Report links H&M and Zara to major environmental damage in biodiverse Cerrado

Report links H&M and Zara to major environmental damage in biodiverse Cerrado

A report by U.K. investigative NGO Earthsight links supply chains of fashion giants H&M and Zara to large-scale illegal deforestation, land-grabbing, violence and corruption in Brazil. The country’s Cerrado region, home to a third of Brazil’s species, has already lost half of its vegetation to large-scale agriculture and is under increasing pressure from a booming cotton industry. The two major producers linked to illicit activities, SLC Agrícola and Grupo Horita, […]

April 23, 2024 26

Uncategorized

Obstetric and gynecological violence: Empowering patients to recognize and prevent it

Women who receive obstetric and gynecological care must be heard when they say that they have received inadequate, violent treatment. (Shutterstock) By Audrey Ferron-Parayre, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa; Catherine Régis, Université de Montréal; Emmanuelle Bernheim, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa, and Sylvie Lévesque, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) In recent years, media and social networks have brought to light growing denunciations of obstetric and gynecological care that is considered […]

April 17, 2024 11

Africa

Why children are prime targets of armed groups in northern Nigeria

Kola Sulaimon/AFP via Getty Images Hakeem Onapajo, Nile University of Nigeria Due to growing insecurity, Nigeria is gradually becoming one of the most dangerous places to live. The 2020 Global Terrorism Index identified the country as the third most affected by terrorism. There was a sharp increase in Boko Haram’s targeting of civilians by 25%, and killings by herdsmen increased by 26%, compared with the previous year. The two countries […]

April 2, 2024 12

Africa

Nigerian bandits strategically target school children for kidnappings – here’s why

By Oluwole Ojewale, Institute for Security Studies It is every parent’s worst nightmare: armed criminals attacking their child’s school, kidnapping students and teachers. In some parts of Nigeria, this scenario is not just the stuff of nightmares – it has become all too common in the past 10 years. The most famous incident was the mass abduction of 276 students from a girls’ school in Chibok, a […]

March 27, 2024 11

Health / Medical

‘Tied to the bed’: Horrors of giving birth in Serbia

By Miodrag SOVILJ Biljana Cicic-Stanic still bristles when she remembers the pain, violence, and humiliation she endured while giving birth to her son in Serbia, an experience many women say is normal in the Balkan country's hospitals. Cicic-Stanic said medical staff tied her to the bed with restraints and nurses used their elbows to press against her stomach. "Everything was so violent," Cicic-Stanic told AFP, saying doctors […]

March 13, 2024 22

Africa

South Sudan: some spoilers want peace to fail, putting 2024 elections at risk

By Edgar Githua, Strathmore University South Sudan is expected to hold its first general election in December 2024. It became an independent state in 2011. The long overdue election is one of the pillars of a peace agreement signed in 2018. It helped end the 2013-2018 civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions. Since then, the country has progressed in relative peace, with fewer […]

February 20, 2024 39

Uncategorized

Mungiki, Kenya’s violent youth gang, serves many purposes: how identity, politics and crime keep it alive

By Bodil Folke Frederiksen, Roskilde University Kenya has scores of youth gangs known for their violence and links to the politically powerful. None is more infamous than the Mungiki movement, with a past membership estimated to be at least a million. Though banned, it’s constantly in the news as a tool or target of big political players. Bodil Folke Frederiksen, who has studied Mungiki as part of […]

February 15, 2024 8

World

Haiti’s people suffer ‘deepening human rights catastrophe’

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk has issued an urgent warning about the deepening human rights catastrophe in Haiti, after figures showed that January was the most violent month in more than two years. At least 806 people, not involved in the violent exchanges taking place, were killed, injured, or kidnapped in January 2024.

February 12, 2024 30

Namibia

Men urged to speak out against domestic abuse

Although males are the most frequent offenders of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), they, too, endure violence from their partners and are reluctant to speak up for fear of being judged by the community. This was said by the chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Gender Equality, Social Development, and Family Affairs, Gothardt Kasuto, during a public hearing on the petition for Sexual and GBV and Femicide at Opuwo on […]

January 22, 2024 7