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Afghan Journalism Under Siege: Arrests, Censorship, and Collapse

Thu, 08/28/2025 - 09:01

The television and video recording studio of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Afghan service, Azadi Radio, in Prague, Czech Republic. Azadi Radio broadcasts to Afghanistan in Pashto and Dari languages. Credit: Bashir Ahmad Gwakh/IPS

By Bashir Ahmad Gwakh
PRAGUE, Aug 28 2025 (IPS)

Ahmad Siyar works in road construction in Balkh province. He wears a safety helmet to protect himself from debris constantly falling from the mountain where the road is being built. Once, he wore the same type of helmet for a very different reason. He was reporting from various parts of northern Afghanistan. Back then, his helmet bore the word “Journalist” in both Dari and English.

“We wore journalists’ helmets to protect ourselves and tell the warring sides that I am a journalist. It was a difficult but golden era. I loved reporting and being the voice of the people. But after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the restrictions and financial problems became overwhelming, and I had to quit,” he said. “Now I work as a construction worker. It’s not an easy job, but I must do it, as I have no other option. I am the sole breadwinner of the family.”

Siyar, a father of three, is not the only journalist who has suffered under the Taliban regime. Since returning to power on August 15, 2021, the Taliban government has issued at least 21 directives regulating media activity through June 2025. These directives impose a wide range of restrictions, including a ban on women appearing on state-run television and radio, prohibitions on covering protests, and a ban on music.

These restrictions, along with the ongoing financial crisis and lack of funding, have led to the shutdown of 350 independent media outlets under Taliban rule. Before August 2021, there were over 600 independent media outlets in Afghanistan. According to data reviewed by IPS, these figures are based on weekly and monthly reports from organizations advocating for media freedom, such as the International Federation of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Four years after the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan’s once vibrant free press is a ghost of its former self. The situation of press freedom remains dire in Afghanistan, while exiled Afghan journalists face growing risks of arbitrary arrests, including those in Pakistan and Iran,” Beh Lih Yi, Regional Director, Asia-Pacific at CJP, told IPS.

Afghanistan’s largest independent news network, TOLOnews, had to let go of 25 journalists in June 2024. The layoffs followed an order from the Taliban to shut down certain programmes deemed “misleading” and “propaganda against the Taliban government,” according to a senior editor at TOLOnews. Fearing retaliation, the editor requested anonymity. “Beyond the constant stream of restrictive orders and lack of access to information, our funds are drying up. We can no longer have full and free news broadcasts to our people,” he added.

The Taliban have imposed strict rules on how women must dress and appear in the media. Women are barred from participating in plays and television entertainment. The Taliban have also prohibited interviews with opposition figures. Afghan media are no longer allowed to broadcast international television content. The release of films and TV series has been halted. Collaboration with media outlets in exile is also banned.

Yi believes these are the darkest days for media in Afghanistan. “Since the fall of Kabul, the Taliban have escalated a crackdown on the media in Afghanistan with censorship, assaults, arbitrary arrests, and restrictions on female journalists. The Taliban and its intelligence agency GDI continue to crack down on Afghan journalists on a daily basis,” she said.

Most Afghan women journalists have fled the country. Those who remain live in fear. Farida Habibi (not her real name), a journalist in Kabul, chose not to flee because she could not leave her disabled father behind. She now works in online media after the Taliban declared her on-air voice “un-Islamic”.

“We live in depression, to be honest. The environment is suffocating. I can’t go out freely, and my salary is very low,” she said.

The Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has also banned the publication of images depicting living beings. Since the majority of these rules do not specify penalties, the Taliban forces use this ambiguity to punish journalists arbitrarily.

A 2024 report by the Afghanistan Journalists Centre (AFJC), an independent watchdog, documented 703 cases of human rights violations against media professionals between August 2021 and December 2024. These violations included arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, threats, and intimidation by Taliban forces.

Similarly, a 2024 report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemned the Taliban for “systematically dismantling the right to a free press.”

“Journalists and media workers in Afghanistan operate under vague rules, unsure of what they can or cannot report, and constantly risk intimidation and arbitrary detention for perceived criticism,” said Roza Otunbayeva, head of UNAMA. “For any country, a free press is not a choice but a necessity. What we are witnessing in Afghanistan is the systematic dismantling of that necessity.”

Meanwhile, the Taliban government denies any wrongdoing and claims it is committed to supporting journalists. Speaking to reporters in Kabul on July 2, Khabib Ghafran, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Information and Culture, said the Taliban support a free media but warned that “nobody can cross the Islamic red lines,” without providing further details. He added that the government is working on establishing a financial support fund for journalists.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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Categories: Africa, European Union

The Right to Care: A Feminist Legal Victory That Could Change the Americas

Thu, 08/28/2025 - 08:30

Credit: Corte IDH/Twitter

By Inés M. Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Aug 28 2025 (IPS)

On 7 August, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights delivered a groundbreaking decision that could transform women’s lives across the Americas. For the first time in international law, an international tribunal recognised care as an autonomous human right. Advisory Opinion 31/25, issued in response to a request from Argentina, elevates care – long invisible and relegated to the private sphere – to the level of a universal enforceable entitlement.

The court’s decision emerged from a highly participatory process that included extensive written submissions from civil society, academics, governments and international organisations, plus public hearings held in Costa Rica in March 2024. The ruling validates what feminist activists have argued for decades: care work is labour with immense social and economic value that deserves recognition and protection.

Three dimensions of care

The statistics that informed this ruling tell a stark story. In Latin America, women perform between 69 and 86 per cent of all unpaid domestic and care work, hampering their careers, education and personal development. The court recognised this imbalance as a source of structural gender inequality that needs urgent state action.

The decision defines care broadly, covering all tasks necessary for the reproduction and sustenance of life, from providing food and healthcare to offering emotional support. It establishes three interdependent dimensions: the right to provide care, the right to receive care and the right to self-care.

The court interpreted the American Convention on Human Rights as encompassing the right to care, making clear states must respect, protect and guarantee this right through laws, public policies and resources. It outlined measures states should take, including mandatory paid paternity leave equal to maternity leave, workplace flexibility for carers, recognition of care work as labour deserving social protection and comprehensive public care systems.

Feminist advocacy vindicated

The court’s decision reflects the profound influence of feminist scholarship. For decades, feminist activists have insisted that care work, overwhelmingly performed by women, is invisible and undervalued despite being central to sustaining life and economies. The court’s recognition validates these arguments, affirming that care work isn’t a natural extension of women’s roles confined in the private sphere, but labour with immense social and economic value.

The court’s intersectional approach represents another crucial victory for feminist movements. The advisory opinion acknowledged that care burdens aren’t evenly distributed among women: Indigenous, Afro-descendant, migrant and low-income women face disproportionate responsibilities and multiple layers of discrimination. This recognition aligns with feminist movements’ emphasis on the ways gender, race, class and migration status intersect to shape inequality.

Significantly, the court explicitly connected self-care with access to sexual and reproductive health services, recognising that genuine wellbeing requires the ability to make free and informed decisions about pregnancy, childbirth, motherhood and bodily autonomy. It stressed that all people – including women, transgender people and non-binary people who can become pregnant – should be free from imposed mandates of motherhood or care.

Civil society’s crucial role

This victory belongs to civil society. Feminist and human rights organisations across Latin America campaigned to bring the issue before the court and provided crucial expertise. Groups such as ELA-Equipo Latinoamericano de Justicia y Género, Dejusticia, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Women in Informal Employment-Globalizing and Organizing submitted arguments and evidence that shaped the court’s reasoning.

Organisations documented the realities of women caring for incarcerated relatives, migrant women working care jobs in precarious conditions and communities lacking basic services such as water and sanitation that make unpaid care work even more burdensome. This helped ensure the court’s opinion reflected social realities rather than abstract principles.

The opinion’s transformative potential extends beyond gender equality. By recognising care as a universal human need, it positions it as a cornerstone of sustainable development. Investments in care infrastructure create jobs, reduce inequality and support women’s workplace participation while ensuring that children, older people and people with disabilities can live with dignity and autonomy.

The road to implementation

While advisory opinions aren’t binding, they carry considerable legal and political weight, setting regional standards that influence constitutional reforms, strategic litigation and policy development. This decision provides a blueprint for societies where care isn’t an invisible burden but a shared and supported responsibility.

However, feminist organisations have noted a crucial limitation: the court’s decision not to designate the state as the primary guarantor of care rights creates an ambiguity that risks allowing governments to offload duties onto families, perpetuating the inequalities the decision aims to address.

Civil society faces the crucial task of ensuring that implementation prioritises state responsibility. The test lies in transforming legal recognition into laws, policies and practices that reach those most in need. The struggle now shifts from the courtroom to the political arena. Feminist movements are already preparing strategic cases and launching campaigns to pressure governments to pass laws, allocate budgets and build required infrastructure.

States must pass laws recognising the right to care, design universal care systems, integrate time-use surveys into national accounts and build robust care infrastructure. Employers must adapt workplaces to recognise caregiving responsibilities. Civil society and governments must challenge gender stereotypes and engage men and boys in care work.

The Inter-American Court has shown what’s possible: societies where care is valued, supported and shared. For the millions of women across the Americas who have carried this burden in silence, the work of turning this historic recognition into lived reality begins now.

Inés M. Pousadela is CIVICUS Senior Research Specialist, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

For interviews or more information, please contact research@civicus.org

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Categories: Africa, European Union

Can the Asia-Pacific Region Deliver Clean, Affordable Energy by 2030?

Thu, 08/28/2025 - 08:08

An Asian mother is taking care of her baby while cooking with traditional stove. Approximately one billion people in Asia and the Pacific still rely on traditional polluting cooking fuels that lead to poor indoor air quality. Credit: Unsplash/Quang Nguyen Vinh

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
BANGKOK, Thailand, Aug 28 2025 (IPS)

The future of the global energy landscape will be shaped by Asia and the Pacific. Over the past two decades, our region has been the principal driver of global energy demand and emissions. Energy has powered prosperity, lifted millions out of poverty and transformed societies.

This progress, however, has come at a cost: widening inequalities, entrenched fossil fuel dependencies and increasing climate vulnerability – which make achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate objectives challenging.

The gaps we must close

What will it truly take for the region to realize the energy transition and achieve SDG 7 – clean, affordable, reliable and modern energy for all – by 2030? The new Regional Trends Report on Energy for Sustainable Development shows that universal access to electricity is within reach. Yet other dimensions of sustainable energy require urgent acceleration.

Clean cooking remains the most pressing challenge. Nearly one billion people in Asia and the Pacific still rely on traditional fuels, exposing households – especially women and children – to dangerous levels of indoor air pollution. Renewable energy is growing, although the pace still falls short of what is needed to meet rising demand and lower emissions at the scale required.

Per capita, Asia and the Pacific’s installed renewable energy capacity remains lower than in other parts of the world. At the same time, energy efficiency continues to be underutilized, leaving untapped potential to reduce consumption, lower energy costs and reduce carbon emissions.

These challenges are compounded by emerging pressures. Securing access to and sustainably developing critical raw materials is essential for advancing energy transitions, while expanded regional power grid connectivity is crucial to improving energy security and keeping electricity affordable.

Rapidly growing sectors, such as data centres, also need to shift toward low-carbon pathways. Meeting these priorities will demand strategic planning, coordinated action and a strong commitment to fairness and equity.

Emerging momentum

The Asia-Pacific region is showing encouraging signs in recent years with many emerging initiatives to draw inspiration from. Subregional initiatives, including the ASEAN Power Grid and the Nepal-India-Bangladesh trilateral power trade, are fostering cross-border electricity exchanges, improving reliability and enabling greater renewable integration.

China and India are at the forefront of renewables, while Pacific countries such as Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have set targets for 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2030. Indonesia and the Philippines are expanding geothermal capacity. Grid-scale battery storage in Australia is helping manage renewable fluctuations and strengthen system resilience.

Industries, urban centres and the transport sector are also driving change. Countries are rapidly expanding the adoption of electric vehicles through investment and infrastructure. Japan and Singapore are improving building energy efficiency with strict standards and incentive programmes, and the Republic of Korea is deploying smart grid technologies to optimize usage.

These examples illustrate that innovation, investment and cooperation are creating the conditions for scalable energy progress across the region.

A just transition for all

The energy transition is not only a technological shift, but also a social transformation. For many such as workers in fossil fuel industries, those in energy-poor households and youths entering the job market, the transition will be a lived reality. Reskilling, education and social protection must accompany this shift, while creating decent jobs in the renewable and energy efficiency sectors.

Women are disproportionately affected by energy poverty and remain underrepresented in the energy workforce and decision-making roles. Unlocking women’s full participation in the sector is needed to accelerate innovation and inclusive growth. A just energy transition must be gender-responsive, with policies and investments designed to close gaps in access, employment and leadership.

Turning ambition into action

Three ingredients stand out:

1. Ambition in policy and planning.

2. Scaled-up investment.

3. Regional cooperation.

Regional grid integration and cross-border power trade, and shared approaches to the development of critical energy transition minerals and technology standards can create efficiencies and resilience.

The region has shown that transformative change is possible. Just twenty years ago, hundreds of millions lacked access to electricity. Today, universal access is within reach, proving that the seemingly insurmountable gaps in clean cooking, renewable deployment and efficiency can be overcome with decisive political will and bold action.

As Asia-Pacific countries gather in September at the ESCAP Committee on Energy, the message is clear: we must act with urgency, ambition and solidarity, or risk being locked in high-carbon pathways. The decisions made in the coming years will define the region’s energy future well beyond 2030.

IPS UN Bureau

Excerpt:

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP

Categories: Africa, European Union

Intensified Legal, Political, and Grassroots Battles Over Amazon Oil Expansion

Wed, 08/27/2025 - 16:42

A report ‘Oil and Gas Expansion in the Colombian Amazon: Navigating Risks, Economics, and Pathways to a Sustainable Future, warns oil and gas projects threaten over 483,000 km² of Colombian Amazon forest, home to more than 70 indigenous groups, and risk becoming stranded assets as global fossil fuel demand declines.

By Umar Manzoor Shah
BOGOTÁ and SRINAGAR, India, Aug 27 2025 (IPS)

A report has warned about the risks of expanding oil and gas exploration in the Colombian Amazon, which may undermine environmental goals, Indigenous rights, and long-term economic stability, unless the government pivots toward sustainable development pathways.

