Human Rights
Indigenous still marginalized 200 years on
Mired in poverty and with few land rights, indigenous groups saw little to celebrate on the bicentennial of the nation’s independence from Spain on May 14. Representatives of indigenous organizations headed to the capital, Asunción, to demand the government take immediate action to stem the severe problems afflicting Paraguay’s 20 native peoples.
Poor Countries Host Largest Share of Refugees
The United Nations has taken the wind out of the sails of world’s rich countries that never tire of complaining about the citizens of developing lands burdening their rather stressed economies, by pointing out that 80 per cent of refugees in the world live in poor countries. “In relation to the size of their economies, poor countries shoulder a disproportionate refugee burden,”
Indigenous protest gets results
Mexican government promises to improve conditions in Chiapas jail after hunger strike by some 500 mostly indigenous prisoners. The prisoners ended their hunger strike on June 11 after the government promised to improve conditions in a prison near San Cristobal de las Casas in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.
New York legalises Gay Marriage
In an historic vote, the state of New York, the third largest in the United States, legalised Gay Marriage last night joining Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C. The legislation comes into effect on the 24th of July with thousands of couples expected to take the opportunity to legalise their partnerships.
Borders don’t exist for women
The second day at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn and a continuously rising temperature. After the first panels on the opening day and exchanging cards with journalists from all over the world, the second day gave us vibrant meetings and high emotional intensity. Women were the protagonists.
Local blogger and politician gunned down in Rio Grande do Norte, motive unclear
Ednaldo Figueira, a blogger, politician and owner of the local newspaper O Serrano, was gunned down on 15 June in Serra do Mel, a town in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte. He headed the Serra do Mel branch of the Workers Party (PT), the party of President Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor, Lula da Silva, and posted regularly on the Serra do Mel blog.
Human Rights under the spotlight as the Deutsche Welle Global media forum opens in Bonn
In a moment in which new forms of media and diffusion of news are challenging the old established forms and the news agenda of the day can be suddenly altered by a fragment of video taken on a mobile phone, the Global Media Forum convened today to consider the challenge for the Media in the field of Human Rights in a Globalized World.
Human rights are completely emptied of meaning when they are used as an argument to justify the bombing of countries.
Speaking at the 4th Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany, this year focusing on the role of the media in the defense of human rights, Pia Figueroa, Director of Pressenza attacked multinational media corporation for their selective approach to defending human rights and spoke about the role of the media in attacks on human rights in Latin America.
Tel Aviv: Thousands of people rally in support of a Palestinian state. World without Wars and Violence marched with them
Thousands of people took part in a march in central Tel Aviv in support of a Palestinian state. The protest was held under the banner “Israel says yes to a Palestinian state.” World without wars and without violence marched with them in support of active nonviolence as the only methodology than can truly resolve conflicts.
Amnesty International at 50 says historic change on knife-edge
The growing demands for freedom and justice across the Middle East and North Africa and the rise of social media offer an unprecedented opportunity for human rights change – but this change stands on a knife-edge, said Amnesty International as it launched its global human rights report on the eve of its 50th anniversary.