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Zineb Jammeh's assets in the US are blocked as her husband is accused of stealing at least $50m.

Die Umfragen zeigen: Die Mehrheit der Stimmenden will einen zweiwöchigen Vaterschaftsurlaub, der Steuerbonus für reiche Eltern dürfte es schwer haben. Wenn die Bürger ihr Kreuzchen denn auch am richtigen Ort machen. Das ist diesmal aber nicht so einfach.

The European Commission's long-awaited new migration pact will consist of five regulations and a political text, EU sources have told EURACTIV. However, the thorny issue of mandatory relocation, which some EU countries strongly oppose, continues to cause headaches.

Die Corona-Zahlen steigen in ganz Österreich. Die Regierung verschärft den Ton und malt düstere Sszenarien. Deutschland plant laut Medienberichten, Wien zum Risikogebiet zu erklären - "keine Besonderheit" für den Bürgermeister, der allerdings kurz vor einer Wahl steht.

Jetzt wirds grusig: Bei einer Challenge geht «Love Island»-Kandidatin Jolene aufs Ganze und nimmt den Zehen ihres Kollegen in den Mund.

Mary Robinson

By Mary Robinson
DUBLIN, Sep 16 2020 (IPS)

The impacts of crises are never gender-neutral and COVID-19 is no exception. The pandemic has resulted in increased rates of violence against women and has exacerbated challenges in accessing justice. Women are losing their livelihoods faster than men.

Millions of women are assuming disproportionate responsibility for caregiving. Many women have found themselves unable to access contraception and other sexual and reproductive health services. UN experts predict that as many as 13 million more child marriages could take place over the next 10 years because of COVID-19 shutdowns of schools and family planning services combined with increasing economic challenges.

Women and girls from marginalised and minority communities are especially at risk – in the United Kingdom for example, black women are over four times more likely than white women to die from COVID-19.

COVID-19 risks damaging much of the progress towards gender equality that myself and other women activists have spent our lives working towards. As the Chair of The Elders, a group of independent global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela, I have the privilege to work alongside two other women who were, like me, the first women leaders in their countries – Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia. I also seek to serve Mandela’s vision of a world of peace, justice and human rights alongside pioneering human rights lawyer, Hina Jilani, who set up the first law firm for women in Pakistan and Graça Machel, a tireless fighter for women’s education and emancipation. We are all deeply concerned that women already seem to be bearing the brunt of the socio-economic fallout from COVID-19, and that this pandemic may deepen the gender inequality rift.

This year we commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, where representatives from all 189 nations committed to “the full and equal participation of women in political, civil, economic, social, and cultural life.” We have made positive strides in the last 25 years: more girls than ever are completing primary school; the proportion of young women married as children has declined globally from 1 in 4 to approximately 1 in 5.

However, as a major report to mark the anniversary notes, we now need a new roadmap for progressing gender equality that draws on the wisdom and experience of leading women from across every sector, as well as new younger voices.

COVID-19 has starkly exposed underlying inequalities and reminded us all that rights on paper are not necessarily rights in practice. I am disappointed at the slow progress on women’s political representation and leadership. Fifteen countries now have women in the highest position of political power – up from 5 in 1980, but down from the peak of 18 in 2018. The number of women in parliaments remains less than 25 percent on average. This under-representation of women in positions of political power and influence appears to be replicated within COVID-19 task forces. However, we have seen that countries led by women seem to have been very effective in managing the pandemic.

Seeing how women and girls are rising to respond to the challenges posed by the pandemic is what gives me hope and spurs me on. The examples are many. Dejana Stosic leads a civil society organisation in Serbia, Human Rights Committee Vranje, that provides a free 24-hour online service to support survivors of gender based violence. Jamie Margolin is a young climate activist using her platform to raise awareness about the intersection of COVID-19, the climate crisis and racial injustice. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is working with several women leaders across Africa who are successfully advancing the fight against COVID-19.

Women’s leadership at all levels must be at the core of the response to the pandemic if we are to prevent a roll back on women’s rights. We need to support the collective action of women, particularly grassroots groups, and stand in solidarity with, and encourage, the next generation of leaders.

History has shown us that crises can also produce some of the most seismic changes. One of my great feminist heroines is Rosa Luxemburg, who fought for freedom in Poland and Germany before, during and after the First World War. Just over a century, she declared that “freedom is always freedom for the one who thinks differently”.

Now, more than ever, we need to think differently about justice and gender equality. As the world charts a course for a post-pandemic future, we need to draw on our collective strength – rethink, reset and build a better world for future generations.

