Persecution Defined
Unfair or cruel treatment over a long period of time because of race , religion or political beliefs .
Unfair or cruel treatment over a long period of time because of race , religion or political beliefs .
09.07.2025
(112) Mass Circumcision Ceremony That Killed 93 Kids Is Set To Happen Again
Traditional rituals that mark the path to manhood are part of many African cultures. In South Africa the secretive initiation season costs the lives of dozens of boys each year. Hudreds more sustain terrible injuries at the secluded initiation sites where initiates are taught traditional chants and fighting techniques but often beaten and humiliated as they undergo these rites. The annual tribal “initiation ceremony” where teenage males in South Africa undergo painful circumcision has begun – despite it ending in 93 horrific deaths last year.
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18.05.2025
(111) Forced Sterilization And Impunity In Peru
More than 300,000 women were sterilised under the guise of a family planning scheme, enacted by the government of ex-president Alberto Fujimori during the 1990s. Estimates suggest less than 10 per cent gave consent. For decades the women – who were primarily rural and indigenous – have fought for justice, eventually taking their case to the UN women’s rights committee in 2020 over the lack of effective investigations, accountability, and adequate reparations.
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22.03.2025
(110) Holocaust Memorial Day - 80th Anniversary Of The Liberation Of Auschwitz
People across the world are marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazis' most notorious death camp. Auschwitz was the largest concentration and extermination centre in the Third Reich – more than 1.1 million men, women and children lost their lives there. A day of international commemoration, Holocaust Memorial Day is dedicated to honouring all those, including six million Jews, who were murdered under Nazi rule during the Second World War.
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06.02.2025
(109) Boko Haram’s Latest Attacks Displace Thousands of Christians in Nigeria
Boko Haram is escalating attacks on Christian communities in Chibok, Borno state, displacing more than 4,000 Christians in recent days. In a series of coordinated raids, Boko Haram targeted the Christian villages of Njila, Banziir, Shikarkir, and Yirmirmug, burning homes, torching churches, and killing five people. Eyewitnesses reported that Boko Haram militants targeted Christians during these raids, intimidating them and demanding they convert to Islam or face death. The violence destroyed Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa, a church, and the loss of livestock, food supplies, and livelihoods.
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18.01.2025
(108) Landmine Clearance In Syria
Bomb disposal teams in Idlib are working to disarm landmines planted by the Assad regime. Farmers and agricultural workers returning to the land are being killed and injured by these hidden weapons. Syria is not a signatory to the Mine Ban Treaty and is reported to have planted over 700,000 mines near its borders with Türkiye and Lebanon. Most of the other mine laying in Syria is believed to be of improvised devices.
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19.12.2024
(107) The Dark Side Of Luxury Handbag
Luxury goods makers behind iconic brands including Dior and Armani hired contractors that pay workers as little as $2 an hour to make handbags that they then sell for thousands of dollars apiece, according to European law enforcement officials. Dior, the French multinational luxury fashion house chaired by mogul Bernard Arnault and his family, charges a supplier around $57 to manufacture a handbag that it sells in stores for around $2,780, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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28.11.2024
(106) Dozens of Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Leaders Are Jailed Up to 10 Years
The 45 defendants were at the forefront of the opposition movement crushed by Beijing. Many had already been in jail for years. Forty-five former politicians and activists who had organized or taken part in the 2020 primary by the opposition camp were sentenced by a Hong Kong court to prison, including for as long as 10 years.
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10.10.2024
(105) South Korea's Baby Adoptions Reckoning
More than 200,000 South Korean children have been adopted overseas since the 1950s following World War II and the Korean War after the country was ravaged by war and many mothers left destitute, according to authorities. Many of those children were adopted by families in the US and Europe. Many of those adopted children, now adults scattered across the globe and trying to trace their origins, have accused agencies of corruption and malpractice, including in some cases forcibly removing them from their mothers.
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12.09.2024
(104) The Chibanis – Bitter Bread: Algerian Pensioners’ Struggle in France
Algerians who came to France in the ’50s now face laws making it hard for them to retire with their families back at home. They were caught up in French government pension rules that make it hard for them to retire with their families back home. They and the state grapple with the reality that they may never go home. They’re called ‘chibanis’ – meaning ‘white-haired’.
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02.08.2024
(103) Bangladesh Mourns Some 200 Deaths As Student Protests Wind Down And Thousands Are Arrested
Students have been protesting against attempts to reinstate quotas in civil service jobs for relatives of veterans from the country’s war for independence from Pakistan in 1971 for more than three weeks. A third of public sector jobs had been set aside for them, but on 21 July the Supreme Court court ruled just 5% of the roles could be reserved. The student movement believes the system is discriminatory and has demanded recruitment based on merit.
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04.07.2024
(102) Marital Rape: Man In India Can’t Be Charged If Wife Is 18 Or Above
According to the 2019-2023 National Family Health Survey by the Government of India, 27.6% of more than 100,000 women ages 15-49 surveyed said they were unable to say no to their husband if they didn’t want sex, while 11% thought husbands were justified in hitting or beating his wife if she refused. Women alleging rape in India have some avenues of potential legal action against their husbands.
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05.06.2024
(101) Bredasdorp Is A South African Town That’s Plagued By Rape And Murder
Murder and rape rates in South Africa are among the highest in the world, and the locals have become used to it. Bredasdorp, however, made international headlines when 17-year-old Anene Booysen was raped and murdered. Julia Jaki suspects that the reason Booysen's death received so much attention was because her abdomen had been slashed and her intestines ripped out.
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14.05.2024
(100) Wave of Exceptionally Hot Weather Scorches South And South-East Asia
Millions of people across South and Southeast Asia are facing sweltering temperatures, with unusually hot weather forcing schools to close and threatening public health. April and May are usually the hottest months in south-east Asia, but temperatures this year have been worsened by the El Niño event, which brings hotter, drier conditions to the region. The World Meteorological Organization warned in a report this week that Asia remained “the world’s most disaster-hit region from weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2024”. Floods and storms caused the highest number of reported casualties and economic losses, it said, while the impact of heatwaves became more severe.
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03.04.2024
(99) Nearly 5 Million Animals Dead In Mongolia’s Harshest Winter
Mongolia is freezing through its harshest winter in half a century with extreme conditions killing more than 4.9 million animals and threatening the livelihoods and food supply of thousands of people, the International Federation of the Red Cross has warned. The severe conditions, known as dzud, are characterized by plunging temperatures and deep snow and ice that blanket grazing areas and cut off access to food for livestock.
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15.03.2024
(98) India Implements ‘Discriminatory’ Citizenship Law
Narendra Modi’s government has implemented a controversial law on Indian citizenship that has been widely criticised as discriminating against Muslims and sparked massive protests when it was enacted four years ago. Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party is seeking to increase its parliamentary majority and to secure the 73-year-old leader a third five-year term at the election, which is expected to be held in April and May 2024.
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20.02.2024
(97) One In Five UN-Tracked Migratory Species At Risk Of Extinction
One in five species of migratory birds, fish, reptiles, mammals, and insects tracked by the United Nations is threatened with extinction due to escalating environmental pressures and overexploitation by humans, according to a recent landmark report. The report finds that 44 percent of these species are experiencing population declines and 22 percent are threatened with extinction.
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26.01.2024
(96) All of Bangladesh Is Drinking Water Containing Carcinogenic Arsenic
Nearly half of the water that Bangladeshis are drinking contains dangerously high levels of arsenic, a new study has revealed. A team of scientists found that 49 per cent of the water, which an overwhelming majority of the population depends on, contains unsafe limits of the carcinogenic contaminant. The discovery highlights a looming public health crisis in the South Asian country, which routinely faces heavy flooding and is one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of a spiralling climate crisis.
