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Star du cinéma français, vedette de plusieurs œuvres cinématographiques; le nom d’Isabelle Adjani est cité dans une affaire d’escroquerie, liées à la falsification de remboursement de ses dettes. Née d’un père  algérien et d’une mère allemande, Isabelle commence sa carrière dans le cinéma à l’âge de 14 ans et enchaîne avec la comédie française à […]

L’article France : une actrice franco-algérienne gravement accusée est apparu en premier sur .

Homlokzati fal és tetőszerkezeti elemek dőltek az utcára és parkoló autókra Budapest belvárosában hétfő délelőtt. Négyen sérültek meg az utcán, sok autó megrongálódott, öt jármű teljesen összelapult.

Un apprenti coiffeur s'est fait renverser par un tricycle, samedi 25 juin 2022, sur le carrefour Fidjrossè-Plage à Cotonou. Le jeune homme voulait aider le conducteur quand l'accident est survenu.

Accident de circulation samedi dernier à Fidjrossè-Plage. Un apprenti coiffeur voulant aider un conducteur de tricycle qui avait garé sur le trottoir s'est fait renversé. La victime selon Frissons radio a été évacuée à l'hôpital avec une fracture au pied.

F. A. A.

Peter Marti, qui enquête sur le scandale d’espionnage impliquant une société de chiffrement zougoise, nourrit désormais des soupçons explosifs.

Hétfőn délután Szlovákia összes déli járásában +33°C feletti hőmérséklettel kell számolni. A Szlovák Hidrometeorológiai Intézet (SHMÚ) figyelmeztetést adott ki a várható nagy hőség miatt az ország teljes délnyugati részére, valamint Közép- és Kelet-Szlovákia összes déli járására.

A travers une note de service en date du 21 juin 2022, le directeur général de la Société nationale des eaux du Bénin (SONEB), Camille Dansou, a suspendu son directeur des ressources humaines. Le DG reproche à son DRH des faits de légèreté dans ses fonctions.

Le DRH de la SONEB suspendu. Ceci, à travers une note de service en date du 21 juin 2022. Camille Dansou reproche à Philippe Kouléni des faits de légèreté dans ses fonctions. Aucun détail sur les mobiles réels de la suspension du directeur des ressources humaines de la société de production et de distribution d'eau potable au Bénin.

F. A. A.

The leaders of the G7 group of nations should take immediate action to defend and protect the human rights and labor rights of each child, worker and farmer currently exploited, writes Fernando Morales-de la Cruz.

On 27 June, the International MSME day (the abbreviation stands for Micro, Small and Medium-size Enterprises), SMEunited, an association of small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe are making a call on decision-makers “to think small first and act accordingly”.

Les 27 ministres européens de l’Énergie tenteront d’officialiser un accord de principe sur la directive relative à l’efficacité énergétique lors de leur réunion du lundi 27 juin, ouvrant ainsi la voie au tout premier objectif juridiquement contraignant visant à accroître les économies d’énergie en Europe.

Le défenseur béninois, David Kiki a un nouveau club. Il a signé un nouveau contrat au Farul Constanta, un club roumain de première division. Le transfert a été officialisé ce 25 juin 2022.

L'international béninois, David Kiki évoluera du côté de Farul Constanta, un club roumain de première division. Ceci, pour les deux prochaines années. La nouvelle équipe du joueur béninois occupe la 5ème place dans le championnat roumain.
Avant la Roumanie, le défenseur béninois a évolué à Belfort, Niort et Brest en France, puis à Montana et Arda Kardzhali en Bulgarie.

F. A. A.

TASR: Idén májusban 4.197 személy hunyt el Szlovákiában, ami körülbelül 1 %-kal kevesebb, mint a 2015 és 2019 közötti időszak ötéves átlaga a világjárvány előtt. 2020 júniusa óta ebben az időszakban volt a legalacsonyabb halálesetek száma – derül ki az SZK Statisztikai Hivatala által közzétett előzetes halálozási adatokból.

A placard on display at activists' demonstration outside the 4th meeting of the CBD Working Group at the UNEP headquarter in Nairobi. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

By Stella Paul
Nairobi, Jun 27 2022 (IPS)

As the last working group meeting of the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Agenda concluded here on Sunday, the delegates’ job at COP15 Montreal just got tougher as delegates couldn’t finalize the text of the agenda. Texts involving finance, cost and benefit-sharing, and digital sequencing – described by many as ‘most contentious parts of the draft agenda barely made any progress as negotiators failed to reach any consensus.

