Good News Agency – Year X, n° 157
Weekly - Year X, number 157 –
12th June 2009
Managing Editor: Sergio Tripi,
Ph. D.
Rome Law-court
registration no. 265 dated 20 June 2000.
“…In conveying the appreciation of the Head of
State for the passion and the professionalism with which you spread, above all among the young, the culture of
"good news", I would like to take this opportunity of
adding my personal greeting”. (From the letter of
the Adviser for the Press and Information of the President of Italy, Giorgio
Napolitano, to the Editor of Good News Agency, 12 October 2007.)
Good News Agency carries
positive and constructive news from all over the world relating to voluntary
work, the work of the United Nations, non governmental organizations, and
institutions engaged in improving the quality of life – news that doesn’t “burn
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distributed free of charge through Internet to the editorial offices of 5,000 media
in 49 countries and to 2,800 NGOs and 500 high schools, colleges and
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Volontà Mondiale, NGO
associated with the United Nations Department of
Public Information. The
Association has been recognized by UNESCO as “an actor of the global movement for a culture of peace” and it has
been included in the web site http://www3.unesco.org/iycp/uk/uk_sum_monde.htm
Contents
International legislation – Human rights – Economy and development – Solidarity
Peace and security – Health
– Energy and Safety – Environment and wildlife
Religion and
spirituality
– Culture and education
In a global perspective: illiteracy and child labour decreases,
hunger diminishes
UN Secretary-General congratulates Lebanon on
peaceful parliamentary polls
8
June - Congratulating Lebanon on its peaceful parliamentary elections over the
weekend, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged
all Lebanese people to cooperate “in the spirit of coexistence and democracy.”
(...) Both yesterday’s polls and the formation of a new Government “represent
further important steps along the path of the revitalization of the State’s
political institutions,” the statement added. The Secretary-General also noted
that he looks forward to the “full consolidation” of Lebanon’s stability, unity and
political independence in line with the Taif Accord,
the 1989 deal that followed the country’s protracted civil war, and Security
Council resolutions. (...) “The general improvement of the situation in the
country, combined with reconciliation efforts in the region, creates a
potential momentum to strengthen the sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon and Government
control throughout the country,” Mr. Ban writes in the report, which focuses on
the implementation of resolution 1559. Adopted by the Security Council in 2004
amid concern about high tensions within Lebanon, the resolution calls for
free and fair elections, an end to foreign interference and the disbanding of
all militias.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31057&Cr=leban&Cr1
Fight against drugs and crime in south-east Europe gets boost with UN pact
21
May - Tackling the challenges posed by illicit drugs and organized crime in
south-east Europe is one of the major
priorities of a new agreement boosting cooperation between the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC).
(...) The memorandum of understanding signed today in Vienna between the two bodies lays out the
basis for technical assistance, as well as facilitating the sharing of
knowledge and best practices in order to build security and the rule of law in
the region. Franz Baumann, UNODC’s Acting Deputy
Executive Director, said the pact will pave the way for closer integration of
south-east Europe with the rest of the
continent. Among other things, the memorandum aims to strengthen national
criminal justice systems and the protection of human rights, while promoting
the independence and integrity of institutions by tackling corruption.
It
will also include efforts to address money-laundering and the financing of
terrorism, as well as asset recovery, in addition to support for the prevention
and treatment of drug-related problems, including the spread of HIV/AIDS. A
number of joint activities are planned between UNODC and the RCC - a body
launched in February to succeed the Stability Pact for South-eastern Europe - including in the areas of training, research and
awareness raising.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30873&Cr=UNODC&Cr1
Nepal: senior UN official
lauds Supreme Court reforms
19
May - The top United Nations human rights official in Nepal today
welcomed Supreme Court reforms initiated by the fledgling democracy’s newly
appointed Chief Justice. Among the measures aimed at enhancing transparency in
its system of jurisprudence, Chief Justice Bahadur Rayamajhi has established a Court Decisions Enforcement
Directorate. A telephone hotline for people to register complaints about
irregularities within the judicial system has also been set up along with the
installation of CCTV in the Supreme Court. In a report released last month,
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that progress has
been made in Nepal’s peace process, including steps towards drafting a new
constitution, but warned that differences among key political parties continues
to impede the consolidation of peace. (...)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30841&Cr=Nepal&Cr1
World
Day Against Child Labour –
12 June 2009
Geneva - The annual World Day Against Child Labour will be marked by events in scores of countries
around the world on 12 June amid growing concerns over the impact of the
economic crisis on child labour, and in particular
girls. For the World Day, the ILO will release a new report entitled “Give
Girls a Chance: Tackling child labour, a key to the
future,” highlighting the exploitation of girls in child labour
and warning that the crisis could force more girls out of education and into
child labour. The report by the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour
(IPEC) of the International Labour Office (ILO) will
provide latest estimates on the number of girls in child labour
and detail the exploitative forms of child labour
facing them.
This year’s World Day also marks the tenth anniversary of
the adoption of ILO Convention No. 182 on the elimination of the worst forms of
child labour.
http://www.ilo.org/global/About_the_ILO/Media_and_public_information/Press_releases/lang--en/WCMS_107706/index.htm
Committee on
Rights of Child holds fifty-first session in Geneva from 25 May to 12 June 2009
Situation of Children’s Rights in France,
Sweden, Mauritania, Slovenia,
Bangladesh, Niger, Romania
and Oman
to be Reviewed.
22 May - The
Committee on the Rights of the Child will meet at the Palais
Wilson in Geneva from 25 May to 12 June to
review the promotion and protection of children's rights under the provisions
of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in France,
Sweden, Mauritania, Bangladesh,
Niger and Romania. The
Committee will also review efforts made by Slovenia and Oman with regard to
their implementation of the two Optional Protocols to the Convention, on the
sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and on the
involvement of children in armed conflict. The Committee was formed in 1991 to
monitor the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which
gives a comprehensive collection of children's rights the force of
international law.
http://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/(httpNewsByYear_en)/84AFEFF3A7B0A3DEC12575BE002A8178?OpenDocument
Good practices in legislation to address harmful
practices against women
Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, 25-28 May - The United Nations Division for the Advancement of
Women of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDAW/DESA) and the
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) convened an expert group
meeting on good practices in legislation to address harmful practices, to be
held at the United Nations at Addis Ababa, from 25 to 28 May 2009.
The
expert group meeting was a follow up to an expert group meeting organized by UNDAW/DESA and the United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC) in Vienna,
from 26 to 28 May 2008, on good practices in legislation on violence against
women. That meeting prepared a model framework for legislation on violence
against women, including detailed recommendations, commentaries and examples of
promising practices. The framework contains two types of recommendations: those
that are applicable to all forms of violence against women; and those that are
specific to domestic violence or sexual violence. The purpose of this expert
group meeting was to further develop the framework by elaborating specific
recommendations for legislation on harmful practices against women. (...)
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/v-egms-gplahpaw.htm
Australia agrees to make sure that all people in detention are
treated well
22 May - The Australian Human Rights Commission
welcomes today’s announcement by the federal Attorney-General that Australia has
signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
“This is an important international agreement,” said
Commission President Catherine Branson QC. “By signing this agreement, Australia has
agreed that all places where people are kept in detention should be monitored
to make sure that the treatment of those in detention meets human rights
standards.”