The study, “Oil and Gas Expansion in the Colombian Amazon: Navigating Risks, Economics, and Pathways to a Sustainable Future”, lays out the stakes for one of the planet’s most biodiverse and climate-critical regions.

Colombia’s Amazon region, covering nearly one-third of the country, is not only a biodiversity hotspot but also home to hundreds of indigenous communities and vast carbon-storing forests. Yet beneath its soils lie oil and gas reserves that the government and industry see as potential drivers of energy security and economic growth.

According to the report released by Earth Insight, the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD), and the National Organisation of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC), some political leaders in recent years have signalled openness to further exploration and production in the Amazon, despite its public commitments to environmental protection and the global push to decarbonise.

“The Colombian Amazon is at a crossroads. The decisions taken in the next few years will either lock in a path of fossil fuel dependency and ecosystem degradation or open the door to a sustainable, diversified economy,” reads the report.

Oil and gas operations in the Amazon, the report warns, could trigger cascading ecological consequences. Roads and seismic lines fragment forests; drilling operations risk oil spills; and increased human access often accelerates deforestation and wildlife loss. “Infrastructure associated with oil and gas projects tends to create long-lasting environmental footprints that extend far beyond the drilling sites themselves,” the authors claim.

The Amazon is already under stress from illegal mining, logging, and agricultural expansion. Adding industrial petroleum activity could push ecosystems toward tipping points, including irreversible shifts in forest cover and carbon balance.

Ignacio Arroniz Velasco, Senior Associate for Nature & Climate Diplomacy at Earth Insight, told IPS news that the Amazon is an integrated ecosystem. As of 2022, according to The Amazonia 80×2025 Initiative, preserving 80 percent of the Amazon by 2025 was still possible with urgent measures to safeguard the 74 percent (629 million hectares) of the Amazon that are Intact Key Priority Areas (33 percent) and with Low Degradation (41 percent); and restoring 6 percent (54 million hectares) of land with high degradation is vital to stop the current trend.

“Although still under threat from industrial expansion, ca. 80 percent of the Colombian Amazon is preserved; however, unless other Amazon countries do the same, the whole ecosystem could collapse. This would mean a shortage of food supplies, medicine (stable forest), and water (water productivity and headwaters). As well as the regulation of floods (aquatic systems) and areas with the highest carbon stock for climate stability,” Velasco told IPS.

Proponents argue that oil and gas projects could generate royalties, jobs, and infrastructure for remote areas. But the report questions whether these benefits outweigh the long-term costs. “Global demand for fossil fuels is projected to decline as the world accelerates toward net-zero emissions. New investments in oil and gas risk becoming stranded assets before they recoup their costs,” it warns.

According to Pablo Jamioy from OPIAC, enforcing environmental protections in the Colombian Amazon in the face of armed groups and illegal economies is a major challenge that cannot be addressed solely through repressive measures, as these tend to increase local tensions and negatively affect communities, especially indigenous peoples.

“The reality is that without first guaranteeing basic conditions for well-being—such as security, access to health services, education, and legal economic opportunities—and without strengthening local governance, particularly the leadership and territorial rights of indigenous peoples, any attempt at environmental control is likely to generate conflict and resistance.”

Jamioy told IPS that from a realistic perspective, a comprehensive, long-term strategy is needed that combines effective state presence with inclusive policies that respect and empower Amazonian communities. “Only in this way can illegal economies be discouraged and the influence of armed actors reduced without exacerbating social tensions,” he said, adding that in this sense, environmental protection necessarily involves strengthening local capacities, recognising the importance of indigenous knowledge systems in conservation, and promoting sustainable development models that link the care of nature with real improvements in living conditions in the region.

The authors stress that the volatility of oil prices and the finite nature of reserves make heavy dependence on fossil fuels a risky economic bet for Colombia. They also point out that historically, resource extraction in remote regions has delivered limited lasting benefits for local communities.

Beyond economics, the expansion raises deep concerns for indigenous peoples, who have constitutionally protected rights to their lands and resources. The report documents cases where extractive projects proceeded without adequate consultation, undermining the principle of consulta previa (prior consultation) required by Colombian law and International Labour Organization Convention 169. “Indigenous territories, when respected and supported, are among the most effective barriers to deforestation. Disregarding their rights for short-term gains would be both unjust and environmentally counterproductive,” the report notes.

Communities fear that oil and gas activity will disrupt traditional livelihoods, pollute rivers, and erode cultural heritage. Many have voiced opposition, warning that once exploration begins, social and environmental change becomes difficult to reverse.

Colombia has pledged to achieve net-zero deforestation by 2030 and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement. Yet the licensing of new oil and gas blocks in the Amazon appears at odds with these goals.

Velasco said that Colombia has not issued new exploration licences under the current government. It has also lowered its deforestation rate to record low levels, although this latter trend was recently reversed. “Both achievements place Colombia at the very top of the world’s climate and environmental leaders. However, millions of hectares of the Colombian Amazon are still threatened by oil and gas blocks that have not been licensed to investors yet. These “available” blocks would allow future Colombian governments to undo all the hard-earned progress and issue new fossil fuel licenses in the Amazon.”

According to Velasco, to avoid this economic, social and ecological risk in the Amazon, the current Colombian government could choose to permanently remove the unlicensed blocks from its official records. He said that the report suggests different pathways to achieve this, such as via new national legislation, administrative acts grounded on Colombia’s international commitments, expanding natural protected areas or legally recognising more Indigenous territories.

The report identifies governance gaps, including insufficient enforcement of environmental safeguards, lack of transparent data on exploration plans, and inadequate inter-agency coordination. “Without coherent policy alignment, Colombia risks pursuing mutually incompatible objectives — expanding fossil fuel extraction while professing climate leadership,” the authors write.

The report goes beyond merely calling for a halt to oil and gas expansion by presenting concrete alternatives such as expanding renewable energy in non-Amazonian regions, investing in sustainable forest economies, and directing state resources toward rural development that aligns with conservation goals. Key recommendations include strengthening land tenure for indigenous and rural communities to improve forest stewardship, redirecting subsidies from fossil fuels to clean energy and low-impact livelihoods, enhancing environmental monitoring with community participation, and ensuring that all projects in indigenous territories prioritize free, prior, and informed consent.

Pablo Jamioy from OPIAC told IPS News that one of the fundamental mechanisms for strengthening free, prior, and informed consent in indigenous territories in Colombia is to guarantee the legal formalisation of territories requested for collective titling, as well as ancestral territories that have been subject to protection and recovery strategies from Amazonian indigenous peoples. These territories, according to Jamioy, must be recognised under special conservation categories and be subject to their own environmental governance systems. “In addition, it is necessary to implement and ensure the recognition and effective exercise of indigenous environmental authorities, in accordance with Decree 1275 of 2024, which recognises their environmental competencies to consolidate their own systems of administration and use of the territory based on ancestral knowledge.”

He added that it is essential to implement Decree 488 of 2025, “Which establishes the necessary fiscal regulations and others related to the functioning of indigenous territories and their coordination with other territorial entities,” a key regulation for the implementation of Indigenous Territorial Entities. “This decree strengthens their autonomy, both in the management of their systems of government and in dialogue with external actors for the implementation of public policies and the guarantee of the fundamental and collective rights of indigenous peoples.”

Colombia’s Amazon protection efforts receive significant funding from international donors, including Norway, Germany, and the United Kingdom, as well as multilateral initiatives like the Amazon Fund. The report urges these partners to condition future support on clear progress toward phasing out high-risk extractive activities in sensitive ecosystems. “International finance can catalyse progress, but it must be coupled with genuine political will and local participation to be effective,” the briefing states.

Industry representatives contend that modern drilling technologies can minimise environmental harm and that oil and gas revenues are essential for national development. They also argue that Colombia cannot yet afford to forgo these resources given fiscal pressures.

Environmental advocates counter that the country’s long-term prosperity depends on avoiding the boom-and-bust cycles of extractive industries and capitalising instead on its unparalleled natural capital.

The report has predicted that the coming years will see heightened legal, political, and grassroots battles over new oil and gas blocks in the Amazon.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa, European Union

Rare Earths, a New Technological and Industrial Dream in Brazil

Wed, 08/27/2025 - 16:17

The turbines in a wind farm, like this one in the Northeast region of Brazil, contain magnets made from rare earths in their generators. This makes rare earths, which Brazil has in abundance, indispensable for both decarbonized electricity generation and the development of electric motors in the automotive sector and others. Credit: Fotos Públicas

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 27 2025 (IPS)

Brazil, which stands out for exporting basic products such as iron ore, oil, coffee, and soybeans, rather than industrialized goods with higher added value, now intends to make a shift regarding rare earths, a key component in new technologies that it has in abundance.

Brazil is the second country in reserves of this natural resource, estimated at 21 million tons, surpassed only by China, with 44 million tons, explained Julio Nery, director of Mining Affairs at the Brazilian Mining Institute (Ibram). Together, the two countries account for about two-thirds of the total."The critical phase of processing which adds the most value is the separation of the rare earth elements, with high costs due to numerous and successive treatments, not so much because of the technology" –Fernando Landgraf.

But Brazil is only just beginning to exploit this wealth on a large scale, while China practically holds a monopoly on its refining, about 90% of the world total, to supply its own electronics industry, electric vehicles, wind turbines, and many other equipment, as well as the industry of almost the entire world.

Rare earths have become the new mining and technological fever, due to the accelerated growth in their demand and, now, due to the trade war unleashed by the United States under the presidency of Donald Trump.

China’s threat to condition the exports of its rare earth chemical elements forced Trump to backtrack on his escalation of additional tariffs against its biggest economic rival, which reached 145% in April, and to enter into negotiations that continue with the tariff reduced to 30%.

Rare earths get their name not because of their scarcity, as they exist in many places, but because of their physical properties, such as magnetism, which are indeed limited, explained Nery to IPS, by phone from Brasilia, about this sector comprised of 17 chemical elements that also have other unique properties such as electrochemical and luminescent ones.

Geopolitical disputes tend to accentuate a movement by many countries to reduce their dependence on China’s rare earths.

Launch of the MagBras project to develop the entire rare earth chain in Brazil, from mining to permanent magnets, key components of electric motors, wind turbines, and numerous electronic products, on July 14, 2025, at the laboratory and factory that will serve the project, near Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state of Minas Gerais. Credit: Sebastião Jacinto Junior / Fiemg

Adding value

In Brazil, an alliance of 38 companies, scientific institutions, and development foundations, driven by the Federation of Industries of the State of Minas Gerais (Fiemg), through its arm of the National Service for Industrial Training, aims to develop the entire rare earth chain, “from mining to the permanent magnet.”

That magnet, which contains four of the 17 rare earth chemical elements, is the derivative with the highest added value due to its now indispensable use in electric motors, cell phones, many electronic devices, wind turbines, and defense and space technologies.

This will be the focus of the project called MagBras, as the Industrial Demonstrator for the complete production cycle of Brazilian rare earth permanent magnets was named and officially launched on July 14 in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state of Minas Gerais.

The goal is to unite industry with universities and research centers so that Brazil does not continue primarily as a major exporter of raw materials, without added value, as is the case with coffee, iron, oil, and soybeans.

Rare earth processing technology was developed decades ago in many countries, which abandoned the activity in the face of China’s low-cost production, recalled André Pimenta, who leads the project as coordinator of the Rare Earths Institute of Fiemg.

Some of the 17 chemical elements of rare earths, critical for the future and whose demand is projected to multiply 30 times in the coming decades. After China, Brazil is the second country with the largest estimated reserves of these rare earths, for which a geostrategic and geopolitical battle has already begun. Credit: Icog

Better deposits

In addition to having large ionic clay deposits, which have advantages over the rocky ones in other countries, the scale of production and the scant or non-existent environmental requirements contributed to China’s advance towards a near monopoly, he noted.

Brazil has similar areas of ionic clay, a factor that, with the advancement of technologies, favors the country’s potential to emerge as an alternative producer with the possibility to compete, even if it is “difficult or even impossible” to surpass China, acknowledged the chemist Pimenta in a telephone interview with IPS from Belo Horizonte.

MagBras has a laboratory in facilities originally designed for a factory with the capacity to produce 100 tons of magnets per year, the only one existing in the southern hemisphere, which will serve for research and even production on that limited scale.

Nery, from Ibram, warns of the risk of focusing on a single resource to the detriment of the set of critical minerals, which in addition to rare earths includes lithium, cobalt, nickel, among others. These are scarce products.

There was already enthusiasm for lithium, due to the increased demand for cell phone and electric vehicle batteries; a few years earlier the same thing happened with niobium, he recalls.

“Technologies change and alter priorities,” he warned. That is why it is necessary to define a policy to promote the 22 critical and strategic minerals, with defined and flexible priorities.

The production of electric cars in Brazil has gained momentum in 2025, which will increase the demand for magnets, intended to be manufactured in Brazil with the rare earths abundant in some regions of the country. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

Set of factors

Furthermore, value-added projects require a broad view of the different factors that affect the entire chain. Adequate infrastructure, with good roads, availability of energy, and sufficient demand for the chosen products are indispensable for success, he exemplified.

“Do we have firm demand for permanent magnets? The products that incorporate them, such as batteries, electric car motors, and wind turbines, are currently imported,” Nery pointed out.

In his opinion, “the government must promote conditions to generate internal demand, in a general effort, since industrial participation in the Brazilian economy has greatly reduced in recent decades.”

Research centers have already developed solutions for refining rare earths, the most costly process, but doing it on an industrial scale will require a lot of investment and time, according to Nery, a mining engineer.

In mining, any project takes at least five years in geological research, environmental licensing procedures, and operational preparation, he noted.

Brazil, which in the past sought rare earths in monazite, which is unfavorable because it contains radioactive material, now concentrates its extraction on ionic clay, which is better. “Its deposits are superficial, which facilitates research and limits environmental impacts,” he pointed out.

A concrete experience with this type of soil is that of Serra Verde, a company owned by two US investment funds and one British fund, with a plant in Minaçu, in the state of Goiás, in central-western Brazil.