Nairobi – the Unattempted ‘Final Push’

The week-long 4th meeting of the Working Group of the Biodiversity Convention took place from June 21-26, three months after the 3rd meeting of the group was held in Geneva, Switzerland. The meeting, attended by a total of 1634 participants, including 950 country representatives, had the job cut out for them: Read the draft Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and its 21 targets, discuss, and clean up the text – target by target, sentence by sentence, at least up to 80%.

But, on Saturday – a day before the meeting was to wrap up, David Ainsworth – head of Communications at CBD, hinted that the progress was far slower than expected. Ainsworth mentioned that the total cleaning progress made was just about 8%.

To put it in a clearer context, said Ainsworth, only two targets now had a clean text – Target 19.2 (strengthening capacity-building and development, access to and transfer of technology) and target 12 (urban biodiversity). This means that in Montreal, they could be placed on the table right away for the parties to decide on, instead of debating the language. All the other targets, the work progress has been from around 50% to none, said Ainsworth.

An entire day later, on Sunday evening local time, co-chairs of the WG4 Francis Ogwal and Basile Van Havre confirmed that those were indeed the only two targets with ‘clean’ texts. In other words, no real work had been done in the past 24 hours.

On June 21, at the opening session of the meeting, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, described the Nairobi meeting as an opportunity for a ‘final push’ to finalize the GBF. On Sunday, she called on the parties to “vigorously engage with the text, to listen to each other and seek consensus, and to prepare the final text for adoption at COP 15”.

Answering a question from IPS News, Mrema also confirmed that there would be a 5th meeting of the Working Group before the Montreal COP, indicating the work done in the Nairobi meeting wasn’t enough to produce a draft that was ready to be discussed for adoption.

The final push, it appeared, had not even been attempted.

Bottlenecks and Stalemate

According to several observers, instead of cleaning up 80% of the texts over the past six days, negotiators had left 80% of the text in brackets, which signals disagreement among parties. Not only did countries fail to progress, but in some cases, new disagreements threatened to move the process in the opposite direction. The most fundamental issues were not even addressed this week, including how much funding would be committed to conserving biodiversity and what percentage figures the world should strive to protect, conserve, and restore to address the extinction crisis.

True to the traditions of the UN, the CBD wouldn’t be critical of any party. However, on Sunday evening, Francis Ogwal indicated that rich nations had been dragging their feet on meeting the commitment of donating to global biodiversity conservation. Without naming anyone, Ogwal reminded the negotiators that the more time they took, the tougher they would get the decision.

At present, said Ogwal, 700 billion was needed to stop and recover global biodiversity. “If you keep giving less and less, the problems magnify. Ten years down the line, this will not be enough,” he said.

The civil society was more vocal in criticizing the delegates for losing yet another opportunity.

According to Brian O’Donnell, Director of the Campaign for Nature, the negotiations were faltering, with some key issues being at a stalemate. It is, therefore, up to heads of state and other political and United Nations leaders to act with urgency. “But time is now running out, and countries need to step up, show the leadership that this moment requires, and act urgently to find compromise and solutions,” O’Donnell said in a statement.

The Next Steps

The CBD Secretariat mentioned a string of activities that would follow the Nairobi meeting to speed up the process of building a consensus among the delegates. The activities include bilateral meetings with some countries, regional meetings with others, and a Working Group 5 meeting which will be a pre-COP event before COP15.

Finally, the CBD is taking a glass-half-filled approach toward the GBF, which is reflected in the words of Mrema: “These efforts (Nairobi meeting) are considerable and have produced a text that, with additional work, will be the basis for reaching the 2050 vision of the Convention: A life in harmony with nature,” she says.

The upcoming UN Biodiversity Conference will be held from 5 to December 17 in Montreal, Canada, under the presidency of the Government of China. With the bulk of the work left incomplete, the cold December weather of Montreal is undoubtedly all set to be heated with intense debates and negotiations.
IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Bronzérmet szerzett vasárnap Belgrádban 500 méteren K1-ben a komáromi Lisa Maria Gamsjäger az ifjúsági és U23-as kajak-kenu Európa-bajnokságon.

