The death toll in Gaza continues to rise. The carnage is everywhere—city streets, a mosque, hospitals, police stations, a jail, a university bus stop, a plastics factory, a television station. It seems impossible, unacceptable, to step back to analyze the situation while bodies remain buried under the rubble, while parents continue to search for their missing children, while doctors continue to labor to stitch burned and broken bodies back together without sufficient medicine or equipment. The hospitals are running short even of electricity—the Israeli blockade has denied them fuel to run the generators. It is an ironic twist on the legacy of Israel’s involvement in an earlier massacre—in the Sabra and Shatila camps, in Lebanon back in 1982, it was the Israeli soldiers who lit the flairs, lighting the night sky so their Lebanese allies could continue to kill.
[see more]
In a powerful victory for the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 66 nations at the UN General Assembly supported a groundbreaking statement confirming that international human rights protections include sexual orientation and gender identity. It is the first time that a statement condemning rights abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people has been presented in the General Assembly.
[see more]
As the world marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a new report from The New America Foundation finds that U.S. arms transfers are undermining human rights, weakening democracy and fueling conflict around the world.
[see more]
Shoes are a weapon of the masses. The fact is that most do not have the means to defend against their foreign invaders equipped with superior American-made weaponry. Shoes, like stones and most other projectiles used by people under occupation are not about defeating or causing physical damage to the enemy. It is a symbolic act, and one filled with anger, like all of us at one point have thrown something during a fit. It is a clear and simple message from the people to the occupiers that they are not welcome. And it is a message that the occupiers and its media so arrogantly refuse to admit.
[see more]
The UN Climate Conference in Poznan, Poland failed to achieve any breakthrough towards a global climate deal – a sign not merely of bad timing, but of a fundamentally flawed system that takes no account of climate justice. From binding global emissions targets to the limits of the carbon market, none of the main issues tabled at Poznan were resolved – and the more pressing discussion on how to leave fossil fuels in the ground went entirely untouched.
[see more]
Participants of a Conference on Ecological Agriculture: Mitigating Climate Change, Providing Food Security and Self-Reliance for Rural Livelihoods in Africa called for the promotion and implementation of ecological agriculture in the continent. This is because ecological agriculture holds significant promise for increasing the productivity of Africa’s smallholder farmers, with consequent positive impacts on food security and food self-reliance, as well as has environmental benefits, including allowing adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.
[see more]
Global call to action to demand a new economic system
Selected news
Human Rights
/World Peace and Security
- Mon Jan 05 2009
Eighty-nine children and 30 women amongst Gaza's confirmed dead
On the 10th day of its aggression on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Occupation Forces has seriously escalated its military operations, targeting mostly civilian targets, particularly homes.
Source:
Electronic Intifada
INSouth embodies an understanding, from a South perspective, of the new and emerging issues in the international arena, and the challenges and opportunities they pose for the South.
Migrants are commonly seen as both unwanted intruders and powerless victims, but Laura Agustin own ideas work to break down this duality and think about power in different ways. Laura Agustín writes as a lifelong migrant and sometime worker in both nongovernmental and academic projects about sex, travel and work.