It began operations in 2024 and has already exported US$7.5 million to China this year, according to Nery. It produces the oxide concentrate, a first step in processing, which enriches and increases the rare earth content index in the clay, which in the soil is only 0.12%, according to Serra Verde.

A positive note is that its concentrate contains the most in-demand elements because they are used to make permanent magnets: the light ones neodymium and praseodymium, in addition to the heavy ones dysprosium and terbium. The heavy ones are rarer and less present in rocky or monazite deposits.

But Serra Verde’s goal of producing 5,000 tons of concentrate per year and doubling that amount by 2030 seems distant. In the first half of 2025, it only exported 480 tons, it was revealed, as the company does not disclose its data.

Also in the state of Goiás, the current Brazilian epicenter of rare earths, another project, the Carina Module, by the Canadian company Aclara Resources, expects to extract mainly dysprosium and terbium starting in 2026, with investments of US$600 million.

“The critical phase of processing and the one that adds the most value is the separation of the rare earth elements, with high costs due to numerous and successive treatments, not so much because of the technology,” said Fernando Landgraf, an engineer and professor at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo.

One kilogram of neodymium oxide, present in these heavy rare earths, is worth at least 10 times more than the five dollars for a kilogram of concentrate, he said by telephone from São Paulo.

Mining company Serra Verde, in Minaçu, state of Goiás, where the extraction of rare earths began, which, in an initial processing, were concentrated and exported to China. They contain four of the 17 rare earth elements used to produce permanent magnets, key components of electric motors, wind turbines, and military and space equipment. Credit: Serra Verde

The threat of uncertainty

In his assessment, “the biggest risk of the business is the uncertainty about the future,” especially now that rare earths have become a target and a weapon of geopolitics.

The demand for rare earths will grow significantly, but a large increase in production in the United States could lead to an oversupply. It is a limited market, far from the volumes of other minerals, such as iron ore.

“Uncertainty does not justify sitting idly by. Demand will grow, and the movement to reduce dependence began earlier, during the pandemic, which left many without essential respirators and medical equipment because there was nowhere to import from. It is a one-way street,” stated Pimenta.

Geologist Nilson Botelho, a professor at the University of Brasilia, considers the estimate of Brazil’s reserves to be reliable. Mining in Goiás is successful because it contains heavy rare earths, the “most critical” ones, which are among the “four or five most valuable elements.”

But there are many deposits in other parts of Brazil. In addition to the geological formation of its very extensive territory of over 8.5 million square kilometers, the temperate tropical climate, rainfall that infiltrates the soil, and the high plateau favor the presence of rare earths, he explained to IPS from Brasilia.

Another geologist, Silas Gonçalves, opposes the idea that mining in ionic clay has fewer environmental impacts.

Mining there alters the landscape and the soil, causes deforestation and diffuse damage, such as changes and contamination of the water table. These are different impacts, not lesser ones, he argued to IPS from Goiânia, the capital of Goiás, where he runs his geological and environmental studies company, called Gemma.

Categories: Africa, European Union

From Endurance to Resilience: The Future of Development in Latin America & the Caribbean

Wed, 08/27/2025 - 13:08

Credit: UNDP

By Michelle Muschett and Sabina Alkire
NEW YORK, Aug 27 2025 (IPS)

The development trajectory of Latin America and the Caribbean is going through a period of unprecedented vulnerability and uncertainty. The significant achievements of past decades, as well as the possibility of continuing to make progress, are under threat from the impact of growing geopolitical tensions, unresolved structural challenges, and an increase in crises of various kinds—environmental, political, health, technological, and social.

These challenges intertwine and reinforce each other, magnifying their impact and overwhelming the response capacity of institutions. Against this backdrop, a fundamental question arises: how can we protect the gains made in human development while continuing to move forward in this new reality?

The answer lies in the very essence of the concept of human development. Since its formulation by the authors of the first UNDP Human Development Report in 1990, economists Amartya Sen and Mahbub ul Haq, the focus of this concept has been on expanding people’s capabilities so that we can lead lives we value and find meaningful.

It is not just about income or material goods, but about health, education, participation, freedom, and dignity. But human development is not static and can suffer setbacks. To safeguard its progress in the face of recurring shocks and to continue expanding capabilities, it is essential to embed resilience as an unconditional requirement.

Beyond mere endurance

In the context of human development, resilience is not limited to enduring or withstanding sudden impacts, nor to restoring a previous state. It is the capacity and agency of human beings to live valuable lives in such a way that they can prevent or mitigate the impact of crises both in their own lives and those of their communities and, if necessary, recreate valuable lives and continue to thrive.

It means that people and communities can reorganize, adapt, and move forward, even—and especially—in the midst of adversity. A system is resilient not because it is immune to shocks, but because it knows how to respond effectively, learn from experience, and emerge stronger.

Just as a house is resilient if, even with modest materials, it withstands an earthquake, protects its inhabitants, and allows life to continue, a health system is resilient if, in the face of a pandemic and despite its limitations, it reorganizes resources, mobilizes staff, welcomes volunteers, requests and absorbs external aid, provides psychological support, recognizes collective effort, and leaves behind strengthened capacities for facing future emergencies.

The key is not to avoid all damage—that would be impossible—but to respond with purpose and to strengthen the system based on experience. In short, resilience is not improvised; it is built.

Agency, capabilities, and human security

Resilient human development rests on three fundamental pillars: capabilities, human security, and agency. Capabilities are the real opportunities people have to live a life they value: being healthy, learning, participating, working with dignity. Human security protects that essential core against persistent or sudden threats such as hunger, violence, natural disasters, or disease.

Agency, meanwhile, is the ability to act according to one’s own values. It is not only about feeling included and being able to choose, but about actively influencing one’s own life and environment: organizing, participating in public life, imagining alternatives even in the midst of crisis.

When people live in contexts of limited freedoms or insecurity—marked, for example, by violence, precariousness, or exclusion—their agency tends to weaken. We may withdraw, lose trust in others, become demobilized, or adopt extreme positions.

This is why a resilient vision of development cannot be limited to the material: it must also strengthen interpersonal trust and the sense of belonging—the emotional, relational, and civic fabric that allows us to act, decide, and rebuild.

An urgent approach for Latin America and the Caribbean

The need to incorporate resilience into human development is particularly pressing in Latin America and the Caribbean. Without a resilient perspective, each crisis can mean significant development losses.

Conversely, if development agents and actors integrate resilience into their management and actions, it is possible to prepare better collectively, minimize damage, and transform systems based on each experience.

From a public management perspective, this means, for example, that public policies anticipate risk contexts—such as designing and implementing education systems that can also function in emergencies; social protection systems that expand households’ capacity to cope with crises and that have pre-established mechanisms to extend benefits to those affected; or care systems that facilitate reintegration into the labor market.

It also means ensuring community support networks and mutual aid mechanisms and, above all, strengthening institutions and individual and collective capacities to anticipate, decide, act, and adapt.

Prioritizing the essential, even with scarce resources

Resilience in public policy requires investment, planning, and consensus around a long-term vision. But it does not always entail large budgetary efforts, even in fiscally constrained contexts. The key is to innovate and prioritize what is essential: identifying which capabilities must be protected at all costs, which services must be maintained even in times of crisis, and which bonds must be strengthened before they break. Innovation is not only technological—it is also social, institutional, and territorial. The region is already applying tools with great potential for scalability and impact to transform realities, expand capabilities, and create opportunities where there was once exclusion, such as innovative applications of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) or inclusive financing instruments with local impact.

The resilience approach from a human development perspective means prioritizing strategically, making evidence-based decisions, and avoiding improvisation to ensure local impact and agency. Furthermore, by explicitly incorporating prevention, preparedness, and recovery into the development agenda and public budgets, the future costs of crises can be significantly reduced.

A compass of hope for uncertain times

Resilient human development protects and adapts the classic concept of human development to today’s challenges. It combines the transformative vision of development with the precaution of human security and the recognition of people as agents of their own destiny, even in the face of adversity.

In a world with fewer certainties, resilience is an ethical, practical, and hopeful compass. For Latin America and the Caribbean, it is also an opportunity—not to resign ourselves to permanent risk, but to turn each challenge into a springboard for more just and cohesive societies.

The future is not written; we build it together. Collective resilience must be at the heart of our responses: it is key to driving economic growth and shared prosperity; to fostering innovative financing and public policies that make it possible to prevent, mitigate, and rebuild lives after a crisis; and to broadening the sense of belonging, increasing human agency and security. Only through collaboration and collective action can we build valuable, dignified, and resilient development and life paths for all people.

Michelle Muschett is Regional Director, UNDP, Latin America and the Caribbean; Sabina Alkire is Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford

This blog is based on findings from the Regional Human Development Report 2025, “Under Pressure: Recalibrating the Future of Development in Latin America and the Caribbean” (coming soon).

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa, European Union

Hypertension and Diabetes Grows Among India’s Poor Communities

Tue, 08/26/2025 - 14:44

A patient being checked for BP at Mann PHC. Credit: Rina Mukherji/IPS

By Rina Mukherji
MANN, India, Aug 26 2025 (IPS)

Generally thought to be diseases of the wealthier classes, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like hypertension and diabetes are on the rise among India’s underprivileged working classes in semi-urban and rural sprawls.

Take the case of Mohan Ahire. A middle-aged gardener in Pune, Mohan never realized that the heaviness in his head was a symptom of hypertension. Last summer, a mid-morning visit to the market saw him fall unconscious on return. Upon regaining consciousness, his wife and sons discovered the paralysis on the right side of his body, leading doctors to diagnose it as a stroke.

Bahinabai Gaekwad, a 56-year-old sweeper in Mann village, was at work when she suddenly collapsed and died. Doctors from the Primary Health Centre (PHC) next door found that she had been suffering from undiagnosed hypertension for a long time. The ailment ultimately led to a fatal cardiac arrest.

The worst problem is that most patients from underprivileged sections are not aware of their health condition.

Praful Mahato, a migrant laborer from Balasore in Odisha, who is currently employed in a dhaba (roadside eatery) in Mann, a fast-industrializing rural outpost of Pune city, had been suffering from heaviness and dizzy spells for some time. But he attributed his symptons to long hours at work and resulting fatigue. A chance visit to a medical camp confirmed high blood pressure and diabetes. Since the last four months, medication has controlled his blood pressure and brought down his sugar level.

Jagdish Mondol, in his 50s, did not realize he had hypertension and diabetes until he needed to undergo a hernia operation at a government hospital in Bhadrak, Odisha. This was despite blurred vision and difficulty in walking. Thankfully, the operation got him to wake up to his health condition. Regular medication has now improved his blood pressure and sugar level.

Fortunately, some patients may seek help on their own. Lalita Parshuram Jadhav, a 40-year-old migrant construction worker from Yavatmal, is one such. “Since the last two years, I have been experiencing pain in my legs; it became quite acute over the past year,” she tells IPS. A medical check-up confirmed hypertension and high sugar levels.

India’s Hypertension and Diabetes Epidemic

The cases cited above exemplify the rising burden of India’s non-communicable disease (NCD) of Hypertension and Diabetes. Ranked among the top ten NCDs responsible for untimely deaths worldwide, these two diseases are interlinked. This means those with hypertension are also vulnerable to developing prediabetes and diabetes.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 1.28 billion adults in the 30-79 age group suffer from hypertension, with two-thirds of them living in low- and middle-income countries. Yet, only 21 percent of those affected have their hypertension under control, while around 46 percent of these remain unaware of their condition and remain undiagnosed and untreated.

Diabetes, notably, can be of two varieties. Type 1 Diabetes is a congenital condition, while Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle disease that develops later in life. South Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans have a significantly higher risk of developing the disorder.

The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) recorded a dramatic increase in the number of people affected by Type 2 Diabetes globally since the 1990s, and since 2000, the rise has been dramatic. In India, there are an estimated 77 million people above the age of 18 years suffering from diabetes (type 2), while nearly 25 million are prediabetic (at a higher risk of developing diabetes in the future). Yet, more than 50 percent of these are unaware of their diabetic status.

In India, the prevalence of Diabetes rose from 7.1 percent in 2009 to 8.9 percent in 2019. Meanwhile, 25.2 million adults are estimated to have Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT), a prediabetic condition that is estimated to increase to 35.7 million in the year 2045. It is also estimated that approximately 43.9 million people suffering from diabetes remain undiagnosed and untreated in India, posing a major public health risk.

It is a matter of concern that most deaths from these diseases occur in the 30- to 70-year-old age group, posing a major economic loss.

In Mann, doctors at primary health centers (PHCs) are battling this scourge, with hypertension affecting around 28 percent of the population and 12 percent being diabetic. The scenario is similar to that at Mullaheera, in rural Haryana, located just outside the national capital region of Delhi.

Dr. Sona Deshmukh, from the People-to-People Foundation, which is collaborating with the Government of India on its Viksit Bharat @2047 initiative and the in-charge for the Pranaa Project, tells me, “Diabetes is common among the older population, but hypertension is rising among the youth.”

Dangers Posed by Hypertension and Diabetes

The problem with both Hypertension and Diabetes is socio-cultural, with most people viewing these diseases as benign. Yet, ignoring them can lead to paralytic strokes and ultimately, death.

Characterized by headaches, blurred vision, nosebleeds, buzzing in the ears, and chest pain, uncontrolled and untreated hypertension can lead to—

chest pain (also termed angina);
heart attack, which occurs when the blood supply to the heart is blocked and heart muscle cells die from lack of oxygen.
heart failure, which occurs when the heart cannot pump enough blood and oxygen to other vital body organs; and
sudden death due to irregular heartbeat.

This is because excessive blood pressure can harden arteries, decreasing the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart. This elevated pressure and reduced blood flow can result in the complications listed above, besides bursting or blocking arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the brain, causing a stroke. It can also cause kidney damage, resulting in kidney failure.

In the case of Diabetes, the body is unable to either produce or use insulin effectively. While individuals with Type I diabetes have a congenital condition wherein the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas are attacked and destroyed, patients with Type II diabetes—which is a preventable lifestyle-related disease—either do not produce enough insulin or are unable to use insulin effectively for the body’s needs. Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to blindness and organ failures that affect the kidneys, heart, and nerves, ultimately leading to diabetic strokes and death.

