MADRID, Dec 6 2021 (IPS) – ”All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” These words are a sound introduction to the transcendental issue of human rights and equalities, as stated by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
The Declaration proclaims the “inalienable rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being – regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”
(UN News)* — The UN’s top human rights official on Monday [6 December 2021]condemned the imprisonment of Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi by a military-controlled court, and called for her release. She also faces additional charges of corruption and electoral fraud.
ICJ/Frank van Beek | Aung San Suu Kyi appears at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 10 December 2019.
.The development follows media reports that a military vehicle slammed into demonstrators in the city of Yangon over the weekend, leaving an unknown number injured and at least five dead.
A shift to wind energy is leaving a trail of destruction in Ecuador, with a brutal impact on Indigenous communities and fragile ecosystems | ESPAÑOL
An island on the Pastaza river seen from the community of Sharamentsa in the Ecuadorian Amazon | Francesc Badia i Dalmases
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1 December 2021 (openDemocracy)* — What has the destruction of balsa trees in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest got to do with the wind power industry in Europe?
Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday, in which exceptionalism and selective amnesia are celebrated. The sick fairy tale obscures the violent foundations of a settler colonial nation.
United American Indians of New England | Photo: Facebook
Tomorrow, in homes across the country, millions of people will cluster around dinner tables and say an obligatory prayer of thanks that they were born free and white in America. They will then stuff their faces with piles of bland food and wash it all down with too much beer and occasional shots of whiskey.
Bulawayo, ZIMBABWE , Dec 1 2021 (IPS)* – Millet could be Africa’s silver bullet for combating anaemia – and apart from health benefits, it is climate-resilient.
Supermarkets stock both millet and sorghum products, but these are often ignored. Now research has shown the crops have health benefits and are climate resilient. Credit: Ignatius Banda/IPS
(UN News)* — Lack of opportunities, gangs, organized crime, the ravages of the pandemic and climate change, have triggered the displacement of nearly one million people in Mexico and Central America in recent years.
UNICEF/César Amador | Asylum seekers, including children, at the Matamoros camp awaiting their US immigration hearings in Mexico
To deal with the problem more effectively, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees called on Thursday [2 December 2021] for a new mechanism that could operate across the whole region, to deal with what is now an unprecedented displacement crisis.
(UN News)* — Over 700,000 children have been impacted by school closures due to often brutal violence in Cameroon, according to an analysis released by the UN humanitarian arm, OCHA, on Thursday [2 December 2021].
Two out of three schools are closed in the North-West and South-West regions of the country. On 24 November, four children and one teacher were killed in an attack in Ekondo Titi, in the South-West.
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A recent lockdown imposed by a non-State armed group, from 15 September to 2 October, limited access to basic services including health and education.
(UN News)* — Women and children are at high risk of being pushed into contemporary forms of slavery, UN-appointed independent rights experts said on Wednesday [1 December 2021].
In an alert to coincide with the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery on 2 December, they warned that global challenges such as COVID-19, climate change and armed conflict have amplified existing vulnerabilities.
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According to figures released by UNICEF and ILO in June, almost 80 million children aged 5 to 17, are subjected to hazardous work which is classified as a contemporary form of slavery.
MADRID, Dec 1 2021 (IPS)* – No matter what it is called — it is the abhorrent daily life of a billion enslaved humans. The real number of “modern” slaves is understandably unknown. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that more than 40 million people worldwide are victims of modern slavery.
Teenage girls harvest tomatoes on a farm in the state of Sinaloa, in northern Mexico. Credit: Courtesy of Sinaloa Institute for Adult Education
Although modern slavery is not defined in law, it is used as an umbrella term covering practices such as forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, and human trafficking, it says.
Santiago/Chile, 1 December 2021 (FAO)* – Hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean is at its highest point since 2000, after a 30 percent increase in the number of people suffering hunger from 2019 to 2020, says a new UN report.
According to the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2021, in just one year, and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people living with hunger increased by 13.8 million, reaching a total of 59.7 million people.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 