There are many places of detention in Australia -
including prisons, juvenile detention institutions, police stations, locked
psychiatric wards, immigration detention centres and
aged care hostels where residents are detained involuntarily. “The fair and
humane treatment of people in detention is a fundamental human right. People
who are deprived of their liberty are vulnerable and too often we hear of
breaches of detainee’s human rights,” Ms Branson said.
http://www.hreoc.gov.au/about/media/media_releases/2009/39_09.html
Advancing
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
United Nations, 18 May - Some 2,000 indigenous
representatives from all regions of the world have gathered here for the eighth
session of the Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Issues. Government representatives,
civil society, academia, some 35 UN system bodies and other inter-governmental
organizations are also engaged in the Forum, which will focus on implementation
of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Other key
topics are the relationship between indigenous peoples and industrial
corporations and the situation of indigenous peoples in the Arctic,
including the serious impact of climate change in that region. (...)By taking into account different world views, including different
religious and ethical values and cultural backgrounds, the culturally sensitive
and human rights-based approaches adopted by UNFPA encourages finding locally
grown solutions in order to ensure ownership and sustainability of development
efforts, and advance human rights. (...)
http://www.unfpa.org/public/News/pid/2717
First European research con Microfinance: 2-3-4 June
2009 - Brussels, Belgium
The
microfinance sector is developing at a rapid pace creating a growing demand for
experienced professionals but also precise academic research within
microfinance and credit institutions, banks and development investment funds in
Europe and abroad.
In
partnership with the Centre for European Research in Microfinance (CERMi),
the European
Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) has the great pleasure to organize the First European Research Conference
on Microfinance, with the purpose of establishing the state of the art in the
field.
The
First European Research Conference on Microfinance aims at providing researchers
with an opportunity
to present their work, discuss it with senior researchers and
exchange
ideas with international colleagues. A Call for Papers has been launched to this extent,
with the purpose of presenting the best papers during the workshops. (...)
http://www.microfinconf.eu/
Reward for conserving crops
11 projects announced in Tunis to receive grants from treaty on food
plant genes.
Rome/Tunis, 2 June - Eleven
developing countries that conserve food seeds and other genetic material from
major crops will receive more than $500 000 to support their efforts according
to an announcement made today in Tunis at a high-level meeting of the governing
body of the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources in Food and Agriculture.
Grants are to be awarded to projects in Egypt,
Kenya, Costa Rica, India,
Peru, Senegal, Uruguay,
Nicaragua, Cuba, Tanzania
and Morocco.
It is the first time funds have become available under the benefit-sharing
scheme of the Treaty, designed to compensate farmers in developing countries
for their role in conserving crop varieties.
The
projects were chosen from hundreds of applications and come on stream thanks to
the generous donations of Norway,
Italy, Spain and Switzerland in support of
agriculture and food security. The projects to be supported include: on-farm
protection of citrus agro-biodiversity in Egypt,
the genetic enhancement and revitalization of finger millet in Kenya and the conservation of indigenous potato
varieties in Peru.
For a full list of projects supported click here.
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/20242/icode/
First fruits of plant gene pact
Delegates from 120 nations in Tunis to share benefits of treaty on food
plant genes.
Rome/Tunis,
1 June 2009, - For the
first time, farmers in poor countries are to be rewarded under a binding
international treaty for conserving and propagating crop varieties that could
prove to be the saviour of global food security over
the coming decades. A new benefit-sharing scheme, part of the International
Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, is to come on stream thanks to the generous donations of several
governments that will support five such farmers’ projects. They will be
announced at a meeting of the Treaty’s Governing Body is Tunis
this week from more than 300 applications submitted by farmers, farmer’s organisations and research centres
mainly from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
It
is the first time that financial benefits are being transferred under the
Treaty which was agreed in 2004. (...) The first batch of projects are to
receive around $250 000. Norway,
Italy, Spain and Switzerland have contributed the
funds as seed money for the benefit-sharing scheme.
http://www.fao.org/news/story/it/item/20162/icode/
Rural Africa
can grow the continent out of poverty
IFAD President
keynote speaker at Africa Day celebrations hosted by Italy’s President.
Rome, 28 May - As poor people across Africa struggle with the effects of last year’s food and
fuel crises and the current global economic downturn, their plight took centre
stage today at a panel discussion featuring top Italian officials and
international leaders, including Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The panel on the challenges and opportunities
facing Africa was hosted by Giorgio
Napolitano, President of Italy, to commemorate Africa Day at the presidential
palace here. Other speakers were Giulio Tremonti, Minister of Economy and Finance; Romano Prodi, UN Secretary-General Special Representative and of
the African Union for Peace-keeping in Africa; Jean Ping, President of the
African Union Commission and Pier Carlo Padoan, Vice
Secretary-General of the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development.
“Poverty and hunger are inhuman and cannot be tolerated,” said Nwanze. “Food security is not just a moral obligation; it
underpins national, regional and global security. Without food security, the
world is not secure,” he noted.
Africa has been hit hard by the
food, fuel and financial crises which today threaten to undo the economic
progress achieved in the past 15 years. During that time, countries in the
region set in motion major reforms, often at great sacrifice. Those efforts,
combined with the global expansion and high demand for commodities, had begun
to reap rewards. Africa was recording more
than 5 per cent economic growth, giving renewed hope to its people that poverty
could in time be eradicated. But now, the Millennium Development Goal target of
halving the proportion of people living on less than US$1 a day by 2015 is
becoming more like a mirage for many African countries. (...)
http://www.ifad.org/media/press/2009/27.htm
Zimbabwe: ICRC distributes
food to thousands of detainees
Geneva/Harare,
5 June (ICRC) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has started
distributing food to 6,300 detainees. It continues to assess needs in prisons
and stands ready to assist where required. Working
with the Zimbabwean authorities, the ICRC has also set up therapeutic feeding
programmes and begun improving cooking facilities and water supply systems
inside prisons. (...) Once the food situation has
stabilized, the ICRC will continue to assess the overall conditions of
detention. (…) The ICRC will work
with the authorities to ensure that improvements achieved in the food situation
inside prisons are maintained. (...)
http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/zimbabwe-news-050509!OpenDocument
Food provides critical lifeline and stability for Pakistan
displaced
Rome,
4 June - The United Nations World Food Programme
(WFP) is streaming critically needed food assistance to more than two million
displaced people in Pakistan and helping to
bring stability to the region through an innovative system which is helping to
feed and protect victims.
“Food
is a basic building block for life, and in Pakistan it goes beyond immediate
nourishment by providing peace and stability to the human tide of people
uprooted by conflict,” said WFP’s Executive Director,
Josette Sheeran. WFP was
already feeding 6.2 million people in Pakistan before the recent crisis,
including 510,000 girls attending school.
WFP
- in cooperation with the Government of Pakistan and the UN refugee agency,
UNHCR - has devised a ‘service point’ approach to distributing food and other
relief assistance through “humanitarian hubs” in protected areas close to the
homes of displaced families. (...)
http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/food-provides-critical-lifeline-and-stability-pakistan-displaced
Caritas aid getting through in Sri Lanka
4
June - Caritas is supporting 48,000 people who had been forced from their homes
in Sri Lanka
during fighting in the north of the country. With the end of hostilities,
Caritas Sri Lanka is able to provide food and other food items as well as counselling and medical support.
Conditions
in the camps for the 280,000 people displaced by the conflict remain basic,
with special concerns over poor sanitation and access to clean drinking water.
