Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Libya Tragedy: Why Lock up Migrants in the First Place? James Reinl A military strike on a detention centre for migrants in Libya that claimed dozens of lives on Tuesday Jul. 2 has reignited a debate over the poor treatment of the mainly African people who transit through the turbulent country. The United Nations has called for an investigation into the strike ... MORE > >

Why Environmental and Humanitarian Action Must Be Linked Tharanga Yakupitiyage Environmental and humanitarian action is often understood as two different sectors. However, the lack of awareness regarding its intersections could lead to further long-term devastation. With the growing number of crises around the world, humanitarian actors are essential. They are often the ... MORE > >

Chilean Schools Recycle Greywater to Combat Drought Orlando Milesi Children from the neighboring municipalities of Ovalle and Río Hurtado in northern Chile are harvesting rain and recycling greywater in their schools to irrigate fruit trees and vegetable gardens, in an initiative aimed at combating the shortage of water in this semi-arid region. And other ... MORE > >

VIDEO: Indigenous Communities Head Towards Energy Self-Sufficiency in Guatemala Edgardo Ayala Because the government has never provided them with electricity, indigenous communities in the mountains of northwest Guatemala had no choice but to generate their own energy. Now electricity lights up their nights and, most importantly, fuels small businesses that provide extra income to some ... MORE > >

Sri Lanka on Security Alert Long After Easter Bombings Emily Thampoe Sri Lanka continues to be on a security alert long after the devastation caused by a string of bombings on Easter Sunday this year. Raisa Wickrematunge, Editor of Groundviews, told IPS: “There has been a tightening of security. There are now security checks being carried out outside hotels and ... MORE > >

Are We Fighting a Losing Battle in the War Against Drugs? Lakshi De Vass Gunawardena How effective is the global war on drugs? The latest statistics released by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are staggering: 35 million people across the globe currently have a substance use disorder, and as of 2017, 585,000 people have died worldwide as a result of drug ... MORE > >

Financialization Undermines Real Economy Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Michael Lim Mah Hui The relationship between finance and the real economy is arguably at the root of the contemporary economic malaise. Unlike earlier acceptance of simple linear causation, recent recognition of a curvilinear relationship between finance and economic growth, implying ‘diminishing returns’, has ... MORE > >

Food From Thought Tharanga Yakupitiyage As the weather continues to change and land becomes degraded, the socio-economic security implications are vast. In an effort to tackle these issues, climate-smart agriculture is quickly gaining traction around the world. According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification ... MORE > >

U.S.-backed Kurds to Halt Child Soldier use in Syria James Reinl The United States-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have struck a deal with the United Nations to stop using child soldiers across swathes of eastern Syria under their control and to release all youngsters from their ranks, the U.N. announced Monday. General Mazloum Abdi, the commander of ... MORE > >

Unseen and Unsafe: Violence Against Women within Migrant Families Caley Pigliucci Refugee and migrant women often face inescapable violence in the home. And the potential for intimate forms of violence is exacerbated by humanitarian crises and job insecurity. On June 25th, UN Women released its report on the Progress of the World’s Women 2019-2020: Families in a Changing ... MORE > >

Could the Election of Qu Dongyu as FAO´s General-Director be a Turning-point for Sustainable Agricultural Development? Jan Lundius Agriculture is the bedrock of sedentary human civilization, without it we would have no governments or nations. It was food surplus generated by agriculture that enabled people to live in cities and form regimes able to organize food production in such a manner that some community members could ... MORE > >

US & Iranian Actions Put Nuclear Deal in Jeopardy Kelsey Davenport and Daryl G. Kimball Iran’s announcement that it may soon breach the 300-kilogram limit on low-enriched uranium set by the 2015 nuclear deal is an expected but troubling response to the Trump administration’s reckless and ill-conceived pressure campaign to kill the 2015 nuclear agreement, known as the Joint ... MORE > >

Indigenous Rights Approach a Solution to Climate Change Crisis Friday Phiri The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) was held in Bonn, Germany to rally behind a new approach to achieving a future that is more inclusive and sustainable than the present – through the establishment of secure and proper rights for all. On Jun. 22 and 23, experts, political leaders, NGOs and ... MORE > >

We Cannot Save the World from Climate Catastrophe if Largest Emitters of CO2 Don’t Step up Now Frank Bainimarama SUVA, Fiji, 27 June 2019 (IPS) -- Are the most climate-vulnerable nations of the world right to demand that developed and major economies commit to carbon neutrality by 2050? Should the poorest nations of the world insist that the “haves” put their significant economic and political resources ... MORE > >