Archive for November, 2023

27/11/2023

Ugandan Woman Advocates for Her Rights after ‘Life of Pain’

Human Wrongs Watch

A Ugandan woman who has a physical disability is learning how to fight for her and other women’s rights after suffering a life “full of pain”, thanks to a UN-supported programme.

Angela Muhindo in Kasese, western Uganda.

UN Women | Angela Muhindo in Kasese, western Uganda.

“My life has been full of pain,” she said, surveying the green landscape where she spent her childhood in Kasese, in Uganda’s western region. “In my community, women have less power, but if you are disabled, you are even more vulnerable to exploitation.”
Ms. Muhindo, who has had a physical disability since childhood, said she has faced violence and exclusion throughout her life.
25/11/2023

Indigenous Voices and Food Systems Lead the Way at COP28

Human Wrongs Watch

NAIROBI, Nov 22 2023 (IPS)* – In a groundbreaking development, indigenous farmer communities are poised to bring the spotlight onto food systems at the upcoming UN Climate Conference (COP28) in Dubai.
Christine Nalienya, a farmer in western Kenya, winnowing beans outside her home. Bean farmers confront various challenges, yet as smallholder farmers, they receive little support. Credit: Robert Kibet/IPS

Christine Nalienya, a farmer in western Kenya, winnowing beans outside her home. Bean farmers confront various challenges, yet as smallholder farmers, they receive little support. Credit: Robert Kibet/IPS

Recent research revealing that food systems contribute to roughly one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions has spurred a compelling call to action.

Furthermore, as one-third of the world’s food goes to waste, an alarming over 700 million people grapple with hunger. At the same time, a staggering 3 billion individuals cannot access a nutritious diet.

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25/11/2023

Can COP28 Deliver for Cities and Climate Migrants?

Human Wrongs Watch

OXFORD, England, Nov 24 2023 (IPS)* – The impacts of climate change on human mobility have yet to be fully understood and addressed on a global scale, even though some 3.3 to 3.6 billion people are highly vulnerable to climate change.
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Climate migrants tend to move to cities in their own countries where they often end up in urban slums characterized by sub-standard housing. Credit: Donatas Dabravolskas/Shutterstock

Climate migrants tend to move to cities in their own countries where they often end up in urban slums characterized by sub-standard housing. Credit: Donatas Dabravolskas/Shutterstock

Contrary to popular perceptions, most climate migrants move internally to cities within their own countries, attracted by the perceived employment, education, and healthcare opportunities that urban areas offer.

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24/11/2023

US Blows Off the Whole World to Punish Cuba

Human Wrongs Watch

By Ann Garrison | Black Agenda Report – TRANSCEND Media Service*

When oppressed people get organized, the US gets angry. It’s been punishing the people of Cuba since 1962. 

Cuban journalist Liz Oliva Fernandez

15 Nov 2023 – On November 2, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for a resolution calling on the US to lift the trade embargo against Cuba that President John Kennedy imposed in 1962. The US and Israel were the only two nations to vote no, with Ukraine abstaining. Total dependence creates total compliance.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control records complex specifics of sanctions on Cuba. There are so many that they amount to a virtual blockade.

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24/11/2023

Lula Meets First Brazilian Chair of IPS

Human Wrongs Watch

Elected by the agency’s global board of directors on November 14th, journalist and writer Fernando Morais assumed the mission of elevating IPS – Inter Press Service – to face the current challenges and perspectives in which the BRICS expand, the Global South emerges and the Internet revolutionizes communication around the world

President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (left), alongside Carlos Tibúrcio and Fernando Morais, Chair of the IPS Board of Directors (right). Credit: Planalto.

President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (left), alongside Carlos Tibúrcio and Fernando Morais, Chair of the IPS Board of Directors (right). Credit: Planalto.

BRASILIA, Nov 21 2023 (IPS)* – During an official audience at the Planalto Palace, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met on Monday 20 November with writer and journalist Fernando Morais, the first Brazilian to assume the role of Chair at IPS (Inter Press Service), one of the international news agencies most committed to democratic communication with developing countries and with civil society at a global level.

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24/11/2023

The World’s Right-Wing and Left-Wing Torturers

Human Wrongs Watch

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 21 2023 (IPS)* – Jeanne Kirkpatrick, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, once made the distinction between “friendly” right-wing authoritarian regimes (which were mostly U.S. and Western allies) and “unfriendly” left-wing totalitarian dictatorships (which the U.S. abhorred).
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Among the “dictators” the U.S. shunned in the 1970s and 80s were Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Myanmar’s General Than Shwe, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Libya’s Mummar al-Qaddafi, Syria’s Hafez al-Assad and North Korea’s Kim IL-Sung.

At the same time, successive U.S. administrations cozied up to a rash of right-wing authoritarian regimes and family-run fiefdoms, mostly in South-East Asia, Latin America and particularly the Middle East.

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20/11/2023

Greenhouse Gas Concentrations Hit Record High. Again.

Human Wrongs Watch

Geneva, 15 November 2023 (WMO)* — The abundance of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere once again reached a new record last year and there is no end in sight to the rising trend, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Global averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most important greenhouse gas, in 2022 were a full 50% above the pre-industrial era for the first time. They continued to grow in 2023.
 
The rate of growth in  CO2 concentrations was slightly lower than the previous year and the average for the decade, according to WMO’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.
 

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20/11/2023

Climate Change and Displacement: the Myths and the Facts

Human Wrongs Watch

By Kristy Siegfried

15 November 2023 (UNHCR)* — The climate crisis and human displacement are increasingly interconnected. Not only did climate-related disasters trigger more than half of new reported displacements in 2022, but nearly 60 per cent of refugees and internally displaced people now live in countries that are among the most vulnerable to climate change. Also available in: Español

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After flood waters submerged their village, Nyeritea Kay Nakney and her three children travelled by canoe to a camp for internally displaced people in Bentiu, South Sudan (March 2023). © UNHCR/Andrew McConnell

Our understanding of these links is growing, but the ways in which our rapidly changing climate is forcing people to move and making life harder for those already displaced are complex and evolving. This has allowed myths and disinformation to abound.

Here are five of the most common myths associated with the climate crisis and displacement, followed by what we know.

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20/11/2023

US Has Provided Over 130 Billion Dollars in Aid and Weapons to Israel– the Largest Ever

Human Wrongs Watch

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 17 2023 (IPS)* – As one of America’s closest allies, Israel has remained heavily dependent on the US —politically, economically, and militarily—since its creation in 1948.
 

Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II : a Fifth Generation Stealth Fighter aircraft- (Wikipedia)

US arms supplies, mostly provided gratis, are channeled via US Foreign Military Financing (FMF), Military Assistance Program (MAP) and Excess Defense Articles (EDA).

According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the US has provided more foreign assistance to Israel since World War II than to any other country.

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16/11/2023

UK Supreme Court Finds UK-Rwanda Asylum Scheme Unlawful

Human Wrongs Watch

By Emilie McDonnell, Officer, UK Advocacy and Communications Human Rights Watch*

Rwanda Not A Safe Country to Send Asylum Seekers

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Protesters hold placards outside the UK’s Supreme Court as it rules that the UK Government’s Rwanda asylum plan is unlawful, London, United Kingdom, November 15, 2023. © 2023 Steve Taylor/SOPA Images/Sipa via AP Photo

Today [15 November 2023], the United Kingdom’s highest court found that Rwanda is not a safe third country for the government to send asylum seekers. This is a huge victory that will protect the rights of countless people who have come to the UK seeking safety.

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