Reasons Behind the Spurt

So, what are the reasons behind the spurt? Government Medical Officers Dr. Mayadevi Gujar and Dr. Vaishali Patil say, “The transition of many rural outposts into semi-urban industrialized zones has brought in lifestyle changes. Locals, who once partook of healthy home-cooked millets or cereals, now eat cheap, oily snacks from wayside kiosks cooked in reused palm oil. With more disposable income, workers lean towards sugary soft drinks and fast food, making them prone to diabetes. Addictions like tobacco and alcohol are on the rise. Tobacco-chewing remains common to both men and women in rural India.”

Additionally, with climate change affecting agricultural incomes in rural India, the younger generation is stressed with employment issues. These make a potent recipe for hypertension and diabetes.

Dr. Sundeep Salvi, a noted specialist in cardiovascular diseases, who heads the Pulmocare Research and Education (PURE) Foundation and has chaired the respiratory group for the Global Burden of Disease Study, adds, “Unlike in the past, people eat and sleep late, watch late-night television, drink endless cups of tea and coffee, and work late hours. Skipping meals is common, with little time for exercise. Sleep deprivation is a fallout of this. Stress and inadequate sleep are a deadly combination, feeding hypertension and diabetes.”

Salvi calls for hydration and good nutrition to stave off hypertension and diabetes. “Excess tea and coffee are harmful. Caffeine-present in tea and coffee-is a diuretic; it prevents hydration. A dehydrated constitution results in hypertension and diabetes, which, in turn, cause heart disease, stroke, kidney diseases, and eventually, death.”

He also views air pollution as a major risk.

“By air pollution, I am referring to both indoor and outdoor pollution. In rural areas, the burning of crop waste causes outdoor pollution. But indoor pollution in rural homes and urban slums is 5–10 times greater than outdoor pollution. High levels of particulate matter contribute to 20 percent of the global burden of diabetes, as well as hypertension.

Diabetologist and Director of the Diabetes Unit at Pune’s KEM Hospital Prof. Chittaranjan Yajnik, who has been working on this issue for over two decades, has an interesting take on the matter based on his findings.

Yajnik sees a direct correlation between vulnerability to diabetes and poor intrauterine growth.

“Poor intrauterine growth reflects in poor organ growth, especially of the infra-diaphragmatic organs (liver, pancreas, kidneys, and legs), reducing their capacity to perform adequately in later years. Such individuals, when faced with overnutrition and calories later in life, end up with prediabetes and diabetes.”

Yajnik’s research found that two-thirds of prediabetic girls and a third of the prediabetic boys were underweight at birth.

“These findings are suggestive of a ‘dual teratogenesis’ concept, which envisages a combination of undernutrition and overnutrition over a life course due to rapid socio-economic and nutritional transition…” This means intrauterine programming of diabetes needs to be supported in growth-retarded babies since metabolic abnormalities develop very early in life.

Yajnik certainly has a point, since anemia in expectant mothers and low birthweight babies is a major problem all over India. The National Family Health Surveys conducted over the years by the Government have shown a persistently high prevalence of fetal growth restriction in Indian babies. This phenomenon is linked to low birth weight in newborns, which is as high as 18.24 percent, according to the latest data.

The Solution

Recently, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) of the Government of India has implemented several schemes nationwide at the primary health level, starting with nutrition, medical care, and immunization for pregnant mothers while ensuring institutional delivery. Offspring are also extended comprehensive help for the 4 D’s (defects at birth, diseases, deficiencies, and developmental delays), immunization, supplementary nutrition, and WASH interventions. These continue through adolescence to prepare a healthy population for reproductive age.

Meanwhile, weekly wellness sessions have been introduced all over India. Deshmukh adds, “Regular screenings for hypertension and diabetes are done every few months for early detection and follow-up. Counselling sessions encourage people to adopt healthier lifestyles, while Yoga is being popularized through events like the International Yoga Day.”

These initiatives, one hopes, will arrest the epidemic.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa, European Union

UN Report Warns that Sri Lankan Government Fails to Address Entrenched Impunity and Human Rights Violations

Tue, 08/26/2025 - 06:34

A May 2009 photo of an IDP camp outside the town of Vavuniya in northern Sri Lanka. Vavuniya was the site of an alleged massacre of more than 200 Tamil civilians by the army in 1985. Credit: UNICEF/Suzanne Davey

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 26 2025 (IPS)

Before his election, Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake vowed to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and amend the Online Safety Act in an effort to strengthen accountability, ethical justice, and freedom of expression. However, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the government has not followed through on these commitments and continues to exploit systemic gaps that enable impunity and facilitate new abuses.

In January 2025, Dissanayake launched the Clean Sri Lanka project, an initiative designed to promote a self-sufficient national economy, introduce moral and ethical reforms, curb corruption, and address impunity for human rights abuses. Despite Sri Lanka’s humanitarian situation showing subtle signs of recovery since late 2024, humanitarian organizations have raised concerns over continued human rights violations and the absence of a clear plan for justice.

“Today, an opportunity presents itself for Sri Lanka to break from the past, with the leadership pledging a fresh direction on long-standing issues, including delivering justice to victims, restoring the rule of law, and eliminating discrimination and divisive politics,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. “ It now needs a comprehensive roadmap to translate these commitments into results.”

On August 8, OHCHR released a report documenting widespread human rights violations in Sri Lanka under Dissanayake’s administration, including the use of draconian laws to silence civilian dissent. The report underscored the government’s use of PTA to arbitrarily detain civilians of terrorism-related charges without evidence, disproportionately targeting members of the Tamil and Muslim minorities. According to OHCHR, there were 38 arbitrary arrests in 2024, and 49 in the first five months of 2025.

“Sri Lanka’s extensive domestic security apparatus routinely uses baseless accusations of terrorism to target innocent people, silencing critics and stigmatizing minority communities,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch (HRW). “For many Sri Lankans, baseless allegations of terrorism and sweeping powers provided by the PTA remain the most frightening and unaccountable method of repression.”

OHCHR also confirmed the use of torture and ill-treatment in detention centers, alongside at least 13 civilian deaths in police custody in 2024. Former detainees informed HRW that they had been subjected to torture during detention and have had extortion demands sent to their families for their release. Many of these former detainees continue to face harassment from security agencies, including dealing with home visits and intimidating phone calls.

In April of this year, 26-year old Muthuwadige Sathsara Nimesh died in police custody at Welikada Police Station, garnering significant media attention and allegations of police brutality. Nimesh’s mother informed reporters that when she went to the police station on April 2 to check on her son, she found that his clothes had been removed and his trousers had been discarded in a trash can.

This prompted an investigation that resulted in the suspension of two officers. The Committee for Protecting the Rights of Prisoners (CPRP) accused the police of causing Nimesh’s death through the use of violence, highlighting previous detainee deaths under similar circumstances. “Steps must be taken to stop these illegal acts by the police. Failure to do so will inevitably result in the collapse of the rule of law,” warned the CPRP.

Humanitarian experts have also raised concern over the considerable decline in civic space conditions, marked by severe limitations in the freedoms of speech and expression. On March 22, Mohamad Liyaudeen Mohamed Rusdi, a 20-year old Muslim salesman from Colombo, was arrested under PTA after CCTV footage caught him pasting a sticker in a mall that condemned the Israeli government for its actions towards the people of the Gaza Strip.

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka stated that there was a “total lack of evidence that Mr. Rusdi had committed any offense”, adding that it was “a stark example of the inherent dangers of the PTA and the propensity of law enforcement officials to deploy the PTA’s provisions in bad faith.”

OHCHR further reported that state security officials have employed enforced disappearances, surveillance, and harassment to intimidate human rights activists and their families, particularly those engaging with the United Nations (UN) or other international organizations. HRW interviewed numerous activists in Sri Lanka, with many stating that they had been warned by security personnel that they will be accused of terrorism for doing their jobs.

“Just yesterday a [police] CID person called me and said, ‘Where are you? What are you doing?’ They oppress us because they want to stop the information we can provide from reaching the international community,” a rights activist told HRW.

Furthermore, OHCHR stressed the need for revised frameworks that acknowledge the widespread human rights violations and deliver a definitive end to impunity for perpetrators. Over the past several years, public trust in government institutions and fact-finding missions has eroded significantly.

Current attempts by the government to establish accountability and justice rarely yield results. Over the past year, Sri Lankan authorities have reopened or expedited several high-profile cases of abduction, enforced disappearance, and retaliation against civilians for expressing public dissent. Only a small number of suspects were detained, including a few former military and navy officials.

OHCHR noted that none of the cases highlighted in its reports have yielded results. It added that progress on critical investigations remains limited, with many suspects acquitted or released and emblematic wartime and postwar crimes still unresolved, while new violations continue to occur.

“This process should start with a clear and formal acknowledgment of the violations, abuses and crimes that occurred,” said Türk. “These measures are crucial to realizing the Government’s vision of ‘national unity’ and above all ensuring there can never be recurrence of past violations.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa, Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

President Trump: You Must Stop Netanyahu’s Second Genocide in Gaza

Tue, 08/26/2025 - 06:18

People wait for food at a community kitchen in western Gaza City. Credit: UN News

By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, Aug 26 2025 (IPS)

President Trump, you are the only leader who can stop Netanyahu from committing another genocide in Gaza. The whole world is watching. Do not allow yourself to become an accessory to the murder of thousands of innocent Palestinian women and children and the utter destruction of what’s left of Gaza

As I am writing this column, the Israeli military is converging on Gaza to destroy what has been left after 22 months of relentless war that killed more than 60,000 Palestinians and leveled to the ground 80 percent of its infrastructure.

To say that this is unconscionable is an understatement. The whole world must awake to this unfolding disaster, which is tantamount to a second genocide against the Palestinians. The Netanyahu government is not hiding its intended crimes against humanity. Eli Cohen, a minister in Israel’s security cabinet, despicably stated, “Gaza City itself should be exactly like Rafah, which we turned into a city of ruins.”

Credit: UN News

The whole world should be up in arms and stop at nothing to stop Netanyahu’s new catastrophic offensive. Trump, more than any other global leader, has the power not to ask but demand that Netanyahu stop his second genocide that will kill thousands of Palestinian women and children and displace hundreds of thousands, making Gaza entirely uninhabitable.

Trump must remember that if he does not act immediately, given his power and ability to stop the Israeli new offensive, history will judge him as an accessory to the genocide that will inevitably occur, because the US is supplying Israel with the weapons and ammunition to kill Palestinians.

President Trump must also remember that even if Israel succeeds in its campaign to commit a total ethnic cleansing of Gaza, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only enter a new phase of violence unfathomable in its scope and catastrophic implications.

Hamas will not be liquidated as a movement, no matter what Israel does. Beyond that, new radical movements will mushroom throughout the Middle East and destabilize the entire region to a level unseen before. Instead of forging new peace accords, Trump will face new, raging, violent conflicts that will be beyond his control.

This is the time when Trump’s leadership will matter the most. There is no time to spare. It may seem oversimplified, but it will indeed take only a phone call to Netanyahu to demand that he stop his offensive immediately. This is a humanitarian issue of the highest order.

Even the most ardent supporters of Israel in the US will understand that America still has a moral obligation that it cannot forfeit, even when a close ally is involved. Instead of aiding the butcher Netanyahu, Trump will emerge as a statesman who rose to the call of the hour.

And if Trump is still dreaming of earning the Nobel Peace Prize, he should not only stop the new Israeli genocidal offensive but also push for an end to the war in Gaza, demand an exit strategy from Netanyahu, and work toward finding a permanent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU). He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa, Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

When Disasters Strike, Homes are Destroyed, Livestock Lost, Crops Fail or Local Economies Collapse

Tue, 08/26/2025 - 06:07

Residents clean the mud off seats and chairs belonging to a kindergarten school in East Jakarta, Indonesia. Data from CRVS is vital for post-disaster recovery and essential to mitigate long-term climate impacts. Credit: UNICEF/Arimacs Wilander

By Lepakorn Phisainontarith and Hamish Patten
BANGKOK, Thailand, Aug 26 2025 (IPS)

As climate change intensifies, disasters like hurricanes, floods, droughts and wildfires are becoming more frequent and devastating. Rising sea levels are further threatening coastal communities, putting millions at risk. Strengthening disaster preparedness and resilience is now essential to protect lives and mitigate long-term climate impacts.

When disasters strike, accurate data is crucial for effective response and recovery. A key impact of disasters is population displacement. Disasters, including slow-onset ones, can make areas unsafe or uninhabitable.

When homes are destroyed, livestock are lost, crops fail or local economies collapse, relocation often becomes a necessity. Health risks and resource shortages add to the pressure, all contributing to the forced displacement of many.

Despite this increasing phenomenon, many displaced people remain invisible in official records, making it difficult to measure the true impact of disasters and impeding an evidence-informed response. Similarly, disasters and their aftermath often bring mass casualties, yet the true death toll is frequently unclear or only discovered long after the event, if at all.

Displaced people are often in need of proof of their legal identity in order to access essential services, both long standing and those related to disaster response. Civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems ensure the continuous, permanent and universal recording of vital events such as births, deaths and marriages, the issuance of documents to individuals, as well as the compilation of related statistics.

Strengthening these systems is key to ensuring that all displaced individuals are counted and that disaster-related deaths are properly recorded.

A well-functioning CRVS system is also essential for disaster management as it enables authorities to identify affected populations, coordinate humanitarian aid and support family reunification. Linking CRVS with other data sources can further improve the ability to locate and assist those impacted.

Reliable cause-of-death data can help distinguish between direct deaths caused by disasters and indirect ones due to disrupted healthcare, malnutrition or unsafe living conditions. This insight is crucial for developing targeted policy responses, ensuring aid reaches the most vulnerable and support long-term recovery and effective rebuilding

However, disasters can severely disrupt CRVS systems. Damaged infrastructure, mass population displacement and restricted access to registration services make it harder for affected individuals to maintain or restore legal identity documents—precisely when they need them most.

Without these records, displaced individuals may struggle to access humanitarian aid, healthcare or even reunite with family members. To prevent this, CRVS systems must be resilient. Digitalization of CRVS systems help facilitate the continuous recording of vital events even during crises. This supports faster and more inclusive recovery for the affected populations.

Linking CRVS systems for inclusive disaster and displacement response

Integrating CRVS systems with disaster response mechanisms enable authorities to support displaced populations more effectively, ensure access to aid and maintain legal identity especially in protracted situations. A resilient CRVS system strengthens both immediate crisis response, and long-term preparedness and recovery.