Vulnerable groups such as the elderly, pregnant mothers and children are a
major concern. Between the 24 and 27 May, 14 people over the age of 70 died in
camps in one area, primarily due to lack of care and extreme heat.
Latest
reports indicate that releasing elders is to begin on 5 June. More than 2,500
applications have been approved. Caritas Sri Lanka staff and community organisers are organizing the cooking and distribution of
food to the camps. They have set up 12 community kitchens in camps in Chettikulam. Community support has been remarkable with the
active involvement of local parishes that have provided up to 10,000 food
parcels a day. (...)
http://www.caritas.org/newsroom/press_releases/PressRelease04_06_09.html
Pakistan: ICRC and Pakistan Red Crescent
substantially expanding operations
Geneva/Islamabad,
4 June (ICRC) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is stepping
up its support for people affected by fighting in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier
Province (NWFP). The organization will work closely
with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society and other partners within the
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. (...)
The humanitarian crisis under way in the NWFP has forced over two million
people to flee their homes over the last few weeks. Up
to 120,000 displaced people (IDPs) are living in
camps, but most have found refuge in host families, rented accommodation and
makeshift shelters all over Pakistan.
The ICRC, the Pakistan Red Crescent and other Movement
partners plan to help a total of 380,000 displaced people in the coming weeks
and months. (...)
The
ICRC is also reinforcing the capacity of its surgical hospital in Peshawar and, given the influx of wounded people in the
area, intends to set up a similar facility in Quetta. (...)
Following today’s appeal, the ICRC budget for its Pakistan operation will stand at
over 90 million Swiss francs, making the operation the ICRC’s
third largest worldwide.
http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/pakistan-news-040609
Save the Children brings relief to stranded survivors
of Cyclone Aila in Bangladesh
and India
Westport, Conn.,
USA, 1 June - Save the
Children is addressing acute water shortages and other needs endangering many
of the approximately 9 million people affected by Cyclone Aila,
which hit southwestern Bangladesh
and eastern India
on May 25 and killed close to 300 people. The floodwaters have partially
receded, but some villages remain underwater, others are flooded twice daily
with the high tide, and seawater contamination of freshwater supplies is a
widespread problem. In Bangladesh,
Save the Children is operating five water treatment plants and is distributing
tens of thousands of gallons of purified water daily. Diarrhea and other
waterborne diseases are a major concern, with young children among the most
vulnerable. (...)
http://www.savethechildren.org/newsroom/2009/cyclone-survivors.html
Cyclone Aila strikes Bangladesh – ADRA
launches response
Silver
Spring, Md., USA, 2 June - Cyclone Aila made landfall
on the southwestern coast of Bangladesh on May 25 killing approximately 180
people, displacing more than 500,000, and destroying homes, businesses, and
thousands of acres of cropland, said the Adventist Development and Relief
Agency (ADRA). (...) On June 1, ADRA distributed emergency supplies to
survivors within the severely affected sub-district
of Tala, in Satkhira District near the border with India,
providing assistance to 1,200 families, including rice, lentils, rice, sugar,
salt, oral rehydration salts, and water purification
tablets. According to ADRA staff on the ground, severe food and water shortages
have affected many villages. In some low-lying areas, seawater has contaminated
water supplies, leaving communities with little or no access to drinking water.
(...) Local officials stated that ADRA was the first aid organization to
distribute relief supplies in the region since the cyclone hit. ADRA’s emergency response group remains on-site, and
continues to survey and monitor the situation.
http://www.adra.org/site/News2/860249783?page=NewsArticle&id=10171&security=1&news_iv_ctrl=1141
Romania: new home for abused
women provides safety
Silver Spring, Md.,
USA, 2 June - To combat the
prevalence of domestic violence in Romania,
the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) inaugurated a new shelter
called ADRA House near the capital of Bucharest,
on May 21. The center, which is located in Ilfov County,
a rural area outside Bucharest,
can accommodate up to 24 guests and is equipped with separate reception and
counseling offices to better meet the needs of its residents. At the shelter,
beneficiaries receive social and psychological evaluations, a medical check-up,
access to social and legal services, and psychological counseling. In addition,
ADRA helps ADRA House residents find employment and a new home where they can
live once their stay is complete. Beneficiaries
can also request ADRA to monitor their individual case for up to one year after
their departure from the shelter to ensure their continued safety. (...)
ADRA
is a non-governmental organization present in 125 countries providing
sustainable community development and disaster relief without regard to
political or religious association, age, gender, race, or ethnicity.
http://www.adra.org/site/News2/860249783?page=NewsArticle&id=10163&security=1&news_iv_ctrl=1141
ACT Alliance:
Giant global humanitarian body to be created
29
May - Church-based emergency and development organisations
are about to create one of the world’s biggest networks. The name of the new
body will be the ACT Alliance with a common income of more than US$2 billion
dollars and a staff of 40,000, including volunteers. The formal launch of the
new alliance will take place in March of next year in Malawi.
The
General Assembly of ACT Development, holding its meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina
has decided to unify with the emergency network, ACT International. Both
alliances are based in Geneva,
bringing together more than 150 agencies, churches and organisations.
Through
emergency appeals, ACT International coordinates humanitarian operations all
over the world, and has been recently active in hot spots like Sri Lanka, Gaza, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan,
Colombia and India. ACT
Development works on long-term development issues and coordinates work in areas
such as aid effectiveness, impact assessment and malaria. The members of the
alliances come from both the global north and south. (...)
http://www.danchurchaid.org/sider_paa_hjemmesiden/newsletter_publications/news/act_alliance_giant_global_humanitarian_body_to_be_created
CARE provides critical assistance for the second wave
of people fleeing the former conflict zone in Sri Lanka
Geneva,
20 May - With the end of the war in northern Sri Lanka, a second wave of more
than 80,000 people are fleeing the former conflict zone and are in desperate
need of food, water and shelter. As people arrive by the thousands to the camps
for displaced people in Vavuniya, CARE is working
with the government, United Nations and other aid agencies to provide enough
tents, emergency supplies and water. With the new arrivals, the total number of
people in the camps will eventually be nearly 280,000 people. People are
arriving in the camps hungry and severely dehydrated after months in the
conflict zone, and have nothing but the clothes on their backs.
CARE
work crews are working around the clock building tents, latrines, water
distribution stands, and providing water and emergency supplies to people in
the camps. CARE has provided assistance for nearly 40,000 people so far. (...)