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18.12.2023
(95) Almost 100 Journalists Killed And 400 Imprisoned In 2023, Says Report
The International Federation of Journalists records that 94 journalists and media workers, including 9 women, have been killed in 2023. Since 7 October, more than one journalist a day has lost their lives during the war in Gaza, a scale and pace of loss of media professionals’ lives without precedent. Publishing ahead of International Human Rights Day, on the 10th December, the IFJ insists that far greater action is required from the international community to safeguard journalists’ lives and hold to account their attackers.
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12.11.2023
(94) Bangladesh's Workers For Fast Fashion Brands Fear Starvation As They Fight For Higher Wages
With USD72 monthly wages , garment workers making clothes in Bangladesh for global high-street brands say they are facing starvation and are having to steal and scavenge food from fields and bins to feed their children, as protests continue over a new minimum wage for the garment workforce of 4 million people. Despite being second largest supplier of clothing to fast fashion brands, Bangladesh has one of the lowest minimum wages for garment workers in the world, which has remained set at 8,000 taka (USD72) since 2018.
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09.10.2023
(93) Every Two Minutes, a Child is being Prepared for Sexual Exploitation and Child Sex Trafficking
Child trafficking affects every country in the world, and children make up 37% of all human trafficking victims worldwide, which two out of every three identified child victims are girls. A majority of the time, victims are trafficked by someone they know, such as a friend, family member or romantic partner. Inducing a child under age 18 to perform a commercial sex act, with or without force, fraud, or coercion, is child sex trafficking.
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13.09.2023
(92) A Child Was Sexually Abused Every Two Hours In Pakistan This Year 2023
An average of 12 children per day – or one every two hours – were subjected to sexual abuse in Pakistan in 2023, a report by a nongovernmental organisation says. In its half-yearly report published on Thursday, Islamabad-based NGO Sahil said a total of 2,227 cases of child sexual abuse were reported to the authorities between January and June this year 2023. It said there were 1,207 girls and 1,020 boys in the cases it recorded in 2023.
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18.08.2023
(91) Indigenous People 'Under Threat' From Clean Energy Push
There is a growing resistance to large renewable energy projects among many indigenous communities, many of these groups do not have official land titles where they live, but the government does, and it too often grants titles to renewable energy companies without consultation, consent, or compensation. Since 2010, a growing allegations of displacement, harm to livelihoods, and violence against many indigenous communities.
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16.07.2023
(90) Sportswashing Is Everywhere, but It’s Not New
Regimes have been using sports to burnish their images or distract from their problematic behavior for centuries. Sportswashing, the use of an athletic event by an individual or a government, a corporation, or another group to promote or burnish the individual's or group's reputation, especially amid controversy or scandal.
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10.06.2023
(89) Ukraine Dam Explosion Is ‘Worst Environmental Disaster Since Chernobyl’
The destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam significantly changes the geography and topography of the Kherson frontline sector in southern Ukraine. Russian and Ukrainian forces reportedly engaged in skirmishes in western Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Russian and Ukrainian officials each accused the other state of damaging an ammonia pipeline that runs through Kharkiv Oblast and causing an ammonia leak.
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28.05.2023
(88) Saudi Arabia Sentences Woman To 34 Years For Twitter Activism
Salma al-Shehab, a 34-year-old mother of two and former PhD student at the University of Leeds, who in 2021 was handed a 34-year-long jail sentence for tweeting her support for women’s human rights defenders in her native Saudi Arabia, has gone on hunger strike. Salma was arrested in January 2021 while on a visit home from the UK to see her family. She then faced months of interrogation over her activity on Twitter.
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22.04.2023
(87) Inequalities Faced By Women In Agriculture Cost the World $1 Trillion
Agriculture and food systems are a significant employer for women globally – and are a more critical source of livelihood for women than for men. However, women face inequalities that constrain their full participation in the sector. They are likely to work under worse conditions than men, taking informal, part-time, labour-intensive and low-skilled jobs at higher rates, and earning 82 cents for every dollar men earn.
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04.04.2023
(86) Tesla’s German Factory Will Exhaust the Area’s Water Supply in Gruenheide.
Tesla is facing “criminal” allegations regarding Gigafactory Berlin as environmentalists accuse the automaker of “suspected water pollution and a possible environmental crime.” For years now, Tesla has been in battle with environmentalists in Germany who have tried to stop or slow down the construction of and production at Gigafactory Berlin. Tesla’s factory would roughly double the amount of water consumed in the Gruenheide area, according to Axel Bronstert, a hydrology professor at the University of Potsdam. He said it’s “naive” to think reserves would suffice for both the factory and residents, and called the groundwater situation in Brandenburg “serious.”
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12.03.2023
(85) UN Launches Ten-Year ‘Survival Plan’ for Endangered Languages
The United Nations launched what it calls the International Decade of Indigenous Languages—a ten-year “survival plan” to protect global Indigenous languages from extinction, in response to predictions that more than half of all languages will be lost by the end of the 21st century. From the remaining Ika-speaking Arhuaco people of Colombia to remote Indigenous Arctic communities, this initiative gives hope to thousands of native peoples fighting to keep their ancestral tongues alive.
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15.01.2023
(84) Exxon’s Own Science Was Scary Accurate About Global Warming. So It Covered It Up.
Despite sowing uncertainty about the existence and cause of global climate change, Exxon privately projected global warming with frightening accuracy for decades, a new study reveals. By digitizing and analyzing internal documents produced by ExxonMobil scientists between 1977 and 2002, a team of Harvard and University of Potsdam researchers put numbers behind recent rallying cries and hashtags that “Exxon Knew” that burning fossil fuels would contribute to an increase in the global average temperature.
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20.12.2022
(83) Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Media Tycoon Jimmy Lai Jailed In Lease Violation Case
Lai, who was arrested during a crackdown on the city's pro-democracy movement following widespread protests in 2019, was also fined 2 million Hong Kong dollars ($377,868). His media company, Next Digital, published the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily. The publication was forced to close following the arrests of its top executives, editors and journalists last year. Lai's legal team earlier asked the United Nations to investigate his imprisonment and multiple criminal charges as “legal harassment” to punish him for speaking out.
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12.12.2022
(82) Over 17,000 Civilians Killed In Ukraine Since February — UN
The World Health Organization reports at least 715 attacks on health care in the country, including 630 that impacted health facilities and 61 that affected personnel. In his words, over 14 million people remain forcibly displaced from their homes in Ukraine, including 6.5 million internally displaced, and over 7.8 million refugees recorded across Europe. The current cold season presents a particular threat to the civilian population, expected to drop to below -20 degrees Celsius.
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12.11.2022
(81) Pinkwashing: How Companies Profit off Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Pinkwashing is when a company uses that recognizable pink ribbon symbol or signature shade to market a product or service without meaningfully supporting breast cancer research or awareness. Pink imagery is now one of the most widely recognized marketing tools for breast cancer, but it’s not regulated by any agency, and its use does not necessarily mean the associated product effectively combats the breast cancer crisis.
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24.10.2022
(80) Rwanda: Wave of Free Speech Prosecutions
Judicial authorities in Rwanda are prosecuting opposition members, journalists, and commentators on the basis of their speech and opinions, Human Rights Watch said today. Throughout 2020 and 2021, Human Rights Watch monitored trials in which judicial authorities pursued politically motivated prosecutions and perpetuated a culture of intolerance of dissent. Journalists using YouTube as a platform have also been targeted for prosecution for not registering with the Rwanda Media Commission (RMC) or for publishing information that contradicts the government’s version of certain events, such as the suspicious death in custody of Kizito Mihigo, a gospel singer and activist, or disappearances of government opponents.
