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Credit: United Nations

By Palitha Kohona
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Apr 10 2024 (IPS)

Unfortunately, a rivalry that should not exist and did not exist historically between China and India is being stoked by the media and some policy makers, especially in the West. It is not too difficult to discern the Machiavellian geo-strategic objectives of this complex game plan.

Most policymakers in the West find it difficult to accept that a non-European and non-white Asian nation which the West has been used to exploit and treat with disdain has risen so rapidly that it is now in a position to offer an alternative social, economic and political model to development and progress.

China has not only risen from the depths but is challenging the West in many respects, including economically, technologically, socially and even militarily. The China led the Belt and Road Initiative, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Global Development Initiative, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the BRICS Bank, etc, have posed a real challenge to the established world economic order dominated by the West.

The BRI has resulted in the investment of over USD one trillion in the countries of the region and beyond making a tangible contribution to the development of many countries and has pricked the hitherto somnolent West also to participate positively in the development of those countries.

The calculated statements of EA Minister of India, Jaishankar, while emphasising India’s obvious strategic interests, have not overly endorsed the Western approach to China. China has attracted many admirers.

China has risen in a very short period to the position of an economic super power and to become the second largest economy in the world. It is expected to overtake the US economically by the end of this decade. It is also the main source foreign investments in the world, not to mention tourists.

It is also the biggest source in the global supply chain and the most lucrative multi billion dollar consumer market. All this is causing serious discomfort to those countries in the West, giving rise to damaging efforts at delinking, which were so used to dominating the world unchallenged. China’s technological advancement is nothing short of spectacular.

There could even be racist undertones to the criticisms being directed at China, a poor Asian country formerly dominated and exploited willy nilly by the West and to the reluctance to accept its new status and its own model of development. (One recalls that in the 1980s, a resurgent Japan experienced a similar process of vicious containment resulting in twenty years of stagflation).

China, for its part, has not articulated any desire to dominate or influence its economic partners and others or impose its political and economic model on anyone else. On the contrary, it has consistently expressed a desire to achieve a common future and a goal of shared prosperity, without domination. To judge Chinese intentions through the prism of the West’s own historical experience is patently wrong.

Both India and China are over dependent on Indian Ocean sea routes for the transport of their energy needs. While both would want to ensure the safety and security of Indian Ocean sea routes, both should also take adequate measures to prevent competition from blowing into confrontations of unmanageable proportions.

China has never expressed interest in establishing bases in the Indian Ocean region or acquiring territory. Its only military base in the region is in Djibouti established as part of a multinational effort to counter pirates.

The West which has been dominating the region since 1500 AD tends ascribe similar motives to China against the background of its own past record. (The situation with regard to Hambantota which has crept in the West’s narrative requres a longer explanation).

Sri Lanka’s initiative in the 1970s to establish an Indian Ocean Zone of Peace, although designed to contain the then prevalent super power rivalry in the Indian Ocean, may become relevant again in the contemporary context.

The situation in the Maldives should NOT be viewed purely from the Western lens and characterised as a simple case of China – India rivalry for regional influence. The domestic Islamic political imperatives and the resulting political pressures on the Maldivian leadership are important factors.

It is a fact that Chinese companies have been proactive in developing infrastructure in Maldives for sometime and their work is of good quality. India’s official reaction to the Maldivian measures has been measured. China has signed a number of bilateral agreements with the Maldives and Maldives readily agreed to accept a ship visit from a Chinese research vessel which was denied access to Sri Lankan ports due to Indian pressure.

Some critics argue that Chinese investments in Sri Lanka are part of a larger geopolitical strategy by China to expand its influence in the region.

This assertion needs to be stripped of its polemical outer layer to appreciate its essential shallowness. To begin with, it is mainly raised by commentators from countries which had rapaciously exploited vast swathes of the non white world through conquest and colonialism for centuries and continuing economic domination, conveniently ignoring their ongoing depradations.

Sri Lanka, which desperately needs development funding, has welcomed the China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) at the highest levels. It has not sought to exclude anyone else from participating in our development process. We have steadfastly asserted our non-aligned status and our neutrality.

In fact, our President has characterized the AUKUS alliance, which is designed to contain China, as a mistake. The Sri Lankan Prime Minister visited China this week and was received at the highest levels.

China has already invested around USD one trillion in the countries that joined the BRI, and more is forthcoming. Sri Lanka needs to develop fast and has no option but to welcome investment funding from all sources.

As a sovereign and independent state, Sri Lanka must be free to select its own development partners and its own development model. In the process, it has not sought to exclude anyone nor posed a threat to anyone, directly or indirectly. Sri Lanka has welcomed all friendly countries to participate in its development process.

I would not characterise Sri Lanka’s approach to development as a balancing act. It is not. Sri Lanka must work with all countries to achieve its own development objectives which should not be held hostage to the unfounded sensitivities of any other party.

Dr Palitha Kohona is also a former Sri Lanka Foreign Secretary, Head of the UN Treaty Section, chairman, UN Indian Ocean Committee and Chairman of the UN’s Sixth Committee.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN and, until recently, Ambassador to China

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Apr 9 2024 (IPS)

Carbon dioxide emission taxes, prices and markets have been touted as key to stopping global heating. However, carbon markets have failed mainly because they favour the rich and powerful.

Market solutions better?
Mainstream economists believe the best way to check global heating is to tax greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Equivalent ‘carbon prices’ have been set for the other significant GHGs. But many have been revised due to their moot, varied and unstable, arguably incomparable nature.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

High carbon prices for GHG emissions are expected to persuade emitters to switch to ‘cleaner’ energy sources. Higher prices for energy-intensive goods and services are supposed to get consumers to buy less energy-intensive alternatives.

Positive carbon prices tax fossil fuels, GHG emissions, and products according to their energy intensity. Hence, when carbon prices fall, they deter fossil fuel use less effectively.

Developed countries have set up ‘carbon trading’ systems ostensibly to deter GHG emissions. Firms wanting to emit more than their assigned quotas must buy emission permits from others who commit to emit under quota.

Getting prices right?
Conventional economists believe carbon prices should cover the ‘social costs’ of GHG emissions, but disagree on how to estimate them. But policymakers believe it necessary to discount these prices to gain broad acceptance for carbon markets.

A recent International Monetary Fund paper acknowledged, “Differences between efficient prices and retail fuel prices are large and pervasive”. But such distortions undermine the very purpose of carbon pricing.

Gro Intelligence estimated the social cost of carbon emissions at $4.08 per metric tonne in 2022, which is used by the influential Gro-Kepos Carbon Barometer. But Resources for the Future estimated it at $185/tonne, over forty times higher!

While carbon prices are meant to tax fossil fuels, low prices reduce their deterrent effect. Fossil fuel subsidies lower carbon prices, which can even become negative. Such price subsidies undermine carbon markets’ intended effects.

Whenever carbon prices are discounted or deliberately kept low, they are much less effective in deterring GHG emissions. They also distort the price system with many other unintended, but perverse consequences.

Writing in the New York Times, Peter Coy noted the carbon price rose from under $4 per metric tonne in 2012 to almost $20/tonne in 2020 before dropping sharply to around $4/tonne in 2022!

Incredibly, he still concluded carbon prices were “headed in the right direction” since 2012. How low and volatile carbon prices are supposed to discourage fossil fuel use and accelerate renewable energy investments must be self-evident to him alone?

Western fossil fuel subsidies
Carbon prices shot up when fossil fuel energy prices spiked after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But they soon collapsed as European governments intervened to subsidise energy prices.

As the rich nations’ Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development noted, “government support for fossil fuels almost doubled in 2022” to over $1.4 trillion!

State subsidies rise with prices when governments try to mitigate rising fossil fuel prices. Such subsidies negate the purpose of carbon pricing, and can lower them so much as to become negative!

Such subsidies were deemed necessary to retain public support for NATO’s Ukraine war effort and to drive down Russian fossil fuel export prices. Thus, such ‘geopolitical’ interventions have undermined carbon taxes, prices and markets.

Carbon prices dropped sharply worldwide, from $18.97/tonne in 2021 to $4.08 in 2022. In 2022, nine of the 26 countries in the Barometer had negative prices, with only six – not the US – above $25.

Oil and natural gas prices have since fallen from their 2022 peaks, with consumer subsidies declining correspondingly. Hence, carbon prices for GHG emissions have recovered.

Such price subsidies and volatility do not help enterprises plan and invest their energy use – crucial to accelerate needed ‘carbon transitions’.

Unsurprisingly, after over a decade, there is little evidence that carbon markets have effectively cut GHG emissions to avert climate catastrophe. Clearly, they cannot be counted upon to cut them sufficiently.

China, market conformist!
Significantly, after China began its emissions trading system in 2021, its carbon price rose to a level higher than the US price in 2022. As its per capita income is much lower than in the West, its higher carbon price is probably a more significant deterrent to fossil fuel use.

China is now the world’s largest carbon emitter, so its $19/tonne price in 2022 significantly raised the international weighted average. Nevertheless, thanks to the subsidies, the weighted average for all other countries was negative at -$4.50/tonne in 2022!

Despite much rich nation rhetoric demanding carbon prices and markets for the whole world, their own commitment to this problematic approach to mitigating GHG emissions has been much more compromised than China’s!

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Alleged gang members are transferred to the Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega-prison built by the government of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador to house 40,000 detainees accused of belonging to organized crime. CREDIT: Presidency of El Salvador

By Juanita Goebertus Estrada
BOGOTÁ, Apr 9 2024 (IPS)

Two years since President Nayib Bukele announced a “war against gangs” in El Salvador, the country has gone through rapid change.

Agustín, not his real name, was 16 when Bukele made the announcement. When Human Rights Watch researchers met him a year-and-a-half later he had already personally experienced the country’s quick turn from being gang-ridden to, increasingly, a police state.

Agustín first suffered from gang violence in Cuscatancingo, a few kilometers north of the capital. As in many areas in El Salvador, gangs controlled his neighborhood, and many aspects of his family’s lives. “It was suffocating,” his mother told us. “You had to think about what to say, how to walk and what to wear. They saw everything. It was like being with your enemy 24 hours.”

As with most of the 78,000 people detained during the “war against gangs,” prosecutors accused him of “unlawful association,” the crime of belonging to a gang, which does not require proving the defendant has committed a violent or other unlawful act. The crime is defined so broadly under El Salvador’s law that anyone who has interacted with gang members, willingly or not, may be prosecuted

The MS-13, one of El Salvador’s most prominent gangs, tried to recruit her son when he was 12. Five adolescent gang members promised him better shoes, clothing, and cigars. Many boys from the neighborhood joined, he said, but he refused.

The gangs have recruited thousands of children. Studies show mostly join these criminal groups between ages 12 and 15. A lack of educational and economic opportunities makes it easier for gangs to recruit them, even in exchange for shoes and cigars.

Violence took a turn for the worse for Agustín in June 2021. MS-13 gang members beat his stepfather and threatened to kill his mother, a community leader, after she helped police distribute food during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Talking to the police or a soldier was like a death sentence,” she said.

The violence forced the family to flee to Mejicanos, a city near San Salvador. They escaped the immediate threat but did not find safety. The 18th Street gang, the country’s second largest, controlled their new neighborhood. A few months later, they threatened to kill Agustín’s mother, forcing the family to leave again.

In January 2022 they tried to find peace in San José Guayabal, a small town largely untouched by gang presence. They even became hopeful about their country when in March, President Bukele launched his “war against gangs” and his supporters in the Legislative Assembly declared a state of emergency, suspending basic rights.

Yet a few months later, police officers and soldiers appeared at his house to arrest Agustín and his stepfather. Officers did not provide a warrant or a reason for the arrest. They said they were taking him, then 16, to a police station to “investigate him.”

He is one of 2,800 children sent to jail since the state of emergency began. What followed for him, as in many other cases human rights groups in El Salvador documented during the emergency, was a harrowing sequence of abuses.

He told us that soldiers simulated his execution on a deserted road as they were transferring him between police stations. One soldier laughed, as he triggered a gun to his head, he said. Then they reportedly told him to run away, with his feet cuffed.