http://www.care.org/newsroom/articles/2009/05/srilanka-conflict-zone-refugee-emergency-20090520.asp?s_src=170920500000&s_subsrc
UN Secretary-General ‘encouraged’ by progress in Iraq
8
June - The successful and mostly peaceful polls earlier this year and an
agreement on a new Speaker of Parliament are among the “encouraging signs of
progress” Iraq has witnessed in recent months, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes in a new report. Following the January
provincial elections, “we witnessed local democratic processes at work with the
formation of political alliances to allow the selection of governors and their
deputies in each of the 14 governorates that held elections,” Mr. Ban says,
expressing hope that “this will serve to promote greater accountability in
local governance institutions.” Additionally, the Iraqi Security Forces
continued to show they can assume stepped up security responsibilities, he
notes. “Those developments underscore a general positive trend in the country
on both the political and security fronts,” the report says. (...) “Iraq’s recovery
is entering a new phase, with the Government leading the effort and shifting
from a multi-donor trust fund to an emphasis on bilateral donor relations,” it
adds, noting that the UN will now focus on sustainable social and economic
development. “A healthy economy, jobs, services and a functioning government
system are the benefits of good democratic governance,” the Secretary-General
writes. (...)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31061&Cr=iraq&Cr1
UN-backed
‘Smile Darfur’
campaign wraps up with call to end violence
7 June - The week-long “Smile Darfur”
outreach scheme, backed by the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping
mission in the war-torn Sudanese region, has wrapped up with a call for peace
and an end to the violence. At yesterday’s
closing ceremony for “Ibtasim [Smile] Darfur,” Henry Anyidoho, Deputy Joint Special Representative of the
mission, known as UNAMID,
urged
Darfurians, as well as all Sudanese, to “join your
hands and hearts together to work for the peace, development and prosperity of
your land.” (…)
“Smile
Darfur” was part of the celebrations to mark this
year’s International Day of
Peacekeepers on 29 May, the date in 1948 when the first UN peacekeeping
mission, the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), began operations in Palestine.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31052&Cr=unamid&Cr1
US State Department funds Clear Path International programs in Vietnam & Cambodia
Posted
by: James Hathaway
Washington, D.C.,
5 June - The U.S. Department of State’s Office of Weapons Removal &
Abatement has approved matching grants totaling $177,000 for Clear Path
International’s humanitarian mine action programs in Vietnam
and Cambodia.
The
largest grant of $127,000 will be used to fund efforts that assist survivors of
accidents with landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in central Vietnam. The
second grant of $50,000 will be used for CPI’s rice mill enterprise for
landmine survivors in Battambang, Cambodia,
where its beneficiaries receive training, microcredit
and crop processing services.
The
two grants are matched by financial contributions from the private sector,
including the McKnight Foundation of Minneapolis, the Johnson & Widdifield Charitable Trust, the Seattle-based law firm Marler Clark and the Dutch charity Stichting
Mensenkinderen. (...)
http://clearpathinternational.org/cpiblog/archives/001001.php
DR Congo police receive UN training ahead of local
elections
3
June - The United Nations has begun training the first of some 75,000 policemen
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in preparation for local
elections, the world body’s peacekeeping mission there said. The mission, known
as MONUC, said much of the training is an update of a course already received
by members of the Congolese National Police (PNC) in previous years. The
instruction includes the management of queues in front of polling stations, the
escort and transport of the material to the local centres
of compilation and the evacuation of currently illegally occupied buildings,
MONUC said. The aim of the first stage of the programme
is to train 2,578 agents from the various police stations of Kinshasa, who will
be deployed in 143 registration centres in the
capital for a revision of the electoral rolls. The training will continue at a
national level in the coming weeks starting with the PNC of Bas-Congo. The
revision of the electoral roll, regarded as the first step towards the next
local elections, begins on 7 June in Kinshasa
and in Bas-Congo, and on 3 August in the nine other provinces.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31007&Cr=democratic&Cr1=congo
Former Somali army officers to meet for UN-backed
talks in US capital
3
June - Former senior army officers from Somalia
are slated to meet in Washington
D.C. tomorrow for United
Nations-backed talks aimed at bolstering security institutions in the
strife-torn nation. The two-day gathering, arranged with the support of the
Somali Ministry of Defence and the UN Political
Office for Somalia (UNPOS), will look at the structure of Somalia’s military
before the collapse of the State and the best ways to address the country’s
current and future security needs. (...) Stressing that this is a “great
opportunity for Somalis to find within their past some solutions for the
future,” Mr. Ould-Abdallah noted that the former
Somali military officers participating in this meeting are respected for their
experience in training soldiers from other African nations. UNPOS said in a
press release that the meeting will serve to prepare for follow-up discussions
with Somalia’s
top military officials, expected to take place in late July, as part of the
Government’s commitment under the Djibouti Agreement to strengthen its defence forces. (…)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31008&Cr=Somali&Cr1
Voter registration in Kurdistan
off to good start – UN envoy
1
June - The United Nations envoy to Iraq has congratulated the election
officials and people of the Northern Region of Kurdistan “for completing a
successful and peaceful first week of the voter registration” for next month’s
regional elections. Staffan de Mistura,
the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq,
said 89 voter registration update centres
successfully opened across the Northern Region of Kurdistan (KRG) and in Baghdad, according to a
news release issued by the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI). In addition,
nearly 40,480 people visited the centres during the
first week to verify or correct their information so that they are properly
registered to vote in the KRG elections on 25 July. Mr. de Mistura
said that the turnout and participation in the voter registration update in the
KRG is a “positive signal” for greater participation in the national voter
registration update scheduled to begin in early August for the Council of
Representatives election in January 2010. (...)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30979&Cr=Iraq&Cr1=Elections
EU Heads of State receive Desktop Peace Pole for their Offices
Prime
Ministers, Presidents or Chancellors of all 27 European Community member states
received a present this month of the World Peace Prayer Society Europe and its
sister organisation, the Goi Peace Foundation
Europe: a 50 cm Desktop Peace Pole with
an peace message on each of its four sides. Two sides of these wooden pillars
were engraved in the respective country`s national
language saying “May Peace be in ....(name of the
country) and “May Peace Prevail on Earth”. The other two sides feature the
peace message in English.
In
their letter to the 27 Prime Ministers and Presidents the World Peace Prayer
Society and the Goi Peace Foundation mention that the
peace poles shall not only inspire the leaders`daily
mission of peace but also commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the
iron curtain as this historical moment enabled the reunification of Western and
Eastern European countries to one unique body - The European Union.
Peace
Poles (in its usual length of 2,50 meters) are an international project with
more than 250.000 to be found in universities, schools, parks, churches, townhalls, at the United Nations, the World Bank in
Washington, the OPEC office in Vienna or the Pentagon :Chapel to just name a
few. More information about peace poles can be obtained at:
www.worldpeace.org (US office) or www.worldpeace.de
(European office).
Stockpile
destruction signals end for cluster munitions
New report
looks at government engagement on ban treaty.
Geneva, Switzerland, 29 May - Several states that have
signed the new international treaty prohibiting cluster munitions have
already started to destroy their stockpiles of the weapon, even before the
treaty formally takes effect, according to Banning Cluster Munitions:
Government Policy and Practice, a 288-page report released today. The report
is being issued one year after the conclusion of the negotiations of the Convention
on Cluster Munitions in Dublin,
Ireland on 30
May 2008. (...) The new report documents, on a country-by-country basis, how
and why such dramatic shifts occurred. Many treaty signatories are expected
to complete destruction of their stockpiles earlier than the eight-year
deadline imposed by the convention. Spain completed destruction of its stockpiled cluster
munitions in March 2009, the first to do so since signing the treaty. Several
other signatories have begun to destroy their stockpiles of cluster munitions
including Austria, Belgium, Canada,
Colombia, France, Germany,
Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland,
and the United Kingdom.
(...)
http://www.icbl.org/index.php/icbl/Library/News-Articles/Work/Banning-Cluster-Munitions
More Japanese
aid for de-mining in Sri
Lanka
Colombo, 26 May -
The government of Japan has
decided to provide additional aid worth US$ 1.4 million for de-mining in
northern Sri Lanka.