 

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The post Impact of COVID-19 on Women and Children appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Exclusive to IPS

Mary Robinson, Chair of The Elders, former President of Ireland

The post Impact of COVID-19 on Women and Children appeared first on Inter Press Service.

La mission permanente de l’Algérie auprès de l’Office des Nations Unies à Genève a appelé au respect de la souveraineté des Etats et de leur intégrité territoriale, ainsi que l’instauration de la justice sur les violations généralisées et systématiques des droits de l’Homme » commises par les autorités de l’occupation israélienne dans les territoires palestiniens, lors […]

L’article Palestine : L’Algérie appelle à « instaurer la justice » sur les violations israéliennes est apparu en premier sur .

Hours before the EU executive announced higher climate objectives for 2030, the European Parliament voted to allow funding for fossil gas projects under the bloc’s flagship Just Transition Fund.

Eine «Love Island»-Schweizerin macht alle stolz, ein Schmankerl für Englisch-Liebhaber und ein Flirtie sucht ein Gspändli mit speziellen Vorlieben.

The footage shows a naked women being beaten then shot dead by men wearing army uniforms.

Le Calame - Après sa conférence de presse ratée où il a refusé systématiquement de répondre, malgré l’insistance des journalistes, aux...

Hurrikan «Sally» ist auf US-Festland getroffen. Die Behörden warnen vor «historische lebensbedrohlichen Überschwemmungen» durch den Wirbelsturm.

Zineb Jammeh, la femme de l’ancien chef de l’Etat gambien, Yahya Jammeh, est désormais sous le coup de sanctions économiques américaines, à l’image de son époux. Le rouleau compresseur est activé contre les proches du chef de l’Etat gambien, Yahya Jammeh. En effet, le département d’État américain et le Département du Trésor ont annoncé, mardi […]

L’article Après Yahya, Zineb Jammeh visée par des sanctions américaines est apparu en premier sur Afrik.com.

Credit: United Nations

By Mandeep Tiwana
NEW YORK, Sep 16 2020 (IPS)

This September, New Yorkers will be a lot less annoyed. They’ve been spared the annual disruptions from road closures, sirens and movement of security forces accompanying world leaders who attend the UN General Assembly. By largely moving online due to COVID-19, the world’s most significant gathering will be missing some of its excitement even as the UN celebrates an important 75th anniversary in 2020.

In a departure from tradition, flowery addresses and passionate perspectives on global affairs, are being shared through pre-recorded speeches and teleconferences delivered from home rather than the UN’s headquarters. Face-to-face interactions between politicians, civil servants and civil society workers that animate annual UN gatherings are absent when solidarity and understanding are most needed to overcome the ravages of a global pandemic.

The UN is already facing a crisis of sorts from chronic underfunding and from the inability of governments who shape the UN’s agenda to see eye to eye on the big challenges facing humanity. This is casting a shadow on the UN’s work and mission, prompting Secretary General Antonio Guterres to make a plea for ‘renewed and inclusive’ multilateralism.

The UN was conceived as a ground-breaking experiment in global cooperation and people-centred multilateralism. Born out of the ashes of the Second World War, its Charter outlines four lofty aspirations in the name of ‘We the Peoples’.

These are to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war; reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, dignity and equality; establish conditions for justice under international law; and promote social progress and better standards of living.

Is the UN still fit for purpose? To answer this question, my colleagues at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, asked thought-leaders and activists to reflect on the UN’s achievements, challenges and prospects for change.

Experts drawn from a diverse array of organisations that work closely with the UN opined that while millions of people around the world have benefitted from the UN’s activities there needs to be a major shake-up in how the UN operates.

Significantly, the UN has helped prevent and resolve conflicts. It has provided humanitarian assistance to people in desperate need following natural and human-induced disasters. The UN has arranged food and shelter for vulnerable populations during crises while enabling joint action to overcome the fallouts of pandemics and climate change. The conditions of many of the world’s excluded people could have been far worse were it not for the UN’s interventions.

The UN has also produced strong and continually evolving human rights and gender justice norms. Following the Second World War it helped usher in the great wave of decolonisation and self-determination that swept much of the global south.

More recently, the UN has stewarded an ambitious and universal sustainable development agenda. In each of these endeavours the UN and its member states have relied on activists and non-profit organisations for innovative ideas, complex problem solving and service delivery.

This 75th anniversary offers a unique opportunity to examine the UN’s failings and reflect on ideas to improve its functioning. Experts and practitioners agree that urgent change is needed to enhance the relevance of the UN to people and their organisations around the world.

