Archive for ‘Africa’

29/09/2024

Italian Authorities Punish Geo Barents Rescue Ship with Two Detention Orders

Human Wrongs Watch

Rotation 66 - Geo Barents

ROME, 25 September 2024 – The Italian authorities imposed yet another punitive measure on the Geo Barents, the search and rescue vessel operated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), for performing its legal and humanitarian duty to save lives at sea.

This time, the vessel received two separate detention orders, immediately after the Geo Barents had finished disembarking 206 survivors in Genoa, in northern Italy.

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28/09/2024

EU President Overlooks Rights in New Commissioners’ Mandates

Human Wrongs Watch

By Philippe Dam, EU Director, Advocacy | Human Rights Watch*

Von der Leyen’s Neglect of Rights Persists as She Addresses the Incoming EU Executive

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, holds a press conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on March 22, 2024.

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, holds a press conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on March 22, 2024. © 2024 Nicolas Economou / NurPhoto via AP Photo

26 September 2024 — There is a stand-alone article in the European Union’s founding Treaty that puts human rights at the core of EU foreign policy.

There are authoritative guidelines and a comprehensive action plan on human rights and democracy, adopted by EU governments, to guide the bloc’s external actions.

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28/09/2024

Tanzania’s Maasai Women Adopt Climate-Smart Solutions To Tame Drought

Human Wrongs Watch

 
MVOMERO, Tanzania, Sep 24 2024 (IPS)* In the scorching sun of Mikese village in Tanzania’s eastern Mvomero district, 31-year-old Maria Naeku tirelessly tends to her small vegetable patch. Each time she pulls a weed, the red soil stains her hands as she guides the trickle of water from a maze of pipes through an elevated bed to nurture her plants. In a drought-stricken area, Naeku’s small garden is a lifeline for her family, giving them food and income.
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Maria Naeku, a Maasaiwoman in Mikese village in Mvomero district tends to her vegetable garden.Credit: Kizito Makoye Shigela/IPS

Maria Naeku, a Maasaiwoman in Mikese village in Mvomero district tends to her vegetable garden.Credit: Kizito Makoye Shigela/IPS

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27/09/2024

Invisible Killer: What Is Antimicrobial Resistance?

Human Wrongs Watch

By Eileen Travers

(UN News)* — Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an invisible killer, which is directly responsible for 1.3 million deaths and a contributing factor to five million other fatalities every year.

Play video

A medical illustration depicts carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae.
© CDC/Dan Higgins/James Archer | A medical illustration depicts carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae.
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Everyone seems to have had a family member or friend who has either gotten seriously ill or died due to acquiring an infection that did not respond to prescribed medicines, and the underlying reason was often antimicrobial resistance.
26/09/2024

Dying for a Cause: Environmental Defenders in the Firing Line

Human Wrongs Watch

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Sep 26 2024 (IPS)* – In 2017, South African activist Nonhle Mbuthuma took a stand against the powerful oil giant Shell, halting their plans to explore the pristine Wild Coast.
 
Environmental activist Nonhle Mbuthuma.

Environmental activist Nonhle Mbuthuma.

Despite facing death threats, she refused to back down. As a co-founder of the Amadiba Crisis Committee and a 2024 Goldman Prize winner, Mbuthuma continues to fight for her community’s rights and the environment.

Her bravery reflects the countless risks land and environmental defenders face across the globe.

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26/09/2024

Flooding and Armed Conflict Aggravates Sudan’s Cholera Epidemic

Human Wrongs Watch

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 26 2024 (IPS)* Sudan has been plunged into a deadly cholera outbreak in the midst of the Sudanese Civil War.
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In a Cholera information campaign, 9-year old Eiad demonstrates safe hygiene practices to mitigate the spread of disease. Credit: UNICEF/ Aymen Alfadil

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25/09/2024

UN Charter: the Final Hurdle for Reform of the Security Council

Human Wrongs Watch

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 25 2024 (IPS)* When the founding fathers –regrettably, no mothers—created the United Nations 79 years ago, one of the biggest anomalies was bestowing the power of the veto to the five permanent members (P5) of the UN Security Council (UNSC): the US, UK, France, Russia and the Republic of China (later the People’s Republic of China).
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But a longstanding proposal for the reform of the UNSC has been kicked around the General Assembly hall –and the corridors of the UN– for several decades now.

But it never got off the ground.

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25/09/2024

What Is Power in Global Politics and International Relations?

Human Wrongs Watch

By Vladislav B. Sotirovic – TRANSCEND Media Service*

Power is the ability to make people, states, movements, organizations, or things do what they would not otherwise have done. It is a matter of fact that politics is seen to be about might rather than right.

Power in Politics

It can be said that, in essence, politics is power or, in other words, the ability of some international actor to get the desired results of his/her political behavior by using whatever instruments (legal or not, moral or not, etc.).

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25/09/2024

World’s Top 1% Own More Wealth than 95% of Humanity, as “the Shadow of Global Oligarchy Hangs over UN General Assembly – Oxfam

Human Wrongs Watch

By OXFAM International*

23 September 2024The richest 1 percent have more wealth than the bottom 95 percent of the world’s population put together, new Oxfam analysis of UBS data reveals today ahead of the annual UN High-Level General Debate.

A boy sits amid scenes of destruction in Macomia town after it was hit by tropical cyclone Kenneth, which made landfall in Cabo Delgado province in Northern Mozambique, on 25th April 2019. Photo: Tommy Trenchard/Oxfam

Billionaires are exerting new levels of control over economies, with a billionaire either running or the principal shareholder of more than a third of the world’s top 50 corporations. The combined market capitalization of these corporations is $13.3 trillion.

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23/09/2024

Odious Debts: What Can Bangladesh Learn from Ecuador?

Human Wrongs Watch

SYDNEY, NEW YORK, Sep 16 2024 (IPS)** Bangladesh’s White Paper committee will review foreign loan deals signed by the fallen kleptocratic regime.

Anis Chowdhury

We recommend that it identifies and declares the loans or portions of loans that did not benefit the nation as unpayable, because they were siphoned off the country by corrupt politically powerful elites, or worse used to buy deadly weapons and surveillance equipment to oppress people.

Such loans are “odious” – they stink and are detestable.

It is not clear if sufficient courage will be summoned to even include the loans from the international organisations and significant and powerful donor countries.

However, this is vital as nearly 45% of Bangladesh’s debt is owed to multilateral organisations, such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whereas about 27% of the total loans is from bilateral donor countries, such as Japan and European Union.

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