The Japanese Embassy in Colombo
announced today that they expect to provide these funds through the Danish
De-mining Group (DDG) and the HALO Trust. The funds are allocated for demining in recently liberated areas in Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Vavuniya. This
will be the second time this year that the Japanese government assists Sri Lanka with
de-mining. Earlier the Japanese government provided a grant of US$ 700,000 for
humanitarian de-mining in Mannar through FSD (Swiss
Foundation for Mine Action).
The total
contribution from Japan
for de-mining activities in the North therefore reaches US$ 2.1 million, the
Embassy said.
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_091/May1243348430RA.html
Countries go all-out against polio
Almost a quarter of a billion children vaccinated in 10 days.
5 June - In the last 10 days of May, a total of 222,270,331 children in
22 countries were immunized against polio. This included more than 74 million
children in 11 west African countries immunized by
400,000 polio vaccinators last weekend in a synchronized response to a wild
poliovirus outbreak from northern Nigeria
that has swept as far westwards as Guinea.
A further 70 million children in northern India, 29 million in Pakistan
and 49 million children in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, DR Congo, Eritrea,
Djibouti, Yemen and Nepal received oral polio vaccine.
http://www.polioeradication.org/content/general/LatestNews200906.asp#02
Polio
eradication in historic US
Presidential speech
4 June - In
his main address in Cairo during his visit to
the Middle East, US
President Barack Obama
highlighted the old and complex bonds between cultures and religions and spoke
of the cooperative effort to eradicate polio. “Today I am announcing a new
global effort with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to
eradicate polio,” President Obama told millions of
viewers watching the historic address around the world. The 21-year Global
Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has reduced the incidence of polio by 99%
worldwide. A partnership of national
governments, international organizations and the private sector, the GPEI works
to conduct surveillance for polio and vaccinate hundreds of millions of
children every year against the paralyzing disease. Of the four countries where
endemic polio survives, three are members of the OIC. Furthermore, of
the fifteen countries that have reported polio re-infections in 2009, 10 are
OIC members. (...)
Final
challenges remain in the four endemic countries of Nigeria,
India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
http://www.polioeradication.org/content/general/LatestNews200906.asp#02
Indonesian
clubs help 2,000 children with cleft lip
by Peter Schmidtke
Rotary
International News, 4 June - Syahrul Gunawan looked in the mirror and touched the reflection of
his nose and lips. The seven-year-old boy, who had received surgery for clefts
on both sides of his upper lip, smiled at his mother and exclaimed how handsome
he was. Thalca Hamid from the Rotary Club of Surabaya Central, Indonesia,
recalls how the boy’s mother told Hamid she had given
her son a normal life. (…) Gunawan was among the
first children in 2001 who received cleft lip or palate surgeries through the
efforts of Hamid and the Surabaya Central club. Since
then, 2,000 children have undergone surgery with help from Australian, Dutch,
and Indonesian Rotarians, among others.
Two Matching
Grants have aided this effort, the most recent of which was cosponsored by
District 1610 (The Netherlands). This second, US$45,000 project provided
surgeries to 149 impoverished children in 2006-07.
Hamid, an orthodontist,
and two other Surabaya Central Rotarians arranged patient transportation,
educated parents about postsurgical care, and
provided children with books and toys. Rotarians also recruited local villagers to talk to rural families who
may not realize the benefits of the surgery. (...)
http://www.rotary.org/en/MediaAndNews/News/Pages/090604_news_cleft.aspx
Korean, Greek
Rotarians mark a first in polio eradication
by Joseph Derr
Rotary
International News, 3 June - A team of Rotarians from Korea and one from Greece became the first from their
respective countries to volunteer during a National Immunization Day (NID),
which occurred 1-2 March. Working with local teams from numerous agencies, the
volunteer groups administered drops of oral polio vaccine to children in two
regions of Uttar Pradesh during a massive immunization campaign that targeted all
children under age five in the country. In Meerut, the
18-member multidistrict Korean team walked house to house to help ensure that
every child was immunized. Team leaders said that this year’s RI theme, Make
Dreams Real, was the motivation behind volunteering for the event. (…)
While the
Korean volunteers tackled the streets of Meerut, a 22-member team from District 2470 (Greece) worked in Moradabad and its
environs, going door to door to administer vaccine to all young children. Greek
team leader Hara Papadaki, of the Rotary Club of Pendeli, said one of the most successful moments of the NID
was when the team immunized 56 children all at once in the Moradabad railway
station. She said the NID was a once-in-a-lifetime
experience. (…)
“Until polio
is eradicated worldwide, every child remains at risk,” said Katerina
Kotsali, a member of the Pendeli
club. “Though we are close to reaching our goal, we must continue our efforts
until each and every child is protected against the tragic consequences of this
disease.”
http://www.rotary.org/en/MediaAndNews/News/Pages/090603_news_GKNID.aspx
As intense
violence once again rocks Somalia’s
capital, MSF teams continue working throughout the country
Many of those
fleeing Mogadishu are seeking refuge in the ‘Afgooye
corridor’, a stretch of road leading from the capital to the town of Afgooye, around 25km to the northwest of Mogadishu.
3 June - In
Mogadishu’s Daynile district, where MSF supports a
community hospital, medical teams treated 218 people suffering from trauma
injuries caused by shelling and gunshots between May 7 and 22. Of these, 81 were women and children under age of 14.
On May 14 MSF was forced to close its outpatient clinic in Yaqshid,
northern Mogadishu, for two days to ensure its medical staff were not caught in
the cross fire during the heavy fighting. The clinic has since reopened. (…)
Another
clinic in Lido has seen a sharp increase in
activities as people flood to the area to try and escape the fighting. In the
past two weeks 22 people with trauma wounds have been treated. The 50 bed
in-patient ward in Lido has been packed, with
an average admission of 120 patients per week. Over 1,200 outpatient consultations for children under five were done in the week ending May 15. (...)
http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke.cfm?objectid=A556CC0B-15C5-F00A-2570C03C9782EC56&component=toolkit.article&method=full_html
Uganda: ICRC
hands over two health centres
Kampala, 2 June
(ICRC) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has finished
rebuilding Lugore and Labworomor
Health Centres, in the Gulu
district of northern Uganda,
which about 14,000 people depend on for health services. The head of the ICRC
sub-delegation in Gulu, Ynske
Vandormael, today handed over the upgraded health
facilities to the Gulu district chairperson. At Lugore, which some 6,200 people rely on for health
services, the ICRC renovated the existing structure and constructed an
in-patient unit with a separate maternity room. It also built a staff house
for four families, a waste disposal system and a venue for immunizations and
community meetings. In addition, the ICRC drilled a borehole and fitted it
with a hand pump. At Labworomor, which serves about
7,800 people, the ICRC upgraded the old facility, built an eight-bed maternity
block and a waste disposal system, and motorized the existing borehole. The
ICRC also provided training for medical staff, traditional birth attendants
and volunteers at both health centres. (…) Over the
last three years, the ICRC has provided support for 14 health centres serving more than 120,000 people in the four Acholi districts (Gulu, Kitgum, Pader and Amuru) of northern Uganda. (...)
