Agrégateur de flux

General : "The Cotonou Agreement remains unique in the world, and whatever form the next partnership takes, it will have to be tailored to today’s world, and include wider civil society participation and stronger parliamentary oversight and diplomacy », said Michèle RIVASI (Greens/EFA, FR), EU Co-President ad interim of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) meeting in Windhoek, Namibia, for its 31st session.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Général : "L'accord de Cotonou reste un accord unique au monde et, quelle que soit la forme retenue pour le prochain partenariat, il devra être adapté au monde actuel, inclure la participation d'une société civile élargie, un renforcement du contrôle et de la diplomatie parlementaires", a indiqué Michèle RIVASI (Verts/ALE, FR), co-présidente ad interim pour l'UE de l'Assemblée parlementaire paritaire (APP) ACP-UE réunie à Windhoek, en Namibie pour sa 31e session.

Source : © Union européenne, 2016 - PE

By Rukhsana Shah
Jun 13 2016 (Dawn, Pakistan)

Women with disabilities face triple discrimination the world over on the basis of disability, gender and poverty. They are the most marginalised of all population groups including men with disabilities. The negative stereotyping of women with disabilities puts them at greater physical risk as they are exposed to neglect, emotional abuse, domestic violence and rape.

The writer is a former federal secretary.

According to the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programmes, 83pc of women with disabilities will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime, while the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa reports that these women are less able to escape abusive caregivers.

The 2011 World Report on Disability indicates that the global female disability prevalence rate is higher at 19.2pc against 12pc for men because women are discriminated against since birth in terms of nutrition, immunisation and medical interventions. The global literacy rate for women with disabilities is 1pc with only 20pc of them getting any rehabilitation services. They are paid less than their male counterparts at work, given fewer loans for education or self-employment, and face stronger barriers in accessing vocational training, leisure facilities and justice.

With these global givens, it is not surprising that in Pakistan where being female itself is debilitating, women with disabilities live at the very peripheries of society, differentiated and unequalised by a culture that is patriarchal, religiously obscurantist and anti-women. The family, community, institutions and the state — the touchstones of human civilisation — are arrayed against them. Seventy per cent live in rural areas in the most appalling conditions where even provision of rehab services and assistive devices is discriminatory, making everyday living a challenge in itself.

Disabled women languish in the darkest corners.

Disability should not be a stigma, but accepted as a natural human condition by all the protagonists — people with disabilities, families, communities, civil society and the government. Last year, Madeline Stuart became the world’s first model with Down’s syndrome to appear on the catwalk at the New York Fashion Week. Television channels and social media networks should use social marketing to influence social behaviours and raise awareness about disability in collaboration with educational institutions, while women’s groups should initiate membership drives focusing on women with disabilities in order to empower them.

A great deal of work has been done at the international level under the aegis of the UN to create a comprehensive legislative and policy framework for a rights-based and barrier-free inclusive society.

Apart from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ESCAP has taken a number of initiatives, among which are the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action and Biwako Plus Five, the Bali Declaration adopted by Asean, the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, the Beijing Declaration on Disability-Inclusive Development, and the Incheon Strategy, to accelerate action during the current Decade of Persons with Disabilities, 2013–2022.

The Incheon Strategy also mandates member states to report triennially on the progress made on its time-bound and measurable goals.

Despite these international commitments and provisions in Articles 25, 37 and 38 of the Constitution, women with disabilities continue to languish in the darkest spaces in Pakistan, uncounted and uncared for. It is imperative for the government to take visible and affirmative action to ensure that its image at least in the international community is not further tarnished due to inaction on this front. A high-profile policy dialogue with organisations representing people with disabilities should be arranged to discuss legislative and implementation mechanisms in line with UN conventions and the Incheon strategy, along with the formation of a specific parlia¬mentary body to carry out this task.

There is no data on persons with disabilities in Pakistan as no serious at¬¬tempt has been made since 1998 to conduct a census to assess their numbers. The government needs to initiate compilation of gender-disaggregated disability data, include the disability dimension in all policymaking and budgeting exercises, and encourage the private sector to promote disability-inclusive business practices.

It is not rocket science to advise public-sector banks to float disability-friendly loans, fix job quotas for women with disabilities, subsidise the use of new technologies, introduce tax rebates for their families as is being done in India, and make BISP conditional upon the safety, education and vocational training of the disabled. Instead of signal-free roads, the government should set up fully equipped community resource centres to provide them opportunities for mobility, training and leisure time.

However, at present, all federal government structures relating to these critical constitutional and human rights issues stand disempowered after the 18th Amendment. If the government wishes not to remain within the confines of Islamabad, it will need to reclaim its lost spaces by acknowledging its responsibilities towards this most marginalised of communities groups in the country.