He said he was held, for several days, in an overcrowded cell, where 70 children shared three beds. He recalls being forced to sleep on the floor. Guards did nothing when other detainees kicked him, virtually every day, while they counted the seconds out loud, always up to 13—an apparent reference to the MS-13.

As with most of the 78,000 people detained during the “war against gangs,” prosecutors accused him of “unlawful association,” the crime of belonging to a gang, which does not require proving the defendant has committed a violent or other unlawful act. The crime is defined so broadly under El Salvador’s law that anyone who has interacted with gang members, willingly or not, may be prosecuted.

The judge in his case found no evidence against him and released Agustín after 12 days. But police and soldiers, who have overbroad powers and little to no oversight in El Salvador, kept insisting that he was a gang member. Some harassed him in the local park, beating him and threatening to arrest him again.

He left school and took a construction job in another city. When Human Rights Watch met him, the gangs that had long tormented his family were no longer his biggest concern. Homicides in the country have dropped significantly and gangs appear to be weakened, for now. But as his mother told us, he “now cries every time he sees soldiers or police.”

Salvadorans should not be forced to choose between living in fear of gangs or of security forces. They should be offered a brighter future, one in which the government protects children from violence and abuse and minimizes the risk of gang recruitment by ensuring children have the educational and other support they need. One in which law enforcement conducts meaningful investigations to identify real gang members—and dismantle their groups—instead of relying on arbitrary arrests and abusive treatment.

“We want to leave El Salvador,” his mother told us. “I want my child to forget everything.”

 

Excerpt:

Juanita Goebertus Estrada is the Americas director at Human Rights Watch.

Destruction of a residential block in the Al-Shaboura neighborhood in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. Credit: UN News/Ziad Taleb

By Joseph Chamie
PORTLAND, USA, Apr 9 2024 (IPS)

While the international consensus and world public opinion are resoundingly clear in demanding an immediate cease-fire to the Hamas-Israel war, it remains uncertain whether a cease-fire will be observed.

On 7 October 2023, Hamas attacked Israel resulting in approximately 1,200 deaths and 240 hostages taken. Nearly ten weeks after the attack with thousands of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on 12 December 2023 aimed at addressing the Hamas-Israel war.

The resolution demanded an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, parties’ compliance with international law and the release of all hostages taken by Hamas. The vote was 153 countries in favor to 23 abstentions and 10 against (Table 1).

 

Source: United Nations.

 

Several months after the UN General Assembly cease-fire resolution and nearly six months after the 7 October 2023 attack, the United Nations Security Council adopted after several failed attempts its first cease-fire resolution on 25 March 2024, which many world leaders welcomed. All 14 council members voted for Security Council Resolution 2728 (2024) with the United States abstaining.

The resolution demands an immediate cease-fire to come into effect for the month of Ramadan, which is from 11 March to 9 April 2024. The resolution also calls for the unconditional release of all hostages and ensuring humanitarian access with urgent need to expand the flow of aid into Gaza.

World opinion on the Hamas-Israel war and the need for an immediate cease-fire are clearly reflected in the UN General Assembly vote on 12 December 2023. The proportion of countries in favor of that UN resolution was 82 percent, representing 90 percent of the world’s population. The proportion of the countries opposed to the resolution was 5 percent, representing 5 percent of the world’s population but 0.9 percent of the world’s population when the United States was excluded

On 28 March, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an order calling on Israel to allow unimpeded access for humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, which the United Nations warned was on the verge of famine. With malnutrition among children soaring, the World Food Programme (WFP) said Israel needed to “surge” humanitarian relief into Gaza or there would be starvation.

The ICJ acknowledged that Israel has engineered a famine in Gaza. The judges unanimously delivered a legally binding ruling that Israel should “take all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay … the unhindered provision … of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance” in Gaza. The ICJ’s ruling is part of the increasing worldwide pressure pushing Israel to do more to address the humanitarian crisis and looming famine in Gaza.

The order of the ICJ came following a case brought by South Africa that accuses Israel of state-stationed genocide in Gaza. Consistent with the ICJ decision, a Federal Court in the United States has also ruled that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza may amount to genocide.

Earlier, on 24 January 2024, various international organizations demanded an immediate cease-fire to the Hamas-Israel war. Among those organizations were humanitarian agencies, human rights groups, faith-based groups, and United Nations officials, including Amnesty International, Christian Aid, Médecins du Monde International Network, Mennonite Central Committee, Oxfam and Save the Children.

Those organizations also called on all states to halt the transfer of weapons that can be employed to commit violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

The Palestinian group Hamas is reported to have welcomed the Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. In a statement, Hamas said that it was committed to the conditions of the resolution.

Hamas added that it affirms readiness to engage in immediate prisoner swaps on both sides and noted that Israel must be held accountable in adhering to the Security Council resolution. Also, a Hamas official stressed the necessity of reaching a permanent ceasefire that would lead to a return of the displaced and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

The Israeli government condemned the recent Security Council vote and said the resolution undermines the efforts to secure the release of captives in Gaza. Senior Israeli officials indicated that they would ignore the call for a cease-fire and have set their aim of “total victory”.

Also, Israel’s foreign minister said that despite the Security Council resolution, Israel will not cease fire in the Gaza Strip. He added that Israel aims to destroy Hamas and intends to continue fighting until all the hostages taken on 7 October are returned to their homes.

In addition, Israel’s prime minister stated that the army would press ahead with its offensive against Rafah, the city in southern tip of Gaza where approximately 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are estimated to be sheltering.

Also recently at an Israeli cabinet meeting, the prime minister declared that Israel is “one step away from victory” in winning the war with Hamas and vowed that there would be no truce until Hamas frees all hostages.

Many countries, including the United States, have warned Israel about its proposed large-scale ground offensive in Rafah due to its severe humanitarian consequences and concerns about safeguarding innocent Palestinians seeking refuge there.

World opinion on the Hamas-Israel war and the need for an immediate cease-fire are clearly reflected in the UN General Assembly vote on 12 December 2023. The proportion of countries in favor of that UN resolution was 82 percent, representing 90 percent of the world’s population. The proportion of the countries opposed to the resolution was 5 percent, representing 5 percent of the world’s population but 0.9 percent of the world’s population when the United States was excluded (Figure 1).

 

Source: United Nations.

 

Moreover, a Eurotrack survey conducted in November 2023 across seven Western European countries – Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK – reported that most Europeans, between 55 to 73 percent, thought that Israel should stop its military campaign and call a ceasefire. In Germany, for example, nearly 70 percent of Germans surveyed felt that Israel’s military actions were not justifiable.

Also importantly, a March national poll in the United States found a solid majority of Americans, 55 percent, disapprove of Israel’s military actions. An earlier national survey in November reported that the majority of Americans, 68 percent, thought that Israel should call a cease-fire and try to negotiate the Hamas-Israel war, which has ballooned into a humanitarian crisis. That proportion, two-thirds of US voters, continued to hold in a national survey in February.

Despite the opposition by the majority of Americans to Israel’s war actions and calls for a cease-fire, the Biden administration has “quietly” authorized arms shipments to Israel. Those shipments include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, as well as 25 F-35A fighter jets and engines worth approximately $2.5 billion.

Biden’s critics believe he has been too closely aligned with the Israeli government. They are troubled by America’s complicity in the moral issue surrounding the war, which has left the US administration morally compromised and upholding a blatant double standard on human rights.

Moreover, they criticized the US president for not taking stronger steps to promote a cease-fire and to assist the Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Mainly due Israel’s intense aerial bombardment, more than 70 percent of the homes in Gaza have been destroyed and more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed, two-thirds of them women and children. In addition, more than 75,000 Palestinians have been wounded and most Palestinians living in Gaza have been displaced and are living in squalid camps with little food, water and fuel.

Those vocal criticisms of US policies have created difficulties for Biden in protest votes in a number of state primaries across the country as well as posing risks for his reelection campaign.

Even within Israel, growing numbers of Israelis are saying that a cease-fire is the best way to save Israeli captives being held by Hamas. Some also don’t believe that the goals of the war can be achieved and feel that the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza jeopardizes Israel’s long-term security.

In a recent development following the adoption of the UN Security Council’s cease-fire resolution, the United States played down the resolution, asserting that it is not legally binding. Consequently, according to the Biden administration, the resolution has no impact on Israel’s ability to continue its war with Hamas and the US will continue its flows of weapons and arms to Israel.

However, many countries as well as international law experts have affirmed that all Security Council resolutions are binding and mandatory. Also, the United Nations has said that all resolutions of the Security Council are international law and therefore are binding as international laws. The UN Secretary-General remarked that the resolution must be implemented and failure would be unforgivable.

As the Hamas-Israel war enters its seventh month, some in Israel, including officials in the current Israeli government, which is a right-wing coalition including religious nationalists, believe that it will be a long slog of ongoing warfare ahead.

However, anti-government protests across Israeli cities are urging the government to reach a cease-fire deal to free all the hostages held in Gaza by Hamas and to hold early elections. Many of the protesting families of hostages believe time is running out for the hostages taken on 7 October and are expressing their displeasure with the prime minister’s handling of the war after six months in Gaza.

In a recent development relating to news reporting on the war, the Israeli prime minister, with overwhelming support in the Knesset, said that he plans to “act immediately” on a new Israeli law that gives senior government officials power to shutter foreign news networks located in Israel for national security purposes. Press freedom experts warned that the shuttering of Al Jazeera could set a dangerous precedent in Israel.

The Hamas-Israel war has now entered its seventh month. Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed, injured, displaced and scores of hostages remain held captive in Gaza.

Also, one week after the adoption of the UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, release of hostages and expanded aid into Gaza, Israeli military strikes on an approved aid convoy run by the charity group World Central Kitchen (WCK) killed seven of its employees in Gaza.

Since the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, Gaza has been the deadliest place for aid workers with a total of 224 humanitarian aid workers killed in the Hamas-Israel war.

The most recent attack on the WCK convoy is also setting back attempts by various countries and aid groups to address the hunger crisis of Palestinians in Gaza. The deadly incident on the food aid convoy has also contributed to Israel’s mounting international isolation.

Many countries, including Australia, Britain and the United States, condemned the attack on the WCK food aid convoy that resulted in the deaths of seven of its workers and demanded explanations from Israel with some Western leaders joining WCK in calling for an independent investigation because they believe “the perpetrator cannot be investigating himself.”

Also, in a recent television interview aired in the US, the distressed head of WCK said, “This doesn’t seem anymore a war about defending Israel. This really, at this point, seems it’s a war against humanity itself.”

US President Biden was reported to be “outraged” by the attack on the WCK food aid convoy calling it “unacceptable”. He said that Israel has not done enough to protect civilians in Gaza, emphasized the need for an immediate cease-fire and for the Israeli government to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home.

In addition, in a recent phone conversation with the Israeli prime minister, the American president indicated that if Israel doesn’t change course in Gaza, “we won’t be able to support you”.

One result of that exchange was Israel’s decision to open the port of Ashdod and the Erez crossing in northern Gaza. However, Israel has yet to indicate when and what kind of aid will be permitted into Gaza.

The international consensus and world public opinion regarding the Hamas-Israel war, which has become one of the most destructive, deadly and intractable conflicts of the 21st century, are abundantly clear.

Nevertheless, whether the UN Security Council Resolution 2728 on the Hamas-Israel war will achieve its primary aims of an immediate cease-fire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, remains an open question but with some hopeful signs.

 

Joseph Chamie is a consulting demographer, a former director of the United Nations Population Division and author of numerous publications on population issues, including his recent book, “Population Levels, Trends, and Differentials”.

 

Older women and women with disabilities are underrepresented in global data on violence against women. Credit: WHO/Kiana Hayeri

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 29 2024 (IPS)

Older women and women with disabilities experience abuse that is unique to their demographics, yet they are underrepresented in national and global databases, according to findings shared by the World Health Organization (WHO).

On Wednesday, WHO and UN-Women released two new briefs, the first in a series that will discuss neglected forms of violence, including gender-based violence. The two briefs, titled Measuring violence against older women and Measuring violence against women with disability, investigate the types of violence that these groups face through the data available. Through reviewing existing studies into violence against women, the research team was able to synthesize the information available on this topic and its scope across different countries.