http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/uganda-news-020609!OpenDocument
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Indian sugar mills generate as much ‘green’ energy as windmills, and at
half the cost
Sugar mills produce 2,000 megawatt of biomass-based energy through
cogeneration, says a new report. Cogeneration
means the production of two forms of energy, electricity and heat.(…)
New Delhi, 5 June -
As the 2009 World Environment Day draws to a close, there’s heartening news
from unexpected quarters: Indian sugar mills seem to be doing their bit to
ease the energy crisis in the country. What’s more, they are doing it by
generating biomass-based ‘green’ energy from bagasse,
a waste product that comes from sugarcane cultivation Sugar mills in the five
major sugarcane growing states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and
Uttar Pradesh are contributing 2,000 megawatt (mw) of power to the national
electricity grid. This is enough to meet the energy needs of a business
centre the size of Gurgaon (in Haryana),
says a latest report in Down To Earth, a fortnightly magazine that Centre for
Science and Environment (CSE) helps publish. (...)
http://www.cseindia.org/AboutUs/press_releases/press-20090605.htm
European
Commission’s study finds out that European 20% renewables
target can give jobs to 2.8 million people
Brussels, 2
June - Reaching the 2020 renewable energy targets is expected to lead to around
2.8 million jobs in the renewable energy sector and generate a total value
added of around 1.1% of GDP. This is the main conclusion of a European
Commission’s study on the impact of renewable energy policy on economic growth
and employment in the European Union (Employ-RES) which is available in the
internet from today. Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said: “This shows that benefits of renewables in terms of security of supply and fighting
climate change can go hand in hand with economic benefits”.
In 2005, the
renewable energy sector employed 1.4 million people with a gross value added of
58 billion EUR. The significance of the sector varies strongly among Member
States. Biomass, wind and hydro technologies are currently the most important
for employment. (...)
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/861&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
The European
Commission calls for proposals for €4 billion worth of energy investments
Brussels, 18
May - The
European Commission has launched today a call for proposals covering key energy
infrastructure projects such as energy interconnections, offshore wind energy
and carbon capture and storage as part of the implementation of the European
Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR), on which the
Council and the Parliament recently reached agreement. Project promoters are
invited to submit their proposals by 15 July 2009. The Commission expects to
sign the first grant agreements and decisions before the end of the year. In
total nearly €4 billion worth of financial aid will be available to support new
energy-related investments.
Energy
Commissioner Andris Piebalgs
said: “The financing that has been made available will act as a role to secure
and speed up investments in the energy sector. In addition, the funds allocated
to projects will have a direct impact on the EU economy and on employment.
“It will also
help to improve the security of supply of the most vulnerable Member States.
The gas crisis earlier this year showed the vulnerability of Europe
with respect to its gas supply. In addition this funding will assist in
speeding up the implementation of the 20/20/20 objectives for 2020 by promoting
for the first time on a large scale the development of Carbon Capture Storage
technologies and the implementation of high power wind turbines.” (...)
The list of
eligible projects is indicated in the annex. The text of the call for tender,
as well as the 53supporting documents, is available on the Commission’s website. (...)
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/804&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
2nd European
Solar Days: Europe celebrates the energy from
the sun
Brussels, 14th May
2009: The second European Solar Days are celebrated from 15 to 22 May with
more than 500.000 citizens participating in 7.000 events in 15 European
countries. Solar PV and Solar Thermal are replacing fossil fuels and nuclear
energy in Europe
The European
Solar Days are a Europe-wide campaign to promote the use of solar energy for
production of electricity, heat and cold. What once started in 2002 in Austria as ‘Day
of the Sun’, is now a multi-country effort of
thousands of local events organisers ranging from
solar equipment manufacturers, to church communities and local governments. In
2008, the initiative was taken to the European level and the first European
Solar Days took place in 13 European countries with over 4.000 events.
The second
edition of the European Solar Days takes place 15-22 May 2009 in 16 countries. More
than half a million citizens are expected to participate in the more than 7000
events in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, The
Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and
the United Kingdom. (...)
http://www.solardays.eu/23.0.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=13&tx_ttnews[backPid]=5&cHash=961efa6940
Three more countries say ‘yes’ to a
low-carbon future on World Environment Day
Nairobi, 5 June - Three
countries have pledged to promote low-carbon, green growth by joining the
Climate Neutral Network (CN Net) - an initiative led by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) to promote global
action to de-carbonize our economies and societies.
Ethiopia, Pakistan and Portugal are the latest nations to
join the CN Net initiative, bringing the total number of countries that are
going low-carbon or even climate neutral to ten. These ten countries have a
combined population of over 266 million and cover the land area roughly the
size of Argentina
or two percent of the world’s terrestrial surface. (...)
http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=589&ArticleID=6208&l=en
EU greenhouse
gas emissions fall for third consecutive year
29 May -
European Union emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases (GHG) declined for
the third consecutive year in 2007, according to the EU’s
GHG inventory report compiled by the European Environment Agency. The EU-27’s
overall domestic emissions were 9.3 % below 1990 levels, which equalled a drop of 1.2 % or 59 million tonnes
of CO2 equivalent compared to 2006. The EU-15 now
stands 5 % below its Kyoto Protocol base year levels. Falling
emissions since 2005 have largely resulted from the lower use of fossil fuels
(particularly oil and gas) in households and services - these sectors, not
covered by the EU Emission Trading System (ETS), are among the largest sources
of GHG emissions in the EU. Warmer weather and higher fuel prices were the
primary causes for the drop in emissions in 2006-2007, with most of the
decrease occurring in households - particularly in Germany. Welcoming the reductions,
Professor Jacqueline McGlade, EEA Executive Director,
stressed that EU Member States need to take positive steps to sustain progress
in coming years. (...)
http://www.eea.europa.eu/pressroom/newsreleases/2009-greenhouse-inventory-report
UNEP
announces Top African Winner for its 18th Global Painting Competition
Nairobi, Kenya, 5 June - The
United Nations Environment Programme’s Regional
Office for Africa (UNEP-ROA) is today
announcing the regional winners of the Eighteenth International Children’s
Painting Competition on the Environment to mark this year’s World
Environment Day. The regional winner, Ramy Gamal AbdelHamed
AbdelRazik’s painting was selected by a jury
composed of the representatives of the organizers out of 694 entries received by the Regional Office from 14
countries, representing all the regions in Africa. (...) As a regional winner,
Ramy AbdelRazik will
receive a cash prize US$ 1,000. (...) The theme of the 18th International
Children’s competition “Climate change-Actions you can take” highlighted one
of the most critical global challenges of our time and the need for individual
action and political commitment to seal the deal in culmination of crucial
negotiation for a more equitable and efficient climate regime at the
Copenhagen Conference in December 2009. Children, aged 5 - 14 across the world
were invited to express their thoughts on the challenges of climate change and
what they can do about it through the medium of art, by drawing and painting
their vision of how each and everyone can lessen his foot print or minimize
activities that adversely affect the climate.
(...)
http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=589&ArticleID=6207&l=en&t=long
World Day to
Combat Desertification, 17 June 2009
“Conserving
land and water = Securing our common future”.
The World Day
to Combat Desertification is observed every year on 17 June. This year, the
Day’s theme is “Conserving land and water = Securing our common future”.
Desertification,
land degradation and drought (DLDD) threaten human security by depriving people
of their means of life – by taking away food, access to water, the means for
economic activities, and even their homes. In worst-case scenarios, they
undermine national and regional security, force people to leave their homes and
can trigger low- or high-level intensity conflicts.
On this World
Day to Combat Desertification, we would like to remind everyone threats to soil
security unleashed by desertification, land degradation and the effects of
drought constitute a peril to securing our common future.