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02.09.2022
(79) Over 100,000 People Officially Missing Or Disappeared In Mexico
Mexico has officially registered more than 100,000 people as missing or disappeared, according to data from the Interior Ministry's National Registry of Missing People. From 1964 to the present day 2022, the country has registered more than 100,023 people missing, of which more than 24,700 are women, and more than 74,700 are men. The gender of 516 people is unknown. The figure has risen by more than 20,000 people in the past two years alone, according to the data, which was met with outrage and urgent calls for better systems for search and rescue.
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20.08.2022
(78) 75 Years of Partition and India-Pakistan Tensions
India and Pakistan were born 75 years ago out of a bloody division of the subcontinent by the colonial British, an event commonly referred to as partition. Today, the two nuclear powers are deeply troubled neighbours, at odds mainly over the disputed territory of Kashmir. Seventy-five years ago, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer, was commissioned to draw the borders that would divide British-ruled India into two new, independent nations: Hindu-majority India and mainly Muslim Pakistan. He had just five weeks to do so despite having never travelled to India, which had been under British rule for 200 years. The lines he drew triggered one of the largest forced mass migrations in modern history, with roughly 15 million people displaced and more than two million people killed.
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26.07.2022
(77) Myanmar Military Executes Four Democracy Activists
Myanmar’s junta has executed four prisoners including a former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, in the country’s first use of capital punishment in decades. The four, who included another prominent democracy activist, were executed for leading “brutal and inhumane terror acts”, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said. The junta has sentenced dozens of anti-coup activists to death as part of its crackdown on dissent after seizing power last year, but Myanmar had not carried out an execution for decades.
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08.07.2022
(76) 62 Journalists Killed In 2020, Just For Doing Their Jobs: UNESCO
In 2020 alone, according to UN cultural agency UNESCO, which works to protect media workers, 62 journalists were killed just for doing their jobs. Between 2006 and 2020, over 1,200 professionals lost their lives the same way. In nine out of ten cases the killers go unpunished. This year, because of statistics like these, the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists is highlighting the important role of prosecutorial services, not only in bringing killers to justice, but also prosecuting threats of violence.
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20.06.2022
(75) Mobile Schools Provide Hope For Afghan Children -- Especially For Girls
Afghan volunteers have organized a mobile educational program to tour remote areas, giving children hope after the Taliban closed schools for girls in March. An Afghan NGO, Pen Path, gives lessons and library books to children who might otherwise be starved of any opportunity to learn. The campaign is being conducted while it has been more than 200 days since the Taliban regime has closed the education doors to girls.
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03.06.2022
(74) Uvalde, Texas Attack is 212nd US mass shooting of Year 2022
The killing of 19 children at a school in Texas is the latest in a years-long series of mass shootings in the United States. A teenage gunman has killed 19 children and two adults at a primary school in south Texas, in what is the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade. There have been 212 mass shootings so far in the United States this year 2022, according to a tally by US non-profit Gun Violence Archive – which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the attacker.
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26.05.2022
(73) Profiting from Pain: The Urgency of Taxing the Rich Amid a Surge in Billionaire Wealth and a Global Cost-of-Living Crisis
As food and energy prices rise to their highest level in decades, billionaires in these sectors have seen their fortunes rise by $453 billion in the last two years - equivalent to more than $1 billion every two days, a new Oxfam report reveals today. Global food prices have spiraled by over 30 per cent in the past year and 62 new food billionaires have been created over the last two years. Cargill, one of the world’s largest food traders, now counts 12 family members as billionaires, up from eight before the pandemic. The Cargill family, along with just three other companies, controls 70 per cent of the global agricultural market.
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10.05.2022
(72) The Impact of Conflict On Food Insecurity
Lack of food has been the source of many past and recent conflicts. Food insecurity has clearly been a factor behind outbreaks of social unrest or worse, yet conflict also has induced notable instances of food insecurity. Conflict often involves competition over control of the factors of food production, primarily land and water. Having more people to feed, more pressure on land and water, more variable climates, and greater price volatility tends to increase stress; it also raises the risk of civil unrest or worse conflict.
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03.05.2022
(71) The Dark Side of Modeling: Trafficking and Abuse
Modeling is often portrayed as a job which accrues wealth, fame, and prosperity. However, the modeling industry’s weak labor laws and the nature of its international recruitment create corruption. While the industry is often attacked for eating disorders and alcohol abuse, its problems go far beyond that. Sexual harassment, stolen wages, and indentured slavery define the modeling industry. A lack of labor laws and disproportionate regulation in the modeling industry leads to disenfranchised models and imbalanced power dynamics between agents, fashion brands, and models.
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03.04.2022
(70) Food Prices Approach Record Highs, Threatening the World’s Poorest
Food prices have skyrocketed globally because of disruptions in the global supply chain, adverse weather and rising energy prices, increases that are imposing a heavy burden on poorer people around the world and threatening to stoke social unrest. The increases have affected items as varied as grains, vegetable oils, butter, pasta, beef and coffee. They come as farmers around the globe face an array of challenges, including drought and ice storms that have ruined crops, rising prices for fertilizer and fuel, and pandemic-related labor shortages and supply chain disruptions that make it difficult to get products to market.
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07.03.2022
(69) One In Four Women Experience Domestic Abuse Before 50
More than one in four women worldwide experience domestic violence before the age of 50, according to the largest review of its kind, prompting calls for urgent action to end the abuse. Analysis of 366 studies involving more than 2 million women reached an estimate that 27% of women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a male partner in their lifetime. One in seven women (13%) – almost 500 million globally – had experienced domestic violence within the last year of the research being conducted. The findings were published in the Lancet.
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05.02.2022
(68) Canada Pledges $31.5 Billion to Settle Fight Over Indigenous Child Welfare System
The Canadian government agreed to pay $31.5 billion to repair the country's discriminatory child welfare system and compensate Indigenous families. “This is the largest settlement in Canadian history. Half will go toward compensating both children who were unnecessarily removed, and their families and caregivers, over the past three decades. The rest of the money will go toward repairing the child welfare system for First Nations children — who are statistically far more likely to be removed from their families — over the next five years to ensure families are able to stay together.
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26.01.2022
(67) Enset Plants Could Feed More Than 100 Million People
A new study suggests that a plant relative of the banana, found only in Ethiopia, has the potential to feed more than 100 million people in warming environments if its cultivation were to be expanded. Enset, also known as the "false banana," is a starchy crop that is a food staple in Ethiopia. While its fruit is inedible, the study says its stems and roots can be fermented and are commonly used to make porridge and bread.
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01.01.2022
(66) Parents Selling Children Shows Desperation In Afghanistan
Across Afghanistan, mothers and fathers are selling their children to make ends meet as tens of millions face mass starvation. Aid groups say one million children are on the brink of death from malnutrition in the coming winter months - a figure greater than the total number of civilian casualties from the 20-year war. A crippling drought exacerbated by an economic crisis following international sanctions against the new Taliban government has left more than half of Afghanistan’s population facing acute hunger. Many who had a steady income under the previous government are now jobless and unable to buy food.
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20.11.2021
(65) What Is the "Male Gaze" ?
The male gaze describes a way of portraying and looking at women that empowers men while sexualizing and diminishing women. While biologically, from early adolescence on, we are driven to look at and evaluate each other as potential mates, the male gaze twists this natural urge, turning the women into passive items to possess and use as props. This concept is not just about how women (and their bodies) are used to satisfy male fantasy but also how this gaze, whether it's directed at them or others, makes women feel about themselves.
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30.10.2021
(64) Amazon's 'Dieback' Scenario Releases Massive Carbon Into The Atmosphere
Wildfires and deforestation are pushing the Amazon rainforest toward a dieback scenario: an irreversible cycle of collapse. The rain in the rainforest is not an accident of geography or meteorology. The towering mahogany, kapok, and Brazil nut trees of the Amazon play important parts in the orchestra of the region’s water system. The trees take in rainwater through their roots, move it up into the canopy, and release it into the air, a process called evapotranspiration. The trees also release volatile organic compounds that react to form tiny particles. These particles serve as nucleation points to form clouds and eventually lead to more rainfall.
