Understanding fear of stigma is essential in the battle against coronavirus in Niger’s capital. All photographs by Juan Haro for Unicef
It feels strange to cover the coronavirus crisis in Niger. Everyday life is taking its normal course, but you sense a strangeness in the air. It is manifested in the neighbourhoods, in the space between people. In a society where physical contact is part of the fabric of things, social distancing remains a challenge.
Continue reading...When asylum seekers seen landing on Chios vanished, a local journalist’s investigation put him at odds with authorities
When Ioannis Stevis moved back to his native island of Chios after a long career in journalism he could not have imagined that his retirement project would eventually put him at odds with his own government.
But the local online news service he created, Astraparis, ended up bearing witness to one of the most significant stories in recent European history: the ongoing refugee crisis.
Continue reading...Lockdown precipitated an exodus of day labourers and “wallahs” but as monsoon season breaks their loss is being felt
As the monsoon lashes Mumbai and black clouds darken the skyline, the city is in the grip of nostalgia for the men who used to keep daily life ticking as rhythmically and comfortingly as a Swiss watch. Men who are missing.
The men who cleared the drains of silt so that the rains don’t cause flooding and water-borne diseases such as leptospirosis. The electricians who came to fix breakdowns caused by wind and rain. The sanitation workers who used to spray neighbourhoods with mosquito repellent before the monsoon to prevent vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and chikungunya. All are missing even though the monsoon officially arrived last weekend.
Continue reading...Almost 80 million people are refugees or internally displaced, with the number doubling in the past decade
The number of people forcibly displaced from their homes has doubled over the past decade to almost 80 million, according to the UN refugee agency.
A 9 million rise in the number of those forced to flee in 2019, fuelled by conflict in Syria, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burkina Faso, means that one in every 97 people around the world – about 1% of all humanity – is now displaced, according to numbers in UNHCR’s annual report, published on Thursday.
Continue reading...Conservationists say clearance of Bugamo reserve for plantation is blow to biodiversity and country’s reputation on wildlife
Conservationists have branded a decision by the Ugandan high court to allow swathes of forest to be cleared for a sugarcane plantation “an unforgivable shame for all people”.
Work to clear 900 hectares (2,223 acres) of Bugoma Forest Reserve, in Hoima, began last month after the court ruled that the land, leased by Hoima Sugar Company Ltd, lay outside the protected area of the forest. The court ordered the National Forestry Authority (NFA), which manages it, to vacate the land and remove the military officers who had been guarding it. The NFA has appealed the decision.
Continue reading...‘Balikpapan Seven’ accused of promoting West Papua independence movement at Indonesia rallies
Seven Papuan activists have been found guilty of treason and sentenced to up to 11 months in prison for their involvement in anti-racism rallies in West Papua last year, a verdict that has been condemned by human rights groups.
The men, known as the “Balikpapan Seven”, were convicted over protests that were sparked last summer by a viral video in which Papuan students were called “monkeys” and subjected to other racist taunts. Thousands of people took part in the rallies, some of which turned violent.
Prior to Wednesday’s hearing, protests calling for the treason charges to be dropped took place in cities across Indonesia, where the Black Lives Matter movement has prompted greater discussion of injustices facing West Papuans.
We risk development priorities becoming secondary to other foreign policy interests, at a time when they’re needed most
The merger of the Department for International Development (DfID) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) runs the very real risk of putting an abrupt end to the UK’s “superpower” status in international development.
Gone will be DfID’s clear articulation of purpose — the reduction and eventual elimination of global poverty — which has been a powerful motivating, unifying, and guiding force.
Continue reading...‘They call you and tell you the place and the date’ – but there are risks, with about 20 praying elderly women busted in one police raid
The invitations arrive via text message or social media. “They ask you for a kind of password to let you in,” said Jesús Preciado, whose father has attended the secretive gatherings in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
Diego Martínez, whose mother has attended the backstairs events, said they were off-limits to anyone not in the know. “It’s invitation-only,” he said. “They call you and tell you the place and the date.”
Continue reading...A unique platform lets teachers from Venezuela to Syria to Burundi earn a living teaching their language online
Louisa Waugh and Ghaith Alhallak have met for language lessons in seven countries. “We counted it up the other day,” says Waugh, recalling the list of places from which she has video-called Alhallak: Britain, Mali, Senegal and Greece. Alhallak has answered from Lebanon, France and Italy, where he is now studying for a master’s degree in political science at the University of Padua.
“You just need a connection,” he says.