The World Day
to Combat Desertification has been observed since 1995 (General Assembly Resolution
A/RES/49/1995) to promote public awareness relating
to international cooperation to combat desertification and the effects of
drought, and the implementation of the UNCCD. (...)
http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/june17/2009/menu.php
Welcome to
the Green Week Conference, 23-26 June – Brussels,
Belgium,
The biggest
annual conference on European environment policy turns the spotlight this year
on the multi-faceted challenges of climate change.
What are the
prospects for reaching a new global deal to control climate change at the
crucial Copenhagen
conference in December? How can we best ‘climate-proof’ our economies against
the impacts of present and future climate change? How can we create a
carbon-free society by 2050?
How can we
ensure action to address climate change best serves conservation of the
ecosystems that support life on Earth?
These are
some of the many questions Green Week 2009 will be examining in three days of
discussion and debate between high-level speakers from Europe
and beyond.
Green Week is
a unique opportunity for exchanges of experience and good practice. Some 3,500
participants are expected from EU institutions, business and industry,
non-governmental organisations, public authorities,
the scientific community and academia.
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/greenweek/
Religion and spirituality
World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel,
4-10 June 2009
Joint action
for a just peace convened by the World Council of Churches.
The World Council of Churches is inviting member churches and related
organizations to join a week of advocacy and action for a just peace in Palestine and Israel. Those who share the
hope of justice are invited to take peaceful actions, together, to create a
common international public witness. During World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel,
4-10 June 2009, churches in different countries send a clear signal to policy-makers,
interested publics and their own parishes about the urgent need for a peace
settlement that secures the legitimate rights and future of both peoples.
Participants are requested to plan their activities around these points:
1. Pray with churches
living under occupation, using a special prayer from Jerusalem.
2. Educate about actions
that make for peace and about facts on the ground that do not, especially,
settlements in occupied territory.
3. Advocate with political
leaders using ecumenical policies that promote peace with justice.
The week calls participants to seek justice for Palestinians so that
both Israelis and Palestinians can finally live in peace. (...)
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/wwppi.html
Voices of the
Peace-Builders: from Roots to Reconciliation
Interfaith
Peace-Builders and the National Peace Foundation Delegation arrives
in Israel/Palestine.
26 May -
Interfaith Peace-Builders (IFPB) and the National Peace Foundation (NPF) are
pleased to announce that our 16 member delegation to Israel/Palestine entered Israel at the
Ben-Gurion airport Tuesday afternoon. After a flight delay, the delegation is
now safely in Jerusalem.
The purpose
of this delegation, the 30th to make the trip since 2001, is to educate North
American citizens about the region and deepen their understanding of its
conflicts. This is the second delegation that IFPB and NPF have co-sponsored
since 2008.
The
delegation focuses on the voices of Palestinian and Israeli peace-builders and
nonviolent activists. Both Palestinian and Israeli voices promoting peace and
reconciliation are marginalized in an international discourse that far too
often paints Israelis and Palestinians as either violent militants or helpless
victims. The reality is that many people in Israel/Palestine work on a daily
basis to bring about a peaceful and nonviolent end to the occupation and
resolution of the conflict. This delegation will meet a variety of these individuals
and organizations. (...)
http://www.ifpbdel.org/del30/default.html
Religious Pluralism in Your School: A
Two-Day Workshop for Educators
June 18-19 - Chicago, IL, USA
This workshop will be co-facilitated
by the Global Youth Leadership Institute and Interfaith Youth Core. Every day we see religious
diversity in the world around us. We hear that religion is a problem to be
avoided. How do we engage the reality of diversity in the classroom? How do we
encourage dialogue and empathy among students? How do we create a community
which supports religious pluralism?
Workshop activities will focus on how to be a leader
in your community for religious pluralism, how to assess religious pluralism at
your school, how to think critically about new ways to teach your curriculum,
how to engage diversity among students, and will include a workshop by Dr. Eboo Patel, Founder and Executive Director of Interfaith Youth
Core. (...)
http://www.ifyc.org/events/teachers_workshop
Bangladesh: a quiet
volunteer helps refugee children shoot for the stars
Bangladesh, 8 June - When children in the two refugee
camps near here speak of their role models, Bollywood
stars and Italian football players take a back seat to a tall, quiet and
unassuming man they know as Pero. (…) Muslim refugees
from Myanmar have been
living in the two camps of Nayapara and Kutupalong in Bangladesh for up to 18 years.
Children make up more than half of the 28,000 residents. (…) Sport is one of
the many activities that UNHCR and its partners in Bangladesh have recently initiated
with help of the refugee in the camps. The national education system was
recently introduced by UNICEF and child protection activities are also being
strengthened. UNHCR is building new shelters and improving livelihood activities
in the camps as well. While conditions remain below international standards,
these initiatives are providing renewed hope to the refugees in Bangladesh.
(...)
http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/4a2cf1e92.html
2011 to be
the European Year of Volunteering
Brussels, 3 June - The
European Commission has decided today to propose that 2011 be designated the
“European Year of Volunteering”. The Council is expected to endorse this
decision, after the European Parliament has been consulted, by the beginning
of next year.
In the European
Union, millions of citizens are volunteering. People of all ages make a
positive contribution to their community by investing some of their free time
in civil society organisations, in youth clubs, in
hospitals, in schools, in sport clubs, etc. For the Commission, volunteering is
an active expression of civic participation and strengthens common European
values such as solidarity and social cohesion. (...) Volunteering has a great,
but so far under-exploited, potential for the social and economic development
of Europe. Dedicating 2011 to the topic of
volunteering will help Member States, regional and local communities and civil
society achieve the following objectives: Work towards an enabling and
facilitating environment for volunteering in the EU; Empower volunteer organisations and improve the quality of volunteering;
Reward and recognise volunteering activities; Raise
awareness of the value and importance of volunteering. (...)
http://ec.europa.eu/citizenship/news/news820_en.htm
2009 World
Conference on Higher Education
The field of
higher education is undergoing rapid and profound transformation: demand is
surging, providers are increasingly diverse and students are more mobile than
ever. But national funding falls short of needs and stark
inequalities remain at a time when higher education has a crucial role to play
in addressing key social and economic challenges.
It is against
this backdrop that the 2009 World Conference on Higher Education will be held
in Paris, France from 5 to 8 July.
http://www.unesco.org/en/wche2009/
* * * * * * *
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Anti-crisis general measure: increase
awareness that what many are doing for a better future is already changing the world.
In a global perspective: illiteracy and child labor decreases, hunger
diminishes
By Michele Dotti
It is true that a lot still needs to be done but it is
not correct to maintain that things are getting worse and worse. Such an
attitude could lead to a perilous sense of impotence, which represents the
first step to resignation and inertia: paradoxical feelings at a moment when
the possibility of reaching meaningful results for humanity is truly possible,
results which were unimaginable even for the generation of our grandparents.
Illiteracy decreases – Remarkable progress has been
recorded everywhere in this area, though with great differences between the
various regions of our planet (in Europe, for instance, the illiteracy rate is
1.8% whereas in Africa it is 40.2%). In 1970
the illiterates were still 35% of the world population, while they decreased to
21% in the year 2000. The rate of illiteracy among the adult population (that
is the percentage of illiterates in the population older than 15) went down from
36.6% in 1970 to 20.3% in the year 2000. (See M. Dinucci,
Il sistema globale seconda edizione. Geografie del sistema
globale/ The global system 2nd
Edition. Geographies
of the global system, Zanichelli, Bologna 2004.)