TASR: A Szlovákiai Oktatási és Tudományos Dolgozók Szakszervezete (OZPŠaV) nem fizetésemelésnek, hanem kompenzációnak tekinti az állami és közigazgatási alkalmazottaknak Heger kormányfő és Matovič pénzügyminiszter által szombaton ígért 500 eurós egyszeri juttatást. Az iskolai szakszervezetek továbbra is ragaszkodnak ahhoz, hogy az oktatásban dolgozók bére tíz százalékkal emelkedjen – közölte a TASR-rel Pavel Ondek, az OZPŠaV elnöke.

A group of women fleeing Ukraine arrive in Moldova. May 2022. Credit: UN Women

By Mandeep Tiwana
NEW YORK, Jun 27 2022 (IPS)

2022 is halfway through. It’s clear this is a year of immense disruption, mayhem and contestation. Horrendous war crimes are taking place in Ukraine.

The conflict is spurring soaring living costs, impacting the most vulnerable people, already faced with the adverse impacts of the pandemic and extreme weather caused by climate change.

In this scenario, concerned citizens and civil society organisations are responding by protesting misgovernance, campaigning for justice and helping out those worst affected. CIVICUS’s 2022 State of Civil Society Report analyses global events and outlines the current state of play.

Five findings with implications for the future stand out and are highlighted below.

1. Rising costs of fuel and food are global protest triggers

Governments around the world are failing to protect people from the impacts of massive price rises worsened by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. Fossil fuel companies are banking record-breaking profits while many people, already strained by the pandemic, are struggling to make ends meet.

Public anger at corruption and dysfunctional markets is rising. In Sri Lanka, mass demonstrations against crony capitalism recently led to resignation of the prime minister. In Indonesia students protested over the rising cost of cooking oil. In Spain, increases in food, energy and fuel prices brought thousands to the streets in early 2022.

In more repressive contexts protests are met with state brutality. In Kazakhstan over 200 civilians were killed with impunity following protests over fuel price increases in January.

Reported lethal violence has also come in response to recent food price protests in Iran. In contested political environments such as the occupied Palestinian territories the potential for renewed cycles of protest and state violence remains high.

2. These are harrowing times for democracy but there are successes too

Institutions and traditions of democracy are facing increasing attacks from anti-democratic forces. Military coups are making a comeback. In Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Myanmar, Sudan and Thailand armies are running governments.

In Tunisia hard-fought gains are being reversed by a president who dismissed parliament, took control of the judiciary and is rewriting the constitution. India’s constitutional commitment to secularism is being strained by religious intolerance promoted by its ruling party. In El Salvador, a president with a legislative supermajority is removing democratic checks and balances.

In Nicaragua, a sitting president organised a fraudulent election, enabled by mass repression. In Turkmenistan, the outgoing president bestowed the office to his son. The Philippines election saw two authoritarian dynasties enter into an alliance to win the presidency and vice presidency through a campaign of disinformation and falsification of history.

Nonetheless, there have also been bright spots, with successful mobilisations to strengthen democracy. In the Czech Republic and Slovenia political leaders who fostered divisiveness were voted out. In Australia, the incumbent government, with its failure to act on climate change, was defeated after almost a decade in power.

Meanwhile, Chile elected its youngest and most unconventional president ever, and his choice of cabinet reflects the country’s diversity and his commitment to social justice. Honduras elected its first woman president, who ran on a progressive platform to address poverty, expand women’s sexual and reproductive rights and tackle corruption.

3. Struggles for justice and equality are gaining momentum

Despite severe pushback by anti-rights groups on hard-won gender justice gains in Afghanistan and on women’s sexual and reproductive rights in countries such as Poland and the USA, the overall global trajectory is leaning towards progress.

In several Latin American countries including Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Mexico, restrictions on abortion have been eased. While opportunistic politicians in Ghana and Hungary have to sought to gain political advantage from the vilification of LGBTQI + people, globally the normalisation of LGBTQI+ rights is spreading.

Recently, the people of Switzerland voted in favour of an equal marriage law. Even in the challenging context of Jamaica advances have been made by civil society through the regional human rights system.