As was noted by Dr. Lynnmarie Sardinha, Technical Officer at WHO and the UN Special Programme on Human Reproduction (HRP) for Violence against Women Data and Measurement, and author of the briefs. The limited data on older women and women with disabilities undermines the ability of programmes to meet their needs. “Understanding how diverse women and girls are differently affected, and if and how they are accessing services, is critical to ending violence in all its forms.”

One in three women is affected by gender-based violence in these forms. For older women—aged 60 years and over—and women with disabilities, they are also subjected to other forms of abuse and neglect, usually at the hands of caregivers, family members, or healthcare institutions such as nursing homes. Examples of this include controlling behaviors such as withholding medicine and assistive devices, and financial abuse. Though these forms of neglect and abuse have been observed, the studies that the briefs reviewed seemed to focus more on intimate partner violence through physical and sexual abuse. The briefs acknowledge, however, that violence against women should not only be exemplified by intimate partner violence. The prevalence of this example hints at further nuances that are not sufficiently captured in the studies due to their limitations.

Violence against older women can manifest in other ways as they and their partners/perpetrators age. Although women aged 15–49 are at higher risk of intimate partner and sexual violence, older women are still likely to experience it, and this can shift towards other forms of abuse, such as neglect, economic abuse, and psychological abuse. The brief on older women reveals, however, that there is limited data to definitively state its prevalence. This is particularly the case for low- and middle-income countries; the data that was compiled for this brief comes largely from high-income countries, a gap that the reports are aware of. Older women are represented in only ten percent of the data on violence against women.

Only 6 percent of the studies reviewed for women with disabilities included measures of violence specific to this group. The lack of questions specific to this demographic indicates that they are, perhaps unconsciously, unaccounted for when measuring the scale of violence against women. Data collection procedures may not be designed to accommodate women with disabilities or prevent them from self-reporting, such as deaf or hard-of-hearing women who are unable to participate in surveys conducted through the telephone.

The briefs also suggest that women who live with lifelong disrespect and neglect may not recognize the specific forms of violence, which could account for fewer instances being reported. This could also apply to older women, where surveying and reporting mechanisms are geared towards women of reproductive age, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

This may also speak of socio-cultural attitudes towards violence against older women that are steeped in ageism, harmful stereotypes, and discriminatory cultural norms that prevent them from sharing their experiences.

The WHO briefs make several recommendations to address the evidence gaps. Among them are extending the age limit for survey participation and incorporating questions that relate to different types of violence. Data collection should also account for cultural-specific contexts of violence and abuse across different countries. Women with disabilities should be consulted in research at every stage when designing surveys targeted at them, which will allow for a broader spectrum of disabilities to be accounted for.

Read the briefs on women with disability and older women.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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A boy sifts through the rubble of his earthquake-hit home in Rukum (West), Nepal, in November 2023. Credit: UNICEF/ Laxmi Prasad Ngakhus

By Simone Galimberti
KATHMANDU, Nepal, Mar 29 2024 (IPS)

If there is a place where the interlinkages and dependencies between the effects of climate warming and biodiversity loss are clearly at display, it’s Nepal. There is clear evidence on the impact of climate change on the country’s ecosystem considering the fact that Nepal is an important biodiversity hotspot.

Climate change and biodiversity loss, if unchecked, can activate mutually devastating loops of devastation that hardly can be offset by any plan and strategy. The only solution is a much stronger level of coordination and policy alignment, not only within countries like Nepal but also regionally.

This is one of the reasons why scientists and experts working on the upcoming IPBES Next Assessment that attempts to study the interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food and health with actions to achieve the Agenda 2030 while combating climate change, chose Kathmandu for their latest summit.

The linkages between climate warming and biodiversity loss were also one of the key hallmarks of COP 28 in the UAE where, for the first time, biodiversity preservation was recognized as a paramount factor to fight climate change.

In the first Global Stocktake, the main outcome document of the COP 28, there has been a strong reference to the implementation of Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).

In practice, for nations, it means to work hard to converge the climate and biodiversity agendas as the new cycle of Nationally Determined Contributions, the key mitigations plans prepared by each nation party to the Paris Agreement, will also have to include elements related to biodiversity.

This can be proved to be challenging considering also the efforts that a country like Nepal must also put to implement its adaptation plans.

Coordination and alignment between the mitigation and adaptation is at least provided in what should be as the country’s “master plan” to fight climate change, its National Climate Change Policy whose latest iteration was approved in 2019.

It is a document that identified 12 areas, from agriculture and food security to forests, biodiversity and watershed conservation to water resources and energies to rural and urban settlement, tourism and transportation, just to mention few.

Yet ensuring such policy level harmonization is going to be daunting, considering the traditional fragmentations that characterize policy making in Nepal.

At governance level, there are two key mechanisms that have not been fully harnessed.
The first one is the apex body in matter of climate action, the Climate Change Council that is chaired by the Prime Minister.

Its convenings have been not only rare but also mostly symbolic and devoid of substantial decisions. If you think about the challenges faced by Nepal, this should be the most important bureaucratic body at policy level but you seldom hear news about it.

The second instrument at disposal is the Multistakeholder Climate Change Initiative Coordination Committee that should bring together the best minds in the field. So far, what potentially could be a great platform for dialogue has been wasted.

The fact that the Government has formally included the Nepalese Youth for Climate Action as a constituency, does not absolve the authorities from being lacking in terms of proactively enabling and putting in place a structured and formal mechanism in matter of climate.

Coordination is indeed held indispensable, considering the gravity of what is unfolding.
The latest IPBES Global Biodiversity Report, published in 2019, confirmed, once again, that unequivocally “nature and its vital contributions to people, which together embody biodiversity and ecosystem, functions and services, are deteriorating worldwide”.

“Nature across most of the globe has now been significantly altered by multiple human drivers, with the great majority of indicators of ecosystems and biodiversity showing rapid decline”.

The latest report by the World Meteorological Organization could not be even more daunting, once again, proving we are living in the hottest times ever. The key message from the IPBES Next Assessment’s meeting held in Kathmandu was equally daunting and unequivocal, declaring that the whole Hindu Kush Himalaya’s biosphere is “on the brink’.

Another event organized by ICIMOD, the international conference on Climate and Environmental Change Impacts on the Indus Basin Waters, stressed out the essentiality of coordination.

Highlighting key findings of a series of new reports focused on ensuring effective “integrated river basin management”, this gathering underlined how climate change becomes the “urgent catalyst for collaboration over three key river basins in Asia, the Indus, the Ganga, and the Brahmaputra”.

In a press release issued by ICIMOD, Alan Nicol from the International Water Management Institute that collaborated in the writing of the reports, affirmed that the “level of challenges facing the Indus Basin call for collective action across the basin”.

How can such coordination be turned into reality within Nepal and within the whole South Asia?

At national level, climate action should permeate and be embedded in each sphere of policy making. Mechanisms like Climate Change Council and Multistakeholder Climate Change Initiative Coordination Committee must be seriously and meaningfully activated and empowered.

Considering the deep connections between climate and biodiversity, the latter, normally overshadowed by the former domain, should also be included or at least taken into account when the decision makers deliberate on climate related issues.

Enhancing coordination exponentially must be a priority but not only at central level especially in a federal country like Nepal.

Though federalism is still very much a work in progress and where the seven provinces still lack powers and real autonomy, it remains paramount to empower local bodies as well.

Imagine the immense work that must be done in the field of mitigation and adaptation, the two key areas of action within the climate agenda alone. Only in relation to adaptation, the National Adaptation Plan 2021- 2050 aims to mobilize the staggering figure of US$ 47.4 billion of which Nepal will only contribute US$ 1.5 billion.

In the recent “National Dialogue on Climate Change” organized by Municipality Association of Nepal made it clear that local bodies must necessarily be empowered to fight climate change.

A case study prepared by Prakriti Resource Center, one of the most renown climate focused organizations in Nepal, revealed the failure in effectively implementing the Local Adaptation Plans for Actions (LAPA), despite being revised 2019 to reflect the new federal governance of the country.

Local governments should also be at the vanguard of mitigation efforts but reality tells us a different story.

A limited and distorted focus of mitigation mainly in terms of production of hydropower energy, a federal competence, compounded by lack of resources, is currently disempowering local governments from taking action.

Frustrating and disappointing remains the work in the field of biodiversity. Both centrally and locally, there is a lack of urgency here even though the country can count with some success story in local forest preservations by local communities.

Yet, also on this case, Nepal is at risk of falling into a complacence trap without additional strategic thinking.

There is the need not only of coming up with a new, revamped national strategy but it is also essential to evaluate the implementation of the latest National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2014 -2020, especially in relation to design and execution of Local Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans.

But, as we know, coordination and alignment by overcoming silos approaches, should not stop within the national borders.

Here there is an opportunity to put together some sort of regional cooperative framework that, as we saw, are strongly encouraged by the experts. New synergetic impetus at national level in both climate and biodiversity areas could spur the country to also take the initiative regionally.

It can happen in a way that could, at least revamp and give some scope to the almost defuncted South Asia Association of Regional Cooperation, SAARC. Cooperation in South Asia in a novel integrated fashion that links and combines climate efforts and biodiversity preservation, is a must.

Geopolitical rivalries cannot impede it even if, it means, in practice, effectively sidelining the SAARC.

What all this could mean for Nepal?

A joint, combined approach to preserve nature and fight climate warming, together with a revamped attention on pollution and sustainable consumption habits, other two essential aspects that must be tackled in the years to come with urgency, could bring about not only a better and more effective forms of governance in the country.

It could also enable Nepal to become a trailblazer in revamping regional cooperation, pragmatically in areas where traditional rivalries must be set aside for the sake of South Asian citizens’ common good.

A good way to start is to at least to get the “homework” well done in the country, preparing itself on how integrating biodiversity in its negotiations for the next climate COP 29 in Azerbaijan but also be serious about the upcoming biodiversity COP 16 in Colombia.

Simone Galimberti is co-founder of Engage a local NGO promoting partnership and cooperation for youth living in disability and of The Good Leadership, a new initiative promoting character leadership and expertise among youth.

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By restoring the ponds, the community at Patqapara Village, a small hamlet in India's West Bengal State, was able to save their village and livelihoods. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

By Umar Manzoor Shah
PATQAPARA VILLAGE, India, Mar 28 2024 (IPS)

The people of Patqapara Village, a hamlet in India’s West Bengal State, were until recently reeling under absolute distress due to water scarcity. The lack of irrigation facilities in this far-flung and inaccessible hamlet had resulted in a steady decline in agricultural activities.

With a population of around 7,000, as per government estimates, the village primarily depends on agriculture for its livelihood. However, in recent years, drastic changes in weather patterns, including unseasonal rainfall, delayed monsoons, and soaring temperatures above normal levels, led to the drying up of irrigation canals and wells in the village. This left the local population in chaos, as their cultivable fields were bereft of any irrigation facilities.

According to the latest report from the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) on India’s state of the environment in 2023, West Bengal has experienced a significant escalation in the severity of climate change within a short span of one year. The report, released on the eve of World Environment Day in June last year, draws attention to the alarming increase in extreme weather events in Bengal. So far, since 2023, the state has already experienced 24 such events, a stark contrast to the total of 10 events recorded throughout the entire year of 2022.

Furthermore, the report highlights that in 2022, India encountered a staggering 314 extreme weather events out of 365 days, resulting in the loss of over 3,026 lives and damage to 1.96 million hectares of crops. While heatwaves predominated in early 2022, hailstorms have taken precedence as the predominant extreme weather event in 2023.

Babu Ram, a local villager, along with his wife, was contemplating leaving the village and moving to the city to search for menial work for sustenance.

“The irrigation canals used to provide us with livelihood. Besides watering our fields, we used to catch fish from there and sell it in the market, earning a living. But the weather changed everything. No, no—it actually dried everything up,” Ram told IPS.

Teams of workers from the village eagerly participated in the restoration of the ponds. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

Sanjoy Kumar, another farmer, says the water scarcity in the village had taken such a toll that it was feared that people would die due to hunger.

“Our crops failed and our fields became barren. We had no option but to migrate and leave our homes behind. I even worked as a daily wage laborer in the city at a private firm. The wages were meager and the living was getting wretched with each passing day,” Kumar told IPS News.

