Country Profile: Kyrgyzstan
In: New Internationalist, 2021, pp. 38-39
Brief but informative overview of the historical background and socio-economic conditions in the country, plus a summary of political developments since 1991.
#MeToo has changed the media landscape, but in Australia there is still much to be done
In: The Conversation, 2019
Report on the Australia response to the emergence of the #MeToo movement.
Available online at:
Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Veterans For Peace
2017
Campaign by Veterans For Peace (founded in the US in 1985) to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons for divestment from corporations manufacturing nuclear weapons, and their endorsement of the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017. Their campaigns include: ‘The Golden Rule’ educational project, ‘Disarm Trident’, and ‘Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
Available online at:
https://www.veteransforpeace.org/take-action/abolish-nuclear-weapons
Peace Insight
Originally published: 2007
Peace Insight, lunched in 2007 by Peace Direct, links local groups engaged in peacebuilding in conflicts around the world - about 2,000 in 2021- with each other and with international bodies. It also provides expert analysis and commentary on conflicts.
Available online at:
Fridays for Future: How the Young Climate Movement Has Grown since Greta Thunberg's Lone Protest
In: The Conversation, 2020
Explores briefly the Fridays for Future movement and its interconnection with the struggle against systemic racism.
See also: FridaysforFuture website page: https://fridaysforfuture.org/what-we-do-/activist-speeches
See also: 'Young voices on the Frontlines of Climate Change', The Elders' Blog, https://theelders.org//intergenerational-climate-blogs
An update of experiences of climate activists from both the Global North and the Global South.
Available online at:
Morocco: new violence against women law
2018
Notes a new Moroccan law - Law 103.13 on the elimination of violence against women - that criminalises violence against women. The law was approved by Parliament on 14th February 2018 and entered into force in September 2018 and punishes various types of violence committed both in the private and public spheres, including rape, sexual harassment and domestic abuse. However, it was criticized for not outlawing marital rape or spousal violence, and failing to provide a precise definition of domestic violence.
See also https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/morocco-violence-women-law-effect-180912061837132.html and https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/violence-against-women-morocco-girls/
Available online at:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/26/morocco-new-violence-against-women-law
Commemoration in Havana of 40 years of advancement of women’s equality and rights with a focus on pending challenges
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean – ECLAC2017
Joint initiative between the government of Cuba, ECLAC and the Federation of Cuban Women that saw government authorities, international officials and representatives of civil society in Havana assess the existing policies in favour of gender equality and women’s rights that have been implemented over the past 40 years in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. They also debated the main challenges that lie ahead.
Available online at:
Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
In: Atomic Heritage Foundation, 2017
Provides a basic account of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the censorship that followed, the setting up of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, the birth of the movement led by the hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) and the perception of them in the United States
Available online at:
https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/survivors-hiroshima-and-nagasaki
My Name is not Greta Thunberg': Why Diverse Voices Matter in the Climate Movement
In: The Elders, 2020
Xiye Bastida, an 18 y-ear old Mexican-Indigenous climate activist recounts her own experiences and stresses the need to recognize the diversity of the climate justice movement in order to achieve a more equitable and sustainable future.
Available online at:
https://theelders.org/news/my-name-not-greta-thunberg-why-diverse-voices-matter-climate-movement
Against Her Will. Forced and Coerced Sterilization of Women Worldwide
Open Society Foundations2011
This Open Society Foundations fact sheet provides information on instances of forced sterilization of racial and ethnic minorities, poor women, women living with HIV, and women with disabilities in Chile, Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Hungary, India, Mexico, Namibia, Kenya, Peru, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uzbekistan. It also provides recommendations for governments, medical professionals, UN agencies, and donors on how to end the practice of forced and coerced sterilization.
Special: ‘Nigeria – The Boko Haram girls’
In: The New York Times, 2018
Following the kidnapping of more than 200 girls in April 2014 by the Muslim extremist group Boko Haram, the campaign #BringBackOurGirls started and was supported worldwide. In this New York Times’ special more than a hundred girls who have been released four years later are photographed and some of their stories are narrated.
See also https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/21/boko-haram-returns-some-of-the-girls-it-kidnapped-last-month; https://www.dw.com/en/inside-boko-haram-chibok-girls-as-status-symbols/a-18677263;
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/meet-metoo-activists-one-worlds-hostile-environments/; https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vbpxn9/boko-haram-has-kidnapped-another-110-teenage-girls and https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/07/john-simpson-can-anyone-bring-back-nigeria-s-lost-girls
In 2018, the documentary ‘Stolen Daughters: Kidnapped by Boko Haram was released. To purchase the documentary, visit HBO official website https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/stolen-daughters-kidnapped-by-boko-haram
See the official website of #BRingBackOurGirls campaign here https://bringbackourgirls.ng/
Available online at:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/11/world/africa/nigeria-boko-haram-girls.html
Thousands in Argentina protest acquittal in teeneage girl’s murder
In: Al Jazeera, 2018
Reports on the revival of the #NiUnaMenos movement following the acquittal of two men accused of sexual violence and the murder of 16-year old Lucia Perez in the coastal city of Mar del Plata. It also provides data on femicide since 2008.