Key opportunities for linking CRVS systems with disaster and displacement data include:

• Improving data accuracy

• Ensuring inclusion

• Tracking displacement over time

• Informing policy and planning

Governments and partners should proactively strengthen CRVS systems by integrating them with early warning and displacement monitoring tools and by formally recognizing disaster-induced displacement. This shift from reactive crisis management to inclusive preparedness ensures no one is left behind.

Resilience in the context of CRVS

During the Third Ministerial Conference on CRVS in Asia and the Pacific, participants identified key actions to ensure inclusive and resilient systems as a foundation for legal identity for all. The conference culminated in the adoption of the Ministerial Declaration on a Decade of Action for Inclusive and Resilient CRVS, reaffirming countries’ commitment to strengthening CRVS systems and ensuring their continuity during crises.

Resilient CRVS systems safeguard identity, dignity and access to services when disasters strike. By ensuring vital events are recorded even in crises, countries can protect the most vulnerable and accelerate recovery efforts.

As climate-related disasters become more frequent and severe, it is more important than ever for governments and partners to invest in CRVS systems that can withstand any emergency. Because in times of crisis, resilience begins with being counted—and being counted begins with strong, inclusive CRVS systems.

For more information on disaster-related statistics and CRVS:

Building resilient civil registration and vital statistics systems

Lepakorn Phisainontarith, Programme is Management Assistant, ESCAP; Hamish Patten is Consultant, ESCAP

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa, Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

A New Non-Alignment for the Global South

Tue, 08/26/2025 - 05:46

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
CAMPINAS, Brazil, Aug 26 2025 (IPS)

The Global South had little voice, let alone influence, in shaping the economically ‘neoliberal’ and politically ‘neoconservative’ globalisation leading to contemporary geopolitical economic conflicts. Pacifist non-aligned cooperation for sustainable development offers the best way forward.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Peace, Freedom, Neutrality
Realising non-alignment for our times should begin with current realities rather than abstract, ahistorical principles. 2025 is also the 70th anniversary of the beginnings of non-alignment, first mooted at the Asia-Africa summit in Bandung, Indonesia.

The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established in 1967 by anti-communist governments of the region. In 1973, its leaders agreed the area should be a Zone of Peace, Freedom, and Neutrality (ZOPFAN).

The world was deemed unipolar American discourse after the first Cold War. Meanwhile, most of the Global South remained non-aligned in what the Rest see as a multipolar world.

Despite critical dissent, the West seems to have lost interest in preserving peace. Unsurprisingly, the US and its NATO allies increasingly ignore the United Nations. Foreign military interventions since the first Cold War already exceed the many of that longer era.

During World War II, military production generated growth and employment in Germany, Japan and the US. But surely, development today is best achieved peacefully and cooperatively.

Pacifist non-alignment should cut unnecessary military spending. Although big powers compete for hegemony by weaponising international relations, they will still try to ‘buy’ support from the non-aligned.

Realistically, most small developing nations cannot lead international peace-making. But they can and should be a stronger moral force urging justice, peace, freedom, neutrality, development, and international cooperation.

Return of the Global South
The Group of 77 (G77) developing countries’ caucus and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) were both established in 1964. Headquartered in Geneva, UNCTAD is part of the UN Secretariat but has been steadily marginalised.

The G77 has a formal presence throughout the UN multilateral system. It now has over 130 members, including China, but its impact outside New York in recent decades has been limited.

Sustainability challenges and planetary heating are generally worse in the tropics, where most people in developing countries are. Meanwhile, hunger worldwide has worsened since 2014, while World Bank-reported income poverty has risen since the COVID-19 pandemic.

An inclusive and equitable multilateralism can better address the world’s challenges, especially peace and sustainable development – so crucial for progress in our dark times.

Global South needs better voice
While working for Goldman Sachs, Lord Jim O’Neill referred to Brazil, Russia, India, and China as the BRIC countries.

With South Africa joining, ostensibly representing Africa, they soon began meeting regularly. As members of the G20 group of the world’s twenty largest economies, the BRICS initially lobbied on financial issues.

They have since incorporated other large economies of the South, but also incurred the wrath of President Trump. While some nations have sought to join the enlarged BRICS plus (BRICS+), a few have hesitated after being invited.

BRICS has no record of strong and consistent advocacy of the interests of smaller developing economies. Most financially weak small nations doubt that BRICS+ will serve them well.

Higher US interest rates have triggered massive capital inflows, especially from the poorest countries, depriving them of finance at a time of greater need.

Meanwhile, aid levels have fallen tremendously, especially with Trump 2.0. Official development assistance (ODA) to the Global South is now below 0.3% of GDP, less than half the 0.7% commitment made in 1969.

Lowering tax rates has further squeezed the West’s already limited budgetary resources as stagnation deepens. Trump’s tariffs, US expenditure cuts, and greater Western military spending deepen worldwide economic contraction.

Non-alignment for our times
The Global South must urgently promote a new non-alignment for multilateral peace, development, and international cooperation to address Third World challenges better.

Even IMF number two, Gita Gopinath, agrees that developing countries should opt for non-alignment to benefit from not taking sides in the new Cold War.

With the exception of Brazil’s Lula, leadership by statesmen with international standing beyond their national stature largely passed with Nelson Mandela.

A few dynamic new leaders have emerged, but have not taken on the responsibilities of Global South leadership. Such leadership is in short supply despite the urgent need.

It is much easier to revive, reform, and reinvigorate NAM than to start from scratch. Although it has been less influential in recent decades, it can be revitalised.

Also, foreign policies are typically less subject to other typical national domestic policy considerations. Hence, they do not vary as much with the governments of the day.

Also, most developing country governments must appear to protect national interests to secure political support and legitimacy for survival.

Hence, conservative, even reactionary governments may take otherwise surprising anti-hegemonic positions in multilateral fora, especially with growing widespread resentment of bullying for extortion.

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa, Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

Sexual Violence Against Women, Children in War ‘Strategic’ and Growing

Mon, 08/25/2025 - 20:17

Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, briefs the Security Council during the meeting on women, peace and security. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

By Naomi Myint Breuer
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 25 2025 (IPS)

Sexual violence against women and children during wars should not be considered collateral damage. “It is strategy, it is systematic, and it is used more and more,” Permanent Representative of Denmark to the United Nations (UN) Christina Markus Lassen said.

Lassen was speaking at the August 19 Security Council meeting on Women and Peace and Security after the 16th annual Report of the Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence revealed a 25 percent increase in conflict-related sexual violence from the previous year and concerning global trends on the use of sexual violence as a form of torture and against prisoners of war.

Women and girls made up 92 percent of the victims; sexual violence against children increased by 35 percent, the report, which was published on August 14 said.

“Proliferating and escalating conflicts were marked by widespread conflict-related sexual violence, amid record levels of displacement and increased militarization,” the report found.

Widespread displacement, food insecurity and access to small and light weapons were cited as factors increasing the risk of sexual violence, especially for women and girls. Firearms are used in 70–90 percent of recorded cases.

The report, which covers 21 countries in the period from January to December 2024, found the most violations recorded in the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Somalia and South Sudan. Victims other than women and girls included men, boys, persons with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, racial and ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities. Victims ranged from ages one to 75.

Panamanian ambassador to the UN and current president of the Security Council, Eloy Alfaro de Alba, called the report “deeply sobering” in a statement on behalf of the Security Council signatories of the Shared Commitments on Women, Peace and Security on August 19.

“These crimes persist where legal systems fail, justice is denied and survivors are silenced by stigma and fear of reprisals,” he said.

Patten reminded the Security Council that a lack of access to services and safe reporting channels, as well as many instances of women being killed after sexual violence, means the report underrepresents the issue.

“These alarming figures do not reflect the global scale and prevalence of these crimes,” her office added in a press release.

The report listed 63 State and non-State parties responsible for or suspected of perpetrating sexual violence in armed conflicts on the Security Council’s agenda. In a new appendix section, the report listed parties to be on notice for potential listing in the next report. The list included Israel and Russia for potential violations by armed and security forces against prisoners of war.

At the August 19 Security Council meeting, the First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, criticized the inclusion of Russia on the list. He explained that Russia complies with International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and upholds the rights of prisoners of war.

“We can safely say that the information in the UN SG annual Report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence does not reflect reality,” he said.

The report highlighted an increase in sexual violence perpetrated in the form of torture, humiliation and information extraction, especially targeting men and boys in Myanmar, Palestine, Syria, Yemen and Ukraine. Sexual violence is also used to establish control over territories and natural resources, recruit fighters and perpetrate extremist ideologies, according to the report, including in Ukraine.

Polyanskiy said Russian law enforcement agencies have found no evidence of sexual violence committed by Russian soldiers against Ukrainians and that the report is using unsubstantiated sources and no evidence to make these claims against Russia.

“[The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine] is still refusing to provide a list of those who allegedly died in Bucha, therefore confirming the staged and propaganda nature of this disgusting provocation,” he said.

He called the investigations subjective, non-credible and biased.

“Russia has officially refused to cooperate with [the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine] because of their blatant bias and their purely anti-Russian bent of their work,” Polyanskiy said.

He claimed that the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sexual Violence in Conflict holds a double standard, as they refuse to cooperate with Russia, which has attempted to bring to light crimes committed by Ukrainian servicemen against citizens.

“Conflict-related sexual violence is absolutely heinous and unacceptable, but it is also heinous to try to manipulate this issue and politicize it,” he said. “It undermines international efforts to ensure punishment for such crimes.”

The Permanent Representative of Denmark to the UN, Christina Markus Lassen, urged Russia and Israel to grant the UN access to the ground to monitor the situation. She called on Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine and hold perpetrators of sexual violence accountable.

Other trends reported on were the use of physical violence accompanying sexual violence, such as summary executions, as well as abductions and trafficking for sexual slavery and exploitation. Many survivors and their children experienced socioeconomic exclusion and impoverishment as a result of deep-rooted stigma surrounding sexual violence victims.

Alfaro de Alba stressed the importance of protecting health infrastructure, supporting women-led organizations and enhancing gender-sensitive early warning systems to address the issue. He also called for consistent funding for the response to sexual violence and the transition from condemnation to “prevention, accountability and innovation.”

“We call for an end to impunity for sexual and gender-based violence and demand accountability as the norm for these crimes,” he said. “Accountability shifts shame from victims to perpetrators and helps break cycles of violence.”

The report recommends that the Security Council’s sanctions committees target consistent perpetrators with sanctions. The SG called on parties to implement the specific measures outlined in the 2019 Security Council Resolution 2467 for the prevention of sexual violence. The report also called for clear orders prohibiting sexual violence, ensuring accountability, and granting UN access to affected areas.

Victims were often unable to reach healthcare providers within the 72-hour window when care is most urgent. Parties in conflict often prevented humanitarian resources from reaching survivors, according to the report. Healthcare facilities were destroyed at unprecedented levels, and service providers were attacked, harassed, and threatened. Reported compliance with international humanitarian law was low. Due to declining UN peace operations, the UN system is no longer capable of providing support to survivors.

“Services are least available at the very moment when survivors need them most,” Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, told the Security Council.

She and other members of the Council, such as Lassen, reminded them that victims are actively targeted.

“Sexual violence is routinely used as a tactic of war. Lives are torn apart, and communities are shattered by violence and silence enforced at gunpoint,” Lassen said. “Conflict-related sexual violence is not collateral damage. It is strategy, it is systematic, and it is used more and more.”

Patten called on the Security Council for urgent measures.

“Can we afford to undercut multilateral cooperation at a time when militarism is on the march and the clock is being turned back on women’s rights?” she asked the Council. “The price tag will be more chaos and hostility, erasing decades of development and fanning the flames of future conflict.”

Yet, Polyanskiy downplayed the importance of the issue, telling the Security Council that conflict-based sexual violence is only one aspect of the Women and Peace and Security agenda.

“[Sexual violence] is not the root cause of the emergence of conflict and should not be viewed in isolation of other important factors on the agenda,” he said.

He also criticized universalizing the issue, as he said each conflict has its own “reasons and evolves differently.” He said this creates a superficial and unproductive response.

But Patten stressed the importance of providing survivors with a “life of dignity” and action to eliminate sexual violence. According to Pratten, addressing this issue holds great meaning.

“Survivor-centered, multi-sectoral services are not a soft issue but rather the ultimate expression of political will,” she said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa, Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

‘The Surge in Executions Shouldn’t Be Mistaken for Strength – It’s a Desperate Act of a Collapsing Dictatorship’

Mon, 08/25/2025 - 20:07

By CIVICUS
Aug 25 2025 (IPS)

CIVICUS speaks about the Iranian regime’s execution of political prisoners with Safora Sadidi, a human rights activist with the Women’s Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Safora lost her father and six family members to the theocratic regime, and has dedicated over two decades to the Iranian Resistance’s international efforts.

Safora Sadidi

On 27 July, Iranian authorities executed two political prisoners, Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, in Ghezel Hesar prison, Alborz province. They were accused of being affiliated with the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK), an opposition group, and their charges included ‘waging war against God’. Their trial lasted only five minutes. The regime executed at least 96 prisoners in July alone, just ahead of the anniversary of a 1988 massacre in which the state killed an estimated 30,000 political prisoners. The surge in executions is part of an intensified crackdown on dissent as the regime faces mounting international pressure.

How do the recent executions connect to your experience and what do they reveal about the regime’s strategy?

The killings of Ehsani and Hassani are a painful echo of my personal tragedy. I lost seven members of my family in the struggle against this religious dictatorship, including my father. Like Behrouz and Mehdi, he was a member of the PMOI/MEK and was executed in 1988 along with 30,000 other political prisoners whose only ‘crime’ was demanding freedom and justice. I was six years old and losing my father was the heaviest burden of my childhood. It’s a grief that never leaves you, and it resurfaces with every announcement of another life taken.

Last week, another five political prisoners were forcibly transferred to the site where Behrouz and Mehdi were executed. They are next in line, and at imminent risk.

As the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Iran has stated, the killing spree continues because the architects of the 1988 massacre never faced consequences. Many of them now hold senior positions in the government, and impunity fuels their brutality.