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20.10.2021
(63) How the U.S. Betrayed the Marshall Islands, Kindling the Next Nuclear Disaster
Here in the Marshall Islands, Runit Dome holds more than 3.1 million cubic feet — or 35 Olympic-sized swimming pools — of U.S.-produced radioactive soil and debris, including lethal amounts of plutonium. Nowhere else has the United States saddled another country with so much of its nuclear waste, a product of its Cold War atomic testing program. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States detonated 67 nuclear bombs on, in and above the Marshall Islands — vaporizing whole islands, carving craters into its shallow lagoons and exiling hundreds of people from their homes. Now the concrete coffin , which locals call "the Tomb," is at risk of collapsing from rising seas and other effects of climate change.
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26.09.2021
(62) Over 130 Million Girls May Not Go Back To School After The COVID-19 Crisis
That’s the number of girls who might not return to school this year due to COVID-19’s unprecedented education disruption. This alarming number not only threatens decades of progress made towards gender equality, but also puts girls around the world at risk of adolescent pregnancy, early and forced marriage, and violence. For many girls, school is more than just a key to a better future. It’s a lifeline. When a girl's education is cut short, the impact can be felt for generations. It leaves a vital gap in their community, their country and the world. Girls' education is one of the most powerful investments we can make for our collective future. The ripple effect of positive change occurs when a girl gets an education is amazing. It strengthens economies, reduces inequality and creates more opportunities for everyone to succeed.
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20.08.2021
(61) The Taliban’s Return Is Catastrophic For Women In Afghanistan
Since the withdrawal of American and NATO forces from Afghanistan in July, the Taliban have swiftly taken control of large parts of the country. The president has fled and the government has fallen. Emboldened by their success, lack of resistance by Afghan forces and minimal international pressure, the Taliban have intensified their violence. For Afghan women, their increasing power is terrifying. In early July, Taliban leaders, who took control of the provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar, issued an order to local religious leaders to provide them with a list of girls over the age of 15 and widows under the age of 45 for “marriage” with Taliban fighters.
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03.08.2021
(60) 3,462 Christians Killed in Nigeria in 200 days, 3000 Abducted, 300 Churches Attacked
The International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety), a nonprofit based out of Nigeria, has released a report in which they say that roughly 3,462 Christians have been killed already in 2021 by Fulani militants and Boko Haram throughout Nigeria. In addition, 3000 Christians have been abducted, while 300 churches and ten priests have been attacked, this is just sixty-eight deaths less than the total deaths of Nigerian Christians in 2020 which the Open Doors’ World Watch List of Persecuted Christians put at ‘3,530’.
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09.06.2021
(59) Germany Officially Recognizes It Committed Genocide In Present-Day Namibia
Germany has admitted for the first time that it committed genocide in Namibia by killing an estimated 100,000 people, belonging to two ethnic groups more than a century ago. From about 1884 to 1915, Germany occupied several territories in Africa. Its colony in German South West Africa, in what is now Namibia. After settlers seized their land and cattle, ethnic Herero and Nama people launched a rebellion against their occupiers. German soldiers killed tens of thousands of them between 1904 and 1908. Survivors were forced into the desert and later placed in concentration camps where they were exploited for labor.
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24.04.2021
(58) Gun Deaths by Country 2021
Gun-related deaths are not uncommon. In 2019 alone, more than 340,000 people died as a result of firearms worldwide. About 64% of gun deaths were the results of homicide, about 27% of suicide, and 9% for accidental injuries caused by firearms. Nearly nine out of 10 people killed by gun violence were men, and the highest number of deaths were people between 20 and 24 years old. Out of the 340,000 gun-related deaths in 2016, 50.5% occurred in Brazil, the United States,
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19.02.2021
(57) About 167 Women Killed by Someone They Knew Every Day in 2019: UN report
More than half of the approximately 110,000 women killed in 2019 died at the hands of intimate partners or family members, according to a report released Sunday by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Some 60,000 were killed globally by someone they knew, the organization estimated. That works out to 167 per day -- nearly seven every hour. While the vast majority of homicide victims are men, women continue to pay the highest price as a result of gender inequality, discrimination and negative stereotypes," UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov said in a statement that accompanied the report. "They are also the most likely to be killed by intimate partners and family.
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21.01.2021
(56) Six Millions of Japanese Seniors, Prison Beats Living Alone.
Japan is home to the world’s oldest population, with over 29% of the population age 65 and above. Traditionally these elders have lived with and been cared for by family, but increasing numbers of aging Japanese citizens of more than 6 millions find themselves living alone. More than half of all elderly Japanese women who live alone live in poverty, compared to 29% of elderly men. With more elderly living alone and having less family assistance and fewer government resources to depend on, petty crime among the elderly has gone up. Almost 1 out of 5 women in prison are elderly. Nine out of 10 of senior women who’ve been convicted of a crime were found guilty of shoplifting.
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05.12.2020
(55) Displaced Nearing 400,000 in Mozambique's Islamist Insurgency
Aid groups in northern Mozambique say attacks on civilians have displaced close to 430,000 people during three years of Islamist terrorism. Insurgents linked to Islamic State took over Mocímboa da Praia in August – one of a series of brazen attacks this year in Mozambique's northern Cabo Delgado province. Up to 2,000 people have been killed and about 430,000 have been left homeless in the conflict in the mainly-Muslim province.
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30.10.2020
(54) Albinos Are Being Killed In Record Numbers For Their Body Parts
Albinism is more common in sub-Saharan Africa than elsewhere in the world. Superstitions about the condition are rife, especially in Malawi and neighboring Tanzania and Mozambique. Some believe that having sex with an albino woman can cure HIV, which puts albino women at particular risk for rape. Others believe that the bones of albino people contain gold, or have medicinal or even magical properties. That demand, stemming from a ritual medicine revival in Malawi, is fueling the spate of murders by gangs that, allegedly, can make as much as $75,000 selling a "full set" of albino body parts, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross.
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22.10.2020
(53)'Bride Kidnapping': a Growing Hidden Crime
In at least 17 countries around the world, girls are being kidnapped, abducted, raped and forced into marriage. From China to Mexico to Russia to southern Africa. In each of these lands, there are communities where it is routine for young women and girls to be plucked from their families, raped and forced into marriage. Few continents are not blighted by the practice, yet there is little awareness of these crimes, and few police investigations.
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10.10.2020
(52)Five Ways Coronavirus Is Deepening Global Inequality.
Before coronavirus, inequality was already increasing in many parts of the developing world. But the pandemic is going to greatly heighten existing economic and social inequalities. Here are five of the main ways inequality is heightening around the world.
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18.08.2020
(51)Billionaires Are Profiting From A Pandemic.
Since the start of the pandemic, American billionaires have been cleaning up. As more than 50 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance, billionaires became $637 billion richer. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth has ballooned by 59%. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ wealth has increased by 39%. Walmart’s Walton family has added $25 billion. Big drug company CEOs and their major investors are doing nicely, too. Since the start of the pandemic, Big Pharma has raised prices on 245 prescription drugs, 61 of which are being used to treat COVID-19.
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24.07.2020
(50)China Continues Its Persecution of Uighur Muslims.
Chinese government has pressed on with its “mass arbitrary detention, torture, and mistreatment” of Uighur Muslims. Since August 2016, this repression has culminated in the detention of over 1 million Uighurs, a humanitarian catastrophe of monumental proportions. In spite of the Chinese government’s efforts to suppress information, the work of organizations like the World Uyghur Congress and the Uyghur Solidarity Campaign have brought the crisis to the forefront of the discussion on human rights, with various countries and political actors condemning China’s actions.