For the same event, see also http://time.com/5472053/argentina-protest-lucia-perez-ni-una-menos/.
Available online at:
Indigenous Anti-nuclear Summit Declaration
Indigenous Environmental, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1996
The Indigenous Anti-Nuclear Summit declaration that brought together a network of Indigenous Peoples from different areas that have been negatively impacted by the nuclear chain. This includes Uranium mining in the Grants Mineral Belt; northern Saskatchewan; the areas near the Sequoyah Fuels Uranium Processing Plant, and the Prairie Island Power Plant.
Available online at:
https://www.ienearth.org/indigenous-anti-nuclear-summit-declaration/
Opinion Special. The George Floyd Protests
In: Guardian Weekly, 2020, pp. 7-16
Six brief commentaries on key issues relating to the resurgence of Black Lives Matter in both the US and Britain. Philip V. McHarris, 'Property damage is not real violence'; Malaika Jaball, 'Police brutality is ingrained in America'; Jericho Brown, 'We need the rage that abolished slavery'; Kojo Koram, 'Systemic racism is a British problem too'; David Olusoga, 'Toppling a slave trader's statue is history being made'; Patricia J. Williams, 'The corrupt language used to describe black pain'.
See also: ‘The Big Story: Black Lives Matter: Do Look Now’, Guardian Weekly, 19 June, pp. 7-14.
Covers protests in the UK against statues honouring slave traders and imperialists; anti-racist demonstrations in Belgium and a petition to remove all statues of King Leopold, who presided over a particularly brutal colonial rule in the Congo; protests against police violence and racism against indigenous and black citizes in Canada; and demonstrations in the Dominican Republic about racist discrimination against those of Haitian descent. There is also an article reflecting on lessons to be learned from how Germany has confronted its Nazi past.
We Will Make a New Chile: Interview with Isidora Cepeda Beccar
In: Jacobin Magazine, 2019
An interview with a political activist in Santiago in the context of 'the largest demonstrations in Chile since the return of democracy', which had developed into demands for a new constitution and comprehensive political reform. Beccar argues that the post-Pinochet reforms had primarily benefited a small elite.
Available online at:
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/10/chile-protests-fare-hike-pinera-demands
Successes and Shortcomings: How Algeria's Hirak can inform Lebanon's Protest Movement
Vol 03/06/2020, Middle East Institute2020
The author summarizes the beginning of the two movements, but notesthat despite significant victories, given the political power structure has not been overthrown the goals of regime change 'remain elusive'. She considers the successes in Algeria - the wide range of social groups involved and 'ethos of peacefulness' - and the shortcomings of lack of leadership and of a clear strategy to achieve change. Using the Algerian example she suggests lessons for Lebanon, such as maintaining nonviolence and avoiding political partisanship and sectarianism.
Available online at:
Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)
WECAN is a climate justice body which stresses that indigenous women, women of colour, women on low incomes and from Global South countries live on 'the front lines of climate change'. Therefore solutions to climate change require not only ending extraction of oil and gas, but 'building a new economy' based on communal and women's rights, right of nature and the rights of future generations. WECAN aims to mobilise women around the world in policy advocacy (for example at UN climate conferences) and in movement building.
Available online at:
Guatemala: Two Women Murdered Every Day
In: Horizons, 2018
Exlores femicide in Guatemala with particular reference to violence experienced by indigenous women.
See also https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/femicide-in-mexico-and-guatemala/
Available online at:
A Cold War cast of thousands. Anti-nuclear activists and protest-action
In: National Park Service, 2017
Discusses the anti-nuclear weapons movements in the late 1950s, for example the Committee for Non-Violent Action, and the shift of focus, from the mid-1960s until the early 1970s to the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War by many local and national peace groups in the United States. In the late 1970s and 1980s Europe and the United States experienced a resurgence of concern over nuclear weapons.
Available online at:
Abortion decriminalised in Northern Ireland
2020
Provides a brief and interactive timeline on the history of abortion in Northern Ireland.
See also https://humanism.org.uk/campaigns/public-ethical-issues/sexual-and-reproductive-rights/ and the submission to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women on mistreatment and violence against women during reproductive healthcare in Ireland and Northern Ireland by the Abortion Rights Campaign in May 2019.
Available online at:
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/abortion-rights-northern-ireland-timeline