However, it was last year when the villagers mooted an idea to overcome water scarcity in their hamlet. Extensive deliberations were held between the villagers and local headmen, also known as ‘Panchs’ in the local language.

Through these discussions, a proposal to restore the village’s ponds emerged.

“The irrigation facilities were minimal. In the past, there used to be ponds in almost all major areas of the village, but they were left unutilized as the villagers were unaware of their benefits. Our proposal was to restore these ponds,” explained Babu Sarkar, a senior member of Caritas, a non-government organization that helped the villagers in the restoration of the ponds.

The agency, along with local villagers, identified 30 villagers who were tasked with working two hours every day on a rotational basis for the restoration of these abandoned ponds. Understanding the benefits of this initiative, the villagers formed several groups and enthusiastically undertook the task at hand. They identified and rehabilitated an estimated 15 ponds that had been abandoned, dried up, and forgotten.

Through their tireless efforts, the villagers cleared dust, dirt, and debris from the ponds, allowing water levels to increase and hopes to soar among the once-perturbed villagers.

“Soon, with the arrival of monsoons, rainwater was harvested in these ponds, bringing them back to life. Not only is the project now irrigating local crops, but the villagers are also developing fish farms in them,” Sarkar told IPS News.

Jadhav Prakash, a local farmer, is now involved in fish farming due to these restored ponds and earns a good living.

“I earn about 3 thousand rupees (30 USD) a month by selling fish. Other villagers are also benefiting from the restoration of ponds,” Prakash said.

Sunjoy Kumar, who had left the village, returned to his village earlier this year, hopeful that the fields would never be bereft of water and the lands wouldn’t turn barren again. “I am sowing the crops again with the eager hope that I will never face the hardships again. This is my land and my world. I do not want to go back to the city and face hardships there. I want to live here and work here,” Kumar told IPS.

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Action Festival convened at Tokyo's National Stadium on March 24, drawing approximately 66,000 attendees. Credit: Yukie Asagiri, INPS Japan

By Katsuhiro Asagiri
TOKYO, Japan, Mar 27 2024 (IPS)

In a significant precursor to the United Nations Summit of the Future slated for September, the “Future Action Festival” convened at Tokyo’s National Stadium on March 24, drawing a crowd of approximately 66,000 attendees and reaching over half a million viewers via live streaming. The event, a collaborative effort by youth and citizen groups, aimed to foster a deeper understanding and proactive stance among young people on nuclear disarmament and climate change solutions.

The festival featured interactive quizzes displayed on large screens, offering attendees a collective learning experience about the complex global crises currently challenging the international community. Additionally, a panel discussion with Kaoru Nemoto, director of the United Nations Information Center, and other youth representatives delved into nuclear weapons and climate change, facilitating a deeper exploration of these pressing issues. Adding to the event’s poignancy, performances included one by the “A-bombed Piano,” a relic from Hiroshima that endured the atomic bombing, and others that highlighted the value of peace through music and dances, reinforcing the call for action and solidarity as agents of change.

A panel discussion with Kaoru Nemoto, director of the United Nations Information Center, and other youth representatives including Yuki Tokuda, co-founder of GeNuine(Extreme right) delved into nuclear weapons and climate change. Credit: Yukie Asagiri, INPS Japan

Central to the festival’s impact were the insights shared by a participant of the panel discussion like Yuki Tokuda, co-founder of GeNuine, who shared her insights from a “youth awareness survey” conducted before the event. “The survey revealed that over 80% of young respondents felt their voices were not being heard,” she explained. “This suggests a systemic issue, not merely a matter of personal perception, which is discouraging the younger generation from engaging with vital issues.”

Despite this, the massive turnout at the festival offered a glimmer of hope. “The presence of 66,000 like-minded individuals here today signals that change is possible. Together, we can reshape the system and forge a future that aligns with our aspirations,” Tokuda remarked, emphasizing the power of collective action and the importance of carrying forward the momentum generated by the festival.

Equally compelling was the narrative shared by Yuki Tominaga, who captivated the audience with her dance performance at the event. “I have always been deeply inspired by my late grandmother’s life as a storyteller sharing her experiences of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima.” Tominaga shared. “My grandmother would begin her account with her own experiences of the bombing but then expand her narrative to include her visits to places like India and Pakistan, countries with nuclear arsenals, and regions afflicted by poverty and conflict where landmines remain a deadly legacy. She emphasized that the tragedy of Hiroshima is an ongoing story, urging us to spread the message of peace to future generations.”

Yuki Tominaga, a third generation Hibakusha from Hiroshima, continues her grandmothers legacy while using her passin for dance as a medium to communicate about peace and Hiroshima bombing. Credit: Yukie Asagiri, INPS Japan

Reflecting on her grandmother’s profound impact, Tominaga continued, “I once doubted my ability to continue her legacy; her words seemed irreplaceable. But she encouraged me, saying, ‘Do what you’re able to spread peace.’ That inspired me to use my passion for dance as a medium to communicate about peace and the Hiroshima bombing. I aim to serve as a conduit between the survivors of the atomic bomb and today’s youth, making peace discussions engaging and accessible through dance.”

The “Youth Attitude Survey,” which garnered responses from 119,925 individuals across Japan, revealed a striking consensus: over 90% of young people expressed a desire to contribute to a better society. Yet, they also acknowledged feeling marginalized from the decision-making processes. The survey illuminated young people’s readiness to transform their awareness into action, despite prevailing sentiments of exclusion.

This enthusiasm and potential for change have not gone unnoticed by the international community. High-profile supporters, including Felipe Paullier, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs, Orlando Bloom, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and Melissa Parke, Executive Director of ICAN, have all voiced their encouragement, recognizing young people’s crucial role in driving global advancements in sustainability and peace.

The upcoming UN Summit of the Future offers a pivotal platform for youth engagement, with the “Joint Statement” released by the festival’s Organizing Committee—encompassing key areas like climate crisis resolution, nuclear disarmament, youth participation in decision-making, and UN reform—serving as a testament to the collective will to influence global policies. Tshilidzi Marwala, the Rector of the United Nations University and UN Under-Secretary-General acknowledged the vital importance of young voices in shaping the summit’s agenda, urging them to be “a beacon of hope and a driving force for change.”

As the world gears up for the UN Summit of the Future, the Future Action Festival stands as a powerful reminder of the impact of youth-led initiatives and collective action in addressing the world’s most pressing challenges. Through education, advocacy, and direct engagement, the festival not only spotlighted the urgent need for action on nuclear disarmament and the climate crisis but also showcased the potential of an informed, engaged, and motivated youth to effect meaningful global change.

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Families as they tried to escape from Baghouz, the last Syrian town under the control of the Islamic State to fall. The IS leaders escaped, leaving behind almost 25,000 of their followers. Credit: Jewan Abdi/ IPS

By Jewan Abdi
HASSAKE, Syria, Mar 27 2024 (IPS)

Rozena, a 31-year-old woman from Guyana, says she travelled to Turkey in 2015 to join an NGO which helped Syrian refugees. That’s all she’ll reveal when asked how and why she ended up living in the so-called Islamic State for four years.

IPS spoke to her inside the small tent where she has spent the last five years with her two children at Roj camp. At 780 km northeast of Damascus, it holds around 3,000 individuals with alleged links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (IS).

“If we don't help these children, I cannot imagine how their lives will be in the future. And this is not only the Kurdish administration’s responsibility”

Natascha Rée Mikkelsen

This transnational Jihadist group managed to set up an unrecognised quasi-state. By the end of 2015, the self-proclaimed caliphate ruled an area with an estimated population of 12 million people living under an extreme interpretation of Islamic Law.

After an intense conflict mainly with Kurdish forces backed by Washington, IS lost control of all its Middle Eastern territories in the Spring of 2019. Rozana and her two children were then captured in Baghouz, the last village under the Islamists´ rule to fall.

Since then, a tent where a few toys and books are stored in a separate corner has been the closest thing to a home for her and her children.

“This is no childhood for them,” says Rozena. “They’re missing the most basic things: from fresh air to clean water, not to mention a proper school…”

Some, however, have managed to escape from the camp since it was established. “I know people who have paid up to 15,000 USD but I don’t have such an amount. My only chance to leave this place with my two kids is to be repatriated”, says Rozena.

But Guyana is one of the countries that refuses to repatriate its nationals. Rozana says she’s tried “absolutely everything” with her government, but that there’s been no reaction so far. “My kids are certainly not a threat, and neither am I,” she insists.

She also fears that they might get radicalised inside the camp. “Half of the people here still stick to IS’s radical ideology. I can teach my kids the best I can, but they will learn other things from playing with other kids,” explains the captive.

 

Children born in the Islamic caliphate somewhere in the Syrian desert. Most of them remain in precarious prison camps in northeastern Syria. Credit: Jewan Abdi / IPS

 

Radicalisation

Although some Syrian citizens have been taken to court in Syria’s northeast for alleged links with IS, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) lacks international recognition and, hence, is unable to try foreign individuals.

Figures shared with IPS by the AANES point to over 31,000 children from families once linked with IS still under their custody. Many are born out of forced marriages or rape. Most of them languish in Al Hol camp, in the outskirts of Hassake.

At 655 Km northeast of Damascus, it’s a vast area for thousands of makeshift tents battered by the relentless rains during winter and burning sunshine during summer.

In conversation with IPS, Al Hol camp director Jihan Hanan says there are people from 50 different nationalities. But the kids pose a major source of concern.

“We have only two schools for them, but not all the children are attending these centres, especially the ones from 12 to 18 years old. They´re the most vulnerable here in the camp and many radicalised women trying to brainwash them,” explains Hanan.

She also points to “deadly attacks” in the past. “We had to conduct special security operations. Today the attacks are limited to thefts and threats, and they target NGOs too,” adds the official.

According to her, IS sleeping cells inside the camp are posing a major threat. “They are the most dangerous groups, and they are always approaching the children to recruit them,” she warns.

 

The foreigners’ section of the Al Hol camp. Women and children wait to go to the hospital, shop or receive help. The Kurdish administration separated foreign Islamic State families from Syrians and Iraqis. Credit: Jewan Abdi / IPS

 

A taste of home

Repatriation to their countries of origin is seemingly the only way out for many. US State Department sources point to more than 3,500 repatriated to 14 countries as of 2023.

A 2022 study conducted by Human Rights Watch gathering the experiences of more than 100 children revealed that most of them are attending school, with many excelling in their studies. 82 percent of survey respondents described the child’s emotional and psychological well-being as “very good” or “quite good.”

“Notwithstanding the ordeals they survived both under IS and subsequently in captivity in the northeast Syrian camps, many are reintegrating successfully in their new communities,” concludes the report.

Sweden is one of the countries that has repatriated most of their citizens in 2022. But policies changed after the arrival to power of a new government allied with the far right, in September 2022.

 

Aerial view of the Al Hol camp, in northeastern Syria, 655 kilometres from Damascus. It hosts more than 50,000 people, of which almost 30,000 are children of dozens of different nationalities. Credit: Jewan Abdi / IPS

 

“These people chose to go there to join IS, one of the cruellest terrorist organisations we have seen, so there’s no obligation on the part of Sweden and the Swedish government to act for these people to come home,” the Swedish foreign affair minister Tobias Billström said in an interview with Swedish TV4 on March 13.

But not everyone agrees. Repatriate The Children is a Swedish NGO working and advocating to send children home. “It’s a purely political decision to leave these children there and not repatriate them,” RTC co-founder and spokesperson Natascha Rée Mikkelsen tells IPS over the phone from Copenhagen.

“They have already experienced things that no child should see, like war, unsafety, no proper education or no access to proper health care. By leaving them stranded in this environment, the risk of being part of IS ideology remains high,” adds the human rights advocate.

“If we don’t help these children, I cannot imagine how their lives will be in the future. And this is not only the Kurdish administration’s responsibility,” stresses Mikkelsen, who also labels the constant Turkish airstrikes as “one of the region’s main destabilising factors.”

The AANES has repeatedly stated that they lack the resources to cater for these thousands of families. Top United Nations officials have also called on governments to repatriate their nationals from the camps.

