
Let’s Abolish the Colonial IMF on Its 80th Birthday
(OpenDemocracy)* 24 July 2024 — Mass protests rocking Kenya in the past month have once again laid bare the predatory lending practices of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Placards read “IMF keep your hands off Kenya,” and “We ain’t IMF bitches”, calling on President William Ruto to withdraw an IMF-driven finance bill set to ramp up austerity and regressive taxes.

Kenyan protesters anger at new IMF measures | James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Explainer: Why Kenya Is Considered a High Climate Risk for Development Banks
Human Wrongs Watch

Climate change-related extreme weather jeopardizes Kenya’s development agenda; even though it contributes very little to global warming, it is marked as a high-risk country by development banks.
Drought in Kenya’s Ewaso Ngiro river basin in 2017 when pastoralists had to dig for water because much of the river system in Isiolo county had dried up. Credit: Denis Onyodi/KRCS
– Kenya contributes less than 0.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions every year, yet development banks have flagged the East African nation as a high climate risk.
World Health Organization on Alert as Mpox Cases Surge to ‘Unprecedented’ Levels in Africa
Human Wrongs Watch
(UN News)* — The UN World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday [] raised the response to the mpox outbreak in over a dozen African countries to the highest level, mobilizing efforts across the agency.

The Demise of Democracy and Human Rights Violations in Bangladesh: International Financial Institutions’ Culpability
Human Wrongs Watch
– The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are complicit in the gross human rights violations and death of democracy in Bangladesh.
Anis Chowdhury
They continued to supply financial blood line to the regime, well-documented for its corruptions, human rights violations – such as forced disappearances and tortures in custody – and riggings of votes, including politicization of state institutions in its slide into autocracy.
This is despite their professed commitment to transparency, accountability and good governance (IMF, World Bank, ADB).
New-Borns Are Being Sold for Up to $4,500 in Kazakhstan; the Government Is Cracking Down on Traffickers
Human Wrongs Watch
By Kulpash Konyrova, in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan tightens laws to combat trafficking of newborns
()* — Babies are being sold for up to $4,500 in Kazakhstan, but the government is cracking down on traffickers with a new law adopted earlier this month.

Skyrocketing Violence against Children in Sudan Demands Urgent Protection Measures: United Nations
Human Wrongs Watch
(UN News)* — The conflict in Sudan has led to a horrifying surge in violence against children, a new UN report has revealed, underscoring the need for urgent and tangible protection measures.

Adolescent Girls Face Alarming Rates of Intimate Partner Violence : World Health Organization
Human Wrongs Watch
(UN News)* — Nearly a quarter of all adolescent girls who have been in a relationship – close to 19 million – will have experienced intimate partner violence by the time they turn 20, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said in a new analysis on Monday [].

UN: Extreme Heat a Global Issue With an Unequal Impact
Human Wrongs Watch
– “The world must rise to the challenge of rising temperatures,” says the UN Secretary-General as he launches a call to action on extreme heat and its impact on society and the environment.
Extreme heat has caused hundreds of deaths and has many other implications. This is an image from Dahanu, Maharashtra. Credit: 350/flickr