Executions are a political weapon that exposes the regime’s strategy for survival: terror. Since its first day in power, it has ruled through systematic repression, executing dissidents at home and exporting terrorism abroad. To date, it has executed over 120,000 people.

The recent surge in executions shouldn’t be mistaken for strength: it’s a desperate act of a collapsing dictatorship. History shows mass killings are the final resort of failing regimes, and that’s exactly what we are seeing in Iran today. When state media praises the 1988 massacre as a ‘successful historical experience’ to be repeated, it exposes its only remaining tool to cling to power. The regime intensifies repression because it senses its end is near.

The fact that prisoners like Ehsani and Hassani were executed despite European Parliament resolutions and widespread international condemnation is a sign of a profound internal crisis. It also reveals that the regime’s primary war is not against any foreign power, but against the Iranian people, particularly women and young people, who it fears most. These killings are meant to frighten us into submission. But they are backfiring: with every drop of blood spilled, people’s resolve to overthrow this regime becomes a hundred times stronger.

What challenges do women human rights defenders face?

In Iran’s medieval dictatorship, gender apartheid is the law, with stoning and public executions of women as official policy. As a woman, I face double repression: from the regime’s institutionalised misogyny and from its political narrative, which seeks to erase women’s role in the opposition.

Those who dare to resist face severe brutality. Pregnant women and teenage girls as young as 13 have been executed, and mothers have been raped and tortured in cages designed to break their will. Yet it is their resilience that inspires generations. Take Maryam Akbari Monfared, a mother of three who has spent almost 16 years behind bars without a break, simply for demanding justice for siblings executed in the 1988 massacre. The regime has said she won’t be released unless she renounces her call for accountability, but she refuses to do so. Her courage inspires countless others.

What truly frightens authorities is that women keep organising, learning and leading despite the risks. They show their bravery in all-female teams of resistance units, risking their lives on the frontlines and motivating all of Iran to rise against the dictatorship. As Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the Iranian Resistance, has said: the courage and leadership of women will strike the regime where it least expects it. That’s why I and so many others are willing to pay the price.

How do families of victims support each other?

Our greatest strength is solidarity. The bonds between the families of the executed and political prisoners began at the prison gates and grew into a united front that has resisted two dictatorships – first the Shah, now the mullahs – for some 60 years. We are bound by a shared love of freedom, a desire for justice and a common enemy: the regime that took our loved ones.

What cements that bond is the cause for which our parents, children and siblings gave their lives: the liberation of Iran. My father’s and 120,000 other people’s blood was spilled by a regime that thought it could extinguish this desire for freedom – but it was wrong. Before his execution, my dad sent me a cassette tape with a message: ‘My daughter’s heart is her homeland. And because her homeland is captive, her heart is also captive’. His sacrifice taught me, and millions of young Iranians, that we must fight to win back our homeland.

Knowing I am not alone gives me strength. Together with other families of the executed and political prisoners, we transform grief into resolve. We provide each other with moral and material support, organise memorials, run international campaigns and document every crime of this regime. We stand side by side in courtrooms, at conferences and on the streets, making sure the world hears the truth.

This is a deeply rooted, organised resistance, built on the sacrifices of those before us. We keep the flame of resistance alive while supporting the new generation of resistance units fighting for a democratic Iran. Rajavi’s 10-Point Plan offers a path to that future.

How should world leaders respond to the regime’s brutality?

As someone who has lived through this system’s brutality, I want the international community to truly understand the cost of silence. For too long, a shameful policy of appeasement has bought time for the mullahs, leading to more executions, more repression and more terror exported abroad. When the world remains largely silent, it gives a green light for state murders to continue. The consequences are devastating: in 2023, Iran accounted for 74 per cent of the world’s recorded executions. Silence and inaction are complicity. The world must choose between standing with Iranian people or their executioners.

But mere verbal condemnations aren’t enough. We need tangible action: states should make all political and economic relations with this regime conditional on a complete halt to executions. We also demand accountability for those we’ve lost. We call on the international community to apply the principle of universal jurisdiction to bring the perpetrators to justice – including those responsible for the 1988 massacre – and judge them for committing crimes against humanity. The evidence is ready and the witnesses are waiting.

The international community must also reject the false choice between war and appeasement. There is a democratic alternative: the National Council of Resistance of Iran. We ask world leaders to end appeasement and stand on the right side of history, alongside Iran’s people.

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SEE ALSO
Israel vs Iran: new war begins while Gaza suffering continues CIVICUS Lens 19.Jun.2025
Iran: ‘The regime is executing protesters to create fear and suppress any attempt at new mobilisation’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Asal Abasian 24.Feb.2024
Iran: ‘The regime uses executions to maintain its grip on power through fear and intimidation’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Jasmin Ramsey 15.Feb.2024

Categories: Africa, Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

Government Constructions Hit Water Recharge Area in El Salvador

Mon, 08/25/2025 - 16:38

A heavy storm caused flooding in areas of San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, on August 16. These phenomena mostly occur during the rainy season, partly due to the environmental degradation of a water recharge area known as El Espino. Credit: Cruz Roja de El Salvador

By Edgardo Ayala
SAN SALVADOR, Aug 25 2025 (IPS)

Two construction projects pushed by the government of El Salvador, in a water recharge area adjacent to the country’s capital, on the slopes of the San Salvador volcano, threaten to make the area more vulnerable and increase the risk of flooding in the city’s poor neighborhoods downstream.

That is what environmentalists, and especially residents of communities who have lived for decades in this green area and witnessed the impact of urban expansion, told IPS. Like a cancer, it is slowly eating away at the 800 hectares of what was, in the 19th century, one of the main coffee farms, El Espino, in what is now the western periphery of San Salvador.“I was born here, I am a native of this farm, and I have seen how everything has been deteriorating” –Héctor López.

“I was born here, I am a native of this farm, and I have seen how everything has been deteriorating,” 63-year-old Héctor López, a member of the El Espino Agricultural Production Cooperative, told IPS. The cooperative has 100 members who are mostly dedicated to coffee cultivation.

“It was all pure coffee plantations, owned by the Dueñas family, and over time El Espino has been affected by the constructions”, said López.

The two new government projects continue the pattern of deforestation that the property has been subjected to since the 1990s, a product of the unstoppable advance of the real estate sector.

These are the El Salvador National Stadium, which will hold 50,000 seats and whose construction began in September 2022 on an area of 55,000 square meters, and is expected to be ready in 2027.

Meanwhile, the new Center for Fairs and Conventions (Cifco) will begin construction in the coming months on an area of similar size. Both would cover about 10 hectares.

The cost of the stadium is around 100 million dollars, but the authorities have not revealed the figure for the Cifco.

Runoff coming down from the San Salvador volcano overflows a river, downstream, and floods areas populated by low-income families in the southern part of the city. The capacity to absorb rainwater will be affected by two large construction projects promoted by the Salvadoran government. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

The forest turned to cement

With each new construction, the soil absorbs less rainwater, and each storm turns the runoff into a river that reaches the poor neighborhoods of San Salvador, a city of 2.4 million inhabitants, including its metropolitan area, within a total country population of six million.

“When everything is paved, the water flows downward and causes flooding in neighborhoods like Santa Lucía,” Ricardo Navarro of the Center for Appropriate Technology (Cesta) told IPS, referring to a residential area of low-income families located in eastern San Salvador.

“When rainwater soaks into the forests, there isn’t much runoff, but without the forest, flooding increases,” adds Navarro, who founded Cesta 45 years ago, the local branch of Friends of the Earth.

The coffee plantation that still survives in El Espino is a forest populated with a rich diversity of tree species and wildlife.

Both the stadium and the convention center are funded by non-reimbursable funds from China, which also donated a US$54 million library, inaugurated in November 2023, as a sort of reward because El Salvador ended the relations it had maintained for decades with Taiwan in 2018.

China considers Taiwan part of its territory and rewards nations that break ties with Taiwan, which is currently recognized as an independent nation by only 12 countries.

Additionally, as part of this package of donations, China built a US$24 million tourist pier in the port city of La Libertad, south of San Salvador on the Pacific coast, and is constructing a water purification plant at Lake Ilopango, east of the capital, among other projects.

Elsa Méndez, together with Ever Martínez, from the El Espino Agricultural Production Cooperative, laments that urban development in the area affects them every rainy season, to the west of San Salvador. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

Navarro lamented the lack of environmental awareness among the authorities, and more specifically, of the country’s president, Nayib Bukele, who has governed with a markedly authoritarian style since taking office in June 2019. In 2024, he won a second consecutive term, something previously prohibited by the Republic’s Constitution.

Lawmakers from his party, New Ideas, who control the unicameral Legislative Assembly, amended the constitution on July 31 to allow Bukele the option to run for the presidency as many times as he wishes.

Because of this authoritarian style, it is known that in El Salvador, nothing is done without the consent of the ruler.

“President Bukele: Not long ago there was a storm, which caused serious flooding in the lower parts of the city. President, the climate is changing, I can guarantee you, with absolute certainty, that the climate situation is going to get much worse due to climate change,” Navarro urged.

The environmentalist suggested that, in any case, if the construction is not stopped, the convention center should be built adjacent to the stadium, so that common spaces, such as the parking area, could be shared.

The El Espino farm belonged to the Dueñas family, one of the wealthiest in the country, in the 19th century, then linked to coffee production. Land reform seized the property in 1980 and handed it over to dozens of families who worked there as colonists, peasants who labored on the farm in semi-slavery conditions and received a portion of land to build their house.

However, a court ruling decided in 1986 that a part of the farm, around 250 hectares, was urbanizable land and should be returned to the Dueñas family.

Since then, that segment of the farm has been turning into an area of permanent construction of shopping malls and luxury residences, developed by Urbánica, the real estate arm of the Dueñas family.

“If we analyze the companies that are building there and if we pull the thread, we end up at Urbanística,” economist José Luis Magaña explained to IPS.

“There should be clarity about what the infrastructure needs are,” said the expert on the two government projects. “Instead of financing a school repair project with a loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, the government could have asked the Asian power to rebuild those educational centers”, he adds.

In 2022, several families from the El Espino cooperative participated in the “San Salvador sponge city” project, to increase rainwater filtration levels through the construction of trenches and absorption wells, to prevent runoff from causing floods downstream. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

The usual floods

On the night of August 15, a heavy storm caused flooding in several sectors of the Salvadoran capital, whose avenues seemed to turn into rivers and lagoons, with hundreds of cars stuck.

In some areas, trash clogged the city’s storm drains and the water rose and flooded into residential areas. Around 25 families were evacuated and sheltered in safe locations.

San Salvador was founded in 1545 at the foot of the San Salvador volcano, a massif rising 1893 meters above sea level, and this location has placed the city at risk of floods and landslides.

In September 1982, a mudflow came down from the volcano’s summit and buried part of a residential area called Montebello, killing about 500 people.

The southern zone of the capital is the most affected by flooding during the rainy season, from May to November. The rain and runoff coming down from the volcano feed small streams along the way, which in turn flow into the El Arenal stream and the populous Málaga neighborhood.

In July 2008, heavy rains caused that stream to overflow, and 32 people drowned when a bus was swept away by the current.

As a way to reduce the vulnerability of this southern zone, in 2020 the city was part of the “Sponge City” project, promoted by the United Nations Environment Programme.

Some 1,150 hectares of forests and coffee plantations were restored in the upper part of the San Salvador volcano, seeking to reactivate the capacity to absorb rainwater through the construction of catchment tanks and trenches amidst the coffee fields.

Urbánica is the real estate arm of the Dueñas family, which builds luxury residences in the capital of El Salvador, in the area of the former El Espino farm, like the one in the image, called Alcalá. Credit: Urbánica

Environmental hope remains

Members of the El Espino cooperative actively participated in that project, as the communities of former colonists of the Dueñas family continue to live on the segment of the farm the land reform granted them, which currently totals 314 hectares and are also hit by the constructions in the upper part, called El Boquerón, near the volcano’s crater.

Deforestation continues there to make way for more restaurants and luxury residences.

“We are worried that more and more construction keeps happening, and there are fewer trees, and more water runoff flowing downstream,” said cooperative member López, who took part in a meeting of the organization’s board members on August 19 when IPS visited the area.

Elsa Méndez, also a cooperative member, stated: “We try to infiltrate water with the trenches, but when the ground is already too saturated with water, we can’t do everything as a cooperative either. Everyone must raise awareness among all people, because the runoff from the volcano carries trash, bottles, plastic, etc.”

On Saturday, 16 families from the community went to reforest the upper area, and the task also served “to teach our children how to reforest,” said Méndez.

Social movement Todos Somos El Espino (We Are All El Espino) has called for a second rally to protest against the construction of the convention center on Saturday, August 23, as part of their plan to defend the increasingly threatened forest.

“At this march, we will be doing the first preliminary count of the signatures collected in physical form… so that Salvadorans can say, ‘I defend El Espino,'” Gabriela Capacho, who is part of that movement, told IPS.

Categories: Africa, Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

The Asbestos Crisis Isn’t Over — Reversing the Ban Would Make It Worse

Mon, 08/25/2025 - 13:16

Asbestos exposure has profoundly impacted regions with significant military installations. Credit: Shutterstock

By Cristina Johnson
SAN MARCOS, California, USA, Aug 25 2025 (IPS)

For more than a century, asbestos was an indispensable fixture in the American industry, particularly the military. This versatile natural mineral was widely utilized to line Navy ships and strengthen their installations. What many were unaware of was that once damaged, asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) can release toxic fibers that could lodge in tissues covering internal organs of those exposed, where they build up over time.

This bioaccumulation causes severe inflammation and scarring over time, leading to life-threatening diseases such as lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma. Unfortunately, by the time the science was confirmed, service members had already been exposed, and thousands had tragically passed away.

Asbestos Nation’s map indicates that from 1999 to 2017, asbestos-related illnesses claimed the lives of 236,981 to 277,654 Americans—a toll that continues to rise. Annually, roughly 12,000 to 15,000 people succumbed to diseases that could have been prevented with immediate proactive measures.

Federal government attempted to curb the danger, although those actions were made only after asbestos contamination had already become pervasive. In 1989, the country’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moved to restrict most ACMs .

Then, in 2002, the nation’s last asbestos mine finally shut down, which signaled what many hoped would be the end of domestic production.

