Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Inter Press Service | News and Views from the Global South

Accessibility of Vaccines & Commitment to Ceasefire - Priority Focuses for 75th UNGA Samira Sadeque Key focuses of the upcoming 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) High Level Week will be the accessibility of vaccines and a renewed plea for a global ceasefire. “I will make a strong appeal to the international community to mobilise all efforts for the global ceasefire to ... MORE > >

Impact of COVID-19 on Women and Children Mary Robinson The impacts of crises are never gender-neutral and COVID-19 is no exception. The pandemic has resulted in increased rates of violence against women and has exacerbated challenges in accessing justice. Women are losing their livelihoods faster than men. Millions of women are assuming ... MORE > >

State-Owned Companies Are Key to Climate Success in Developing Countries, but Are Often Overlooked in the International Dialogue Philippe Benoit Later this month, government officials and climate stakeholders will once again converge on New York City (this time virtually) for Climate Week and the United Nations meetings. And while there will be much discussion about the important role that actors such as private businesses, civil society ... MORE > >

Syria’s Children Remain at Immense Threat of Rape and Recruitment by Army: Report Samira Sadeque Children in Syria are facing the brutal brunt of the ongoing civil war in the country, now rendered further paralysed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and United States sanctions. At the Sept. 15 launch of the report investigating human rights violations in Syria by the Commission of Inquiry on ... MORE > >

Protecting Nature is Entirely Within Humanity’s Reach: The Work Must Start Now Inger Andersen We have known for a long time that biodiversity, and the services it provides, have been in decline. It is on this background that ten years ago, the international community adopted the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. The goal of the plan, and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets, was to ... MORE > >

Fight Fire with Trade: How Europe Can Help Save the Amazon The EU is thinking about agreeing to a €4 billion trade deal with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay (known as the Mercosur bloc). In our new academic research, myself and 21 international co-authors looked at the details of this deal so you don’t have to. What we found wasn’t pretty. Even ... MORE > >

COVID-19 Worsens Mozambique’s Hunger Charles Mangwiro Like many Mozambicans in the agricultural sector, 39-year-old Fatima Matavele, a commercial farmer in the district of Chokwe, some 213 kilometres north of the capital, Maputo, has had a tough year. Although the last few years have been hard, 2020 has proven to be the most difficult of ... MORE > >

The Exploitative System that Traps Nigerian Women as Slaves in Lebanon Sam Olukoya “I need help, right now I cannot walk properly,” trafficking victim Nkiru Obasi pleaded from her hospital bed in a video she posted online. The young Nigerian woman had been injured in the Aug. 4 Beirut blast, which ripped through the Lebanese capital, killing 190 people injuring a further 6,500 ... MORE > >

Mapping Nature to Create a Global Biodiversity Framework Francis Francis Ogwal, Tom Okurut and Carlos Manuel Rodriguez The year 2020 was considered a “Super Year” for biodiversity. A string of interconnected events offered a unique opportunity to build a global coalition and international policy framework that recognized the central role of nature to all life on Earth. At the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP ... MORE > >

Will Trump Threaten to Pullout or De-fund the United Nations? Thalif Deen Back in 1998, Senator Jesse Helms, a rightwing Republican from the US state of North Carolina, carried out a virulent one-man hate-campaign against the UN-- and its very presence in New York. A fulltime chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee-- and a part-time UN basher—the ... MORE > >

Q&A: Land Restoration can Help Restore Post-COVID-19 Economy Stella Paul Investing in sustainable land management and land restoration will help build economies post-COVID-19 and help poor people increase their incomes as the destruction of global food chains by the pandemic provides a chance for ensuring diversity in production through ensuring the inclusion of local ... MORE > >

No ‘Business as Usual’ for Children Post-COVID-19, say Laureates & Leaders Mantoe Phakathi Addressing delegates at the end of the virtual 3rd Fair Share for Children Summit, 2014 Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi told global citizens that “business as usual” in dealing with COVID-19 is not going to be tolerated. “We’re not going to accept the miseries of child labour and ... MORE > >