Steps forward have come after years of campaigning by civil society, which is increasingly modelling and proving the value of diversity. A new, young and diverse generation is forging movements to advance racial justice and demand equity for excluded people. They are embedding demands for rights for everyone with potential impacts for better democracy and inclusive economies.

4. Action on climate justice has transformative potential

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change through its recent reports has made clear that greenhouse gases must be cut drastically to avoid catastrophe. As the brunt of climate change continues to be disproportionately felt by excluded populations, renewed urgency is being demanded by civil society movements for governments to make ambitious emission cuts.

Activism, including mass marches, climate strikes and non-violent civil disobedience, is likely to intensify as the impacts of destructive storms, heatwaves and floods are being felt by growing swathes of populations.

Vital street action will continue to be supplemented by other tactics. Climate litigation is growing, leading to some significant breakthroughs, such as the court judgment in the Netherlands that forced Shell to commit to emissions cuts.

Shareholder activism towards polluting industries and their funders is intensifying, and pension funds are coming under growing pressure to divest from fossil fuel companies. The intersectionality of the climate movement holds hope for the future.

5. The UN needs to revitalise itself

A key purpose behind the formation of the UN in 1945 was to ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’. Experience from the past few years, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Sahel region, Syria, Yemen and many other places shows that the UN’s record in preventing and stopping conflict is patchy at best.

Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and brutal attacks on civilian populations have further exposed fundamental weaknesses. The UN Security Council is hamstrung by the veto-wielding role of Russia as one of its five permanent members, although the UN General Assembly voted to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.

The UN’s top leadership are expected to ‘reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights’ and ‘establish conditions for justice under international law’ but have often struggled to find their resolve when powerful states have committed grave human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

A lot of the UN’s energies appear focused on humanitarian response and management of crises over effective preventative diplomacy and justice for victims. Meaningful civil society engagement and access to key arenas can help overcome these bureaucratic shortcomings. Regardless, courage and vision will be needed from within and outside to reinvigorate the UN.

The world as it stands today is characterised by crisis and volatility, where regressive forces are mobilising a fierce backlash against struggles for equality and dignity, but also where determined civil society actions are scoring vital victories for humanity.

Mandeep Tiwana is chief programmes officer and representative to the UN headquarters in New York at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The proposed law seeks to provide age appropriate sexual and reproductive health information and services. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

By Stephanie Musho
NAIROBI, Jun 27 2022 (IPS)

The Ministry of Health in Kenya recently reported that about 700 teenage girls got pregnant daily over a two-month period, in this year alone. What is more is that during this period, 98 adolescent girls between the ages of 10 and 19 contracted HIV every week in this time period

Worse still is that HIV positive women in the country continue to be stripped of their dignity and face abuse in the form of forced sterilization which is as a warped method of reducing HIV infection despite there being no scientific evidence to support these assaults. Moreover, consider that concurrently, 7 women die every day from complications arising from unsafe abortion.

This is only a snapshot of the depressing state of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the country.

If passed, all partner states of the EAC will be required to integrate sexual and reproductive health in their efforts towards universal health coverage. Additionally, countries will be required to harmonize their national health policies and regulations, more so, on and sexual and reproductive health rights

The grim reality however does not seem dire enough for Kenyan parliamentarians who have twice before – in 2014 and in 2019, failed to enact separate but similar legislation – the Reproductive Health Bills – that would have provided a framework to mitigate the prevailing circumstances, prevent future occurrences and ultimately bring down these figures.

The much-needed legislation was not passed despite the Constitution providing for the right to the highest attainable standard of health – including reproductive health in article 48 (1) (a).

Worse still is that policies are often drafted, and withdrawn at the whim of Ministry of Health officials, leaving Kenyans at the mercy of individuals and their biases.  Take for instance the Standards and Guidelines on Safe Abortion which were developed to direct medical practitioners on how to administer safe medical abortion, in compliance with the law.

The then Director of Medical Services, Dr. Nicholas Muraguri arbitrarily withdrew the policy document. The High Court ruled in 2019 that Dr. Nicholas Muraguri and the Ministry of Health violated the rights of Kenyan women and girls in withdrawing these guidelines and ordered their reinstatement. This was not done. Consequently, women and girls in need of safe abortion, with very few – or no safe options.