“Every country should take care of their citizens, especially the women and the children,” Abdulkarim Omar, the representative of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to Europe, tells IPS over the phone from Brussels.

“We believe it is going to be a long process, that’s why we urge the countries to help us, especially with their citizens,” adds the Kurdish official, who also highlights the need to improve the conditions of alleged IS prisoners under Kurdish custody.

When asked about the possibility of the outside world ignoring the problem, Omar is blunt: “If no action is taken in the short term, we are soon to face a whole new generation of terrorists that will be a threat to all the world.”

 

Nimco Ali, CEO, The Five Foundation (center), meeting with Andrew Mitchell, (right) Minister for Development, UK, and Harriet King (left), UK High Commissioner to The Gambia. Credit: The Five Foundation

By Alimatu Dimonekene
LONDON, Mar 27 2024 (IPS)

Earlier this month, a UNICEF report on the prevalence of female genital mutilation (FGM) showed that while some success is taking place, the pace of progress remains slow – lagging behind population growth, especially in places where FGM is most common.

The report revealed that over 230 million girls and women worldwide have undergone FGM – a 15 per cent increase, or 30 million more girls and women, compared to the data released eight years ago. The largest share of the global burden is found in African countries, with over 144 million cases, followed by over 80 million in Asia and over 6 million in the Middle East.

As the 68th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) concluded last week I became particularly anxious for the women and girls of The Gambia. As advocates from around the world arrived in New York to attend the annual event hosted by the United Nations, our excitement was quickly dissolved.

Just hours before, we had learned from our Gambian colleagues that religious leaders — predominantly men including politicians — were voting to repeal a law passed almost 10 years ago by former President Yayah Janneh, which banned the practice of FGM. In that time a law that has saved thousands of girls and women undergoing this devastating human rights abuse.

It came as a shock. However, as world leaders scrambled on what to do or say following the news it was African women including Jaha Dukureh from Safe Hands for Girls, Fatou Baldeh MBE from Women in Liberation and Leadership, Nimco Ali OBE from The Five Foundation, who showed leadership during one of our most challenging times.

Survivors and activists were relentless in our pursuits. In a few days, many of us took to the media, as well as anywhere we could gather within our communities to say no to repealing the law.

This is a crucial moment for the FGM campaign, which could have even further negative consequences for Gambian women and girls. This fight is not just a call to repeal the law on FGM but if this request succeeds, we are going to see a widespread roll back on other fundamental rights of women and girls.

Fatou Kinteh, the Minister of Gender and Children’s Affairs said in a statement at a meeting at CSW68 that: “Women cannot be empowered if their rights continue to be violated“. Yet, this same government is putting them at risk.

World leaders must confront so-called religious leaders too including Imam Fatty who issued this very carefully planned fatwa, even while FGM is still illegal. Leaders like Imam Fatty are very determined to roll back the progress made in the Gambia in the last 10 years. His pronouncement has already cost lives. Because immediately after his statements many families were already receiving threats to have their daughters cut.

I hope that people like UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron now stand up to support Gambian women. In 2014, it was under his leadership that the Girl Summit co-hosted with UNICEF themed “A future free from FGM and child and forced marriage” took place. This helped to catalyse the groundbreaking work that gave rise to the ban. During that Summit, as the guest speaker, I was very pleased to hear of action and funding commitments.

As an FGM survivor activist, a global advocate and speaker, and a mother, I am calling on him, as well as all government representatives around the world to immediately release direct funding to women like me – grassroots activists working on the frontlines – to help with this fight.

Leaders should also sanction those who support the call to repeal the ban on FGM, while also finally calling on nations like Sierra Leone to enact laws and implement sustained policies that go towards protecting and safeguarding girls and women from FGM once and for all.

Alimatu Dimonekene MBE, is a leading women and girls rights advocate in the UK: https://agdgetitdone.co.uk/aboutalimatu

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Credit: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images

By Andrew Firmin
LONDON, Mar 27 2024 (IPS)

At last the UN Security Council has passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. While stopping short of demanding a permanent end to the violence, it goes further than the world’s peak peace and security body had so far managed since the start of the current brutal phase of conflict in October. But the time it’s taken to get to this point signals an ongoing failure of global institutions to uphold human rights.

Today’s conflicts around the world – not just in Gaza, but in Sudan, Ukraine and sadly many other places – are bringing immense cruelty and suffering, targeted at civilian populations and civil society. One in six people are currently exposed to conflict. International rules are supposed to make sure atrocities don’t happen, and if they do, the international community works to halt the bloodshed and bring those responsible to justice. But states are repeatedly flouting the rules.

The latest State of Civil Society Report, from global civil society alliance CIVICUS, highlights how international bodies are flailing as states make hypocritical decisions that undermine the rules-based international order. Belligerents are brazenly ignoring long-established tenets of international human rights and humanitarian law because they expect to get away with it. Civil society has global governance reform plans but isn’t getting a seat at the table.

Powerful states including Russia and the USA are demonstrating selective respect for the rules, shielding allies but castigating enemies. This is clear among the many states that rushed to Ukraine’s defence but have hesitated to criticise Israel. At the basest level, some states are displaying racism as they show concern for white people’s human rights but not for those of people of colour.

The Security Council has moved incredibly slowly, hampered by powerful states using their veto, its resolutions watered down through lengthy processes despite the urgency of the situation. States wanting to see an end to conflicts have taken to other arenas, including the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council – but these lack the clout of the Security Council.

Human rights are supposed to be one of the UN’s three pillars, alongside peace and security and sustainable development. But they’re very much the poor relation. The human rights pillar gets only 4.3 per cent of the UN’s regular budget. Problems with funding were plain to see in January, when UN offices in Geneva shut down temporarily due to a liquidity crisis, unable to meet heating costs at the height of a human rights emergency. Around 50 UN member states were reported to have failed to pay their 2023 contributions fully or partly.

Some states are withdrawing from the UN’s human rights scrutiny, with Uganda and Venezuela insisting on the closure of human rights offices in their countries, Sudan’s military kicking out a UN mission tasked with restoring democracy and Ethiopia successfully lobbying for an end to a commission scrutinising the many human rights abuses committed during conflict.

At the same time, repressive states are retaliating against activists who take part in UN human rights processes. The most recent report on reprisals against people for cooperating with the UN documented that over the last year, 40 states punished people for using the UN to stand up for human rights. Shockingly, 14 of them were members of the Human Rights Council – almost 30 per cent of the body’s members. It’s a disgrace that points to a broader problem of a lack of respect for human rights by many states active in the UN.

It goes beyond a failure to uphold human rights in conflict settings. The short-term calculations of unaccountable leaders are neutralising international agreements forged to tackle major transnational challenges such as the climate crisis and sustainable development, where delivery is falling far short. At the Sustainable Development Goals summit held last September, civil society put forward innovative ideas to unlock the money needed to finance development and climate resilience, but these were ignored. Civil society is often denied access, forced at best to sit on the sidelines of the annual high-level opening of the UN General Assembly.

Today’s multiple crises are exposing the fundamental design flaws of international institutions, testing them beyond their limit. If trust in the UN collapses, people could embrace more authoritarian alternatives. To prevent this, states and the UN must take on board civil society’s many practical reform ideas. The UN must become more democratic and it must fully include civil society as an essential partner.

It can start by implementing some civil society reform proposals. The first of these, and an easy one to adopt, is to appoint a civil society envoy, someone who could encourage best practices on civil society participation across the UN, ensure a diverse range of civil society is involved and drive the UN’s engagement with civil society groups around the world. At a time when civil society is under attack in so many countries, this move would signal the UN takes civil society seriously and potentially unlock further progress.

Another step forward would be a world citizens’ initiative, enabling people to mobilise to collect signatures to put an issue on the UN’s agenda. This could ensure that matters proved to have a high level of global public support are given consideration, including at the Security Council. Many in civil society also support a UN parliamentary assembly to complement the General Assembly and give a voice to citizens as well as governments. This could serve as a valuable corrective to the state-centric nature of decision-making and act as a source of scrutiny and accountability over the decisions the UN makes – or fails to make.

Civil society will keep calling for a rules-based order where clear laws and policies are followed to tackle climate change, end poverty, address deep economic inequality, de-escalate conflicts and prevent gross human rights violations. The UN Summit of the Future in September 2024 should commit to advancing this vision. Civil society is doing its best to engage with the process, calling not for more platitudes but for genuine reforms that put people at the heart of decision-making.

Andrew Firmin is CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

 

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Children eating and drinking at the Children's House in Idlib. Abandoned children is a growing issue in the region. Credit: Sonia Al-Ali/IPS

By Sonia Al Ali
IDLIB, Syria, Mar 27 2024 (IPS)

Wael Al-Hassan was returning from work in the Syrian city of Harim when he heard the sound of a baby crying.

He was returning from work on December 10, 2023. He stopped momentarily, turned on his mobile phone flashlight to investigate, and spotted a baby girl, around one month old, wrapped in a white blanket, lying by the roadside.

He felt saddened by the infant’s condition and said, “She was crying loudly, and I saw scratches on her face from cat or dog claws. I then carried her in my arms and took her home, where my wife breastfed her, changed her clothes, and took care of her.”

The phenomenon of abandoning newborns is increasing in northern Syria, where individuals leave their newborns in public parks or alongside roads, then leave the area. Passersby later find the infants, some of them dead from hunger or cold.

Al-Hassan said that the next morning, he handed the baby girl over to the police to search for her family and relatives.

Social Rejection

Social worker Abeer Al-Hamoud from the city of Idlib, located in northern Syria, attributes the primary reason for some families abandoning their children to the widespread poverty and high population density in the province. Additionally, there is fear of the security situation (the area is not in the control of the Syrian regime and is often under attack), the prevalence of divorces, and spouses abandoning their families after traveling abroad.

Al-Hamoud also points out another reason, which is the spread of the phenomenon of early marriage and marrying girls to foreign fighters who came from their countries to Syria to participate in combat. Under pressure from their families, wives often have to abandon their children after their husband’s death, sudden disappearance, or return to their homeland, especially when they are unable to care for them or provide for them financially. Moreover, these children have no proper documentation of parentage.

Furthermore, Al-Hamoud mentions another reason, which is some women are raped, leading them to abandon their newborns out of fear of punishment from their families or societal stigma.

Al-Hamoud warns that the number of abandoned children is increasing and says there is an urgent need to find solutions to protect them from exploitation, oppression, and societal discrimination they may face. She emphasizes that the solutions lie in returning displaced persons to their homes, improving living conditions for families, raising awareness among families about the importance of family planning, and launching campaigns to integrate these children into society.

Alternative Families

It’s preferable for members of the community to accept these children into their families, but they face difficulties in registering the births.

Thirty-nine-year-old Samaheer Al-Khalaf from the city of Sarmada in northern Idlib province, Syria, sponsored a newborn found abandoned at a park gate, and she welcomed him into her family.

She says, “After 11 years of marriage to my cousin, we were not blessed with children, so we decided to raise a child found in the city at the beginning of 2022.”

Al-Khalaf observes that the Islamic religion’s prohibition on “adoption” prevents her from registering the child under her name in the civil registry. Additionally, she cannot go to areas controlled by the Syrian regime to register him due to the presence of security barriers.

She says, “I fear for this child’s future because he will remain of unknown lineage. He will live deprived of his civil rights, such as education and healthcare, and he won’t be able to obtain official documents.”

Children’s House Provides Assistance

With the increasing numbers of children of unknown parentage, volunteers have opened a center to receive and care for the children abandoned by their families.

Younes Abu Amin, the director of Children’s House, says, “A child of unknown parentage is one who was found and whose father is unknown, or children whose parentage has not been proven and who have no provider.”

“The organization ‘Children’s House’ opened a center to care for children separated from their families and children of unknown parentage in the city of Sarmada, north of Idlib,” says Abu Amin. “The number of registered children in the center has reached 267, ranging in age from one day to 18 years. Some have been placed with foster families, while others currently reside in the center, receiving all their needs, including shelter, food, education, and healthcare.”

Upon arrival at the center, Abu Amin notes that the center registers each child in its records, transfers them to the shelter department, and makes efforts to locate their original family or relatives and send them to them or to find a foster family to provide them with a decent life.

