From Kenya to Pakistan, protesters want the International Monetary Fund to stop exploiting countries in debt crisis
(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
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2024 (IPS)* –– The growing number of killings of Palestinian journalists in Gaza has triggered a demand for a cut-off in US arms supplies to Israel.
The journalists gather in front of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital to commemorate their friends, Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi, who lost their lives in Israeli army attack on a moving vehicle in the Al-Shati refugee camp, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on July 31, 2024. Source: Middle East Monitor. Credit: Ashraf Amra, Anadolu Agency
A letter addressed to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken—and signed by scores of reporters, news outlets and journalist unions— says Israel has killed more than 165 Palestinian journalists since October 7 last year. Continue reading →
(UN News)* — The UN Human Rights Office condemned on Saturday [] the increasing frequency of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) strikes on schools, where hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians have sought shelter, with the latest attacks killing dozens at a Gaza City school.
At around 4:30am during dawn prayer on Saturday, a mosque inside Al Tabaeen School was struck by the IDF “at least three times”, the UN rights office, OHCHR, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a statement, adding that the attacks were “conducted with apparent disregard for the high rate of civilian fatalities”.
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
NAIROBI, Aug 7 2024 (IPS)* –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.Continue reading →
(UN News)* — The UN human rights office, OHCHR, called on Friday [] for the Israeli authorities to monitor senior officials whose public statements on the Gaza conflict may promote war crimes.
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UNIS Vienna | Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, addresses a conference for youth human rights defenders at the UN in Vienna (file).
OHCHR spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk “is shocked and appalled” by comments made by Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who suggested that letting two million Palestinians in Gaza starve to death could be “justified and moral” in order to free hostages.
The High Commissioner condemned these words in the strongest terms, which also incite hatred against innocent civilians.
(Beirut) – Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are failing to protect outdoor migrant workers experiencing dangerous, heat-related health risks as global warming-fueled heatwaves envelope the region, Human Rights Watch said on 8 August 2024.
(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.
(UN News)* — Thousands of people in Gaza have been fleeing west toward Al Mawasi after the Israel military issued a new evacuation order on Thursday [], UN humanitarian partners on the ground have reported.
SYDNEY, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON DC, Aug 6 2024 (IPS)* – 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.
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.
To fight against trafficking newborns, the new legislation facilitates the criminal prosecution for such crimes as kidnapping, illegal deprivation of liberty, human trafficking, involvement in prostitution and more.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 