In 2022, the Head of Reproductive and Maternal Health in the same ministry, Dr. Stephen Kaliti wrongfully stated that giving contraceptives to minors is a criminal offense punishable by a jail term of up to 20 years. In his erroneous statement that pointed to a proposed policy that is yet to be passed, Dr. Stephen Kaliti misled millions of Kenyans. To make matters worse is that the police then use such pronouncements to harass patients and service providers. Consequently, they are hesitant to give and seek services respectively, exacerbating the crisis.

The state of affairs is depressing. Nonetheless, there remains hope at regional level. On the floor of the East Africa Legislative Assembly is the East Africa Community Sexual and Reproductive Health Bill, 2021 (EAC SRH Bill); sponsored by Hon. Kennedy Mukulia; a South Sudanese national representing South Sudan in the House.

The Bill is anchored on article 118 of the East Africa Community Treaty which speaks to the commitment by partner states to cooperate in health specifically in the advancement of reproductive health and rights.  If passed, all partner states of the EAC will be required to integrate sexual and reproductive health in their efforts towards universal health coverage. Additionally, countries will be required to harmonize their national health policies and regulations, more so, on and sexual and reproductive health rights.

Specifically, the proposed law seeks to provide age appropriate sexual and reproductive health information and services. Often, most people associate the term “age-appropriate” in the ambit of sexual and reproductive health and rights only with adolescents.

Stephanie Musho

Nonetheless, it cuts across the divide; including provisions for elderly persons on issues of menopause and andropause – which is a collection of symptoms, such as fatigue and a decrease in libido, experienced by some middle-aged or older men and attributed to a gradual decline in testosterone levels.  Additionally, the Bill seeks to prohibit and facilitate the elimination of harmful practices from the community.

These include female genital mutilation, forced sterilization of HIV positive women and forced marriage among others. Which all remain pressing issues in all partner states of the East Africa Community.

While it could be argued that countries are sovereign and will retain the current hard stance on sexual and reproductive health and rights; the Bill has a clause on monitoring and reporting where if passed, all countries will have to provide reports as to the state of implementation to the Secretary General who will then provide a compiled report to the legislative assembly.

Where dissatisfied with fellow states’ progress – or lack thereof, partner states can engage mechanisms including through the East Africa Court of Justice among others, to hold other states accountable to their commitments. This is a welcome prospect as countries – including Kenya have a history of selectively adhering to the rule of law at national level.

As the Bill comes up for public participation on June 26 2022, it is important that Kenyans and all other persons in the East Africa Community fully understand the issues articulated in the Bill. Thereafter submit informed memoranda to the East Africa Legislative Assembly. It is important that we #PassEACSRHBill to put an end to preventable diseases and preventable deaths.

Stephanie Musho is a Nairobi-based human rights lawyer and a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute. She is the Host of the Steff Musho Show, that focuses on leadership in Africa. Twitter: @steffmusho

On 27 June, the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), in cooperation with the Legislative Dialogue Unit of the Directorate for Relations with national Parliaments, is inviting Members of national Parliaments of the EU Member States to attend an Interparliamentary Committee Meeting (ICM) on the EU enlargement policy in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Parliamentarians from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine have also been invited to participate remotely.
The applications of three Eastern Partnership countries for a candidate status pushed the EU to rethink its enlargement policy. It also reinforced the link between the neighbourhood and enlargement policies. The ICM will provide a forum for parliamentarians to discuss the impact of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and its aftermath on the EU enlargement policy.
Location : SPAAK 3C50
Draft Programme
Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

On 27 June, the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), in cooperation with the Legislative Dialogue Unit of the Directorate for Relations with national Parliaments, is inviting Members of national Parliaments of the EU Member States to attend an Interparliamentary Committee Meeting (ICM) on the EU enlargement policy in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Parliamentarians from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine have also been invited to participate remotely.
The applications of three Eastern Partnership countries for a candidate status pushed the EU to rethink its enlargement policy. It also reinforced the link between the neighbourhood and enlargement policies. The ICM will provide a forum for parliamentarians to discuss the impact of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and its aftermath on the EU enlargement policy.
Draft Programme
Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

Um dem wachsenden Einfluss Chinas und seiner "Belt and Road"-Initiative entgegenzuwirken, haben westliche Staats- und Regierungschefs eine westliche Gegeninitiative gestartet, um den wirtschaftlichen Einfluss Chinas auf ärmere Länder zu verringern.