'Unseen' News and Views
Coal mining company Prodeco’s port terminal in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta. Credit: Juan Manuel Barrero/IPS
Yet despite commitments made under the Paris Climate Change agreement the world could go over the threshold of two degrees warming if just one third of currently planned coal power stations were built, the report found, adding that “if the world exceeds this, the results will be disastrous for the global fight against poverty.”
16 November 2016 (UNEP)* – In 2015 youth between the ages of 8 and 19 filed a constitutional climate change case against the Federal Government of the United States of America at the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.
American Youth to bring US Federal Government to Trial in Ground-breaking Climate Change Lawsuit | Photo: UNEP
In Juliana v United States of America the youth are challenging the Federal Government of the USA for failure to take action against the burning of fossil fuels, which destabilizes the climate system and puts its future at risk.
The 21 plaintiffs claim that the Federal Government has for decades known of the effects of exploiting fossil fuels, but has continued to promote policies that encourage the extraction and utilisation of these energy sources.
‘Under-funded and facing huge demand for their services, non-state domestic violence centres offer women anonymity, confidentiality and comprehensive housing, psychological, legal and social support.’
16 November 2016 (UN Women) As long as Marina can remember, she has suffered violence. When she was eight, she was repeatedly raped by her two step-brothers. Her mother turned a blind eye.
Credit: Transparency International
These are some of the key findings that Transparency International (TI) has revealed in a new report, which adds that a nearly a third of citizens across Europe and Central Asia believe that their government officials and lawmakers are highly corrupt. A majority of people say their governments are not doing enough to stop corruption.
12 Nov 2016 – PRESIDENT TRUMP. I am still in a state of shock. But I had better get used to it.
Uri Avnery
This is not just another US election. In my life I have seen many. Some had results I liked, some not.
But this one is entirely different. This is an earthquake that changes the face of the planet.
How did it happen? Why? And why was it so completely unexpected?
IT WAS unexpected because of this pagan worship of the polls.
As I wrote last week, before it happened, these polls remind me of the Roman art of divining the future from the entrails of animals and the more modern art of the astrologers.
About a hundred Central American migrants crammed into a large truck were rescued in the Mexican state of Tabasco in October. It is not likely that Donald Trump’s arrival to the White House will dissuade people from setting out on the hazardous journey to the United States. Credit: Courtesy of the Mesoamerican Migrant Movement.
Juan, who worked as a street vendor in his country and asked that his last name not be mentioned, told IPS: “I got scared when I heard that Trump had won the election (on November 8). Maybe with Hillary (Clinton) there would have been more job opportunities. But that won’t stop me; it has never been easy to cross, but it is possible.”
16 November, 2016 (Greenpeace) I never thought I’d have to write this. The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, has been devastating. He’s spent months threatening immigrants, women, people of colour, Muslims and the differently-abled community, among many others. This election will be hard news to process for a long time.
There are many people around the United States today who are terrified for their safety and their future. Our hearts go out to you. Our first priority is to reinforce and re-commit ourselves to protecting and loving one another. Now, more than ever, we need to be here for each other.
And we will continue to work with you and our many partners to fight for a country and a world where everyone feels respected, valued and safe.
Men from the Koloma IDP camp in Goz Beida, Eastern Chad, build a shelter for a generator that the community has purchased in order to pump water through a water system built by Oxfam and handed over to the IDP committee in 2012. Credit: OCHA/Pierre Peron
Aware of their vulnerabilities to the impacts of climate change, countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have begun taking action to confront the phenomenon and today, several highlighted their initiatives at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Marrakech, Morocco, known as COP 22.
A new global initiative was launched on 17 November 2016 at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 22) under way in Marrakech, aims to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and save thousands of live by protecting peatlands – the largest terrestrial organic soil carbon stock.
Canals in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan Province, Indonesia, are hedged by dams to retain water for the regeneration of peat fields. UN Photo/Mark Garten
According to the UN environment Programme (UNEP), the Global Peatlands Initiative seeks mobilize governments, international organizations and academia in an effort to protect peatlands, which contain almost 100 times more carbon than tropical forests.
– The governments of Rwanda and Iraq have agreed to work together to fight rape as a weapon of genocide, noting disturbing similarities between sexual violence in Iraq today to the Rwandan genocide twenty years ago.
Zainab Bangura, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe.
Just as targeted rape was as much a tool of the Rwandan genocide as the machete, an estimated 3000 Iraqi Yazidis under ISIL’s captivity are currently facing acts of genocide and targeted sexual violence, including sexual slavery.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 