The Week with IPS 3/27

2015/3/27	Click here for the online version of this IPS newsletter
	Pollution a Key but Underrated Factor in New Development Goals Stephen Leahy Pollution is likely to be the most pressing global health issue in the coming years without effective prevention and clean-up efforts, experts say. Air, water and soil pollution already kills nearly nine million people a year and cripples the health of more than 200 million people worldwide. Far ... MORE > >
	Indonesian President Unyielding on Death Penalty Sandra Siagian When Indonesia’s law and human rights minister visited one of the country’s prisons in December last year, he met a Nigerian convict on death row for drug trafficking, who performed songs for him before leaving him with a parting gift. “He sang beautifully,” Yasonna Laoly, the human rights ... MORE > >
	Acting Tough to Earn Respect as Policewomen in Argentina Fabiana Frayssinet When they joined the police, Marina Faustino and Silvia Miers were part of a small minority, and to make their way in a world of men they had to “act tough.” Now, thanks to a gender equality policy, there are more and more policewomen in Argentina, fighting sexism and prejudice as well as ... MORE > >
	Hold the Rich Accountable in New U.N. Development Goals, Say NGOs Thalif Deen When the World Economic Forum (WEF) met last January in Switzerland, attended mostly by the rich and the super-rich, the London-based charity Oxfam unveiled a report with an alarming statistic: if current trends continue, the world’s richest one percent would own more than 50 percent of the world’s ... MORE > >
	Salvadoran Maquila Plants Use Gang Members to Break Unions Edgardo Ayala Textile companies that make clothing for transnational brands in El Salvador are accused of forging alliances with gang members to make death threats against workers and break up their unions, according to employees who talked to IPS and to international organisations. Workers at maquila or ... MORE > >
	High-Tech to the Rescue of Southern Africa’s Smallholder Farmers Kwame Buist Agriculture is the major employer and a backbone of the economies of Southern Africa. However, the rural areas that support an agriculture-based livelihood system for the majority of the nearly 270 million people living in the region are typically fragile and there is wide variability in the ... MORE > >
	Opinion: What if Youth Now Fight for Social Change, But From the Right? Roberto Savio The “surprise” re-election of incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Mar. 17 elections has been met with a flood of media comment on the implications for the region and the rest of the world. However, one of the reasons for Netanyahu’s victory has dramatically slipped the ... MORE > >
	Lip-Service But Little Action on U.N. Business and Human Rights Principles in Latin America Emilio Godoy “I would tell institutions and companies that are aware of the enormous damage they do to the soil, plants and the environment, to respect the decisions of the people. They are attacking life and health,” complained Taurino Rincón, an indigenous Mexican. Rincón belongs to the Nahua people and is ... MORE > >
	Palestinian Women Victims on Many Fronts Mel Frykberg Israel’s siege of Gaza, aided and abetted by the Egyptians in the south, has aggravated the plight of Gazan women, and the Jewish state’s devastating military assault on the coastal territory over July and August 2014 exacerbated the situation. In a resolution approved by the U.N. Commission on ... MORE > >