Abu Amin explains that the center employs 20 staff members who provide children with care, psychological support, and education. They work to create a suitable environment for the children and support them psychologically to help with emotional support.

He emphasizes that the center survives on individual donations to cover its expenses – which are scarce. There is an urgent need for sufficient support, as the children require long-term care, especially newborns.

A young girl Marah (8) and her brother, Kamal (10), lost their father in the war. Their mother remarried, leaving them to live in a small tent with their grandfather, who forces them to beg and sell tissues, often leaving them without food for days.

Consequently, they decided to escape from home. Kamal says, “We used to sleep outdoors, overwhelmed by fear, cold, and hunger, until someone took us to the child center.”

Upon reaching the center, they returned to their studies, played with other children, and each other, just like children with families.

Kamal expresses his wish, “I hope to continue my education with my sister so we can rely on ourselves and escape from a life of injustice and deprivation.”

These children, innocent of any wrongdoing, are often left to fend for themselves, bearing the brunt of war-induced poverty, insecurity, homelessness, instability, and early marriage.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
ACCRA, Ghana, Mar 27 2024 (IPS)

The IMF no. 2 recommends non-alignment as the best option for developing countries in the second Cold War as geopolitics threatens already dismal prospects for the world economy and wellbeing.

IMF warning
Ominously, International Monetary Fund (IMF) First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath warns, “With the weakest world growth prospects in decades – and…the pandemic and war slowing income convergence between rich and poor nations – we can little afford another Cold War”.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

While recognising globalisation is over, she appeals to governments to “preserve economic cooperation amid geoeconomic fragmentation” due to the second Cold War.

Growing US-China tensions, the pandemic and war have changed international relations. The US calls for ‘friend-shoring’ while its European allies claim they want to ‘de-risk’. While still pleading for ‘globalisation’, China realistically stresses ‘self-reliance’.

Multilateral rules were rarely designed to address such international conflicts as ostensible ‘national security’ concerns rewrite big powers’ economic policies. Hence, geoeconomic conflicts have few rules and no referee!

Historical perspective
After the Second World War, the US and USSR soon led rival blocs in a new bipolar world. After Bandung (1955) and Belgrade (1961), non-aligned countries have rejected both camps. This era lasted four decades.

World trade-to-GDP rose with post-war recovery and, later, trade liberalisation. With the first Cold War, geopolitical considerations shaped trade and investment flows as economic relations between the blocs shrank.

According to her, such flows increased after the Cold War, “reaching almost a quarter of world trade” during the “hyper-globalization” of the 1990s and 2000s.

However, globalization has stagnated since 2008. Later, about “3,000 trade restricting measures were imposed” in 2022 – nearly thrice those imposed in 2019!

Cold War economics
Gopinath sees “ideological and economic rivalry between two superpowers” as driving both Cold Wars. Now, China – not the Soviet Union – is the US rival, but things are different in other respects too.

In 1950, the two blocs accounted for 85% of world output. Now, the global North, China and Russia have 70% of world output but only a third of its population.

Economic interdependence grew among countries as they became “much more integrated”. International trade-to-output is now 60% compared to 24% during the Cold War. This inevitably raises the costs of what she terms economic ‘fragmentation’ due to geopolitics.

With the Ukraine war, trade between blocs fell from 3% pre-war to -1.9%! Even trade growth within blocs fell to 1.7% – from 2.2% pre-war. Similarly, FDI proposals “between blocs declined more than those within blocs…while FDI to non-aligned countries sharply increased.”

China is no longer the US’s largest trading partner, as “its share of US imports has fallen” from 22% in 2018 to 13% in early 2023. Trade restrictions since 2018 have cut “Chinese imports of tariffed products” as US FDI in China fell sharply.

However, indirect links are replacing direct ties between the US and China. “Countries that have gained the most in US import shares…have also gained more in China’s export shares” and FDI abroad.

A BIS study found “supply chains have lengthened in the last two years”, especially between “Chinese suppliers and US customers”. Hopefully, Gopinath suggests, “despite efforts by the two biggest economies to cut ties, it is not yet clear how effective they will be”.

For Gopinath, trade restrictions “diminish the efficiency gains from specialisation, limit economies of scale due to smaller markets, and reduce competitive pressures.”

She reports IMF research suggesting “the economic costs of fragmentation… could be significant and weigh disproportionately on developing countries”, with losses around 2.5% of world output.

Losses could be as high as 7% of GDP depending on the economy’s resilience: “losses are especially large for lower income and emerging market economies.”

Much will depend on how things unfold. She warns, “Fragmentation would also inhibit our efforts to address other global challenges that demand international cooperation.”

Policy options
Policymakers face difficult trade-offs between minimising the costs of fragmentation and vulnerabilities, and maximising security and resilience.

Gopinath recognises her ‘first best solution’ – to avoid geoeconomic hostilities – is remote at best, given current geopolitical hostilities and likely future trends. Instead, she urges avoiding “the worst-case scenario” and protecting “economic cooperation” despite polarisation.

She wants adversaries to “target only a narrow set of products and technologies that warrant intervention on economic security grounds”. Otherwise, she advocates a “non-discriminatory plurilateral approach” to “deepen integration, diversify, and mitigate resilience risks”.

Despite the odds, Gopinath appeals for a “multilateral approach…for areas of common interest” to “safeguard the global goals of averting climate change devastation, food insecurity and pandemic-related humanitarian disasters”.

Finally, she wants to restrict “unilateral policy actions – such as industrial policies”. They should only address “market failures while preserving market forces”, which she insists always “allocate resources most efficiently”.

Not recognising the double standards involved, she wants policymakers “to carefully evaluate industrial policies in terms of their effectiveness” But, she is less cautious and uncritical in insisting on neoliberal conventional wisdom despite its dubious track record.

Unsurprisingly, two IMF staffers felt compelled to write in 2019 of ‘The Return of the Policy That Shall Not Be Named’. Despite much earlier extensive European and Japanese use and US President Biden’s recent embrace of industrial policy, the Fund seems caught in an ideological trap and time warp of its own making.

While making excessive claims about gains from globalisation, Gopinath acknowledges “economic integration has not benefited everyone”.

Thankfully, she urges developing countries to remain non-aligned and “deploy their economic and diplomatic heft to keep the world integrated” as the new Cold War sets the world further back.

Pragmatically, Gopinath observes, “If some economies remain non-aligned and continue engaging with all partners, they could benefit from the diversion of trade and investment.”

By 2022, “more than half of global trade involved a non-aligned country…They can benefit directly from trade and investment diversion”, reducing the Cold War’s high costs.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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A young Quechua mother, originally from Peru's southern Andes highlands, walks through the streets of Lima, carrying her young daughter in her lliclla (a colorful shawl made by native women in the Andes). A quarter of Peru's rural population under the age of five suffers from chronic malnutrition, clear evidence of inequality, which will have severe impacts on the rural child population. CREDIT: Wálter Hupiú / IPS

By Mariela Jara
LIMA, Mar 27 2024 (IPS)

Quechua farmer Felipa Noamesa, who lives in the southern Peruvian department of Cuzco, prepares a cream of fava bean soup for breakfast every morning with bread and vegetable soup with noodles. Her children are grown up, so her priority is that her five-year-old granddaughter does not suffer from anemia or malnutrition, two problems she frequently sees in her community.

“At my neighbors’ homes there are little children who don’t want to eat, who have swollen tummies, who have parasites, whose eyes look yellow and who fall asleep at school because they can’t stay awake,” the 44-year-old indigenous horticulturist told IPS during an interview at her plot of land in Paruro, the town where she lives with her husband, her daughter and her five-year-old granddaughter, Mayra, who she takes care of while her mother goes to school."Peru will have a couple of generations with much greater health problems, much lower productivity and many more restrictions to generate sustainable livelihoods in the broad sense." -- Carolina Trivelli

At their house they don’t eat beef, pork or lamb, but they do eat guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus), an Andean rodent of recognized nutritional value, which she raises in a small shed next to her house, close to their organic garden.

“For lunch I make broth, stew or roast guinea pig and combine it with fresh corn, potatoes, vegetables from my garden and cheese,” she said in her home in Paruro, the seat of the province of the same name, located more than 3,000 meters above sea level.

Peru, a country of 33 million people, faces a political and institutional crisis aggravated by the interim presidency of Dina Boluarte, who in December 2022 replaced Pedro Castillo, ousted and imprisoned for an attempt to seize control of all branches of power after less than 19 months in office.

The institutional crisis is compounded by an economic recession, the reduction of agricultural production due to climatic phenomena such as El Niño, and a poverty level that climbed to 30 percent in 2023, according to official provisional data.

Against this backdrop, the levels of anemia and malnutrition in children under five years of age are of concern.

According to official figures presented last year, chronic malnutrition affected 11.7 percent of the population, but with a greater impact in rural areas: 24 percent compared to seven percent in urban areas.

Other forms of malnutrition also present worrying indicators: 42 percent of the population aged six to 35 months has anemia, with a higher percentage in rural areas (51.5 percent) than in urban areas (39 percent). Meanwhile, nine percent of children under five years of age are overweight or obese.

In the Andes highlands department of Cuzco, with a population of 1.4 million divided among its 13 provinces, child malnutrition reaches 14 percent and anemia 51 percent. It is only surpassed by the central-western department of Huancavelica, which reports 29 percent child malnutrition. This situation reflects the harsh impact of inequality and poverty.

 

Felipa Noamesa, a 44-year-old Quechua farmer, stands in her vegetable garden in Paruro, a village in the southern Peruvian department of Cuzco. Malnutrition is a common problem in her community and her concern is to feed her young granddaughter a nutritional diet so that she will grow up strong and healthy. CREDIT: Mariela Jara / IPS

 

A price the whole country will pay

Carolina Trivelli, an economist and researcher at the Institute of Peruvian Studies, which has worked for more than 50 years in the country, said that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis, access to nutritious and healthy food for individuals and families has declined.

“Unfortunately chronic malnutrition stopped going down and has remained steady at around 11.7, 11.5, 12 percent over the last three to four years,” the former minister of Development and Social Inclusion during the government of Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) told IPS in an interview at her home in Lima.

She said this has to do with the specific situation of families, the public apparatus and structural conditions such as high food inflation that affects the ability of families in a context of recession to afford food in sufficient quantity and quality to combat malnutrition. In addition, there is anemia, overweight and obesity.

Trivelli said these three elements make up a set of malnutrition problems that particularly affect the most vulnerable groups, including children from the poorest socioeconomic sectors.

 

Economist and former Minister of Inclusion and Social Development of Peru, Carolina Trivelli, is interviewed in her home office in Lima. She warns about the cost that the country will pay over the next two generations due to the high level of chronic child malnutrition, a problem that she says should be a priority on the public agenda. CREDIT: Mariela Jara / IPS

 

When looking at the figures for consumption of food needed to address anemia and chronic child malnutrition, the difference between the consumption levels of the poorest 20 percent and the wealthiest 20 percent is enormous. So not only is there a problem of access to affordable food, but it is a major issue among the most vulnerable sectors.

“Peru is going to pay the cost of this, all Peruvians are going to pay it over the next two generations,” she warned.

The expert in agricultural economics said that “Peru will have a couple of generations with much greater health problems, much lower productivity and many more restrictions to generate sustainable livelihoods in the broad sense.”

 

Ernesto Fisher is mayor of San Salvador, a town in the province of Calca in the southern Peruvian Andes highlands region of Cuzco, which has one of the highest levels of chronic child malnutrition in the country. The municipal government has put a priority on attention to the problem, but he said they need the support of the central government to ensure drinking water and sanitation for the entire population. CREDIT: District of San Salvador

 

Focus on water and sanitation

Calca, another of Cuzco’s provinces, contains some of the municipalities with the most worrying rates of malnutrition and anemia. For example, in the municipality of San Salvador, population around 6,000, child anemia stands at 26 percent.

This fact is related to the quality of their housing, most of which is in a precarious condition, while they have low levels of access to services, especially those who live in the countryside.