Continue reading...Unicef, Save the Children and Christian Aid among organisations warning move will harm those most in need and reduce UK’s power overseas
The prime minister’s announcement on Tuesday that the Department for International Development (DfID) will be merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has been met with widespread anger and disappointment among UK aid charities.
Stephanie Draper, the CEO of Bond, a UK network for international development NGOs, said the announcement on Tuesday, during the coronavirus pandemic, couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Continue reading...Global fashion brands urged to speak out after arrest of factory employee fuels fears that rights are eroded during pandemic
On the evening of 31 March, at the height of the Covid-19 epidemic, Soy Sros, a young Cambodian garment worker, took out her phone and posted a message on Facebook.
The Cambodian garment sector was in freefall with billions of dollars of clothing orders cancelled and factories closing.
Continue reading...As lockdowns linger and economies falter, girls who are out of school are at increased risk of being cut
Covid-19 has exposed just how much work remains to be done to wipe out female genital mutilation (FGM) around the world. Two million girls who would otherwise be safe from the practice are believed to be at risk over the next decade as a direct result of the virus.
As lockdowns linger and economies tumble, many families have been spurred into action over the fate of their daughters, using school closures to cut them and marry them off, campaigners say.
Continue reading...Bid to remove Andrew Nyirenda from post condemned as an ‘unprecedented assault on judicial independence’ by campaigners
Attempts by the Malawi government to remove the country’s chief justice days before presidential elections have been blocked following protests from law and civil society groups.
On Friday, the government announced that Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda had been placed on leave pending retirement with immediate effect. The notice read that Nyirenda had accumulated more leave days than the remainder of his working days until his retirement, due in December 2021.
Continue reading...Racism is embedded in structures and power dynamics, so we should logically conclude that we are not immune
As events unfold in the US and across the world, colleagues in the aid sector are closely watching, and sharing their solidarity. After all they are allies and educators of human rights.
Yet as various institutions grapple with their failure to address discrimination, there has been a disappointing lack of self-reflection in our sector. If we understand that racism is embedded in structures, that it is part of engrained power dynamics, we should logically conclude that we are not immune.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Brussels officials feared disclosing Zagreb’s lack of commitment to monitoring would cause ‘scandal’
EU officials have been accused of an “outrageous cover-up” after withholding evidence of a failure by Croatia’s government to supervise police repeatedly accused of robbing, abusing and humiliating migrants at its borders.
Internal European commission emails seen by the Guardian reveal officials in Brussels had been fearful of a backlash when deciding against full disclosure of Croatia’s lack of commitment to a monitoring mechanism that ministers had previously agreed to fund with EU money.
Continue reading...My father, Chris Wigglesworth, who has died aged 82, was a geologist, academic and Church of Scotland minister who worked across the world on water and rural development and devoted his life to fighting for social justice.
Born in Leeds to Maurice Wigglesworth, a chemical engineer and teacher, and his wife, Muriel (nee Cowling), he was an avid student and head boy at Grangefield grammar school, Stockton-on-Tees. He was also a keen cricketer, with a deep interest in politics, driven from an early age to improve the lives of others.
Continue reading...Country has one of the highest numbers of daily coronavirus cases relative to population size
A steep rise in coronavirus cases in Chile has plunged the government into crisis and prompted intense criticism of its management of the pandemic.
Divisions between the government and sectors of the medical community led to the resignation of the health minister, Jaime Mañalich, on Saturday, shortly after 234 deaths in 24 hours had been confirmed, the highest daily toll to date. Chile is among the countries with the highest number of daily cases relative to population size.
Continue reading...Committee set up to investigate deaths of young men allegedly chased into river as a result of ‘caste-based discrimination’
The Nepalese government has established an independent high-level committee to investigate the killings of six young men, including four Dalits, whose deaths drew condemnation from the UN human rights chief.
Friends Nabaraj BK, 20, Sanju BK, 21, Lokendra Sunar, 18, Tikaram Sunar, 20, Govinda Shahi, 17, and Ganesh Budha, 17, died on 23 May, after a dispute with a family.
Continue reading...Amnesty records 200 state killings and forced disappearances in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, state members of internationally-backed G5 group
Hundreds of civilians have been killed by their own governments in Africa’s Sahel region since countries pledged a surge against militant groups at a regional meeting held by France in January.
Amnesty International said on Wednesday that it had documented 200 cases of unlawful state killings and forced disappearances in February and March in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which are members of the internationally backed G5 force set up to fight militants in the Sahel.
Continue reading...Over 70% of the indigenous Peruvian community of Cantagallo Island have tested positive for coronavirus. This is how they are surviving lockdown
• All photographs by Florence Goupil, who received a grant from the Covid-19 National Geographic emergency fund for journalists
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