The writer is a former federal secretary. rukhsana.hassan@gmail.com

This story was originally published by Dawn, Pakistan, June 12th, 2016

En mai 1968 le Sénégal est touché par des mouvements estudiantins similaires à ceux de Paris, dont la virulence conduit le président Senghor à se réfugier dans une base militaire française. Ces journées de contestation, violemment réprimées, se solderont par des accords entre le gouvernement, le patronat et les travailleurs, sans que les étudiants y soient conviés.

Cet article Ce jour-là : Léopold Sédar Senghor mettait un terme au « mai 68 sénégalais » est apparu en premier sur JeuneAfrique.com.

A Hódság községhez tartozó Ratkovo településen mintegy 150 hektár területen termelnek jelenleg málnát, a termés betakarításához idén több mint ezer embert alkalmaznak majd.

Általános : A szakbizottságok üléseznek ezen a héten az EP-ben. A környezetvédelmi szakbizottságban döntenek a Bizottság javaslatáról, amely engedélyezné, hogy a koffein jótékony hatását feltüntessék az energiaitalok címkéin, illetve szavaznak az orvosi eszközök szigorúbb ellenőrzéséről. Az EP-képviselők az afrikai, karibi és csendes-óceáni térség országainak parlamenti képviselőivel egyeztetnek a migráció kezeléséről. Az EU gazdasági állapota és a palesztin menekültek helyzete is napirenden lesz a héten.

Forrás : © Európai Unió, 2016 - EP

Die britische Abstimmung über den EU-Austritt  ist eine Chance für die Schweiz, in der Debatte um die eigene Rolle in Europa wieder an Flughöhe zu gewinnen.

A Parakou, deux jeunes béninois ont été arrêtés après avoir avoué le meurtre d'un gardien d'église et de leur frère aîné. La scène se déroulait ce dimanche à l'église catholique de Banikani.

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On Thursday, June 16th at 1:15pm EST, IPI is hosting a Global Leaders Series presentation featuring H.E. Dr. Srgjan Kerim, candidate for the position of United Nations secretary-general.

IPI Live Event Feed

At the event, Dr. Kerim will discuss his experience and how it informs his vision of the future of global politics and the United Nations. He will address questions including how he would shape the job of UN secretary-general and define his priorities in office.

In December 2015, the government of the Republic of Macedonia formally nominated Dr. Kerim as a candidate for the position of UN secretary-general. Dr. Kerim is Foreign Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia and a member of the Council of Presidents of the UN General Assembly.

Dr. Kerim has more than 30 years of international political experience, as Foreign Minister, Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia, and President of the 62nd Session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2016 - EP

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2016 - EP

A szerbiai belügyminisztérium dolgozói letartóztatták G.

Aleksandar Vucic has met EU and US ambassadors following claims made in the pro-goverment media in Serbia that they are sponsoring an anti-government conspiracy.

Que pouvons-nous retenir du massacre terroriste d'Orlando? D'abord, que Daech peut frapper où il veut. Ensuite, la législation sur le port d'armes en France, nous protège, malgré tout, de la violence et des massacres que connaissent régulièrement les Etats-Unis. Et enfin, il faut éradiquer Daech à la source, en Syrie et en Irak. L'édito de Christophe Barbier

L'opérateur télécoms français a annoncé vendredi avoir complété la cession de ses 70 % dans Telkom Kenya au capital-investisseur Helios Investment Partners.

Cet article Orange finalise sa sortie du Kenya est apparu en premier sur JeuneAfrique.com.

Six rebelles ougandais des Forces démocratiques alliées (ADF) et un soldat congolais sont morts lors d'un affrontement dans l'est de la République démocratique du Congo (région de Beni), a déclaré l'armée congolaise.

Cet article RD Congo : sept morts dans des affrontements entre l’armée et des rebelles ougandais est apparu en premier sur JeuneAfrique.com.

By Nizamuddin Ahmed
Jun 13 2016 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

Selfies were born when people found no one to take their photo. Again, no one among family and friends wanted to be left out, and so the crowding into the frame began. The fish-pout emanates from self-consciousness, and then mimicry. Phones got cheaper, the reversible camera was installed, apps arrived to share the shots with friends and others, a system of approval (‘like’) was invented, and an epidemic was born.

Illustration: Davehaenggi

Selfies today are a big part of the internet-based public network, the growing web culture. While a great deal of the photography is of glee and gladness, anniversaries and moments of joy, alarmingly a good number of insensitive users chose to go overboard, much to their own peril – social, psychological and physical. It is the outcome of an urge to outdo one another; self-esteem and personal safety can go to hell.