A major criticism of the UN is that its panoply of systems and structures seem both bewildering and self- serving to outsiders making it difficult to work through them. The UN’s bureaucracy is sprawling and often slow-moving. Its structure is rigidly hierarchical and powerful institutional inertia makes reform hard.

Civil society activists and organisations seeking new forms of people-centred engagement to meet contemporary challenges find themselves stymied by outdated UN procedures with their attachment to precedent and lack of imagination.

Accreditation with the UN can be politically loaded and many human rights organsations struggle with it. This means that the UN loses out on opportunities to hear vital voices. Further, many of the UN’s key agencies and departments are based in global north countries with discriminatory visa regimes that exclude the vast majority of people of the global south.

These failings are not merely procedural. They point to a deeper dysfunction of obstructionism and failure by UN member states to live up to and support the UN’s founding values. The consequences are profound for some of the world’s most persecuted peoples, including Palestinians, Uyghurs, Rohingyas, Sahrawis and Tibetans.

They have resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives in just this past decade in conflicts in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The UN Security Council, whose primary responsibility is to maintain international peace and security, is hobbled by the irresponsibility of its five permanent member states. China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States owe their special status at the Security Council to having emerged victorious in the Second World War.

They are among the biggest global producers and proliferators of weapons of war. Their politicking and posturing have allowed commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity on an industrial scale.

Today, there are nearly 80 million forcibly displaced people around the world. Global military expenditure has soared to a mind-boggling US$1,917 billion. One in nine people on the planet face chronic undernourishment despite an exponential growth in wealth.

On each of the above issues, there is plenty of civil society expertise, as well as numerous policy proposals and momentum to demand change, yet when activists and organisations have engaged with international decision-makers they have often found themselves left out from key deliberations.

The UN’s state-centred procedures and exclusive decision-making spaces controlled by government representatives sit at odds with the people-centred aspirations of the UN charter. Some progress has been made to enhance people’s and civil society participation at the UN but much more needs to be done to address asymmetries within various UN forums, departments and agencies.

Notably, the Declaration to commemorate the 75th anniversary includes a solemn promise to “upgrade the United Nations”. In this spirit three proposals to advance the people-centred aspirations of the UN Charter are worth considering.

First, an office of a people’s or civil society champion could be created to identify barriers in participation, spur inclusive convenings and drive the UN’s outreach to the public and civil society organisations.

Second, a procedural mechanism in the form of a citizen’s initiative could be established to mandate key UN bodies including the General Assembly and Security Council to act on matters of global importance following submission of a joint petition by a certain number of global citizens.

Third, people across the world should be given direct representation and voice at the UN through a parliamentary assembly.

In 1945, the UN recognised that we live in a world of diverse but interrelated cultures and geographies. The ongoing pandemic has demonstrated how easily problems in one part of the world can spill over into others.

Today, as we face down an epic global health crisis and an impending massive economic recession, international cooperation that promotes people-centred multilateralism will be needed more than ever. Global challenges are too big for states and their agents to solve alone. Organised civil society and active citizens have a key role to play but first we have to transform the spaces within which decisions are made.

 

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The post At 75, is the UN Still Fit for Purpose? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Mandeep Tiwana is chief programmes officer at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance. He heads CIVICUS’s UN liaison office in New York.

The post At 75, is the UN Still Fit for Purpose? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Sie hat ihren ersten Tag als Football-Reporterin auf ESPN, wird von einem Berufskollegen auf Twitter sexistisch attackiert. Doch Maria Taylor reagiert stark und der Mann wird gefeuert.

In der Schweiz gibt es 535 Millionen lebende Bäume – und damit für jeden von uns fast 66. BLICK zeigt schweizweit die höchsten, dicksten und schönsten Bäume.

Wie erwartet hat EU-Kommissionspräsidentin Ursula von der Leyen in ihrer heutigen Rede zur Lage der Europäischen Union eine 55-prozentige Reduzierung der Treibhausgasemissionen bis 2030 gefordert. Langfristiges Ziel bleibt "netto Null" Emissionen im Jahr 2050.

Reto Gurtner (65) möchte in Flims und Laax ein Seilbahnsystem errichten, bei dem die Insassen das Ziel selbst bestimmen. Die Seilbahn fährt dann ohne Umsteigen direkt zum Zielort.

European Council chief Charles Michel pledged Wednesday (16 September) that the bloc will defend the rights of member state Cyprus in its standoff with Turkey over maritime and energy rights. Michel’s visit to the island comes a day after Turkey...

Das Konsumentenmagazin «K-Tipp» hat 20 Pendlern die Masken abgenommen und diese im Labor getestet. Das Ergebnis ist verheerend ausgefallen.