The Week with IPS 7/1/2016

   2016/7/1

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	Suspend Saudi Arabia from Human Rights Council, Human Rights Groups Say Tharanga Yakupitiyage Saudi Arabia’s membership in the Human Rights Council (HRC) should be suspended by members of the UN General Assembly, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) said on Wednesday. The two human rights groups have joined forces to make the exceptional call for action, noting ... MORE > >
	North and South Face Off Over “Right to the City” Emilio Godoy The declaration that will be presented for approval at the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in October has again sparked conflict between the opposing positions taken by the industrial North and the developing South. The aim of the ... MORE > >
	Post-War Truth and Justice Still Elusive in Bougainville Catherine Wilson Almost every family in the islands of Bougainville, an autonomous region of about 300,000 people in the Pacific Island state of Papua New Guinea, has a story to tell of death and suffering during the decade long civil war (1989-1998), known as ‘the Crisis.’ Yet fifteen years after the 2001 peace ... MORE > >
	Uganda Rolls Out Compulsory Immunization to Dispel Anti-Vaccine Myths Amy Fallon Patience*, a Ugandan maid, planned on taking her three-year-old son for polio immunization during the country’s mass campaigns a year ago, until her landlord’s wife told her a shocking myth. “The medicine they are injecting them with means the boy when he’s an adult won’t be able to reproduce,” ... MORE > >
	Preventable Child Deaths Not Always Linked to Poorest Countries: UNICEF Aruna Dutt Millions of children still die before reaching their fifth birthday every year, according to the 2016 State of The World’s Children Report released here Tuesday by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). The report, which is released annually, shows that a country’s income does not always determine ... MORE > >
	The Case for Cash in Humanitarian Emergencies Phillip Kaeding Currently only six percent of humanitarian aid worldwide comes in the form of cash handouts, yet many aid organisations believe that cash transfers should be seen as the rule, not the exception. Both the World Food Program (WFP) and World Vision International, who work together in Somalia, ... MORE > >
	Biogas Brings Heat and Light to Pakistan's Rural Poor Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio Nabela Zainab no longer chokes and coughs when she cooks a meal, thanks to the new biogas-fueled two-burner stove in her kitchen. Zainab, 38, from Faisalabad, a town 360 kilometers from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, is among the beneficiaries of a flagship pilot biogas project to free poor ... MORE > >
	Drought Prompts Debate on Cuba’s Irrigation Problems Ivet González Five gargantuan modern irrigation machines water the state farm of La Yuraguana covering 138 hectares in the northeastern province of Holguín, the third largest province in Cuba. However, “sometimes they cannot even be switched on, due to the low water level,” said farm manager Edilberto ... MORE > >
	Civil Society Under Serious Attack Lyndal Rowlands Despite their contribution to social justice, civil society organisations came under “serious attack” in 109 countries in 2015, according to a new report published by CIVICUS Monday. “Civil society freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly have been under serious attack in ... MORE > >
	Will Brexit Have Political Ramifications at UN? Thalif Deen The much-ballyhooed British exit (Brexit) from the 28-member European Union (EU) is likely to have political ramifications at the United Nations – both in the short and the long term. If Scotland and Northern Ireland eventually decide to break away, as expected in the not-too-distant future, ... MORE > >
	Making Sustainability Part of the Corporate DNA Phillip Kaeding Companies, governments and non-profit actors agree that economic growth and sustainable development have to go hand in hand to shape our increasingly globalised world in a fair way. Yet a meeting of leaders from the business, government and non-profit sectors at the UN this week showed that ... MORE > >
	Brexit and EUexit Roberto Savio The Europeans went to bed Thursday night, with exit polls giving a comfortable margin of victory for those who wanted to Remain. The following morning they awakened to find that the real result was the opposite. Specialists in polling say that this happens when electors do not feel comfortable ... MORE > >
	Can Better Technology Lure Asia's Youth Back to Farming? Diana G Mendoza Farming and agriculture may not seem cool to young people, but if they can learn the thrill of nurturing plants to produce food, and are provided with their favorite apps and communications software on agriculture, food insecurity will not be an issue, food and agriculture experts said during the ... MORE > >