International Crisis Group2021, pp. 34
The report examines the significance of the mass strikes and demonstrations in Colombia in 2020-21, examines the government's response, and also suggests some of the dangers involved. It notes that far right vigilantes supporting the police had fired on demonstrators, and that in some areas criminal gangs were taking advantage of the social disorder.
In: Guardian Weekly, 2019, pp. 10-14
Covers the demonstrations by school children and students in an estimated 185 countries with a photo of a protest in Nairobi, Kenya, and an overview of the protests in their environmental and political context. Coverage also includes brief statements from young activists in Australia, Thailand, India, Afghanistan, South Africa, Ireland and the US; the speech by Greta Thunberg to the UN Climate Action summit in New York; and 10 charts explaining the climate crisis.
See also: Milman, Oliver, 'Crowds Welcome Thunberg to New York after Atlantic Crossing ', The Guardian, 29 Aug. 2019, p.3.
Reports on Thunberg's arrival in New York where she was to address the UN Climate Action summit on reaching zero carbon emissions.
In: UN Women, 2017
Discusses the deadly forms of violence against women in Latin America, the current development of the launching of the Latin America Model Protocol in 2014 by UN Women and the High Commissioner of Human Rights, and the most recent updates on the legislation by Latin American countries.
To access the last Survey on gender-based violence in Latin America, please see http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/about-us/highlights/2016/highlight-rn63.html
http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2017/2/take-five-adriana-quinones-femicide-in-latin-america
In: TeleSur, 2018
Reports on one of the most infamous case of a 68-year old woman who was killed by her partner, which gave rise to widespread protests against femicide in Uruguay. Uruguay’s penal code introduced femicide only in April 2018.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Hundreds-Protest-Latest-Femicide-in-Uruguay-20181026-0011.html
UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner2018
Press release on the report published on 23 February by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The report argues that the UK violates the rights of women in Northern Ireland by unduly restricting their access to abortion. It shows how thousands of women and girls in Northern Ireland are subjected to grave and systematic violations of rights through being compelled to either travel outside Northern Ireland to procure a legal abortion or to carry their pregnancy to term.
See also https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/23/northern-ireland-abortion-law-violates-womens-rights-says-un-committee; https://humanism.org.uk/2018/02/23/northern-ireland-abortion-law-breaches-womens-rights-says-un/ and https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/abortion-northern-ireland-un-women-human-rights-a8819306.html
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22693&LangID=E
2017
Report on meeting held in conjunction with the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature which was part of mobilization around People's Climate march and UN Climate summit in New York City 2014.
Scottish delegation to Nuclear Ban Treaty negotiations
In: Peace News, No 2608-2609, 2017, pp. 7-10
This is a detailed day by day account of the activities of the Scottish civil society team at the negotiations in New York from 15 June to 24 June and 29 June to 7 July based on the blog kept by the Scottish delegation. The group received regular briefings and lobbied delegates involved in the negotiations, but also attended external meetings and protests organized by peace activists.
In: Foreign Policy, 2019
To celebrate the first anniversary from the repeal of the Eight Amendment of the Irish Constitution that prevented women accessing abortion even in cases of rape and incest, Ailbhe Smyth, the co-director of the ‘Together for Yes’ campaign in Ireland, is interviewed on First Person and describes what it was like for women in Ireland to live under the ban, and how the predominantly Catholic country managed to overturn it. She also talks about the laws passed in 2019 in Alabama and other parts of the United States that ban most abortions.
See also https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/world-reaction-ireland-historic-vote-abortion-rights/
In: TeleSur, 2018
Rita Segato, an Argentine-Brazilian academic and one of the most celebrated Latin American feminists, comments on the biases still affecting cases of femicide in Latin America due to the hyper machismo culture. She also discusses the need to unite academics working in the field of Communication, journalists and editors in order to promote discourses that encourage women to be seen as political actors rather than merely as victims.
In: Economist, 2018, pp. 16-16
Argues that movements sparked by alleged rape accusations could be the most powerful force for equality since women's suffrage' and discusses their impact and challenges in politics and business in the US.
See also more detailed articles on the same issue: ‘#MeToo and politics; Truth and Consequences', pp. 36-37, and 'American business after Weinstein: Behind closed doors', pp. 59-60.
