International issues

Reaching Critical Will, a branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, report daily from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty prepcom. In this report, the last one of the first week, the issues of progress and taking responsibility are tackled. “The most important thing is that non-nuclear weapon states actively take the reins.”

Joint Statement Humanitarian Dimensions of Nuclear Disarmament, 16 Countries – First Session of Preparatory Committee for 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons: Austria, Chile, Costa Rica, Denmark, Holy See, Egypt, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, South Africa, Switzerland.

The Green Path of Hope is the name of the movement inspired by Iran’s Mir Hossein Mousavi that took effect after the heavy-handed crackdown organised by the Ahmadinejad government against the Iranian people after the disputed 2009 presidential election. The Coordinating Council of the Green Path of Hope issued the following statement: [Pressenza emphasis of final paragraph]

International humanist organisation World without Wars and Violence will be present at the upcoming NPT Preparatory Committee that will take place from 30 April to 11 May 2012 in Vienna, Austria. The PrepCom and related civil society events will be attended by members of World without Wars and Violence from the Czech Republic.

Cairo, 23 April – Tens of thousands of protesters returned to Cairo’s Tahrir Square in a massive demonstration Friday [April 20] demanding that the ruling military generals immediately hand over power to a civilian government. The protesters also called for former regime members to be barred from running in next month’s presidential elections.

**By Leo Dobbs, Choucha Transit Centre, Tunisia (UNHCR)** – Mohammed Karem wants to become a roving art teacher for refugees around the world. “I would like to travel with UNHCR or any other organization,” he says.

A bomb attack on the offices of the national TV network Televisa in Matamoros in Tamaulipas state on 25 March has raised fears of a resumption of the threats that were aimed against the organization in the same place [in 2010](http://en.rsf.org/mexico-after-four-releases-tragic-july-03-08-2010,38086.html).

“I have the feeling that justice has finally been done after the offensive launched against me,” provincial TV journalist Teobaldo Meléndez Fachín told RWB yesterday, referring to an appeal court ruling 10 days ago overturning his November conviction on a charge of [“aggravated defamation”](http://en.rsf.org/peru-decriminalization-of-press-05-01-2012,41631.html).

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is warning that more than a million children below the age of five in the Sahel are facing a disaster amid the ongoing food crisis in the drought-prone region of Africa.

Washington DC – Compelling advice against a hasty, unilateral decision by Israel to “bomb, bomb, bomb” Iran has come – from Israel. The advice is significant not only for what was said, but for who said it.