“From the mayor’s office we are prioritizing food security projects for raising chickens and guinea pigs so that families can improve their nutritional intake, and we are also delivering iron syrup to health posts to be supplied to children and their mothers,” the mayor, Ernesto Fisher, told IPS from San Salvador.

In a telephone interview, Fisher, in office since 2022, said that to eradicate the problem it is necessary to address water and sanitation deficiencies in his town. To this end, the municipal government is designing projects aimed at guaranteeing water resources for irrigation of family crops, drinking water and sewage services connected to the public network.

“Without sanitation it is impossible to talk about fighting anemia and malnutrition. We will not be able to complete it in this administration, but we will leave the projects on track so that eight years from now all of San Salvador will have running water and sanitation,” he promised.

He called on the national authorities, especially President Boluarte, to prioritize projects that help close inequality gaps such as securing water for different uses. “The rest will come later,” the mayor said, stressing that this should be the top priority.

 

Boiled ears of fresh corn, pieces of cheese and beans, and roasted corn are common foods in the diet of rural Andean families in Peru. However, the decline in agricultural production due to droughts and other climatic events has reduced their access in quantity and quality. CREDIT: Mariela Jara / IPS

 

It’s not just about budget funds

Peru’s public policies reduced chronic child malnutrition between 2008 and 2016, as documented by the World Bank, which pointed to it as a successful experience.

However, the current situation shows that the problem is no longer seen as a priority. Trivelli said that it is not just a question of budget funds, but of combining multiple efforts simultaneously so that resources are spent effectively.

“We can give a family all the food and training they need, but if they don’t have sewage, a safe water source, and proper solid waste management, the problems of chronic malnutrition and anemia are not going to be reduced. If those children go to a school that does not have toilets, we will continue to reproduce the cycle,” she said.

Statistics show that it is the poorest people in rural areas and children who are directly affected by policies that do not place them at the center of their actions.

Trivelli argued that anemia and chronic malnutrition in children should be considered a priority problem of public interest addressed by a body at the highest political level, such as the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, in order to overcome the current scattered approach.

“We are not talking about a health issue only but about a crisis of food, development and poverty, and it needs to be part of the public agenda,” she insisted.

By Marty Logan
KATHMANDU, Mar 26 2024 (IPS)

Before COVID-19 hit, in January 2020, 388 million children worldwide were being fed every day at school. Soon after lockdowns began, that number plummeted to 18 million, but just two years later, in 2022, it had recovered, and more — school feeding had reached 420 million children.

Labelled the world’s largest social security net by the United Nations World Food Programme, school meals have become essential tools for governments rich and poor globally. Not only does school feeding allow once-hungry students to focus on learning, in many cases the schemes also help to improve nutrition and eating habits, ensure regular attendance, and through buying ingredients locally or in-country, help to boost local and national economies.

Today’s guest, Donald Bundy, is Director of the Global Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition. He told me that he is not surprised at the swift recovery of school meals after COVID-19 — he says it was politically expedient for many governments to bring them back quickly. What he didn’t predict was that the recovery would surpass pre-pandemic numbers, even as governments north and south struggled to overcome barriers such as broken supply chains, growing inequality, and persistent inflation.

Bundy points out that school feeding is not an initiative of aid agencies or donor governments. In fact, 98% of the programmes are financed by national governments as investments in their people and future workforce.

We also discuss how countries in the global south, such as Brazil, India and Rwanda, are breaking ground for innovative school feeding while outlier northern countries, such as Canada and Norway, are starting to discuss whether it’s time to adopt national programmes. Bundy also explains how fallout from the pandemic pushed lawmakers in the United States to adopt school meals schemes which led to universal initiatives that feed all students in some of the country’s largest cities, like Houston, New York and Washington, DC.

Resources

• Global Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition
• School Meals Coalition
• School Feeding Is Now the World’s Largest Social Safety Net – IPS News article

 

Yamandú Pagliano plans to cross Praia do Cassino, the world's longest beach, stretching 250 kilometers along Brazil's southern coast from Uruguay, in his homemade wheeled wind buggy, to highlight the need to address global heating. Credit: Yamandú Pagliano

By Paul Virgo
ROME, Mar 26 2024 (IPS)

Extreme sports are not just for young people. Climate activism isn’t either. Yamandù Pagliano is proof.

The 59-year-old father of two is gearing up for an epic feat. He plans to cross the longest beach on Earth, the Praia do Cassino, stretching from the border of Uruguay 250 kilometres up Brazil’s southern coastline, on his home-made wheeled wind buggy.

It’s a massive challenge both in physical and mental terms and one that brings multiple risks with it, including the danger of getting lost, crashing, or being swept out into the sea if the weather turns nasty.

But the Montevideo native has a special motive for taking it on.

Organizers want to highlight the “institutional indifference” to the climate crisis at all levels of government, promote sustainable transport and tourism, draw attention to the need for more cycle paths, especially in southern Italy, and make a loud appeal for peace around the world

Pagliano is a member of Parents for Future (PFF), a global network of citizens concerned about the climate crisis set up to support and echo the calls made by the young people of the Fridays for Future (FFF) movement.

When he takes on the Praia do Cassino challenge, he’ll be flying the Parents for Future flag on the mast of his wind buggy to highlight the need to address global heating.

“It’s going to be a PFF challenge,” Pagliano told IPS.

“My involvement in PFF started after my daughter joined FFF. Soon I was in Parents for Future Latin America (PFF LATAM) and then I helped to set up PFF Uruguay.

“I hope all the detailed stories of the crossing will help people become aware of the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and pollution. I’ll probably find dead animals and plastic garbage on the beach and face extreme weather events”.

Pagliano knows that the climate crisis is no longer a distant problem for future generations as people in Uruguay have been faced with the consequences first hand, as seen with last year’s severe drought that caused dramatic water shortages.

“In Uruguay the winters are not as cold as they used to be, and summers are a lot hotter,” he said.

“We have had big floods, with houses carried down the coast, and recently we had the biggest drought in our history, with almost no water coming out of the tap”.

Fittingly for an initiative that seeks to show the need for sustainability, Pagliano made his windcar out of reused material, welding together pipes he picked up from a scrap yard, while the sail is second-hand.

“There’ll be no phone signal in the middle section of the beach and I’ll be on my own for quite some time,” said Pagliano, who works in construction.

“I will be completely isolated. You have to be ready for every eventuality.

“Depending on the wind, it could take two or three days.

“It could take just one day with an early departure in good conditions, with the wind blowing in the perfect direction and at the perfect strength.

“It gets tiring physically after a while, but the adrenalin keeps you pumped up.

“It’s a good way to highlight the need to be sustainable.

“It’s a natural sport. There’s no contamination. No carbon footprint.

“I’ll do the crossing first and then go public if I’m successful, like Gagarin,” he quipped.

He is not the only parent harnessing renewable energy to draw attention to the need for climate action.

On the other side of the world, the Italian section of PFF is getting ready for the Running For Future, Cycling For Peace – a bike event which, fittingly for the land of the Giro d’Italia, is split into stages.

The ‘race’ starts in Rome’s Piazza del Popolo on May 10 and features 16 stages over nine days, roughly following the Via Francigena pilgrimage route southwards to end in Lecce on May 19.

Each stage will be used to focus on a specific aspect of the ecological crisis, such as air pollution, urban sprawl and the problems created by intensive livestock farming, while at the same time showing how they are all interconnected.

Organized with Fridays for Future Italia, the aims are multiple.

Among other things, organizers want to highlight the “institutional indifference” to the climate crisis at all levels of government, promote sustainable transport and tourism, draw attention to the need for more cycle paths, especially in southern Italy, and make a loud appeal for peace around the world.

The Italian section of Parents for Future gears up for “Running For Future, Cycling For Peace” — a multi-stage cycling event starting in Rome’s Piazza del Popolo on May 10th and ending in Lecce on May 19th, following the Via Francigena route. Credit: Paul Virgo

“We chose a cycling initiative because the bicycle has become a symbol of ecology,” said Maria Santarossa of Parents for Future Italia.
“It is a clean means of transport, which enables you to stay fit and be in direct contact with nature.

“We chose a pilgrims’ path because we can consider it an emblem of the beauty of nature and it’s a way to remind ourselves that we must take care of beauty.

“We have involved many other movements, associations, committees, and networks because we want people to know that many of us have the same objectives regarding the very serious climate and environmental crisis that is present in everyone’s lives”.

It is free to take part in the event, although participants have to cover their own accommodation and food expenses.

It is the second such event. The first took place in 2021, going from Rome northwards along the Via Francigena to Milan for the PreCOP26 conference that was held there.

That was such a success that it inspired the Polish section of Parents for Future to stage a climate grand tour of its own.

Each national PFF group is autonomous and does its own thing, campaigning on the issues that are most appropriate given the local situation.

PFF Italia, for example, is currently engaged in a major campaign to convince consumers to switch to utility companies whose electricity comes only from renewable sources.

There is also an umbrella group, Parents for Future Global (PFFG), which, among other things, is campaigning to support the drive for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

 

Dr Riyad Mansour, Permanent Representative of the State of Palestine to the United Nations addresses journalists at the stakeout after the immediate humanitarian ceasefire was announced.

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 26 2024 (IPS)

After nearly six months of a devastating war in Gaza, the UN Security Council has at last adopted a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. The resolution calls for the ceasefire to come into effect for the month of Ramadan, demands the unconditional release of all hostages and ensures humanitarian access.

On Monday, resolution 2728 (2024) was passed with fourteen votes in favor, with only the United States abstaining from voting. The draft was presented by Mozambique’s Ambassador Pero Afonso on behalf of the ten elected members of the Council, or the E10. He noted that all members of the Council were mandated under the UN Charter to maintain international peace and security and that their “actions impact the entire international community.”

“The E10 has always respected the call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as a fundamental step,” he said. “For this reason, and in respect for the holy month of Ramadan, we have proposed the present resolution that demands an immediate ceasefire during this sacred period, leading to a permanent and sustainable ceasefire.”

As noted by the representative of Korea, this resolution is the first text adopted that has been introduced by elected Council members on a regional agenda item. Members of the Council expressed the hope that this resolution would only be the first step towards a lasting peace and a more permanent end to the war in Gaza, wherein efforts to send in humanitarian aid and rebuild the state could proceed without interruption.

E10 speaking at the security council stakeout after the humanitarian ceasefire resolution.

“We delivered the strongest signal thus far: we demand an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, leading to a lasting, sustainable ceasefire,” said the representative from Slovenia. “It is a call we have all been desperate to hear from the council. A short and focused resolution is the firm sign from the council that this conflict must stop.”

“An immediate ceasefire is a priority step, but it is only the first step, given the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza,” said the representative of Switzerland.

The representative of Guyana noted that women and children have been disproportionately affected by the war, with pregnant and lactating women and children being the most vulnerable to the risk of famine and malnutrition. She added that the hostages’ families were “in anguish” as there seemed no clear prospect of their loved ones’ return. “After more than five months of utter terror and destruction, a ceasefire is the difference between life and death for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and others.”

The resolution also acknowledged the diplomatic efforts of Egypt, Qatar, and the United States to reach an agreement between the parties involved.

The United States’ decision to abstain from voting was a signal of the mounting pressure from the international community as the threat of famine looms over Gaza and the toll of devastation continues to rise. It also signals the Biden administration’s growing frustration with Israeli leaders’ lack of cooperation. US Ambassador Linda Thompson-Green stated that support for the objectives of the resolution was “not simply rhetorical.”

“We’re working around the clock on the ground through diplomacy because we know that it is only through diplomacy that we can push this agenda forward,” she said in her statement to the Security Council. They would support “some of the critical objectives in this non-binding resolution.”

Thompson-Green also added that the US delegation disagreed on some points, such as a lack of condemnation of Hamas for the October 7 attacks.

The United States has previously used their veto on three separate occasions to vote down ceasefire resolutions introduced since the beginning of the current conflict. The most recent instance was in February, when Algeria presented a draft resolution. It was following this session that the US delegation announced that they would put forward their own resolution for a humanitarian ceasefire and would allow for the safe return of all hostages, as well as a direct condemnation of Hamas. When the time came for the US resolution to be voted on earlier in March, it failed to pass when both China and Russia used their veto.