Still, despite these significant milestones, chrysotile—the most exploited form of asbestos—remained legally accessible through imports and selective industrial applications. And such a critical oversight was only addressed in 2024 when the EPA pushed to prohibit the ongoing use of this mineral completely.

For the first time in a very long time, the US seemed poised to close the door on this lethal material. Now, the agency’s recent decision jeopardizes progress. Just this June 2025, EPA abruptly announced plans to reconsider the ban—a move that undermines enforcement, delays protections, and threatens to reopen the very channels of exposure the policy was designed to eliminate.

Veterans at a Disproportionate Risk of Asbestos Exposure

Asbestos exposure has profoundly impacted regions with significant military installations. Of these, California—which houses over 1.8 million veterans, the nation’s largest population of former service members—stands out as one of the most severely affected states.

Data show that between 1999 and 2017, more than 27,000 lives were lost to asbestos diseases in the Golden State alone, reflecting the repercussions stemming from the extensive use of ACMs in military bases such as the Naval Base San Diego and the now-decommissioned George Air Force Base.

Following California, Florida, and Pennsylvania—both of which host contaminated military and naval complexes like the old Naval Air Station Cecil Field and Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster—likewise logged more than 18,200 and 17,700 related deaths, respectively.

Among the asbestos-linked diseases, mesothelioma remains one of the most devastating, as it claimed nearly 55,000 American lives between 1999 and 2020 and accounted for around 2,000 to 3,000 new diagnoses each year.

Alarmingly, veterans across the country shoulder a heavier burden. Despite comprising only 6.1% of the adult population, they represent about a third of all mesothelioma cases reported yearly. Navy veterans’ asbestos exposure has been particularly severe, especially since their service required both living and working aboard vessels abundant in toxic materials.

True to that, research has shown that these veterans—along with merchant marine seamen—rank second in mesothelioma incidence, just next to the toll linked to the asbestos exposure of shipyard workers.

Why the Asbestos Ban Must Stand Firm

The EPA’s decision to revisit the chrysotile ban could unravel decades of progress in protecting public health. The science is apparent—no level of asbestos exposure is safe.

As such, weakening or delaying enforcement risks re-exposing workers, service members, and their families to supposedly preventable diseases. This reversal is particularly alarming in light of recent federal commitments to communities direly impacted by environmental toxins.

One notable example is the Honoring Our PACT Act of 2022—a bipartisan legislation—which expands access to healthcare and disability benefits for veterans suffering from service-related exposures, including asbestos.

While this legislation is indeed a step forward, its essential mission to support those who have sacrificed greatly for our nation may be jeopardized by concurrent policies that once again open the very channels of toxic exposure.

To retreat on the asbestos ban now would be to repeat the same mistakes that allowed this crisis to occur in the first place. A firm national ban is therefore more than a regulatory safeguard—it is a moral commitment.

By upholding the prohibition without compromise, policymakers can finally close a tragic chapter in the industrial and military past of the country while protecting future generations from the same fate.

About the Author

Cristina Johnson is a Navy veteran advocate for Asbestos Ships Organization, a nonprofit whose primary mission is to raise awareness about the dangers of asbestos exposure on Navy ships and assist veteransin navigating the VA claims process.

Categories: Africa, Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

Aid Funding Crisis Means Parliamentarians’ Visionary Leadership Even More Crucial

Mon, 08/25/2025 - 12:55

Dr. Alvaro Bermejo, Director General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) addresses the Let's Discuss the Future of Africa Together seminar that took place last week (August 21) on the sidelines of TICAD9 in Yokohama City, Japan. Credit: APDA

By Cecilia Russell
YOKOHAMA CITY, Japan & JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Aug 25 2025 (IPS)

As funding for sexual and reproductive health rights was on a “cliff edge,” parliamentarians now needed to play a “visionary” leadership role because “financing strong, resilient health systems for all their people rests with governments,” said Dr. Alvaro Bermejo, Director General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

He was speaking at the Let’s Discuss the Future of Africa Together seminar that took place last week (August 21) on the sidelines of TICAD9 in Yokohama City, Japan.

The session was organized by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA), in collaboration with the Forum of Arab Parliamentarians for Population and Development (FAPPD) and the African Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development (FPA).

He told parliamentarians that their role is most critical.

“Africa’s health faces a serious challenge: According to WHO’s latest analysis, health aid is projected to decline by up to 40% this year compared to just two years ago. This is not a gradual shift—it is a cliff edge,” Bermejo said. “You know as well as I do that lifesaving medicines are sitting in warehouses, health workers are losing jobs, clinics are closing, and millions are missing care.”

While this reality was outrageous, it needed to be adapted to.

“And in this crisis lies an opportunity—an opportunity to shake off the yoke of aid dependency and embrace a new era of sovereignty, self-reliance, and solidarity,” with a clear mission to protect the health and lives of women and vulnerable populations through delivering high-quality sexual and reproductive health services.

Parliamentarians engaged in debates during a policy dialogue seminar organized by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA), in collaboration with the Forum of Arab Parliamentarians for Population and Development (FAPPD) and the African Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development (FPA). Credit: APDA

This seminar and another in the series, Policy Dialogue on the Africa-Japan Partnership for Population and Development, were both supported by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Arab States Regional Office (ASRO), the Japan Trust Fund (JTF) and IPPF.

During the discussions, a wide range of topics about population dynamics in Africa and Africa-Japan cooperation were discussed.

In his opening remarks, Ichiro Aisawa, a member of the House of Representatives of Japan, told the seminar it was necessary to take joint action across borders and generations.

“Youth holds the key to unlocking Africa’s future. By 2050, it is predicted that approximately 70 percent of Africa’s population will be under the age of 30. As African countries enter a demographic dividend period, the role played by parliamentarians in each country will be extremely important.

Aisawa said it was necessary to listen to the voices of the community in addressing issues related to youth empowerment, gender equality, and sexual and reproductive health (SRH).

Parliamentarians should take “concrete action through legislation and policies; it is essential to harnessing the potential of young people, directly linking them to social and economic growth, and creating a society in which no one is left behind.”

Yoko Kamikawa, Chairperson of Japan Parliamentarians for Population (JPFP), addresses a seminar for African and Asian parliamentarians on the sidelines of the TICAD9 in Yokohama City, Japan. Credit: APDA

During the discussions, representatives from Africa gave examples of how Japan had supported their health initiatives, especially important in a climate of decreasing aid.

Maneno Zumura, an MP from Uganda, said what compounded the issues in her country and in Africa was “the changes in climate. The unpredicted climate has affected agricultural activities by 40 percent, especially in drought-prone areas of the country.” This had resulted in nearly a quarter (24 percent) of children experiencing malnutrition.

However, she noted that Japan had made considerable contributions to education and health.

“As we assess Uganda’s development and Japan’s impact, it’s clear that sustainable progress thrives on global solidarity and local governance. Key achievements include a 62 percent rise in women’s incomes through cooperatives, a 50 percent drop in maternal mortality in refugee settlements, and supporting the road infrastructure and education, illustrating how policy-driven interventions can break cycles of poverty and inequality.”

There were several specific projects she alluded to, including education experts from Japan who contributed to an improvement of the quality of primary education in districts of Wakiso, Mbale, and Arua through the Quality Improvement in Primary Education Project (2021-2023). They also trained 1,500 teachers in participatory teaching methods.

“The Government of Japan supported the vulnerable communities like refugees and host communities by strengthening the social services like health in refugee camps like Rhino Camp,” Zumura continued, including construction of a health center with antenatal facilities serving over 300,000 people in camps of Bidibidi and Rhino Camp. They also trained 200 health workers in the management of childhood illnesses and maternal health care.

Mwene Luhamba, MP, Zambia, said his country was looking forward to partnering with Japan in expanding One-Stop Reproductive Health Services, enhancing parliamentary engagement, and investing in youth programs.

Bermejo said part of the solution to the development issues is to confront constraints.

“Some countries in Africa do need global solidarity, but what Africa needs from the world, more than anything else, is fair terms. We must also confront the structural constraints. Debt service burdens are crowding out social investments. Let us seize this moment, not just to repair but to transform,” he said. “Sexual and reproductive health services save lives. They empower individuals, promote dignity, and drive national development.”

In her closing remarks, Yoko Kamikawa, Chairperson of Japan Parliamentarians for Population (JPFP), said that it was through dialogue across borders and sectors that “we build consensus, strengthen legal frameworks, and ensure that national strategies reflect the voices of all people and empower them—especially women and youth.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa, Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

Zanzibar’s Blue Economy Offers Hope Amid Rising Seas and Gender Inequity

Mon, 08/25/2025 - 11:21

Saada Juma (L) works with fellow seaweed farmers at Jambiani coast in Zanzibar. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

By Kizito Makoye
JAMBIANI, Zanzibar, Aug 25 2025 (IPS)

At dawn on the white-sand shores of Jambiani, 45-year-old Saada Juma braces herself against the pull of the tide, wrangling ropes laced with seaweed. Her hands, hardened by decades of labor, move instinctively as she secures her aquatic crop.

“I’ve been farming seaweed since I was a teenager,” she tells IPS, squinting against the morning sun. “This ocean is our life. But for us women, it’s always been a fight to be seen, to be heard.”

Juma is one of thousands of Zanzibari women who sustain the island’s marine economy through seaweed farming, artisanal fishing, ecotourism, and conservation. While their labor underpins Zanzibar’s blue economy—a model that leverages marine resources for sustainable development—many women say the system still disproportionately favors men.

Changing Seas, Unchanged Inequities

Seaweed farming became a prominent source of income in Zanzibar in the 1990s, especially for women. Yet climate change is altering the dynamics of this once-reliable livelihood.

“I started farming seaweed because my mother did it. Now my daughters do it too,” says 52-year-old Mwantumu Suleiman, a seaweed farmer in Jambiani village. “But we’re stuck in the same place. The sea has changed, and we have not been helped to change with it.”

Warming waters and strong tides are making shallow-water cultivation increasingly unviable. But venturing further offshore poses serious risks.

“Most of us don’t know how to swim and even if we did, we don’t have diving gear,” Suleyman says. “So, we pay young men to go for us—if we have the money. Otherwise, we just lose out.”

Tools, Training, and the Gender Gap

On the coast of Jambiani, Juma wades ankle-deep through the surf, examining a torn seaweed rope. She is exasperated.

“These tools are not made for us,” she says, showing a frayed line. “They’re cheap, break easily, and we have nowhere to store or dry the harvest properly. We need better equipment.”

For women like Juma, the work goes beyond survival—it is a path to independence. Yet limited access to financial services, poor infrastructure, and insufficient training have prevented women from reaping the full benefits.

“Seaweed farmers earn the least in the chain, even though we do the hardest work,” she says. “We want to do more—make creams, soaps, drinks—but no one trains us.”

A Blueprint for Gender-Inclusive Growth

To address these imbalances, Zanzibar’s government—supported by UN Women and Norway—launched the Blue Economy Gender Strategy and Action Plan in 2022. The initiative is the first in the region aimed at embedding gender equity in marine policy.

“Women are not just participants; they are leaders in these sectors,” says Asha Ali, a gender advisor who helped draft the strategy. “But leadership requires opportunity, training, and recognition—all of which have been scarce.”

The plan outlines targeted reforms, including skills training, access to credit, and the allocation of designated sea plots to women.

From Tides to Tables of Power

Some women are already pushing for reform from within. Amina Salim, 40, leads a women’s seaweed farming cooperative in Zanzibar and has become a vocal advocate for women’s rights in marine economies.

“I’ve sat in dusty classrooms and government offices to tell our story,” she says. “It’s not just about seaweed. It’s about survival. We are feeding our families, educating our children—and we deserve a better deal.”

Under her leadership, women have petitioned local authorities, secured training opportunities, and begun engaging in policy-making processes.

“We’ve come a long way,” Salim adds. “Five years ago, we had no voice. Today, the government is listening. They’ve promised designated farming zones and better tools. Now, we want action.”

A Sector Under Pressure

Zanzibar’s blue economy accounts for nearly 30 percent of the islands’ GDP and provides employment to one-third of its population. Yet experts warn that the sector’s sustainability is threatened by gender disparities and environmental degradation.

“Women have been sidelined in marine industries for decades,” says Dr. Nasra Bakari, a marine economist at the State University of Zanzibar. “If we empower them—through training, equipment, access to markets—the entire economy benefits.”

Bakari notes that community-driven conservation projects led by women, such as coral reef restoration and ecotourism, hold great promise for sustainable development.

“Let’s not forget—women know the ocean. They’ve worked these shores longer than most. We just need to meet them halfway.”

Charting a Climate-Resilient Path

At the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, Tanzania used the global platform to push for aquatic foods as a solution to hunger, climate resilience, and sustainable growth.

“Our survival is intimately tied to the ocean. It feeds us, it employs our people, and it holds the promise to lift millions out of poverty,” said Zanzibar’s Minister for Blue Economy and Fisheries, Shaaban Ali Othman, during a high-level panel discussion.

Highlighting the urgent need to manage marine resources responsibly, Othman detailed how Zanzibar’s blue economy policy has prioritized gender equity and climate adaptation.

“Communities in Zanzibar and along the Tanzanian coastline have fished for generations, but now we must ensure those practices are not just traditional but also sustainable and inclusive,” he said.

Othman also emphasized the importance of value addition and cold-chain infrastructure, noting post-harvest losses remain a major challenge.

“We are piloting aquatic food training centers aimed at supporting youth to acquire and apply climate-smart aquaculture skills, including sustainable pond farming and low-carbon feed techniques,” he said. “This is how we move from potential to prosperity.”

Expanding the Blue Horizon

In parallel, Zanzibar’s Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) initiative—supported by Norway—is mapping marine zones for tourism, shipping, conservation, and fishing. This aims to prevent resource conflicts and ensure environmental protection.

“It’s like a marine land use plan,” says Omar Abdalla, MSP coordinator. “We want to avoid conflicts and protect sensitive areas before they are damaged.”

Still, building trust remains a challenge.

“These maps are made by computers in offices,” says Salim Juma, a sea cucumber diver. “They should come underwater with us. See what’s really happening.”

Omar acknowledges the tension. “We are trying to combine science and traditional knowledge. It’s not easy. But we’re learning.”

