Archive for October 18th, 2018

18/10/2018

One Million Cisterns for the Sahel

Human Wrongs Watch

A new programme is bringing water and hope to family farmers.

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Producing extra food to sell at the market is easier now that farmers have the means to irrigate crops all year round. ©FAO/Benedicte Kurzen/NOOR for FAO

18 October 2018 (FAO)* – Like many farmers in Senegal, Guilé Mané used to struggle through the dry season. Rainfall here can be very low and irregular, even in the rainy season.

“We were working in the fields during the rainy season, but we did not do anything during the dry season,” says Guilé, 39, who heads a farmers’ association called Diapo Ande Liggeye (United to Work) in her home area of Keur Bara Tambédou.

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18/10/2018

‘Virginity Testing’: a Human Rights Violation, with No Scientific Basis – UN

17 October 2018 – A group of United Nations agencies has issued a joint statement calling for a ban on tests meant to assess the virginity of a girl or a woman, which is a common practice in at least 20 countries.

 

WHO | End Virignity Testing Infographic.

The statement, which was issued during the World Congress of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) in Rio de Janeiro, stresses that such tests are both unscientific, and a violation of human rights.

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18/10/2018

World’s Population Set to Grow by 2.2 Billion Between Now and 2050; More than Half of that Growth -1.3 Billion- Likely to Be in Sub-Saharan Africa

Human Wrongs Watch

The world’s population is set to grow by 2.2 billion between now and 2050, the UN said on 17 October 2018, and more than half of that growth – 1.3 billion – is likely to be in sub-Saharan Africa, where women’s rights are hampered by limited access to healthcare and education, along with “entrenched gender discrimination”.

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UNFPA/Ollivier Girard | A woman walks with her child in Niger. 2018.
18/10/2018

Palestine: Transfer Anxiety and the Anxiety of Alternatives

Human Wrongs Watch

By Walid Salem – TRANSCEND Media Service*

A state of anxiety prevails among the Palestinians, a situation that stems from two sources: the first: the escalation and acceleration of the annexation and its procedures, the growing fear of official annexation to Israel and expulsion to abroad; and the second: concern over the vague Palestinian responses to what is happening. The follow-up of the articles of Hani al-Masri, Rami Mahdawi, Khalil al-Asali and other journalists are just expressions of this concern.

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Walid Salem

Yet, there are other concern expressed by Benjamin Netanyahu during a dinner at an annual religious ceremony held at his home in October 2017 that he fears Israel’s fate will be the same as the fate of the 77-year-old Hasmonean kingdom before it was removed by the Romans.

What is common between these two concerns? Where do they differ?

The anxiety of Netanyahu is external, and it is related today to the threats coming from Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas.

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18/10/2018

World ‘Deserves to Know the Truth’ behind Kashoggi Disappearance – UN Human Rights Chief

United Nations human rights chief Michele Bachelet said on 17 October 2018 that she was open to an independent, UN-led investigation into the fate of Saudi journalist Jamal Kashoggi, if joint efforts by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, fail to uncover the facts.

The High Commissioner who heads OHCHR, reiterated her call earlier in the week, for diplomatic immunity to be waived to ensure the joint investigation is effective, impartial and transparent.

Mr. Khashoggi, an influential Saudi journalist and critic, who has been living in exile in the United States in recent months and writing a column for the Washington Post newspaper, had gone to the Saudi Consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul, on 2 October, to obtain marriage papers.

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18/10/2018

“We, The Peoples…”

By Federico Mayor Zaragoza*

Adopting a Universal Declaration on Democracy to enter into a new era in the proper way.

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Federico Mayor Zaragoza

17 October 2018 (Other News)* – In San Francisco in 1945, at the end of the Second World War, United Nations was founded under the American leadership of President Roosevelt, with a Chart beginning with the following words:

“We the peoples are determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”.

Today more than ever it is important to bear in mind that it is humanity as a whole that should be taken into account… Governments should come in second place, after the people…

Universal principles and values are often not complied with in the daily life of our “Global Village”.

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