Archive for ‘Latin America & Caribbean’

25/04/2022

Elephant Tusks, Pangolin Scales, and Tiger Skins, Are Just Some of the Wildlife parts Confiscated at Indian Airports

Human Wrongs Watch

22 April, 2022 (UNEP)* — Elephant tusks, pangolin scales, tiger skins and Indian star tortoises are just some of the wildlife parts and derivatives that have been confiscated at Indian airports, part of a growing trend exploiting airports to traffic illegal wildlife.

ROYAL BENGAL TIGER STARES AT VISITORS AT ZOO IN CALCUTTA.

Photo: Reuters

With the growth in traveller numbers and increase in efficiency of air travel it has become easier than ever for traffickers to use air travel to move illegal wildlife goods across the globe.

read more »

23/04/2022

Europe Sweeps Away More Refugees, Asylum Seekers – Part II: Hungary, Poland

Human Wrongs Watch

MADRID, Apr 22 2022 (IPS)* Part I of this two-part series focused on the cases of the United Kingdom and Greece. This article will deal with how Hungary has been criminalising organisations that provide humanitarian assistance to migrants, and how Poland ‘arbitrarily’ detains thousands of asylum seekers.
.

Refugees on the move. Credit: UNHCR/Ivor Pricket

In fact, Hungary, a European Union full member country, has a long record of ‘demonising’ migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

read more »

23/04/2022

Europe Sweeps Away More Refugees, Asylum Seekers – Part I: UK, Greece

Human Wrongs Watch

MADRID, Apr 21 2022 (IPS)* – In what looks pretty much like an ‘operation clean sweep’ aiming at getting rid of more and more migrants, refugees and asylum seekers by shipping them far away, the process of ‘externalisation’ of millions of victims of wars, poverty, climate crisis and political persecution, is now growing fast.

“At a time when the people of the UK have opened their hearts and homes to Ukrainians, the government is choosing to act with cruelty and rip up their obligations to others fleeing war and persecution” says HRW report. Credit: UNOHCR

In fact, in a short period of time, reports by major human rights organisations have revealed how the US and Europe, in addition to Australia, are increasingly sending migrants, refugees and asylum seekers to other countries, regardless of their human rights records.

read more »

22/04/2022

Road to European Dream Paved by Extortion and Exploitation

Human Wrongs Watch

.

Mit Al Korama’s youth (left) spent five months at the warehouse waiting for the trip to Italy (Ahmed Emad is in the middle and Ibrahim Abdullah is on the left). The group (right) during their kidnapping ordeal by Libyan militias. The group were waiting for the ransom to be paid. Credit: Supplied

Some, they heard, returned with a large sum of money and built European-style homes for their families. Others chose to stay in the European Union and encouraged their brothers to do so.

read more »

22/04/2022

Mother Earth Is Facing a ‘Triple Planetary Crisis’: Climate Disruption, Nature and Biodiversity Loss, and Pollution and Waste

© NASA | A crescent earthrise captured by a US astronaut in 1969.
And while a steady stream of reports has painted a legitimately worrying picture of the current state of the planet, don’t lose hope: there are more innovative ideas for serious climate action than ever and more and more people around the world are working together on solutions to help repair the damage that’s been done to our fragile home.

.
But before we get to the exciting stuff, there’s no denying the gravity of the problem.
.
The Earth is facing a ‘triple planetary crisis’: climate disruption, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.
22/04/2022

Black Women, the Most Oppressed and Exploited in Brazil

Human Wrongs Watch

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 20 2022 (IPS)* – The Theater of the Oppressed helped her become aware of the triple discrimination suffered by black women in Brazil and the means to confront it, such as the Rio de Janeiro Domestic Workers Union, which she has chaired since 2018. | En español
.
A group of domestic workers gather at their union headquarters in Rio de Janeiro for a class on the law that sets out the rights and obligations of domestic work in Brazil. Learning about the law helps these women defend their rights and combat the vulnerability many of them of them face in the solitude of their employers’ homes. CREDIT: Courtesy of STDRJ

A group of domestic workers gather at their union headquarters in Rio de Janeiro for a class on the law that sets out the rights and obligations of domestic work in Brazil. Learning about the law helps these women defend their rights and combat the vulnerability many of them of them face in the solitude of their employers’ homes. CREDIT: Courtesy of STDRJ

read more »

21/04/2022

From Mosul to Raqqa to Mariupol, Killing Civilians Is a Crime

Human Wrongs Watch

By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies – TRANSCEND Media Service*

North Americans have been shocked by the death and destruction of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, filling our screens with bombed buildings and dead bodies lying in the street. But the United States and its allies have waged war in country after country for decades, carving swathes of destruction through cities, towns and villages on a far greater scale than has so far disfigured Ukraine.

House bombed by coalition forces in East Mosul, Northern Iraq, 15 March, 2017. Credit: Amnesty International

As we recently reported, the U.S. and its allies have dropped over 337,000 bombs and missiles, or 46 per day, on nine countries since 2001 alone. Senior U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency officers told Newsweek that the first 24 days of Russia’s bombing of Ukraine was less destructive than the first day of U.S. bombing in Iraq in 2003.

read more »

20/04/2022

The Suicidal War on Nature Continues Unabated – International Mother Earth Day

Human Wrongs Watch

MADRID, Apr 20 2022 (IPS)* – The gloomy picture is drawn from indisputable scientific conclusions and should be already known by everybody, in particular by decision-makers, whether they are politicians… or rather not.

The planet is losing 4.7 million hectares of forests every year – an area larger than Denmark, according to a new UN report. Credit: UNDP

Oceans filling with plastic and turning more acidic. Extreme heat, wildfires and floods, as well as a record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season, have affected millions of people. Even these days, we are still facing COVID-19, a worldwide health pandemic linked to the health of our ecosystem.

read more »

20/04/2022

Mexico Embraces Gas, Scorns Renewable Energy

Human Wrongs Watch

MÉRIDA, Mexico , Apr 18 2022 (IPS)* – At home, Isabel Bracamontes uses gas only for cooking. “We try to prepare food that doesn’t need cooking, like salads,” she says in the southeastern Mexican city of Mérida. | En español
.
The Yucatán peninsula in southeastern Mexico has abundant solar and wind resources, but relies on fossil fuels for electricity generation. The photo shows a wind turbine belonging to the state-owned CFE next to a section of the power grid between Cancún and Puerto Morelos, in the state of Quintana Roo. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy/IPS

The Yucatán peninsula in southeastern Mexico has abundant solar and wind resources, but relies on fossil fuels for electricity generation. The photo shows a wind turbine belonging to the state-owned CFE next to a section of the power grid between Cancún and Puerto Morelos, in the state of Quintana Roo. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy/IPS

read more »

19/04/2022

High Cost of Debt Is Crippling Developing Nations: How Can We Bridge the Finance Divide?

Human Wrongs Watch

*

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 18 2022 (IPS)* – As the world is rocked by a confluence of crises, the global economic outlook for 2022 is becoming ever more uncertain and fragile. Prospects for sustainable development for all and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 are bleak, particularly for developing countries.

A rainy day in the camps under COVID-19 lock-down, Maina IDP camp, Kachin, Myanmar. Credit: UNICEF/UNI358777/Oo.

While some, mostly developed countries, had access to cheap financing to cushion the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic and invest in recovery, many others did not.

read more »