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04.07.2020
(49)How Women are Getting Squeezed by the Pandemic.
The coronavirus has worsened existing social and economic inequalities, especially for women. While both women and men are suffering the economic fallout of the virus across the world, it is women — already more likely to be in poverty than men, already more likely to be earning a smaller paycheck, already with less savings, already more likely to be in precarious jobs — who are being disproportionately squeezed.
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26.05.2020
(48)Israel Prepares for West Bank Annexation Despite Pandemic Spread.
Thanks to the Trump administration’s “Peace to Prosperity” plan, the topic of Israel annexing parts of the West Bank has moved from the fringe to the center of Israeli politics. The apparent noninvolvement of the United States State Department in the issue has prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to state his confidence that annexation will happen within “a few months,” or before the American presidential election in November. The Palestinians claim the entire West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as the heartland of an independent state. Annexing chunks of this territory would likely deal a death blow to faded Palestinian hopes of a two-state solution. Annexation also would anger the international community, which overwhelmingly supports Palestinian statehood.
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07.04.2020
(47)Covid-19: Women Trapped Between a Deadly Virus and a Deadly Partner.
Trapped at home with an abusive partner or father, women and children are in greater danger, during the coronavirus lockdown period, as they can no longer access support services, according to women's rights groups. The lack of privacy and the restrictions on movement make it even harder for them to reach out. Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General, called on governments around the world “to put women’s safety first as they respond to the pandemic”. “For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest: in their own homes,” Guterres declared on Sunday. An adequate response to the rise in domestic abuse is more complicated these days because all resources are concentrated on containing the pandemic. |
08.02.2020
(46)Scars Cannot Stop Them: Meet India’s Incredible Acid Attack Survivors.
Hundreds of acid attack cases take place every year in India. These incidents largely arise out of the rejection of unwanted male attention. Disgruntled fathers, disenchanted lovers, jealous colleagues or those seeking revenge against a family, make women their target. Acid, as ubiquitous as toilet-cleaning liquids, are readily available at corner stores. Acid has emerged as the most preferred weapon of violence against women. While it destroys the skin in a matter of seconds, no amount of corrective medical surgery can bring the skin back to normal. Attackers will usually throw acid on the face, resulting in scarring, deformity and permanent injuries, like blindness for example. The treatment is a prolonged one and the victims go through several surgeries, each more painful than the one before. Scarred for life, they are ridiculed and feared and often held responsible for the attack not just by society, but also by their own families.
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23.01.2020
(45)Stop Religious Persecution in Nigeria.
Religious violence in Nigeria refers to Christian-Muslim strife in modern Nigeria, which can be traced back to 1953. Today, religious violence in Nigeria is dominated by the Boko Haram insurgency, which aims to impose Sharia on the entire nation. Christians have suffered hugely, making up the majority of the more than two million people who have been forced from their homes by militant Islamist group Boko Haram. The most publicised atrocity was the kidnap of 276 girls from Chibok School in 2014 but that is just one of many terrible outrages. More than 2,000 women and children have escaped or been recovered from Boko Haram and many more are almost certainly still in captivity. Those who have escaped say women and girls are forced into marriage. Those who refuse are either killed or forced into slavery. Christian men have also been killed. In one area, the attackers reportedly used chainsaws to save bullets.
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27.11.19
(44)Airbnb Is Ruining Our Neighbourhoods.
The relationship between AirBnB on rising rent prices goes as: as more property is used exclusively for Airbnb, more property is allocated from the long term rental market to the short term rental market, which caters to temporary visitors. This reduction of long term-rental units increases the price for residents looking for long term housing. As rents rise, home prices rise. AirBnB, in addition, makes property more valuable as it allows homeowners to generate profit from their excess space (Ward 2). The presence of AirBnB in a neighborhood, therefore, plays a hand in raising rent prices and displacing disadvantaged communities, as they are no longer able to pay for the high prices of rent.
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06.11.19
(43)‘Guardian’ of the Amazon Killed in Brazil by Illegal Loggers
In the months before an Indigenous leader, Paulo Paulino Guajajara was killed with a gunshot in the face in the Amazon reserve he had spent much of his life protecting, at least two efforts were made to warn Brazil’s government of the risks posed by illegal loggers in the region. The murder is one of a string of losses for Brazil’s indigenous communities, as miners and loggers make more and bolder incursions into Indigenous territories and other protected areas. Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has said that Brazil’s Indigenous reserves should be opened up to commercial exploration. Mr. Guajajara, 26, left one child. He and Laércio Guajajara were members of the forest guardians, a group the Guajajara created to defend themselves and their land against miners, loggers and others interested in illegally taking resources from the reserve.
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19.10.19
(42)Syrian Kurds are Now Holding Daily Mass Funerals.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to give a green light to a Turkish military offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria effectively abandoned one of America’s closest allies in the fight against Islamic State to an uncertain future. The People’s Protection Units, or YPG, had been a major component of the U.S.-led effort to combat Islamic State in Syria and had wound up in control of approximately a third of the country. Turkey views the YPG as a security threat due to its ties to separatist Kurds in Turkey and moved against the group to push it back from its border. The offensive raises questions about the fate of tens of thousands of Islamic State fighters and their families in Kurdish custody.
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08.10.19
(41)Vietnam’s Horrific Legacy: The Children of Agent Orange
Agent Orange was a powerful herbicide used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover and crops for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. The U.S. program, codenamed Operation Ranch Hand, sprayed more than 20 million gallons of various herbicides over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos from 1961 to 1971. Agent Orange, which contained the deadly chemical dioxin, was the most commonly used herbicide. It was later proven to cause serious health issues—including cancer, birth defects, rashes and severe psychological and neurological problems—among the Vietnamese people as well as among returning U.S. servicemen and their families.
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07.09.19
(40)Forced Displacement at Record 68.5 million Refugees.
UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report shows an average of one person was displaced every two seconds in 2017, with developing countries most affected. Wars, violence and persecution uprooted record numbers of men, women and children worldwide last year, making a new global deal on refugees more critical than ever, according to a UNHCR report published today. The UN Refugee Agency’s annual Global Trends study found 68.5 million people had been driven from their homes across the world at the end of 2017, more people than the population of Thailand.
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28.07.19
(39)Five facts about wealth inequality that will shock and infuriate you.
1. 26 billionaires own the same wealth as 3.8 billion people or half the population of the world.
2. The poorest half of the world live on less than USD$5.50 a day. 3. While the world's 2,208 billionaires made an extra $940 billion in 2018 , the world's poorest half saw their wealth drop by 14%. 4. If the world's richest 1% paid 0.5% more tax , the world could educate the 262 million children out of school and save the lives of the 10,000 people whi die everyday simply because they can't access healthcare. 5. Women are more likely to be among the very poorest due to the unpaid care and household work they do . |
05.07.19
(38)The Contrast Between The Two Worlds That We Currently Live In.
Uğur Gallenkuş is a Turkish graphic designer who aims to draw attention to various injustices happening all over the world. He creates dramatic collages by combining photographs from different parts of the world to show the extreme contrast between them and his art is truly eye-opening. The artist says that an image can be more effective than a thousand words. “The solution to a crisis can be described by many complicated words, but you don’t need to know a language to read and understand a work of art. Art is the master of all languages,” says Uğur. “I wish that the whole world would live by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s phrase “Peace at Home, Peace in the World”, which was implemented as the foreign policy of Turkey.”
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19.06.19
(37)The Shocking Numbers Behind the Global Modern Slavery.
