Opportunity Missed for Nuclear-Free Middle East
After the cancellation of an international conference to create a nuclear-free Middle East, leading experts have warned that an important opportunity to create stability in the region has been...
View ArticleDoha Faces an Indonesian Test
To most people, holes in the ozone layer or the melting of polar ice caps can sound like distant catastrophes. “But let’s talk about concrete examples,” says an Indonesian director whose documentary...
View ArticleMedia Giant Advances on Taiwan
Taiwan civic reform, journalist and labour organisations have mobilised against the acquisition of the large Next Media (Taiwan) group by tycoons linked with China. They say this threatens Taiwan’s...
View ArticleState Failing as Parent
Governments in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are being urged to end the institutionalisation of babies as more than 15,000 children a year in the region continue to be subjected to a practice experts...
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Somaliland Rising from the Ruins of Somalia
As Somalia starts to emerge from its quagmire of instability and chaos, 20 years of relative peace and stability are starting to pay dividends for its close neighbour Somaliland, as this November it...
View ArticleThumbs Up for Palestine, Thumb in the Eye for Peace
When it voted to upgrade Palestinian statehood status from “observer entity” to “non-member observer state”, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) wanted the enduring Middle East conflict to come...
View ArticleFree Syria Faces Tough Times
As the death toll in Syria tops 40,000 and some 400,000 have taken refuge beyond the country’s borders, a dearth of funding for civilian projects in areas under Free Syrian control risks undermining...
View ArticleThe Big Fight in Doha Is Over Climate Finance
The new Green Climate Fund to help developing countries cope with climate change may one day have a bigger budget than the World Bank. At the moment, however, the Fund is empty. No financial pledges...
View ArticleQ&A: A Missionary Who Preaches Gender Equality
Midiam Lobaina describes herself as a “Christian militant” who takes a feminist reading of the Bible to workshops and religious services around Cuba, to discuss gender equality and a culture of peace....
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Civil Society, Youth Pushed to the Margins at Doha
Beatrice Yeung, a youth delegate at the United Nations climate talks, travelled all the way from Hong Kong to Doha, Qatar to bring her generation’s message that “we will live in the world you are...
View ArticleQatar Launches Schooling for Children in Crisis Zones
When the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) launched its inaugural meeting on “Global Education for All” last month, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that most...
View ArticleVenezuela’s Youth Orchestra Shines in U.S.
A group of young people walk down the streets of Chicago, broad grins on their faces. They have good reason to be happy: the ovations received by their repertoire of Latin American music when they...
View ArticleFunding for Neglected Diseases “Heavily Reliant” on U.S.
International financial support aimed at counteracting the world’s “neglected diseases” increased by nearly a half-billion dollars over the past five years, according to new research released Monday,...
View ArticleImmigrant Caregivers in Spain Hit Hard by Crisis
“It’s really painful to work and not get paid. And I can’t report them, because I don’t have documents, or a contract,” Rossana, one of the many immigrant women working as domestic employees and...
View ArticleFor Day Labourers Critical to Hurricane Recovery, Rights Are Few
Undocumented immigrants have played a significant role in recovery efforts since Hurricane Sandy swept the northeast United States one month ago. But despite their contributions, they have been left in...
View ArticleRural Co-ops in Central America Speak Out on Climate Change
Brenda Salazar has her sights set on two things: a good organic cacao harvest for the cooperative she belongs to in northern Nicaragua, and for the governments of Central America to heed the ideas of...
View ArticleBrazilian Communities Revitalise the São Francisco River
José Geraldo Matos fondly recalls the massive traíras (Hoplias sp), carnivorous freshwater fish found in the lagoons and rivers of Brazil, that he used to catch in the Dos Cochos River just a few...
View ArticleAntigua Prepares for Consequences of Superstorm Sandy
Tourism-dependent Antigua may have been spared the ravages of superstorm Sandy, but the island is nevertheless feeling its effects on environmental, political and economic fronts. The country is...
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U.N. Disabilities Treaty Rejected by U.S. Senate
Underlining the persistent power of their party’s most right-wing elements, a majority of Republican senators Tuesday blocked ratification of the long-pending International Convention on the Rights of...
View ArticleChemical Arms Treaty Holdouts Include Volatile Syria
The beleaguered government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, accused of readying its chemical weapons against rebel forces, is one of three governments in the militarily-volatile Middle East which...
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