The Week With IPS

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	Violence Against Women Journalists Threatens Media Freedom Tharanga Yakupitiyage For women journalists, violence and intimidation don't just happen in conflict zones, they are every day experiences. “You don’t even have to be in a conflict zone to be violated anymore,” New York Times reporter and author of the Taliban Shuffle Kim Barker said Wednesday at the launch of a ... MORE > >
	UN Predicts 40 Percent Water Shortfall by 2030 Thalif Deen Ten presidents and prime ministers from around the world will work together to resolve the growing global water crisis amid warnings that the world may face a 40 percent shortfall in water availability by 2030. The figures continue to be staggering:  despite improvements, at least 663 ... MORE > >
	How We Can Keep Press Freedom from Withering Away? Farhana Haque Rahman, Director General, Inter Press Service Media freedoms appear increasingly under siege around the world, with concerning signs that achieving middle-income status is no guarantee for an independent political watchdog in the form of the press. Farhana Haque Rahman The news is constant and disheartening. The death this week of ... MORE > >
	Why we need to stand united against governments cracking down on dissent Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah Last month, after receiving threats for opposing a hydroelectric project, Berta Caceres, a Honduran indigenous and environmental rights campaigner, was murdered. A former winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize for her opposition to one of Central America’s biggest hydropower projects, Berta was ... MORE > >
	Opinion: Increasing Productivity Key to Revive Growth and Support Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific Shamshad Akhtar The Asia-Pacific region’s successful achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development needs to be driven by broad-based productivity gains and rebalancing of economies towards domestic and regional demand. This is the main message of the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific ... MORE > >
	Playing Ping Pong with Disability Silvia Boarini Despite formally adopting progressive laws, such as Law Number 4, and ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disability, Palestinian authorities still struggle to get beyond rhetoric when it comes to supporting the 7 to 11 per cent of the population that is affected by ... MORE > >
	Times of Violence and Resistance for Latin American Journalists Daniela Pastrana Mexico is the most dangerous country in Latin America for journalists. In 2015 it accounted for one-third of all murders of reporters in the region, and four more journalists have been added to the list so far this year. The latest, Francisco Pacheco Beltrán, was shot dead outside his home in ... MORE > >
	Why the World Needs a UN Leader Who Stands Up for Human Rights Anna Neistat Last August, Balla Hadji, a 61-year-old truck driver in Bangui in the Central African Republic, was having breakfast with his wife when they heard shots outside. He ran out to call his daughter inside, but troops were already there, and shot him in the back as he ran away. His 16-year-old son, ... MORE > >
	The Hypocrisy of the West and Fiscal Paradise Roberto Savio The publication of the Panama Papers has now been digested, like any scandal, after just a few days. We are now getting so accustomed to scandals, that it is confusing, and the general public reaction often is: all are corrupt and politics is all about corruption. Roberto SavioThis, of ... MORE > >
	Choose Humanity: Make the Impossible Choice Possible! Herve Verhoosel We have arrived at the point of no return. At this very moment the world is witnessing the highest level of humanitarian needs since World War Two. We are experiencing a human catastrophe on a titanic scale: 125 million in dire need of assistance, over 60 million people forcibly displaced, and 218 ... MORE > >
	Organised Civil Society Increasingly Hemmed In by Global Elites Constanza Vieira Collusion, according to the dictionary, means “secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy, especially in order to cheat or deceive others.” That is what the world’s political and economic elites engage in, according to Danny Sriskandarajah, secretary general of the international civil society ... MORE > >