We might like to think that slavery is a thing of the past, but in fact in the 21st century the opposite is true. There are over 90 million people across the world caught up in the modern-day slave trade, according to a new report. Modern slavery affects vulnerable people fleeing war zones, some of whom are tricked into marriage with promises of a better life, only to have all their rights and freedom taken away. Modern slavery contravenes human rights and labour rights. Forced marriage, forced labour and people trafficking all count as types of slavery. While modern slavery can take many forms, what victims all have in common is that they are threatened or abused or tricked into marriage or work.
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18.05.19
(36)Mena Mangal: Journalist and Women's Rights Campaigner Shot Dead in Broad Daylight in Kabul, Afghanistan.
A prominent journalist and adviser to the Afghan parliament has been gunned down in Kabul, just days after posting on social media that she feared for her life. Mena Mangal was killed on Saturday morning in a brazen, public attack carried out in broad daylight. In a Facebook post on May 3, she said had received threatening messages, but that a strong woman does not fear death, and that she loved her country. “This woman had already shared that her life was in danger; why did nothing happen? We need answers,” Wazhma Frogh, an Afghan human rights lawyer and women’s rights campaigner told the Guardian. “Why is it so easy in this society [for men] to keep killing women they disagree with?”
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22.04.19
(35)Sri Lanka bombings death toll rises to 290 in 'brand-new type of terrorism'
At least 290 people are now known to have died in a coordinated attack on churches and hotels on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, in what officials have called a "brand-new type of terrorism." Police have arrested 24 people in connection with the suicide bombs, which injured at least 500 people, in the worst violence the South Asian island has seen since its bloody civil war ended 10 years ago. Authorities were facing accusations that they had failed to act on a warning received ten days before the atrocity that an Islamist group was preparing an attack.
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20.04.19
(34)U.S. Black Women 243% More Likely to Die During Pregnancy, Childbirth and Postpartum
A yearlong investigation by ProPublica and NPR has revealed that in addition to the U.S. having the highest rate of maternal death of any industrialized country, black women are 243% more likely than whites or hispanics to die during pregnancy, childbirth or the postpartum period. The revelation that black mothers are dying at an alarmingly higher rate than other ethnicities also comes from data supplied by the CDC. The dramatic difference is considered to be indicative of the fact that black women are exposed to stress longer and more frequently and are also more prone to chronic diseases that can impact their overall health.
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30.03.19
(33)Vietnam's Hmong Christians are persecuted for their beliefs.
In Vietnam, more than a million people are part of the Hmong group. Over the last 30 years, increasing numbers of Hmong have converted to Christianity from the group's traditional religion of animism (belief in the spirit world and the interconnectedness of all living things). As this article shows, turning from animism to believe in Christ and share His gospel can come at great cost. The Vietnamese government has reacted to the surge in conversions by publishing anti-Christian propaganda and maintaining restrictive policies, making it almost impossible for churches to register.
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25.03.19
(32)New Zealand shooting victims remembered for the lives they lived
A Syrian refugee and his teenage sons, a Pakistani academic and a goalkeeper on the national futsal team are among the victims of Friday's (15/03/2019) terror attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand. According to a police statement on Sunday, 50 people were killed and 50 injured after a gunman went on a rampage in two mosques, the biggest massacre in New Zealand's modern history. The victims were targeted as they gathered at the mosques for Friday prayers, leaving the country's Muslim community -- and the world -- in mourning.
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18.02.19
(31)#MeToo movement named Time magazine’s Person of the Year
Magazine celebrates anti-harassment movement by naming ‘The Silence Breakers’ on its cover after millions shared stories of sexual assault. “The Silence Breakers”, the vanguard of a global movement by millions of women to share their stories of sexual harassment and abuse, was revealed on Wednesday to be Time magazine’s Person of the Year. The announcement comes as many industries and power centers around the world are still reeling from an unprecedented reckoning with sexual harassment and abuse that came in the wake of the revelations about film mogul Harvey Weinstein in October.
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28.01.19
(30)The Brutal History of Japan’s ‘Comfort Women’
Between 1932 and 1945, Japan forced women from Korea, China and other occupied countries to become military prostitutes. On December 13, 1937, Japanese troops began a six-week-long massacre that essentially destroyed the Chinese city of Nanking. Along the way, Japanese troops raped between 20,000 and 80,000 Chinese women.
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12.01.19
(29)Saving Our Forests Means Survival for Indigenous People
The world’s 370 million indigenous people are only 5 per cent of the total population but they officially hold 18 per cent of the land and lay claim to far more. Their home areas across 70 countries from the Arctic to the South Pacific include many of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots. Unsurprisingly, indigenous peoples have been stout opponents of development imposed from beyond their communities. They defend their lands against illegal encroachments and destructive exploitation, from mega-dams across their rivers to logging and mining in their forests. According to the campaigning group Global Witness, 185 people across 16 countries were killed defending their land, forests and rivers against destructive industries in 2018 alone, many of them from indigenous communities. A report by the World Resources Institute last year identified securing the land rights of indigenous people and other local communities in various regions as a low-cost way to counter global deforestation and climate change. Credit: Seeker
15.12.18
(28)Apple Supplier Workers Describe Noxious Hazards at China Factory
At a Catcher Technology Co. manufacturing complex in the Chinese industrial city of Suqian, about six hours’ drive from Shanghai, workers stand for up to 10 hours a day in hot workshops slicing and blasting iPhone casings for Apple Inc., handling noxious chemicals sometimes without proper gloves or masks. In 2014, Apple banned the use of two chemicals used for cleaning, n-hexane and benzene, from the final assembly part of its production process, following worldwide pressure from activists. However, the chemicals are still allowed for the subcontracted construction of components such as screens and camera modules prior to full device assembly. "The film doesn't say 'Chinese electronics firms use harmful chemicals that poison workers and Apple should be held completely responsible for it.'" writes White. "The film raises awareness about what is happening to workers exposed to toxic chemicals in the factories supplying Apple,Samsung, and others. Foxconn is Apple's lead supplier and Foxconn has had numerous documented violations." Credit: Heather White, Complicit
10.12.18
(27)Child Marriages: 39,000 Every Day – More than 140 million girls under 18 will marry between 2011 and 2020
Between 2011 and 2020, more than 140 million girls will become child brides, according to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). If current levels of child marriages hold, 14.2 million girls annually or 39,000 daily will marry too young. Furthermore, of the 140 million girls who will marry before the age of 18, 50 million will be under the age of 15. Despite the physical damage and the persistent discrimination to young girls, little progress has been made toward ending the practice of child marriage. In fact, the problem threatens to increase with the expanding youth population in the developing world.
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08.12.18
(26)Around the world, 6 women are killed every hour by someone they know.
Around 87,000 women were murdered across the globe in 2017 — most of them by a family member or intimate partner, according to a new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Of the 87,000, more than half (58 percent) of female victims were killed by a family member or intimate partner. This amounts to an average of 137 women killed every day, or six women killed every hour, by someone they know. At 20,000 homicides, Asia had the highest number of women killed by a family member or partner, followed by Africa (19,000), the Americas (8,000) Europe (3,000) and Oceania (300). But the risk of being murdered by a partner or family member was highest for women in Africa, where the rate of such homicides per 100,000 female population was 3.1. The risk was lowest in Europe, where the rate was 0.7 per 100,000 population.
Credit: UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
Credit: UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
08.12.18
(25)Gender pay gap is worse than thought: Study shows women actually earn half the income of men.
Women earned roughly half the income of men over a 15-year period, taking into account time off for family or child care, according to a report released on Wednesday, which found the pay gap is far greater than has commonly been assumed. In an examination of women's income from 2001 to 2015, the Institute for Women's Policy Research found that women's income was 51 percent less than men's earnings, which includes time with no income. Despite considerable progress over the last 50 years, 43 percent of today's women workers had at least one year with no earnings, nearly twice the rate of men. Policies like paid family and medical leave and affordable child care can increase women's labor force participation and encourage men to share more of the unpaid time spent on family care, the study emphasizes. Credit: Institute for Women's Policy Research
03.11.18
(24)For Them, Afghanistan Is Safer Than China, Persecution in Xinjiang is pushing Uighurs over the border.
