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: 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: Americas Quarterly, 2017
Provides information on the legal framework on femicide of most Latin American countries up to 2017.
In: TeleSur, 2018
Provides recent data uncovered by the United Nations on femicide in Honduras. It also connects the occurrence of femicide, and the lack of effective measures to tackle it, to political and economic instability, which lead many people to flee the country.
To see the consequences of femicide in terms of the children made orphans in Honduras, have a look at this link https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Thousands-of-Children-Orphaned-in-Honduras-By-Femicides-Study-20180912-0010.html
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.
In: El Pais, 2019
Reports that five out of six men involved in a gang rape of a 14-year old girl were convicted of sexual abuse of a minor, rather than the more serious crime of sexual assault; the girl was for part of the time in an 'unconscious state'. The report also provides an update on the Pamplona case, noting the the Spanish Supreme Court ruled the men were guilty of rape and raised their prison sentences to 15 years. El Pais records in addition that the commission created after the Pamplona case to revise the legal definition of sexual violence has reported, and recommended eliminating the lesser charge of sexual abuse; but the Socialist Party government has not yet acted.
https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/10/31/inenglish/1572525418_791189.html
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.
Sept-Oct 2019
In: New Internationalist, 2019, pp. 16-26
Covers issues of both climate change and biodiversity: loss of fish stocks, plastic pollution and role of oceans as climate regulators, and dangers of planned seabed mining. These issues are framed by a legal and political analysis of the Law of the Sea, the role of the International Seabed Authority and the negotiations between 190 countries in the Intergovernmental Conference on the Protection of Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, intended to lead to a new Global Ocean Treaty.
There are a number of timelines on the evolving scientific research and the political context of climate change:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15874560 (1712-2013)
Sources for the evolving scientific understanding of climate change include:
IPCC Reports (comprehensive assessment reports, special reports on specific issues and methodology reports); there are also summaries for policy makers. The IPCC releases very much shorter summaries to the press.
NASA provides climate change and global warming information on its website: climate.nasa.org
The Scientific American carries material on the science and politics relating to climate change. www.scientificamerican.com
The New Scientist provides accessible news reports and analyses on scientific issues, including climate change. https://newscientist.com
In: TeleSur, 2019
Announces the launch of the ‘Spotlight Initiative’ in Honduras through a joint collaboration between the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) and the Honduras government to end femicide and impunity. By 2014, Honduras had the highest number of femicides in the world, according to the U.N. It is reported that 380 women were murdered in the country in 2018 and that 30 women were killed during the first 30 days of 2019. The impunity rate for this crime hovers at 95 per cent.
UN Women
2020
This link provides links to all countries in the world that give access to reports undertaken by UN Women on any type of violence suffered by women.
In: Oxford Analytica, 2020
The year 2019 has seen women’s rights movements come to the fore across the Maghreb, a region where previous initiatives have been driven by Western political pressure and from the top down by predominantly authoritarian leaders. This paper explores the unprecedented bottom-up activist movements that have begun advancing the agenda of women’s rights across the region.
Amnesty International2018, pp. 13
This report sets out Amnesty International’s concerns about the Mexican state’s failure to comply with observations of the Committee (in the combined seventh and eighth periodic reports) on violence against women. Amnesty notes in particular the murder of women for gender-based motives, also known as “femicides”, the gender alert mechanism, disappearances of women, and the torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of women during detention, which is exacerbated in the context of a militarization of public security.
Action Fund of Latin America2016, pp. 59
This report by the feminist civil society body, Urgent Action Fund of Latin America and the Caribbean, focuses on the role of women in protecting and defending nature, and warns of increasing risks to their lives and environment. The report discusses ‘the extractive model’ and the social-environmental conflicts it creates, and also the disturbing militarization and violations of women’s rights, including those defending their environment. The report outlines proposals made by women for defence of territory, and also stresses the diversity of the approaches, organizations and activities developed by Latin American women.
In: National Geographic, 2018, pp. 79-149
Originally published: April 2018
In this special issue on race in the US, Michele Morris recounts how demographic changes across the US are challenging white Americans’ perception of their majority status. She also discusses attempts to re-create a narrative that could reflect more than white Christian ethnicity as the only identity framework of US history. Michael A. Fletcher reports the personal stories of people of colour who had suffered traumatic experiences of stop-and-search by police officers on the basis of their racial profile. Clint Smith examines two major and prestigious colleges that have experienced a recent surge in enrolment of black youth and the rise of new forms of Black activism. Finally, Maurice Bergers reports on the work by photographer Omar Victor Dopi on slave revolts, independence movements, social justice quests. The events represented range from 18th century’s Queen Nanny of the Maroons, known for her ability to lead Jamaican slaves to liberation from British colonialism, to 21st century’s 12 year-old Trayvon Martin, whose shooting by a white neighborhood watch volunteer inspired the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement.
In: Council on Foreign Relations, 2019
A report tracking women’s participation in peace negotiations from 1990 to the present. It reveals that women comprise only two percent of mediators, five percent of witnesses and signatories, and eight percent of negotiators around the world.
See also https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/03AWomenPeaceNeg.pdf
In: TeleSur, 2019
Human rights activists have opposed President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s plan to cut funding for women’s shelters in Mexico. The scheme is still not properly defined, but the money will instead be given directly to the victims of domestic violence. While the government’s decision does not intend to withdraw support for victims, human rights activists point out the risk of nullifying years of activism and initiatives led by civil society. In fact, they stress that giving money directly to victims can further expose them to violence.
Kōsei Publishing, Tokyo, 1986, pp. 206
First hand account of 25 hibakushas, survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. They include soldiers, doctors, nurses, students, housewives, small children, Koreans brought to Japan for forced labour, and victims who were yet unborn.
In: Human Rights Watch, 2021
Critical account of the Indian government's response to the farmers' protest in central Delhi on Independence Day. This response included shutting down the internet, charging six journalists with sedition, promoting communal disharmony and making statements prejudicial to national integration.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/02/india-journalists-covering-farmer-protests-charged
Grassroots movement aiming at preventing nuclear war.
2019
Official website of ‘Back From the Brink’, a grassroots movement that aims to involve local councils and Members of Congress in the U.S. and pressure them to change U.S. nuclear policies. Their demands are:
- Renounce ‘first use’ option;
- End the sole presidential authority to launch a nuclear attack;
- Take U.S. nuclear weapons off ‘hair-trigger’ alert;
- Cancel U.S. plan to replace its entire nuclear arsenal with enhanced weapons;
- Pursue total abolition.
See also http://www.nuclearban.us/back-from-the-brink-a-call-to-prevent-nuclear-war/ and https://www.wagingpeace.org/.
In: BBC News, 2017
Reports on death in custody of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was prominent in the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstration and continued to defy the regime. He was serving an 11-year sentence for his role in promoting Charter 08 in 2008, calling for multi-party democracy. The report elaborates on his life and the responses to his death.