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Friday, July 11, 2014

The Week with IPS 7/11


Reproductive Rights to Take Centre Stage at U.N. Special Session
Thalif Deen
As the United Nations continues negotiations on a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for its post-2015 development agenda, population experts are hoping reproductive health will be given significant recognition in the final line-up of the goals later this year. At the same time, an ... MORE > >

El Niño Triggers Drought, Food Crisis in Nicaragua
José Adán Silva
The spectre of famine is haunting Nicaragua. The second poorest country in Latin America, and one of the 10 most vulnerable to climate change in the world, is facing a meteorological phenomenon that threatens its food security. Scientists at the Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies ... MORE > >

Putting Population Management in Pacific Women’s Hands
Catherine Wilson
Populations of many Melanesian countries in the southwest Pacific Islands region are expected to double in a generation, threatening regional and national efforts to improve low economic and human development indicators. Arnold Bani, executive director of the Vanuatu Family Health Association in ... MORE > >

U.S. Groups Reject Anti-Gay Discrimination Bill over Religious Exemption
Julia Hotz
Civil rights groups across the United States have withdrawn their support from a major legislative proposal that would outlaw workplace discrimination against sexual minorities, warning that recent legal developments could exempt companies on religious grounds. Five major legal advocacy groups ... MORE > >

Honduran Secrecy Law Bolsters Corruption and Limits Press Freedom
Thelma Mejía
The new official secrets law in Honduras clamps down on freedom of expression, strengthens corruption and enables public information on defence and security affairs to be kept secret for up to 25 years, according to a confidential report seen by IPS. The Law on Classification of Public Documents ... MORE > >

Conservatives and Nationalists At Centre Stage in Poland
Claudia Ciobanu
A mix of conservative Catholicism and nationalism has become the predominant view in Polish public debate, with some worrying effects. These were the values around which the opposition to communism led by trade union Solidarity built itself up in the 1980s but, after the fall of communism, ... MORE > >

Liberated Homs Residents Challenge Notion of “Revolution”
Eva Bartlett
Al-Waer, Homs’s most populated area and the city’s last insurgent holdout, might soon achieve the truce that Hom’s Old City saw in May this year when, in an exchange deal, the insurgents left their strongholds. Today, Al-Waer’s population stands at more than 200,000, many of them internally ... MORE > >

Single Mothers Battle on in Former War Zone
Amantha Perera
The village of Valipunam, 322 km north of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, occupies one of the remotest corners of the country’s former war zone. The dirt roads are impossible to navigate, there are no street lights, telephone connections are patchy and the nearest police post is miles away, closer to ... MORE > >

Lebanon’s Closed Doors for Palestinian Refugees
Mutawalli Abou Nasser
Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in Syria have been uprooted since the violent government crackdown on the uprising and the ensuing battles that ensnared their communities. For around 50,000 of them, Lebanon was their only safe route out but now it seems this door is being closed on ... MORE > >

Burundian Women Want a Greater Say in Running of Country
Bernard Bankukira
As Burundi heads towards the 2015 general elections, and despite a quota of 30 percent women’s representation in parliament, women in this southeast African nation feel that they are yet to have a significant say in the management of their country. Bernardine Sindakira, the chairwoman of ... MORE > >

Lack of Toilets Keeps Women Out of Politics
Stella Paul
Nine months after she was elected head of her village council, 36-year-old Krupa Shanti has overseen some significant changes in this rural outpost of Mallampeta, 570 km away from Hyderabad, capital of the southeastern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. “Since I took over, 300 people have got their ... MORE > >

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