Today, China’s campaigns and restrictions against the Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority group in the western region of Xinjiang, have spurred an exodus into Afghanistan, especially after Beijing and the local authorities intensified their crackdown on Uighur freedoms, religion, and culture. Beijing claims that terrorism is spilling over from Afghanistan into Xinjiang. But in reality, Chinese oppression and ethnic conflict in Xinjiang are helping to further destabilize Afghanistan and turn young Uighurs, increasingly targeted by the Chinese state, toward violent resistance. Credit: Human Rights Watch
13.10.18
(23) 59 journalists, media workers killed in the last 10 months of 2018
As many as 59 journalists were killed around the world in the last 10 months of 2018, according to the International Press Institute (IPI)’s Death Watch. Thirty-two journalists – including 11 in Afghanistan and two in Palestine – have died in targeted killings this year, frequently in retaliation for their work on exposing corruption or the activities of crime syndicates. An additional 18 killings on IPI’s Death Watch are still under review to confirm links to journalistic activity, although circumstantial evidence in these cases points to targeted killings. Four journalists were killed while covering conflicts or civil unrest, and another five died while on assignment. Of the 59 journalists killed, Six were women. Last year, 82 journalists lost their lives, marking the first time in years that the number of annual deaths fell below 100. Credit: Committee To Protect Journalists
13.10.18
(22)Deaths Of Four Successful Iraqi Women Spark Fear Among Females.
Former Miss Iraq fears she will be the next high-profile woman to be killed in the country following murder of Instagram model and three others who defied Islamic conservatives. A former Miss Iraq claims she has received death threats, telling her 'you're next', just days after the murder of an Instagram model in Baghdad. Shimaa Qassem shared an emotional video with her 2.7million Instagram followers in which she claimed successful women in Iraq faced 'being slaughtered like chickens'. Last Thursday, 22-year-old 'influencer' Tara Fares, whom Ms Qassem hailed as a'martyr', was shot dead in her car in Baghdad. Progressive Iraqis say they fear for their safety following the deaths of Ms Fares and three other female entrepreneurs under mysterious circumstances in the space of a few weeks.
Credit: NOW THIS
Credit: NOW THIS
10.10.18
(21)China's Ruling Party Orders Crackdown on Religion in Its Ranks
The atheist ruling Chinese Communist Party has tightened restrictions on the practice of religion by its nearly 90 million members, as well as insisting that they show positive signs of loyalty to President Xi Jinping. Newly revised "Regulations on Disciplinary Measures" issued on Aug. 26 require the party to "strictly deal with the use of religious activities to undermine national unity." All of the five religions officially tolerated by Chinese leaders — Buddhism, Catholicism, Daoism, Islam and Protestantism — are now experiencing draconian treatment from the government of President Xi Jinping, who has stoked nationalism and promoted loyalty to the Communist Party in ways not seen in decades. Credit: Vocativ
10.10.18
(20)Measuring Racial Discrimination
Many racial and ethnic groups in the World, including blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Indians, and others, have historically faced severe discrimination—pervasive and open denial of civil, social, political, educational, and economic opportunities. Today, large differences among racial and ethnic groups continue to exist in employment, income and wealth, housing, education, criminal justice, health, and other areas. While many factors may contribute to such differences, their size and extent suggest that various forms of discriminatory treatment persist in today's society and serve to undercut the achievement of equal opportunity. Credit: Nancy Spetsioti
22.9.18
(19)'No need for birth control': Tanzanian president's views cause outrage
The president, John Magufuli, told that outsiders who promote birth control are giving bad advice, and that people who use contraceptives are lazy, according to local media. People who use birth control do so because they do not want to work hard and feed a large family, he added. Backtracking from commitments on family planning will have a devastating impact on women’s rights, “We will end up with women having unplanned children, huge families and unable to sustain their lives.”. Credit: thecitizen.co.tz
22.9.18
(18)Palestinian inventor hopes to help rebuild Gaza using Green Cake, a new type of brick made of coal and wood ash.
Green Cake is the world's only brick that uses coal and wood ash as filler material instead of the usual sand and aggregate. It is stronger than an ordinary brick, yet half the weight and price. This has stalled Gaza's ability to rebuild after the 2014 Israeli offensive, which destroyed 18,000 homes. About 75,000 people remain displaced, according to the United Nations, with many still living in temporary corrugated iron structures. Several babies died this year amid freezing conditions and a lack of heating.
25.8.18
(17)Saudi Arabia seeks 'unprecedented' beheading for woman activist.
None of the charges against Israa al-Ghomgham are for violent acts, according to Human Rights Watch Saudi Arabia researcher Hiba Zayadin. According to Amnesty International, the public prosecutor called for 29-year-old Ghomgham and other defendants to be beheaded. Most people executed in the Gulf kingdom are beheaded with a sword, according to Reprieve, an international charity focused on the death penalty. The charges against the group that Ghomgham is part of include incitement to protest, chanting slogans hostile to the regime, attempting to inflame public opinion, and providing moral support to rioters. Credit: Human Rights Watch
11.8.18
(16)Most girls in Somalia experience genital mutilation. The ritual just killed a 10-year-old.
FGM, which is sometimes called female circumcision, can take many forms but often includes the removal of the clitoris and some parts of the labia. It can cause lifelong health problems, including dangerous complications in childbirth. The United Nations identifies FGM as "an extreme form of discrimination against women and girls.” The World Health Organization says that FGM has no health benefits and estimates that worldwide 200 million women and girls have been subjected to it. In the roughly 30 countries around the world where FGM is still practiced, there can be deep-rooted stigma against those who do not go through with the procedure, which is often considered to be a crucial part of a "coming-of-age” ceremony. Credit: The Global Media Campaign to End FGM
11.8.18
(15)New school offers education 'salvation' for Syrian girls in Lebanon.
A new girls’ school for Syrian refugees in Lebanon’s poor Bekaa region is aiming to give girls from conservative backgrounds the chance at a formal education. Gaining access to education in general is difficult for Syrian refugees in Lebanon, but for girls from socially conservative families who disapprove of mixed schools, it is even harder. Human Rights Watch organisation said in its latest report in April that more than half a million refugee children are out of school in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Credit: Reuters
20.7.18
(14)Refugees of the Syrian Civil War.
An estimated 11 million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of the civil war in March 2011. Now, in the sixth year of war, 13.5 million are in need of humanitarian assistance within the country. Among those escaping the conflict, the majority have sought refuge in neighbouring countries or within Syria itself. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 4.8 million have fled to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq, and 6.6 million are internally displaced within Syria. Meanwhile about one million have requested asylum to Europe. Germany, with more than 300,000 cumulated applications, and Sweden with 100,000, are EU’s top receiving countries.
Credit: UNHCR
Credit: UNHCR
7.7.18
(13)Female politicians speak out about sexist, misogyny woman face everyday.