People have taken selfies, smiling against a bellowing fire or a coffin at burial. Two girls, God knows why, took a selfie in a funeral home bathroom. Natural disaster victims became the background to ‘sympathisers’ with pouting lips. Animals have bitten selfie-masters at the right time in the wrong place. Doctors and nurses were selfied by a patient in labour. A girl was clinging on to the edge of a cliff and her friend did the selfie in full grin mode.

On occasions, the dignity of a person is at stake due to overindulgence on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Tumblr . . . Only last week, a woman was chatting on her mobile phone while travelling on the Kolkata-Delhi train. While still at it, she got up to go to the toilet and returned to her seat after finishing her job, unawares that she had left her pyjamas behind. To her, a greater incident would have been for the handset to have dropped in the loo.

Selfie-ness derives from loneliness and/or desperation for attention. With society suffering from both, a contraption at the end of a stretched-out arm and people huddling to get into the frame is now accepted as normal social etiquette.

Some selfies have remained the last before the unfortunate were struck by tragedy, self-inflicted if you will.

Twenty-one year old Oscar Otero Aguilar was “drinking and decided he wanted to make a new Facebook profile picture by taking a selfie with a gun to his head. The gun was loaded and went off, killing Oscar”.

There is an element of craziness attached to this wave of common practice. “Two Iranian girls were taking a selfie video of themselves singing while driving. Luckily, when they did crash they weren’t killed, just badly injured.” But that did not deter them. “They also took a selfie on the way to the hospital.”

Courtney Sanford was not that blessed. She “posted a selfie while driving and listening to the song “Happy” by Pharrel Williams. Seconds later her car crashed into a truck causing a fatal accident.”

People can be stupid when it comes to impressing others on the social media. To some, it is an unsaid contest. Eighteen-year old Xenia Ignatyeva “climbed a 28-foot (8.4m) railroad bridge to take a selfie and lost her balance. When she fell she grabbed onto high voltage wires and was electrocuted.”

Our youths, as well as adults if not to that extent, have been enamoured by this ‘like’ fad. Below I narrate a posting from one of my younger Facebook friends last week:

“This (10/6/2016) afternoon, a tragic incident took place in our Rampura WAPDA Road area. Some Class VIII students went to the rooftop of a six-storied building to shoot a video. The video was about them jumping from one rooftop to another, a ‘sport’ called parkour (which does not advocate unnecessary risk). They would post that video on Facebook to get maximum ‘likes’.

“They did not understand how big a risk they were taking at such a tender age. While leaping from one roof to another, one of the boys fell down between two six-storied buildings. His friends were lost for words. The boy has broken bones. With severe head injuries he is now fighting for life at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The police have taken his friends into custody.

“Although this is a heart-rending incident, the social conditions of our youth are more frightening. Why should the ‘like’ madness affect Class VIII students, 12-13-year-olds, that they have to take the risk of falling from a six-storied roof? Bro, your life has not yet begun. Did you have to finish it so soon? Why do you have to become famous now by getting like after like? You are not yet in college, not yet a graduate, not yet employed, not married, [have] not yet served your parents. There is so much to do, so much to see in life.

“If you have to be famous, succeed in life. Then you[r] one post will get one thousand likes. Your writing, your picture, will then not only be seen by boys and girls of your class and school, but by the entire country. Don’t strive to become a so-called ‘Facebook Celebrity’.

“Guardians too have to be aware. At what age are we giving our children a smart phone? Why? What are they doing [with] it? Do they know about the dark aspects? We have to think.”

Let us not yearn for the approval of another, especially not in a manner that can endanger or jeopardise life.

The writer is a practising Architect at BashaBari Ltd., a Commonwealth Scholar and a Fellow, a Baden-Powell Fellow Scout Leader, and a Major Donor Rotarian.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

Le Syndicat national des boulangers et pâtissiers du Burkina (FNBPB) continue son mouvement de grève entamé jeudi dernier, a rapporté lundi l'AFP.

Cet article Burkina : les employés des boulangeries continuent leur grève est apparu en premier sur JeuneAfrique.com.

Le Syndicat national des boulangers et pâtissiers du Burkina (FNBPB) continue son mouvement de grève entamé jeudi dernier, a rapporté lundi l'AFP.

Cet article Burkina : les employés des boulangeries continuent leur grève est apparu en premier sur JeuneAfrique.com.

Libya's $67bn national investment fund is seeking damages from Goldman Sachs, saying the bank encouraged it to make complex, money-losing investments.