Moussé Bao is a 35 year-old migrant from Senegal who has been living in France since 2006.
Like most migrant workers, he sends a substantial amount of his monthly salary back to Louga, his hometown in North-Western Senegal, near the coastal city of Saint Louis. Every month, his mother and wife receive about 500 euros through a money transfer service.
Kabul, 15 December 2014 (IRIN)* – When Shaharzad completed her law degree and announced she wanted to get a job, her younger brother did what he could to stop it. Coming from the culturally conservative Badakhshan region, the siblings had left their parents behind to move to the capital Kabul and her brother was technically the head of the household. Even still, she was determined to stand on her own feet.
**Photo: NRC | Members of NRC’s female shelter team in Afghanistan
Two years later, he is still trying to persuade her to quit. “Every two or three days he says the same thing – it is better to stay at home and I will provide the salary. He asks me to stay at home and cook for him and wash his clothes,” she said, giggling as though amazed by her own rebellion. “But I am trying to go forwards, not backwards.”
Appeal to His Holiness Pope Francis to Replace Just War Theory with Theology of Peace, Nonkilling, and Nonviolence
Mairead Maguire
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
It is particularly appropriate that we are gathered here around International Human Rights Day and our theme is Peace and Living It.
I believe that Peace is a Human Right for everyone, and its presence is necessary in order to protect and sustain all the other rights enshrined in the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
I am sure we can agree that although we have a Universal Declaration, we have a long way to go to ensure that our Governments implement and uphold all these rights. In spite of this I am full of hope because I believe that we, the human family, are at a turning point in history.
There is a new growing consciousness a fresh way of thinking and living, with many taking care of each other and of nature and re-acknowledging that the true spirit of humanity is to love and be loved.
Outside the auditorium that hosted the Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates [Rome, 12-14 December 2014] colorful canvases, posters and Tibet flags were displayed to welcome and support the Dalai Lama. It was a very busy morning, with three round tables that happened without a moment’s respite, with a real bombardment of intellectual and emotional stimuli.
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(Image by Marco Bechis)
The first panel was related to the prevention of inequality, oppression and abuse, in particular related to sexual and gender violence.
Once again women gave us the most exciting moments: a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase Unarmed Civilian, clear reference to the recent protests against police violence in the United States, Jody Williams responded to a question on femicide describing the attitude of devaluing the other as the root of violence that begins in the home, but reaches up to the invasion of countries considered less “valuable”.
The quest for peace between Israel and the Palestinians has reached a “dramatic” crossroads, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, on 15 December 2014 told the Security Council in his briefing on the situation, warning that the region’s future remains “more uncertain than ever.”
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An Israeli Security Forces vehicle lights a gate in the security fence that separates farmers in the Biddu enclave from their land in the Seam Zone, which is the land between the 1949 Armistices Line and the West Bank Barrier. Photo: Alaa Ghosheh/UNRWA Archives
Speaking to the 15-member body in New York, Serry explained that as Israel heads into election season following the recent collapse of its ruling coalition, the resulting “deadly diplomatic vacuum can be no excuse for either side to let the present situation get even worse.”*
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 