Speaking at the Security Council, Riyad Al Mansour, the permanent observer of the State of Palestine, remarked that the international response to Israel’s involvement since October 7 should be one that “enforces consequences for these crimes”.

“Accepting any justification for such crimes is renouncing our humanity and destroying the rule of international law beyond repair,” he said.

For Palestinians, the ceasefire resolution had to signal a turning point.

“This must lead to saving lives on the ground. This must signal the end of this assault of atrocities against our people. Save the lives of those who survived against all odds. Tell them help is on the way. End this injustice; end it now. All of this is long overdue.”

Once the meeting had adjourned, Afonso, representing the E10 Group, told reporters that resolutions passed by the Security Council were binding and mandatory. “Every member state is under the obligation to implement those measures,” he said.

Mansour also reiterated this, adding: “If Israel is not going to implement it, then it is the duty of the Security Council to use Chapter 7 to take punitive measures in order to make them obey the measure of the Security Council.”

Beyond the Security Council, the response to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the resolution “must be implemented. Failure would be unforgivable.”

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini expressed his thanks to the Secretary-General for his support of UNRWA and the people of Palestine. On the matter of the Security Council resolution, he said on Twitter: “We now hope for its implementation so that people in Gaza [and the] region can finally get some respite and  the peace they all aspire to.”

Human Rights Watch’s UN Director Louis Charbonneau said in a statement: “Israel needs to immediately respond to the UN Security Council resolution adopted today by facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid, ending its starvation of Gaza’s population, and halting unlawful attacks. Palestinian armed groups should immediately release all civilians held hostage. The US and other countries should use their leverage to end atrocities by suspending arms transfers to Israel.” 

Israel’s response to the resolution so far does not suggest that they will respect the Security Council’s decision. Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan expressed disappointment that while the Council has previously condemned terrorist attacks, including the most recent attacks that occurred in Moscow over the weekend, it had not condemned Hamas for October 7, the events of which he described as “the most wide-spread and barbaric massacre suffered by the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

He remarked that the resolution’s denouncement of the taking of hostages was “what should have been the driving moral force.”

He added that the Council should “not settle for words but take action” when it comes to ensuring the return of hostages. “It is unfathomable that when it comes to hostages, we still only see inaction. Yet when it comes to the situation in Gaza, the Council rushed to take action.”

It was also announced that Prime Minister Netanyahu canceled a planned trip to Washington, D.C., shortly after the Council resolution was adopted. This was in response to what was perceived as the US shifting its position, which would affect war efforts against Hamas and its efforts to rescue the hostages.

As binding international law, the Security Council’s decision should be respected, and it must not be held back from implementing its measures at any cost. The limited time of the remaining weeks of Ramadan should urge the Security Council and other enforcers of international law to implement a more lasting, if not permanent, ceasefire.

 

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A Security Council meeting in progress. Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 26 2024 (IPS)

The UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution for a temporary cease-fire in the ongoing conflict in Gaza— adopted by a 14-0 vote with the US abstaining –- marks a significant step forward in momentarily halting the five-month-old fighting which has claimed the lives of over 32,000 Palestinians and 1,200 inside Israel.

But a lingering question remains: how will Israel respond?

Clearly, Israel has had a longstanding notoriety for flouting UNSC resolutions —and still never having to pay a price for such violations—primarily because of the unyielding support of the United States.

Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics, University of San Francisco, who has written extensively and authoritatively on the politics of the Security Council, told IPS: “By my count, Israel has initially stood in violation of as many as 40 UN Security Council resolutions for at least a decade following their passage, though they eventually came into compliance with about a dozen of those. They remain in violation of the others”.

Successive U.S. administrations, including the Biden administration, have made clear they would veto any UN Security Council resolution that would impose sanctions or any other kind of pressure to force Israel into compliance, he said.

While it is certainly a positive development that the Biden administration did not veto Monday’s Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire as it has previously, the United States again demonstrated its isolation in the international community by being the only country to not vote in favor.

The Biden administration threatened to veto the original draft resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire, only agreeing to not cast a veto in return for dropping the word “permanent.”

White House spokesperson John Kirby said the United States did not vote in favor because the resolution did not condemn Hamas, despite the fact that it did not condemn Israel either.

The wording of the various clauses which the Biden administration also apparently demanded are revealing: While it “demands” that Hamas release the hostages, the United States made sure that the resolution only “emphasizes the urgent need” to get desperately-needed aid to Palestinians and that it did not mention that it is Israel that is preventing it, said Dr Zunes, currently Torgny Segerstedt Visiting Research Professor, at the Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

At the same time, even though the ceasefire resolution, if honored, would only stop the fighting for two weeks, it is significant that the United States allowed for even a temporary ceasefire resolution to pass without conditioning it on the release of Israeli hostages, he noted.

“This is no doubt a reflection of the growing domestic and international pressure the Biden administration has been facing over its support for Israel’s horrific war on the people of Gaza.

Whatever the wording of the resolution, however, it is unlikely that Israel will abide by it and the United States would certainly veto any attempt by the United Nations to enforce it,” he declared.

Oxfam’s UN Representative and Head of New York Office Brenda Mofya said: “We welcome the Security Council’s adoption of a ceasefire resolution so Palestinians in Gaza can have much-needed respite from the relentless and devastating Israeli violence and critical aid can reach them”.

However, this resolution, while a step in the right direction, falls short of the permanent ceasefire which is truly required and comes too late for the over 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza that have been killed, and thousands more unaccounted for, while the Security Council wrung its hands over semantics, she argued.

“For nearly six months, the rest of the international community has repeatedly called for a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and the provision of unrestricted aid into Gaza. It is long overdue for UN Security Council Member States to finally heed these calls with the moral leadership that is rightfully expected of them and to stop the killing and suffering in Gaza.

“Now this resolution has passed, it is imperative for Member States to fulfil their obligations to ensure that it is implemented so that Palestinians never endure violence such as this again. This includes immediately halting the transfer of weapons, parts, and ammunition to Israel and Palestinian armed groups,” she said.

“A mere two-week pause is not enough. This initial cessation in violence must lead to a permanent ceasefire that lasts and a sustainable peace for Palestinians and Israelis alike, so people in Gaza can mourn their loved ones and begin the long road of recovery and reconstruction,” declared Mofya.

Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch said Israel needs to immediately respond to the UN Security Council resolution by facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid, ending its starvation of Gaza’s population, and halting unlawful attacks.

Palestinian armed groups should immediately release all civilians held hostage. The US and other countries should use their leverage to end atrocities by suspending arms transfers to Israel, said Charbonneau.

In a statement issued on March 25, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US abstention on the Security Council resolution comes on the heels of the Russian and Chinese veto “of our comprehensive draft resolution in the Council, reaffirms the U.S. position that a ceasefire of any duration come as part of an agreement to release hostages in Gaza”.

“While we do not agree with all provisions included in this text, adjustments made by the resolution’s sponsors over recent days are consistent with our principled position that any ceasefire text must be paired with text on the release of the hostages”, he said.

This resolution further explicitly recognizes the painstaking, non-stop negotiations being conducted by the Governments of Egypt, Israel, Qatar, and the United States to achieve such a release in the context of a ceasefire, which would also create space to surge more lifesaving humanitarian assistance for Palestinian civilians, and to build something more enduring.

“Because the final text does not have key language we view as essential, notably a condemnation of Hamas, we could not support it. This failure to condemn Hamas is particularly difficult to understand coming days after the world once again witnessed the horrific acts terrorist groups commit,” Blinken said.

“We reiterate the need to accelerate and sustain the provision of humanitarian assistance through all available routes – land, sea, and air. We continue to discuss with partners a pathway to the establishment of a Palestinian state with real security guarantees for Israel to establish long-term peace and security,” he declared.

Nihal Awad, National Executive Director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), said the Biden administration’s long overdue decision to permit the passage of a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire “will only be impactful if our government takes concrete steps to support it.”

The far-right Netanyahu government is already flouting the resolution and promising to continue its genocide in Gaza. The Biden administration should respond by ending the transfer of any new weapons to the Israeli government and taking steps to pursue a just, lasting peace, he said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Roshmi Goswami and P. Saravanamuttu
THIMPHU, Bhutan, Mar 26 2024 (IPS)

South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR), a regional network of human rights defenders, has called on the Government of Bhutan to release the political prisoners it has detained for decades.

SAHR made the call on the occasion of the 16th World Social Forum (WSF) held in Nepal recently, where a session was organised on ‘Bhutan’s Prisoners of Conscience’.

The session drew attention to the expulsion of Bhutanese citizens of Nepali origin, also known as Lhotshampas, which started in the late 1980’s into the early 1990’s. While the situation of the Lhotshampa refugees was relatively well known, the reality of political prisoners, many of whom have spent more than 30 years in Chamjang Jail, has only recently been reported. Further, there are also significant numbers of disappeared citizens of Bhutan about whom not much is known.

While at present Bhutan puts up a front of a country high on the Gross National Happiness index, it hides the sufferings of the Lhotshampas who were strategically expelled, made stateless, and also detained as prisoners categorised as ‘non-nationals’ or ‘anti-nationals’.

These Prisoners of Conscience are held in prison for their expressions of political beliefs or identity assertion, while others have been framed. Different international human rights organisations have recognised 50-100 people still held as political prisoners in Bhutan, without trials or cases being brought, with 37 kept in Chamgang Jail.

Bhutan as a country moved towards democracy from absolute monarchy in 2008 with the promulgation of the Constitution. However, in many respects the country has remained autocratic, and successive kings have held ultimate power even as the state security establishment cracked down on Lhotshampa activists who demanded democracy and an end to discriminatory policies, including that of Driglam Namza, which called for cultural purity tied to the ‘Drukpa’ community.

Some of the incarcerated Lhotshampa were arrested in the early 1990s and have been detained for nearly 43 years. Different human rights organisations at various times have made efforts for the release of the political prisoners, without success.

The ultimate power for release of the political prisoners lies at present with King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and SAHR believes that he should personally be held accountable for the continued incarcerations.

SAHR believes that Bhutan’s progression towards a democratic state, where the citizenry is truly ‘happy’ and content, requires the release of the prisoners of conscience. SAHR further calls on the international community, including Nepal as the host country of refugees and India as a country that has not done its bit on the refugee issue being the land neighbour of Bhutan and with deep links to the Bhutanese state, to work to persuade Bhutan to take back the refugees who have refused to take the option of third-country settlement. These Lhotshampa refugees languish in the camps of Southeast Nepal, maintaining a principled stand on their ‘right of return’.

SAHR is also concerned that the remaining several thousand refugees in southeast Nepal are now without support of international organisations such as UNHCR and WFP. Similarly, the Government of Nepal has disbanded the refugee camps, and it has also become difficult for the refugees to move about and lead normal lives.

SAHR demands that the Government of Nepal as well as international organisations re-engage with Bhutanese refugees and provide support and security to the refugees still in Nepal.

SAHR notes that the lives of the refugees have been made more complicated by the scam involving top-level Nepali politicians and officials involved in providing Nepali citizens with fake certificates as Bhutanese refugees to make fraudulent income with the promise to get them settled in third countries.

The exposure of this scam has, through no fault of their own, made the refugees in Nepal more vulnerable to neglect and delays on the hands of the host country’s officialdom.

Further, SAHR demands the following of and on behalf of Bhutan’s prisoners of conscience as well as refugees:

• While the majority of the Lhotshampa refugees have been provided a third country resettlement, this does not undermine their entitlement to right of return to Bhutan, which they consider as their homeland.
• The Government of Nepal should provide for the needs of the refugees who are currently restricted to live in camps, including the issuance of travel documentation, birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates and refugee ID card renewals which facilitate their rights and entitlements within Nepal.
• The Lhotshampa refugees in Nepal have the right to decent living and quality of life, for which they should have the right to work.
• The scam in Nepal regarding the creation of fake refugees of Nepali citizens should be impartially investigated and the perpetrators duly brought to justice, while the refugees themselves should not be made subject to further discrimination as a result of the racket.

Dr. Roshmi Goswami is Co-Chairperson, South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR); Dr. P. Saravanamuttu is Bureau Member, SAHR

IPS UN Bureau

 

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