Despite the
positive results obtained in fighting illiteracy, much still needs to be done
to get rid of the problem worldwide. Though falling, the rate of female
illiteracy remains much higher than that of males: in the year 2000 the
percentage of adult illiterate women was 25.8% (compared to 44.6% in 1970) and
among the male adult population 14.8% (compared to 28.5% in 1970.)
In order to
reduce illiteracy, poverty, which is its main cause, must be reduced. It is
also necessary at the same time to increase the budget for education: it has
been calculated that, in order to reach the goal of making education accessible
to everyone by 2015 (a goal that was agreed upon by the delegates of the 181
countries present at the Dakar Forum in the year 2000), it is necessary to add,
for education in the economically less-developed areas, 5.6 billion dollars per
year to the already existing budget; a trifle, if compared to what is spent on
military expenses worldwide (1,200 billion dollars per year according to the
2007 Report of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute), money that could be
easily provided by the richer countries. Instead what they are doing is to decrease
the bilateral assistance for education in the poorer countries. It is therefore
essential to pay close attention to this fundamental issue and make sure that
politicians feel the pressure to keep the promises given at international
meetings regarding public funding for development.
Child labour decreases – For the first time there has been a significant drop in the number of
child victims of work exploitation. In a cautiously optimistic report, entitled
The end of child labour is
within reach, the International Labour
Organization (ILO) draws attention to a consistent reduction in the number of
children exploited for work purposes in the last few years, a trend that has
been happening worldwide for the last few decades now. Up to the period immediately after World War
Two child labour was very common both in Europe and
the United States;
nowadays in the industrialized countries the phenomenon is practically
non-existent. The number of children employed in working activities went down
by 11% between the years 2000 and 2004: 218 million children as opposed to the
246 recorded four years previously. An important drop in the number of
exploited minors, that is children employed full time in dangerous activities,
took place particularly in the age bracket 5-17, in which the ILO reports
a 26% decrease. The number of exploited children decreased from 171 million in
the year 2000 to 126 million. Among the youngest children, in the age bracket
5-14, there was a 33% decrease.
According to
this report, in South America the decrease in
work exploitation of minors every day has been more consistent than anywhere
else, with a two-thirds reduction. In Brazil, for instance, exploitation
of minors in the age bracket 5-9 has dropped by 61% and of those in the age
bracket 10-17 by 36%. Even in Asia a significant decrease has been recorded,
although Asia is the continent with the
highest number of exploited children in the age bracket 5-14 in the whole world, about
122 million. On the other hand, sub-Saharan Africa
is the region which has the highest ratio child labourers
to the population, that is 26%. However, some
improvements are noted here too, with an increase of 38% in the number of
children attending school between 1990 and 2000.
There are
thousands of associations working for the rights of children and they have, so
far raised huge
public support for concrete projects against the exploitation of minors and
kept pressure on governments and multinationals to ensure that these rights are
respected. This international movement has played a decisive role in achieving
the positive results contained in the ILO report, even if it has recently
focused too much on children working in the export manufacturing sector. It has
continually spotlighted specific items such as balloons, shoes and carpets,
thus creating in our global imagination the idea that child labour
–especially in the South of the world – is mostly at the service of the rich
consumers in the North. However, it
should be underlined that, according to the ILO, the number of children in the
world employed in the export business represents not even 5% of the total
number of working children. So, if we really want to solve this problem, we
must concentrate our efforts on removing the structural causes which force millions
of families, both in the South and the North of the world, to employ their own
children in jobs, even dangerous ones, to earn the means of survival.
Hunger diminishes – Mother Theresa of Calcutta was once
asked to preside over a big meeting on
the issue of world hunger: she accepted on one condition: that all participants
should fast for three days before the meeting, so that they could really “feel”
what they were talking about. The meeting never took place…
I believe it
is important, in order to overcome the widespread feeling of impotence and the
consequent inertia, to take a look at the statistics to realize that, although
the situation remains horrible and intolerable, the commitment of many people
to resolving the problem of world hunger has achieved really impressive
results. According to United Nations estimates, in percentage terms, back in
1950 the number of malnourished people in poor countries was 50% of the
population, while twenty years later it was 37% and in the following thirty
years it went down to 17%. We have to keep in mind that the world population
has in the meantime gone up from 3 billion people in 1960 to 6.3 billion today.
Contrary to the catastrophic forecasts which circulated in the
nineteen-seventies, food production has been able to cope with the increase in
population: in spite of the fact that the number of people more than doubled
between 1960 and 2000, the food supply has increased instead of decreasing; in fact today we
have an average supply of 2,700 calories per day as opposed to 2,300 back in
1960.
According to
the FAO SOFI 2006 report (Lo stato dell’insicurezza alimentare nel mondo/The state of food insecurity in the world) in the
last ten years the world population has increased but at the same time the
proportion of people in the developing countries suffering from malnutrition
has decreased. Despite the increase in the world population, “twenty years ago
the number of people dying every single day of starvation or diseases related
to it was about 41,000 and now it is 24,000. Fifty years ago in developing
countries the percentage of
children dying before the age of 5 was 28%, today it is 10%”.
(World Food Programme, Fame mai più!/No more starvation! November 2001.)
Where does
this progress come from? It is the
fruit of undoubted scientific and technological progress, but above all it
comes from the commitment
of millions of people around the world who are fighting for human
rights and justice. It is difficult to identify these “change agents”, so
different are their origins: from popular movements in the South of the world
to voluntary associations from the countries in the North, from trade unions to
NGOs, to the incomes of immigrants reinvested in development projects and
social work. The latter are often underestimated but they amount to huge
transfers of capital; according to World Bank data, migrant
workers sent to their own countries, in the year 2002, remittances totalling about 80 billion dollars a year, which
represented for the developing countries the second biggest source of income
from abroad. In 2003 they became the first source of income (135 billion
dollars). If we take into consideration also all the remittances sent
informally and of which there is no record in banks, it is estimated that the
amount is now between 150 and 200 billion dollars and could almost be the
double of the investments coming directly from abroad.
According to
a study carried out by the Panos Institute in Paris
on the experience of Senegalese people in France, in 1992 the 143 regularly
registered organizations, formed of 15 thousand immigrants, had carried out 146
development projects with the support of French NGOs (86% of the budget of
which was made up of the remittances of immigrants and only 14% came from NGOs
and institutions), involving most of the aspects of village life, such as the
building of wells, schools, dispensaries, mills, etc. In fact 64% of the
infrastructure existing in the area of the Senegal River,
especially in the health and education sectors, was attributable to the
contributions of immigrants.
The guiding
thread of all this action seems to be a renewed political leadership role which
is orientated towards the common good. This is the true engine of historical
change and this is what any individual can choose who shares these values and
the goal of a fairer and more caring world.
(Extract from the book “It is not
true that everything is getting worse” written by Michele Dotti and Jacopo Fo,
published by EMI 2008. The English version of the book is being prepared by the
author. Translation by Angela Lombardi.)
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Good News Agency is published in English
on one Friday and in Italian the next. Past issues are available at www.goodnewsagency.org . Rome Law-court registration no. 265 dated 20
June 2000.
Managing Editor:
Sergio Tripi, Ph.D. Editorial research by Fabio Gatti, Maria Grazia Da Damos, Arianna Cavallo, Azzurra Cianchetta. Editorial Secretary: Maria Grazia
Da Damos.
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