It is essential to remember that femicide is actually a symptom of a much wider problem. It is patriarchal norms and gender inequality that are both the cause and consequence of gender-based violence in society.
Marx wrote ‘the tradition of all past generations weighs like an incubus upon the brain of the living.’ Yet there are many who wish to keep us chained to the past, including cultural relativists, feminists such as Germaine Greer and of course religious apologists. Ebru Asiltürk, spokeswoman for womens’ affairs for Turkey’s Islamic conservative Saadet Party, who opined recently that ‘…the treaty [Istanbul Convention to tackle violence again women and domestic abuse, as well as promoting gender equality – which Turkey was, ironically, the first country to …
Alice Cruz-UN, Special Rapporteur on eliminating discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members, told the youth that their participation was crucial to removing legal discrimination. Her young son Leo asked the global audience not to forget leprosy. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
Nairobi, Kenya, Jan 25 2022 (IPS) – Yohei Sasakawa said the youth have the power to change the world, and their participation in removing the stigma and myths about leprosy is crucial to the campaign to end the disease.
Sasakawa, the and Chairman of the Nippon Foundation, was speaking at a webinar held in the run-up to . He engaged youth from Africa, Asia, …
Dr Matshidiso Moeti is the World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa.
A Pakistani child receives a dose of the oral polio vaccine (OPV). Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS
BRAZZAVILLE, Mar 22 2022 (IPS) – In the outskirts of Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, just beyond where paved roads transition to dirt, an undiagnosed polio infection paralysed a three-year-old girl. From one day to the next, the child’s life was changed forever.
Among Africa’s public health community, we had looked at our successes against wild poliovirus as a cause for optimism. In the 1…
It’s nice getting old, being young is far too horrible
Hjalmar Söderbergh
STOCKHOLM, Jul 28 2022 (IPS) – Many of us assume that an identification with a certain gender, race, nation or even age makes us particularly knowledgeable. When it comes to age, it is in most cultures of the world assumed that age and experience favour wisdom. I am not entirely sure about that, though I am convinced that as we grow older we tend to overestimate our own knowledge and importance. An arrogance that might burden and even marginalize the youth.
In several European cities you may nowadays come across store windows displaying various types of walkers, adjustable beds and o…
SYDNEY and DAKAR, Nov 1 2022 (IPS) – Developing countries have long been told to avoid borrowing from central banks (CBs) to finance government spending. Many have even legislated against CB financing of fiscal expenditure.
Central bank fiscal financing
Such laws are supposedly needed to curb inflation – below 5%, if not 2% – to accelerate growth. These arrangements have also constrained a potential CB developmental role and government ability to respond better to crises.
Anis Chowdhury
Improved monetary-fiscal policy coordination is also needed to achieve desired structural transformation, especially in decarbonizing economies. But too many develop…
A girl reads a story book with lessons on life skills at an ELA club in Uganda. Credit: Uganda/BRAC
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 22 2023 (IPS) – BRAC’s Empowerment and Livelihood Program (ELA) has benefitted tens of thousands of girls, and its recently released report shows an organization willing to adapt to the circumstances to continue to ensure adolescent girls and young women receive meaningful sexual and reproductive health rights support.
The report titled Adolescent Empowerment at a scale: Successes and challenges of an evidence-based approach to young women’s progra…
On the airwaves – DJ Ulu, Mama Nessa and Mama Trina (left to right).
TONGA, Aug 8 2022 – Tonga was still picking up the pieces after the Hunga volcanic eruption and tsunami waves when the pandemic reached its shores.
The volcano’s ashfall had damaged roads, polluted water and destroyed crops. The tsunami waves battered homes and strewn debris inland. The telecommunications services connecting people to their families were just coming back online as news of the first COVID-19 cases broke.
A lockdown was swiftly announced to curb an uncontrolled spread of the virus. Though a critical public health intervention, it was an additional blow to the island n…
Mangroves in Tai O, Hong Kong. Coastal wetland protection and restoration is an example of the kind of multifunctional solution that is needed to address multiple global crises together. Credit: Chunyip Wong / iStock
BONN, Mar 2 2023 (IPS) – When global crises are interlinked, they overlap and compound each other. In such cases, the most effective solutions are those that work at the nexus of all these challenges.
In September, almost every Government on Earth will gather at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York to take stock at the halfway mark of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of what has been achieved and what remains to be done.
…
Credit: World Bank
BANGKOK, Thailand, Dec 8 2023 (IPS) – As the world commemorates the 75th anniversary of the , ( on Human Rights Day December 10), we turn the spotlight on a glaring contradiction the world is experiencing from a harmful industry. Despite causing 8 million annual deaths and a myriad of diseases, the tobacco industry has enjoyed six decades of the legal right to manufacture and sell its harmful products.
This travesty to human rights remains unaddressed with no admission of liability, compensation for victims, or withdrawal of the product.
Instead, the tobacco industry has thwarted and undermined government efforts to protect public …
Apr 10 2020 – The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has announced it is “launching initiatives” to support cultural industries and cultural heritage, sectors hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID-19 has put many intangible cultural heritage practices, including rituals and ceremonies, on hold, impacting communities everywhere,” the organization stated April 9. “It has also cost many jobs, and across the globe, artists … are now unable to make ends meet.”
UNESCO s Director-General Audrey Azoulay. Credit: UNESCO/Calix
Governments ordered the lockdown of museums, theatres, cinemas and other cultural inst…