Misogyny is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. Misogyny can be manifested in numerous ways, including social exclusion, sex discrimination, hostility, androcentrism, patriarchy, male privilege, belittling of women, violence against women, and sexual objectification. Recent years have seen a wave of women MPs speaking up on the disturbing misogynistic abuse many receive through social media. But reports from women working in politics suggest that verbal abuse and misogynistic attitudes don’t only occur in interactions with the public – they’re endemic to political culture. From Westminster to the Northern Powerhouse to local councils, there are women reporting cultures that not only fail to promote women, but actively hold them back from participating and reaching positions of power. Credit: Parliament TV
15.6.18
(12)Boko Haram crisis: Amnesty accuses Nigeria troops of rape
Nigerian soldiers have raped women and girls who fled the insurgency by militant Islamist group Boko Haram, Amnesty International has said. Troops separated women from their husbands and raped them, sometimes in exchange for food, in refugee camps, the rights group added. Thousands of people have also starved to death in the camps in north-eastern Nigeria since 2015, Amnesty said. Credit: Amnesty International
15.6.18
(11)Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, commonly known in mainland China as the June Fourth Incident , were student-led demonstrations in Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China, in 1989. More broadly, it refers to the popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests during that period, sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement. The protests were forcibly suppressed after Chinese Premier Li Peng declared martial law. In what became known in the West as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, troops with automatic rifles and tanks killed at least several hundred demonstrators trying to block the military's advance towards Tiananmen Square. The number of civilian deaths has been estimated variously from 180 to 10,454.
Credit: South China Morning Post
Credit: South China Morning Post
15.6.18
(10)First licences issued for female drivers in Saudi Arabia, but women still face severe restrictions every day.
Saudi Arabia has arrested at least five people, mostly women who previously agitated for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom’s male guardianship system, rights activists said on Friday. Women who previously participated in protests against the ban told Reuters last year that two dozen activists had received phone calls instructing them not to comment on the decree.Some of those arrested this week spoke out about the ban after the decision, though it was not clear what specifically led to their arrest nor what charges, if any, had been made against them.
Credit: Amnesty International
Credit: Amnesty International
15.6.18
(9)Chilean Students, Feminists Unite Against Sexism in Education
Two weeks ago the student and feminist movements began occupying universities and organizing marches to protest sexism within higher education. Protests were organized after reports of sexual abuse by faculty members in Chile's Austral University and the University of Chile surfaced.On May 16 students and feminists marched in four cities, including Santiago, Chile's capital to demand the creation of an efficient action protocol in cases of sexual abuse.One protester said the moment is unique because it is the first time the student movement mobilizes exclusively to demand an end to sexist education. Credit: Reuters
15.6.18
(8)Former Cambodian Leader Mu Sochua Is Still Fighting For Women's Rights.
Mu represented the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) as its vice president, where she fought for women and people in poverty. In 2017, the CNRP had won 44% of votes in local elections, which was seen as a threat to Prime Minister Hun Sen. Mu was one of the 118 members of the CNRP party to be banned from politics by the Supreme Court. She has been traveling the world in exile since, urging world leaders to demand democracy and boycott Cambodia’s upcoming July 2018 elections, which her party wasn’t allowed to register for. Credit: NOW THIS
26.5.18
(7)Persecution of Palestinian Christians
Palestinian Christians are caught in the middle of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and many people are not aware that Christians exist in the region. Their faith makes them minorities within the Muslim-majority Palestinian community, and their Arab ethnicity results in numerous restrictions on the Israeli side. While the Palestinian Territories are considered a union, there are two different areas: Gaza and the West Bank. While laws in the West Bank generally protect religious freedom, those in Gaza are restrictive. Palestinian society as a whole deems that conversion from Islam to Christianity is unacceptable.
How Christians are Suffering
The degree of Christian persecution believers face in the Palestinian Territories depends on their tradition and heritage. Historical churches make up the majority of the Christian population, and generally have good relations within society. Most of their persecution comes from the Israeli side, including visa restrictions and harassment of church leaders by Jewish extremists. Evangelicals are a much smaller group, and they face denominational resistance from historical churches, as well as the same pressure on the Israeli side. Converts from Islam to Christianity bear the brunt of the persecution, as their conversions are rejected by their communities and families. Historical churches turn away converts for fear of repercussions from the Muslim majority.
In Shadow of Death, Palestinian Christians and Messianic Jews Relapse on Reconciling
A Norwegian charity estimates 56 percent of children in the Palestinian territory suffer from traumatic nightmares. Suicide, rarely seen culturally, is a growing concern. Maher, an Egyptian-born Baptist pastor, says some at the border see death as the best option. Two million people are squeezed into a coastal strip roughly the size of Philadelphia. Exit is severely restricted on one side by Israel. The waiting list into Egypt is 40,000 names long. Unemployment is over 40 percent. Clean drinking water is hard to come by. And on May 14, as tens of thousands massed near a chain link fence demonstrating for their “Right to Return,” Israeli snipers picked off dozens.
19.5.18
(6)Gender Discimination
Women make up more than two-thirds of the world's 796 million adults without basic literacy skills; women represent less than 30% of the world’s researchers; and women journalists are more exposed to assault, threat or physical, verbal or digital attack than their male counterparts.
UNESCO believes that all forms of discrimination based on gender are violations of human rights, as well as a significant barrier to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Our message is clear: women and men must enjoy equal opportunities, choices, capabilities, power and knowledge as equal citizens. Equipping girls and boys, women and men with the knowledge, values, attitudes and skills to tackle gender disparities is a precondition to building a sustainable future for all. Credit: Mashable
UNESCO believes that all forms of discrimination based on gender are violations of human rights, as well as a significant barrier to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Our message is clear: women and men must enjoy equal opportunities, choices, capabilities, power and knowledge as equal citizens. Equipping girls and boys, women and men with the knowledge, values, attitudes and skills to tackle gender disparities is a precondition to building a sustainable future for all. Credit: Mashable
19.5.18
(5)Linda Sarsour Explains Why the Media Got It Wrong About Gaza and Palestine.
“When the headlines say, ‘people died in Gaza,’ it breaks my heart because people didn’t choose to die,” she explained. “People were killed, they were massacred at the hands of snipers.”
On May 14th, 2018, Israeli Troops killed at least 58 Palestinians. But multiple news organizations stated that the Gazans has simply “died” with no reference to how they were killed or by whom. It was the deadliest single day for Palestinians since 2014. The UN Council has condemned Israel for “human rights violations,” but little has been done in terms of justice for the lives lost.
Credit: NOW THIS
On May 14th, 2018, Israeli Troops killed at least 58 Palestinians. But multiple news organizations stated that the Gazans has simply “died” with no reference to how they were killed or by whom. It was the deadliest single day for Palestinians since 2014. The UN Council has condemned Israel for “human rights violations,” but little has been done in terms of justice for the lives lost.
Credit: NOW THIS
19.5.18
(4)Chemical weapons of Today .
Examples include dimethyl methylphosphonate, a precursor to sarin also used as a flame retardant, and thiodiglycol, a precursor chemical used in the manufacture of mustard gas but also widely used as a solvent in inks. Schedule 3 – Have legitimate large-scale industrial uses. Examples include phosgeneand chloropicrin. Credit: Seeker+Sci
24.4.18
(3)World Refugee Day is June 20 annually.
World Refugee Day commemorates the strength, courage and perseverance of 65 millions of refugees who have been forced to flee war, persecution and violence. Credit: Mic
21.4.18
(2)The persecution of christians in the middle east.
In spite of the fact that every country in the Middle East has at least a small number of believers in Christ from a Muslim background, and in spite of the fact that the vast majority of native Christians are Arabic speakers themselves, Christians in the Middle East face persecution –in various grades, depending on the residence country– and are often isolated. Credit: Avi Yemini
21.4.18
(1)Rohingya, the largest stateless group of people in the world.
Risking death by sea or on foot, nearly 900,000 have fled the destruction of their homes and persecution in the northern Rakhine province of Myanmar (Burma) for neighbouring Bangladesh since August 2017. The United Nations described the military offensive in Rakhine, which provoked the exodus, as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing". Myanmar's military says it is fighting Rohingya militants and denies targeting civilians. Credit: The Economist
Poverty deprives people of adequate education, health care and of life's most basic necessities- safe living conditions (including clean air and clean drinking water) and an adequate food supply. The developed (industrialized) countries today account for roughly 20 percent of the world's population but control about 80 percent of the world's wealth.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
