HUMAN DEVELOPMENT – Page 100

Latin America & the Caribbean2017-06-092023-07-10

Where Forced Child Pregnancy is Not Fiction

By Phil Harris

ROME (IDN) – She is 10-years-old when she is raped by her mother’s companion and becomes pregnant. Extremely ill, undernourished and underweight during her pregnancy, her mother requests an abortion and although the law permits termination of a pregnancy if authorities deem the carrier’s health is in danger, the request is denied by the State.

The girl’s mother is arrested and temporarily imprisoned for failing in her duty of care to her daughter, despite having previously reported the abuse to the police, who did not act.

Meanwhile, the State sends the girl to an institution against her wishes, where she is made to stay until the birth of her child. She is not allowed any visitors, apart from an aunt who is allowed to come once a week for two hours.

USA and Canada2017-05-252023-07-10

Veterans For Peace Mobilise To Resist Militarism

By Brian Trautman*

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – The United States is the most militarized and jingoistic nation on earth. Its foreign policy is guided by imperialist militarism, neoliberal capitalism and racial xenophobia. For more than sixteen years now, three presidential administrations have carried out a so-called “War on Terror” (GWOT), a perpetual state of war that is waged globally, under the depraved reasoning that “the world is a battlefield,” to quote investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill.

As demonstrated by the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the GWOT is conducted through conventional warfare. More often, however, it is executed through covert or “dirty” wars, against groups and individuals in many other nations.

USA and Canada2017-05-242023-07-10

Trump 2018 Budget Proposes Hike in Arms Spending

WASHINGTON, D.C.(IDN | NAPF) – The U.S. Department of Energy released Trump’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget request on May 23. The budget includes a $54 billion increase in defence spending, including $10.2 billion for supposed “Weapons activities to maintain and enhance the safety, security and effectiveness of our nuclear weapons enterprise.” Details of exactly what is included in the $10.2 billion increase have not yet been released.

While the overall budget includes significant increases to defence spending, it also includes significant cuts to scientific research, medical research, disease prevention and health insurance for children of the working poor. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current funding would be cut by more than 30 percent. Planned Parenthood would not receive any Health and Human Services Funding.

Latin America & the Caribbean2017-05-232023-07-10

Ecuador Annuls 16 Investment Treaties To Duck Costly Disputes

By Daniel Uribe*

GENEVA (IDN | SOUTHNEWS) – Ecuador has unilaterally withdrawn from its remaining 16 bilateral investment treaties (BITs). With this decision, Ecuador has concluded the termination of 26 BITs signed by the country since 1968.

The 16 BITS which Ecuador is withdrawing from had been signed with the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, the United States, China, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, and Chile.

The Ecuadorian move is part of similar measures taken in recent years by a growing number of developing countries to withdraw from their bilateral investment treaties. These include South Africa, Bolivia, Indonesia and India.

EU & Europe2017-05-232023-07-10

Uzbekistan Shows the Way for Dealing with Cultural Legacy

By Shastri Ramachandaran

TASHKENT | SAMARKAND (IDN) – Cultural legacies, with their inevitable potential for controversies compounded by competing claims between contending nations, can be fraught affairs. Disputes over art works and artefacts of one country being found in another are legion. The UNESCO convention, which mandates return of illegally acquired objects to country of origin when provenance is established beyond doubt, is actually an acknowledgement that disputes are bound to persist and, therefore, require a basis to be addressed.

Although there are numerous instances where countries have resolved disputes over cultural objects in an amicable manner, many a long-running controversial case remains unresolved. One of the best-known cases is that of India’s fabled Kohinoor diamond.

Middle East & North Africa2017-05-052023-07-10

Suspense Abounds in Iran’s Presidential Elections

By Mortezagholi Raissi

BONN | TEHRAN (IDN) – In the run-up to the Presidential elections in Iran on May 19, all but six of the 1600 women and men who were registered as presidential candidates for the twelfth poll since the ‘Islamic Revolution’ that resulted in the toppling of the monarchy on April 1, 1979, have been axed.

The spokesman of the powerful ‘Guardian Council’ announced in an interview with the Iranian television on April 26 that only the six approved candidates fulfilled the requirements for standing for elections to the office of the President.

The Guardian Council consists of 12 persons, 6 of whom are scholars appointed directly by Ayatollah Khamenei, the country’s Supreme Leader, and the other 6 are jurists, who need to be confirmed by the Parliament. However, the chairman of the Council is a confidant of the leader. But all candidates are requited to be local to the regime.

Latin America & the Caribbean2017-04-272023-07-10

Barbados Takes Legal Stride on Gender Equality

By Desmond Brown

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (ACP-IDN) – The tiny Caribbean island of Barbados has taken a major step towards ensuring gender equality in its judicial system with the development of a draft gender equality protocol for magistrates and judges.

The document, being hailed as the first of its kind within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), will support the judiciary in using gender analysis to ensure that both women and men have equal access to justice.

“If gender stereotypes are unconsciously held, if they are not the product of a deliberate intention to discriminate, how can we as judges avoid falling prey to them? This is where the establishment of this protocol is so important,” said Justice Adrian Saunders, a judge at the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

Latin America & the Caribbean2017-04-262023-07-10

Triumph of the Left in Ecuador, Setback for Latin America’s Right?

Analysis by Marcelo Colussi*

GUATEMALA CITY (IDN) – The triumph of left-wing candidate Lenin Moreno in the presidential elections at the beginning of April is a breath of fresh air and a sign of hope for the people of Ecuador, who can expect to see a continuation of the social measures initiated previously by the government of Rafael Correa.

Had right-wing candidate Guillermo Lasso won, these policies would have been radically suppressed, and society as a whole would have been led towards models of the most savage capitalism with semi-feudal nuances, as had been the case for centuries in the country.

The triumph of Moreno means that the progress recorded in recent years will be maintained and, in this sense, transmits hope.

Middle East & North Africa2017-04-252023-07-10

Why Jordan’s Move to Repeal ‘Stone Age’ Rape Law Matters

By Phil Harris

ROME (IDN) – Many girls and young women in a number of countries still live in fear of what has been called “stone age” legislation that allows men to rape and then marry them to avoid prosecution.

One such country is Jordan, where the plight of these actual and potential victims is expected to take a turn for the better after the Jordanian Cabinet recommended repeal of Article 308 of the country’s penal code on April 15.

That recommendation – which would abolish a provision under which sexual assaulters can avoid imprisonment provided they marry their victims – now awaits final approval by Parliament and King Abdullah II.

EU & Europe2017-04-252023-07-10

France Signals a New Lease of Life for Europe

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The result of the first round of the French presidential election has given the Euro-pessimists a knock over the head. About time too. The European Union is not going to face break up.

Big crises come, but they also go. The Euro currency crisis was not dealt with as well as it should have been – austerity was the policy of the long way round – but it passed. The great immigration crisis has been contained, and the number of would-be refugees has fallen sharply.