2017
TRT World journalist, Dimitri O’Donnell interviews Adriana Cely Verdadero, a women’s rights activist, and Ana Guezmes Garcia, a representative of UN Women Colombia, who provide background to the exhibition dedicated to the victims of femicide in Colombia and the gaps the social and political systems need to fill. Published on 16 December 2017 on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=92&v=op5DDnrqzz0
In: The Economist, 2019, pp. 16-19
Notes that two thirds of then world's large cities in 140 countries are close to the sea, that a billion people live only 10 metres above sea level. and that scientific reports show that the rate of sea level rise is accelerating. Discusses different estimates of rising sea levels and the inadequacies of engineering measures to create adopted by many countries.
In: BBC, 2020
Explores the rise of Black Lives Matter protests in Australia in solidarity with the international response to the death of George Floyd, and also to highlight the long running tragedy of Aboriginal deaths in custody.
See also: Allam, Lorena and Nick Evershed, ‘The killing times: the massacres of Aboriginal people Australia must confront’, The Guardian, 3 March 2019.
Special report on the killing, incarceration and forced removal from their land of Indigenous Australians over 140 years. The article offers an interactive map that shows the locations and date of massacres between 1794 and 1928.
See also: Dovey, Ceridwen, ‘The mapping of massacres’ The New Yorker, 7 December 2017.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/mapping-massacres
The article reports on how historians and artists turned to cartography to record the widespread killing of Indigenous people in Australia.
In: Observer, 2018, pp. 1-3
Analyses the referendum and the 66.4 per cent vote to repeal the amendment to the Irish Constitution forbidding abortion.
See also:
Emma Graham Harrison '"The future is safe" - a long fight pays off', Guardian Weekly, 10/06/18, p. 4-5, which looks back at 35 years of courageous campaigning, and Karl McDonald, 'Irish battle goes global: Abortion campaigners from around the world are intervening in referendum', the i, 19 May 2018, p.35.
22-28 April 2019
In: The Big Issue, 2019, pp. 19-39
This special supplement in the paper focusing especially on the homeless (and sold by them) takes up the climate crisis and the role of youth activism. Features young people arguing for climate change to be on the school curriculum, and interviewing the UK Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, Caroline Lucas (the sole Green MP in the UK Parliament), and representatives of Marks and Spencer about their clothing and recycling policies. Includes interviews with young naturalists and activists in different parts of the country.
In: The Economist, 2019
Issue focusing on climate change: Contains an analysis of rising carbon dioxide emissions, articles on the role of China and Russia, forest fires in Indonesia, flood prevention plans in low lying Asian cities, and the climate diplomacy of small island states.
In: Amazon Frontlines, 2019
As part of the indigenous movement across the Amazon, thousands of indigenous women demonstrated in Brazil’s capital city in August 2019, joining the first Indigenous Women’s March. Carrying banners with the slogan “Territory: our body, our spirit”, women took to the streets to make their voices heard and to denounce the policies of Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, which have set the stage for escalating violations of indigenous rights, racism, violence and the most alarming Amazon deforestation rates in recent memory.
http://www.amazonfrontlines.org/chronicles/indigenous-women-march-brazil/
In: Europa.eu, 2018
Highlights the initiatives undertaken by the EU and the UN in Guatemala and Mexico to tackle violence against women and girls. Other Latin American countries that are part of the project are El Salvador, Argentina and Honduras.
In: New Internationalist, 2018, pp. 12-25
Originally published: March 2018
Introductory article by Amy Hall summarises the growth of BLM in the USA, discusses its global potential and spread to other countries, and notes the relevance of BLM in the UK. Jamilah King comments on the US movement, both on its strengths and the divisions within it. Other articles examine how BLM relates to a history of 'a policy of black extermination' in Brazil, and to the struggle by Aboriginal people in Australia.
In: The Economist, 2021, pp. 59-60
Provides a well informed summary of the context and nature of the October military coup.
See also: 'Sudan: Coup de Grace', The Economist, 27 November 2021, p. 55.
This analysis of the coup leaders' decision to reinstate Prime Minister Hamdok interprets this move as' the army tightening its grip on Sudan's political transition.