Seaweed Innovation and Investment Opportunities

Zulekha Khamis, a 42-year-old farmer in Paje, is among 300 women testing new seaweed farming techniques using floating rafts suited for deeper waters.

“Before, we didn’t know what to do. But now we attend training. We know about climate change,” says Mariam Hamad, leader of the cooperative. “We are not just farmers. We are scientists in the water.”

The group also produces seaweed-based soaps and cosmetics, boosting income and self-reliance.

“We earn more now,” Hamad says. “Some of us can send children to school or build better houses.”

Yet the risk of donor dependency looms large. “If the support goes away, we will go back to struggling,” she cautions.

To address financing gaps, Zanzibar plans to launch a Blue Economy Investment Forum and a Blue Economy Incubator to connect entrepreneurs with ethical investors. But barriers remain.

“Banks don’t understand blue startups,” says Imani Kombo, a 29-year-old ecotourism entrepreneur. “We need patient capital that sees beyond profit.”

A Call for Inclusive Sustainability

Back in Jambiani, Juma ties her final line of seaweed to dry, her eyes on the sea.

“We’ve been patient with promises,” she says. “Now we need results.”

She dreams of building a small factory to process seaweed into cosmetics and health products. “We want to control the full value chain—from the sea to the shelf,” she adds.

As Zanzibar advances its blue economy agenda, the call from women is crystal clear: the sea may sustain life, but without equity and inclusion, the promise of prosperity will remain out of reach.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa, Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

UNICEF to Deliver 1.4 million Cholera Vaccines to Sudan Amid Supply Chain Breakdowns

Mon, 08/25/2025 - 09:03

Children and adults receive treatment at a cholera treatment centre in Tawila, North Darfur. Credit: UNICEF/Mohammed Jamal

By Maximilian Malawista
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 25 2025 (IPS)

In Tawila, North Darfur State in Sudan, more than 1,180 cholera cases, including 300 cases in children, and at least 20 deaths have been reported since the first case was detected on June 21. Tawila has absorbed 500,000 internally displaced people who are escaping violence, many of them fleeing about seventy kilometers from the state capital of Al Fasher, making this rapid surge in cases a major health concern amidst worsening hygiene, medical, and food supply chain deteriorations.

Across all five of the Darfur States, the total cases have reached 2,140, with at least eighty deaths, as UNICEF reports as of July 30th. This, coupled with the intensifying conflict, now puts 640,000 children under age five at a heightened risk of violence, disease, and hunger. With largely exhausted food, clean water, medicine, and hygienic supplies, a deadly combination of lacking essential resources and lethal disease now create the perfect climate for an all-out epidemic. UNICEF now requires an additional 30.6 million USD to fund emergency cholera response operations to strengthen health, water, hygiene, and sanitation services.

Sheldon Yett, UNICEF Representative for Sudan said: “Despite being preventable and easily treatable, cholera is ripping through Tawila and elsewhere in Darfur, threatening children’s lives, especially the youngest and most vulnerable.” He added: “We are working tirelessly with our partners on the ground to do everything we can to curb the spread and save lives – but the relentless violence is increasing the needs faster than we can meet them. We have and we continue to appeal for safe unimpeded access to urgently turn the tide and reach these children in need. They cannot wait a day longer.”

Logistical Difficulties

UNICEF has been using Port Sudan as a central logistics hub, where procurement and prepositioning are being conducted. Stocks of oral rehydration salts, IV fluid, water purification products, and hygiene kits are carefully monitored and released as soon as access allows. Access has been cut off by physical terrain, poor infrastructure, damaged or destroyed roads and bridges, disrupted communication networks, lack of power and fuel infrastructure, and even obtaining the necessary permits for delivery of supplies.

In North Darfur, hospitals are being bombed and health facilities have had to close due to proximity of fighting, which has severely limited access to healthcare. Lifesaving supplies such as vaccines and ready-to-use therapeutic food have also been depleted, and efforts to replenish supplies are becoming increasingly difficult as humanitarian aid access has been almost completely cut off. Aid convoys which do come are being looted or attacked.

Continued bureaucratic impediments have also deteriorated supply lines and services, which is compounding the already dangerous situation. Despite this, UNICEF is working on all fronts to address the outbreak, delivering life-saving equipment across sanitation, hygiene, water, health, and are increasing community engagement for better cooperation and communication.

UNICEF continues to call on the government and all other concerned parties to ensure safe, sustained and unimpeded accesses to reach children in Tawila and across the Darfur State in their mission to prevent the further loss of young lives. “These bureaucratic delays do not allow us to deliver at the scale and urgency required.”

30,000 people now have access to safe, clean, and chlorinated water daily, through UNICEF-supported water trucking, repaired water yards, and new water storage systems. Hygiene supplies have also helped 150,000 people in Daba Naira, in addition to chlorine tablets which are helping families treat their water.

To stop the cholera outbreak before it worsens, UNICEF is now preparing to deliver over 1.4 million oral cholera vaccine doses. They are working alongside the World Health Organization (WHO) and their other partners through the International Coordinating Group (ICG), to strengthen Cholera Treatment Centers and operations. Through these partnerships, UNICEF is managing vaccine procurement, cold chain logistics, and mobilization of local communities, while WHO and other partners are supporting technical guidance, surveillance, and campaign coordination, ensuring the most rapid and effective level of protection to the most vulnerable people. UNICEF has reported that these supplies would include cholera kits, soap, plastic sheeting and latrine slabs.

To support the large quantity of vaccines and medicine, UNICEF has supported the rehabilitation and the expansion of cold chain storage capacities. Such support includes the delivery of units of walk-in cold rooms, backup generators, and maintenance work on some of the cold chain structures. UNICEF has assured that this support has been provided on a national and state level, reaching the five Darfur states, in addition to the Kassala, Northern, Red Sea, and River Nile States.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa, Defense`s Feeds, European Union

Feminist Electrification: the Power Africa Needs

Mon, 08/25/2025 - 07:33

By Sudiksha Battineni
WASHINGTON DC, Aug 25 2025 (IPS)

Chad is one of the most extreme examples of energy poverty, with just 10% of the population connected to electricity, a rural electrification rate below 2%, and a global per capita electricity consumption rate that’s just 18% of the global average. This hinders its economic development.

So does its rapid population growth. Chad has one of the world’s fastest-growing populations; its 21 million people are expected to more than triple by the end of the century. Chad’s low educational attainment, with 38% of girls completed primary school, coupled with high rates of child marriage and fertility also pose problems for its development.

The World Bank is working on some of these fronts, including announcing a new agreement that will strengthen Chad’s education system, and launching Mission 300 in partnership with the African Development Bank to connect 300 million more people in Africa to electricity by 2030.

But these issues are all linked and can only be solved when they aren’t siloed. Affordable, clean energy for all is Sustainable Development Goal 7, which also relates to SDG 5, gender equity and women’s empowerment, which is preerequisite for lowering fertility and slowing population growth. Energy access is also interwoven with education (SDG 4), ending poverty (SDG 1), promoting health (SDG 3), fighting climate change (SDG 13), and the entire SDG agenda.

For example, energy poverty keeps hospitals from storing vaccines, people from starting businesses, and children from studying after sunset. It exacerbates the very inequalities that education seeks to combat, particularly gender inequality.

As a holistic way to redress it, women activists in energy-poor countries are promoting “feminist electrification” — explicitly designing energy investments to empower women as economic actors and consumers. This could include integrating family planning into energy rollouts, investing in women’s education, training, and leadership development, and including them in energy planning.

This perspective is currently lacking in Mission 300’s “energy compacts” — voluntary commitments outlining how countries, companies, and organizations affordable and clean energy for all. Chad’s National Energy Compact calls for adding connections for over 14 million more people, raising electricity access from 11% to 90% by 2030, achieving 46% access to clean cooking solutions by 2030, boosting renewables to 30% of total electricity generation, adding 866 MW of new capacity, and mobilizing $650.3 million in total investments, about one-third from the private sector.

The Compact addresses infrastructure, private sector engagement, and regulatory reform, but overlooks critical human dimensions of energy, including its intersection with gender equality and population growth.

For example, Chad’s high fertility rates result in large household sizes and increased energy demand for cooking, lighting, and other activities. Women manage most of the domestic energy needs, yet they generally aren’t part of energy decision-making.

Nearly all Chad’s rural households rely on wood for cooking, which devastates forests and exposes families to indoor air pollution that contributes to respiratory diseases. Clean cooking solutions, like LPG stoves or electric induction cookers, could transform these risks. But only if women can access, afford, and trust them.

Unmet family planning needs are accelerating Chad’s rapid population growth, which threatens to swamp any gains in energy access. With little education and few economic options, 61% of girls get married by age 18, part of the reason for Chad’s sky-high total fertility rate of 5.14 births per woman.

Fast population growth accelerates urban sprawl, drives deforestation for charcoal production, and makes it harder to extend grid infrastructure to meet energy demands.

For all these reasons, family planning and energy planning are connected. Chad can’t meet its Energy Compact targets without also setting and meeting goals for family planning and empowering women.

Feminist electrification would provide women with vocational training in solar installation, electric stove sales and maintenance, ensuring that clean energy solutions reach households while creating jobs for women and opportunity for self-determination, which universally tends to lower fertility rates. It would further the Compact’s goals of expanding decentralized renewable energy and fostering private investment by extending them to women.

Chad should revise its National Energy Compact to include a specific gender and demographics integration plan. It should require gender impact assessments for all new energy projects, track energy access outcomes by gender and income, and link electrification operations directly with family planning, health, and women’s economic empowerment initiatives.

Energy access is not just about how many kilowatts get generated; it’s about the human realities behind the numbers, and who shares the benefits of electricity. True access means that a woman in rural Chad can flip a switch, cook cleanly, breathe safely, and choose the size of her family.

That’s the kind of power Africa needs.

Sudiksha Battineni is a rising sophomore at Duke University and a Stanback Fellow at the Population Institute

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa, Defense`s Feeds, European Union

IPC Officially Declares Famine; More than Half a Million Starving in Gaza

Fri, 08/22/2025 - 20:55

The IPC confirmed famine conditions in Gaza City, Deir al Balah and Khan Younis. Credit: UNICEF/Mohammed Nateel

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 22 2025 (IPS)

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has officially declared that there is famine in Gaza. The world’s biggest food monitoring system raised its classification to Phase 5, the highest level on its food insecurity scale.

The latest IPC analysis – the sixth on the crisis in Gaza – confirms that as of mid-August famine is occurring in Gaza City and warns that by mid-September it will expand to Deir al Balah and Khan Younis. More than half a million Palestinians are facing “catastrophic levels” of hunger. It is estimated that by the end of September, more than 640,000 people will be living through “catastrophic conditions” without immediate, sustained intervention. Conditions in North Gaza and its population of 120,000 people are expected to be just as severe, yet limited data on the region prevented its inclusion in the report.

The IPC classifies famine when three thresholds have crossed over emergency levels: extreme food deprivation or starvation, acute malnutrition, and starvation-related deaths. This is the fifth famine confirmed by the IPC in the 21 years it has been in place. This is also the first time a famine has been confirmed in the Middle East.

“It is a famine on all of our watch. Everyone owns this. The Gaza Famine is the world’s famine,” said Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General of Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. “It is a famine that asks, ‘but what did you do?’ A famine that will and must haunt us all. It is a predictable and preventable famine. A famine caused by cruelty, justified by revenge, enabled by indifference and sustained by complicity.”

“This is a moment of collective shame,” he told reporters in Geneva on Friday. “We all have to look back as the international community and think, where could we have gotten this in a different place? And we’ve watched it happen in real time.”

Major UN agencies are repeating their calls for an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access into Gaza. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are “[reinforcing] that famine must be stopped.”

Representatives from FAO, UNICEF and WFP also briefed reporters in New York on the latest IPC report. Rein Paulsen, FAO Director of the Office of Emergencies and Resilience, noted that IPC partners have raised warnings on the food insecurity situation in Gaza escalating due to the conflict over the last 22 months.

Among the key drivers of famine in Gaza, namely conflict, displacement, and restricted access to humanitarian and commercial supplies, Paulsen emphasized the collapse of food systems. Remarking that a society that had previously been self-sufficient in its food production now saw that much of its infrastructure and food sectors had been “decimated.” This has left people “almost entirely dependent on food aid.” He noted that all fishing activities had been banned and that 98.5 percent of all croplands in Gaza were either destroyed or inaccessible.

Children have been, tragically, the most visible proof of famine in Gaza. Since July, at least 13,000 children are acutely malnourished, and over 112 have died due to starvation. The prevalence of child malnutrition in Gaza City tripled between May and July and was a determining factor for famine.

“We see malnutrition accelerating at a catastrophic pace, and for many, far too many children, it’s already too late,” said Samir Elhawary, UNICEF Acting Deputy Director of Emergency Programmes. “… It’s important to emphasize that children are starving, not because food doesn’t exist, but because aid cannot reach them inside. They are additionally vulnerable as the health system is collapsing.”

The latest IPC analysis was conducted with 50 experts across 19 organizations. The UN officials stressed that information was pulled from a variety of sources, including assessments from partners on the ground, interviews, data collection, and even measuring the circumference of upper arms of children who are malnourished or suspected of being malnourished.

Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP Director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Service, emphasized that it was critical to “safeguard information systems,” saying that “These are the systems that produce the evidence that we will need to understand the situation on the ground and to guide the humanitarian response.”

The Famine Review Committee (FRC), which acts as an independent quality control mechanism according to Paulsen and Bauer, validated the conclusions of the IPC analysis. Its role, therefore, is to ensure the “robustness and credibility” of the findings from the IPC. The FRC also released a detailed report on the conditions in Gaza, which includes recommendations on the steps that need to be taken to reverse famine conditions. This includes a call for decision-makers and resource partners to “act without delay” to enact a large-scale humanitarian response plan to prevent further suffering from an “entirely man-made catastrophe.”

“This declaration of famine is important because it puts a number on a problem that we’ve talked about for a long time. This is about the evidence that we have at hand,” said Bauer.

“We hope that this confirmation of famine makes a change. It needs to make a change,” said Paulsen. “And the recommendations for practical actions to help avoid further loss of life are listed in the reports and we really do hope there is now a greater will to act on those.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa, Défense, Diplomacy & Crisis News

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