The Week with IPS 3/5

	Newly Recognised Indigenous Rights a Dead Letter? Edgardo Ayala and Claudia Ávalos Nearly three years after the rights of El Salvador’s indigenous people were recognised in the constitution, there are still no public policies and laws to translate that historic achievement into reality. In June 2014 the single-chamber legislature ratified a constitutional reform passed in ... MORE > >
	Can Indigenous and Wildlife Conservationists Work Together? Lyndal Rowlands Indigenous and wildlife conservationists have common goals and common adversaries, but seem to be struggling to find common ground in the fight for sustainable forests. The forest lifestyle of the Baka people of Cameroon helps provide improved habitats for wild animals.3 When the Baka clear a ... MORE > >
	By Girls, For Girls – Nepal's Teenagers Say No to Child Marriage Naresh Newar If not for a group of her school friends coming to her rescue, Shradha Nepali would have become a bride at the tender age of 14. Hailing from the remote village of Pinalekh in the Bajura District of Nepal’s Far-Western Region, 900 km from the capital, Kathmandu, the teenager was a likely ... MORE > >
	Tech-Savvy Women Farmers Find Success with SIM Cards Stella Paul Jawadi Vimalamma, 36, looks admiringly at her cell phone. It’s a simple device that can only be used to send or receive a call or a text message. Yet to the farmer from the village of Janampet, located 150 km away from Hyderabad, capital of the southern Indian state of Telangana, it symbolises a ... MORE > >
	Gaza Reconstruction, Hampered by Israeli Blockade, May Take 100 Years, Say Aid Agencies Thalif Deen Despite all the political hoopla surrounding an international pledging conference in Cairo last October to help rebuild Gaza, the reconstruction of the Israeli-devastated territory is apparently moving at the pace of paralytic snail. Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director, Middle East and North ... MORE > >
	Families See Hope for Justice in Palestinian Membership of ICC Khaled Alashqar "I have lost all meaning in life after the death of my child, I will never forgive anyone who caused the tearing apart of his little body. I appeal to all who can help and stand with us to achieve justice and punish those who killed my child." As the tears rolled down her cheeks and with a ... MORE > >
	Everyone Benefits from More Women in Power Marianela Jarroud Women’s participation in decision-making is highly beneficial and their role in designing and applying public policies has a positive impact on people’s lives, women leaders and experts from around the world stressed at a high-level meeting in the capital of Chile. “It is not about men against ... MORE > >
	Syrian Conflict Has Underlying Links to Climate Change, Says Study Thalif Deen Was the four-year-old military conflict in Syria, which has claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, mostly civilians, triggered at least in part by climate change? A new study by Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory says “a record drought that ravaged Syria in 2006-2010 was ... MORE > >
	Environmental Damage to Gaza Exacerbating Food Insecurity Mel Frykberg Extensive damage to Gaza’s environment as a result of the Israeli blockade and its devastating military campaign against the coastal territory during last year’s war from July to August, is negatively affecting the health of Gazans, especially their food security. “We were living on bread and ... MORE > >
	Tobacco Workers in Cuba Dubious About Opening of U.S. Market Ivet González “We have to wait and see,” “There isn’t a lot of talk about it,” are the responses from tobacco workers in this rural area in western Cuba when asked about the prospect of an opening of the U.S. market to Cuban cigars. “If the company sells more, I think they would pay us better,” said Berta ... MORE > >
	Rousseff’s Brazil - No Country for the Landless Fabiola Ortiz In Brazil, one of the countries with the highest concentration of land ownership in the world, some 200,000 peasant farmers still have no plot of their own to farm – a problem that the first administration of President Dilma Rousseff did little to resolve. In its assessment of the situation in ... MORE > >
	From the Police Station Back to the Hellhole: System Failing India’s Domestic Violence Survivors Shai Venkatraman “One time my husband started slapping me hard on the face because I had not cooked the rice to his satisfaction,” Suruchi* told IPS. “He hit me so hard that my infant daughter fell from my arms to the ground.” For 20 years 47-year-old Suruchi, a resident of India’s coastal megacity Mumbai, faced ... MORE > >