(UN News)* — For the past five years, poverty, food insecurity, climate shocks and violence have pushed, on average, some 378,000 Central Americans a year into the United States, according to a new report launched on Tuesday [23 November 2021] by the UN food relief agency.
A joint report published by the World Food Programme (WFP), Migration Policy Institute (MPI), and Civic Data Design Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) also showed that a high price was paid in human and economic costs, including an annual $2.2 billion on regular and irregular travel.
This article is part of IPS coverage of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Nov. 25, which kicks off 16 days of activism on the issue around the world. | En español
Despite restrictions due to covid, women from various feminist, youth and civil society groups gathered in the central Plaza San Martin in Lima and marched several blocks demanding justice and protesting impunity for violence against women, on Nov. 25, 2020. CREDIT: Mariela Jara/IPS
LIMA, Nov 24 2021 (IPS)* – Despite significant legal advances in Latin American countries to address gender-based violence, it continues to be a serious challenge, especially in a context of social crisis aggravated by the covid-19 pandemic, which hits women especially hard.
MADRID, Nov 23 2021 (IPS)* – Thirty percent of women and girls suffered physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, most frequently by an intimate partner. And more than 70 percent of all sold, bought and enslaved victims of human smuggling and trafficking are women and girls — three out of four of them are sexually exploited.
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These are just some of the brush strokes of a gloomy picture on the still prevailing violence practiced against women and girls, one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations, which remains largely unreported due to the impunity, silence, stigma and shame surrounding it.
These are figures drawn from recorded cases. Thus, it is not hard to imagine that the numbers and percentages are much higher.
22 November 2021 (Wall Street International)* – Colonialism is difficult to write about. History is highly political since, always written by the winners while the voices of the losers are smothered.
More than five hundred years after the ‘discovery’ of America by Christopher Columbus and the conquest of the Mexica capital of Tenochtitlan, discussions still continue as to whether the ‘black legend’ of the cruelties committed by the Spaniards is deserved, and whether the Mexicas correctly understood the intentions of Hernan Cortés.
(UN News)* — Small arms trafficking is a “defining factor in undermining peace and security”, the Director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) told the Security Council on Monday [22 November 2021] during a ministerial debate.
UNDP/SEESAC | Small arms and light weapons are collected and sorted for destruction at a facility in Serbia.
Robin Geiss said that that diversion and trafficking of arms “destabilizes communities and exacerbates situations of insecurity, including by committing serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, as well as violence against women and children in various contexts”.
The Council met under the chairmanship of Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard as one of the signature events of Mexico’s November presidency.
Presenting the findings of a six-month accountability report, Co-chairs Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia, warned that “uneven” progress in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause illness, deaths and economic losses.
Global warming causes global swarming. In 2018, Indian Ocean cyclones hit Oman and Yemen, creating conditions for an outbreak of desert locusts.
Swarms grew throughout 2019 and 2020, two of the hottest years on record. Swarms with 80 million insects have swept across Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, and, as of last week, Kenya, consuming enough staple crops that would otherwise feed 35,000 people, every day.
Scientists have linked the growth of locust plagues to climate change.
Making leather is hard and dirty work, but should children in Bangladesh be banned from it?
Tannery work in Dhaka, Bangladesh | Zakir Hossain Chowdhury/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News. All rights reserved
15 November 2021 (openDemocracy)* — Leather production is a global, billion-dollar industry and Bangladesh’s second most profitable export sector after ready-made garments. It also has a problem with child labour.
NEW YORK, Nov 17 2021 (IPS)*– Once again, the U.S. faces a test case along racial lines. Will the courts mete out justice in the case of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was shot and killed by three white men while jogging in Georgia?
Anna Shen
The case is one in a long line of prominent trials with similar racial undertones, highlighting the divide in America’s legal system when it comes to race. Recent cases with mixed and highly charged verdicts include: George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Walter Scott, and Breonna Taylor.
Despite widespread attention — the national movement of Black Lives Matter, widespread protests, and federal laws intended to provide equal access — systemic racism in the legal system is flagrant and persistent. Put simply, it must be eradicated, said a new report by the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation.
Nairobi (UNEP)* – Global cities are key to overcoming the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and pollution. A new vision of future cities is detailed in a report released on 18 November 2021 by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 