Category Archives: Global development

‘It’s stifling at home’: why free metro travel offers a lifeline for Delhi’s women

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City authorities say positive discrimination will make journeys safer and help low-income families

As a politics student, Sonakshi Dogra has given the bold new plan by the Delhi government to let all women ride free on the metro and buses a thorough going-over. “It’s ridiculous. Why favour women this way? What about male students and working men? Women can’t ask for gender equality and then support inequality on public transport,” she said firmly.

Dogra was about to enter Ashram metro station with three male friends, also students at the same university. They spend about 4,000 rupees (£45) each a month on transport.

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Trouble in Paradise: the rise and fall of Germany’s ‘brothel king’ | Hilke Lorenz

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Jürgen Rudloff’s chain of ‘wellness spas’ sold sex as a health service for men. But his business model was fatally flawed – as his trial for aiding and abetting trafficking revealed

Until his dramatic fall from grace, Jürgen Rudloff was the self-proclaimed “brothel king” of Germany. Owner of a chain of clubs he boasted was the “the largest marketplace for sex in Europe”, he was every inch the well-dressed entrepreneur, a regular face on reality TV and chat shows.

Rudloff is now serving a five-year sentence for aiding and abetting trafficking. His trial laid bare the misery and abuse of women working as prostitutes at his club who, according to court documents, were treated like animals and beaten if they didn’t make enough money. His imprisonment has dismantled the idea of Germany’s “clean prostitution” industry and raised troubling questions about what lies behind the legalised, booming sex trade.

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British arms sales to Saudi Arabia deemed unlawful, but now the hard work begins

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The onus is on MPs to ensure the government respects a legal ruling criticising the export of weapons used in Yemen

This week’s legal decision by the appeal court that UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia are unlawful finally opens the door to accountability for Britain’s role in the war in Yemen and the humanitarian disaster it has caused.

But while Thursday was a day of celebration for campaigners, now the hard work begins of trying to get the government to respect the decision.

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Vanuatu to ban disposable nappies in plastics crackdown: ‘We had no choice’

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Nation suffering disproportionately from climate emergency to phase in ban, believed to be world first, by December

It is but a tiny speck in the Pacific Ocean, but the island state of Vanuatu is leading the global fight against plastic waste. The nation, which has already introduced one of the toughest single-use plastic bans in the world, is believed to be the first to propose a ban on disposable nappies, to be phased in at the end of this year.

At a meeting in London this week, chaired by Patricia Scotland, the secretary general of the Commonwealth, Vanuatu was hailed as a “champion” nation, one of 12 who are forging ahead in tackling ocean and climate emergency challenges.

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Move to end sexual harassment at work hailed as ‘milestone for women’s rights’

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International Labour Organization adopts treaty designed to establish global standards on workplace violence and harassment

Millions of women around the world, from domestic workers to CEOs, could soon be legally protected against sexual harassment and violence in their places of work.

After the adoption of a “milestone” treaty by the International Labour Organization, sparked by the #MeToo movement, a global set of standards has been established to prevent, identify and provide redress in cases of gender-based violence and harassment.

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Senior Islamic cleric issues fatwa against child marriage

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Deputy grand imam of al-Azhar calls for marriage based on mutual consent with minimum age set at 18

One of the world’s most prestigious centres of Islamic learning has issued a fatwa against child marriage, saying marriage should be based on the consent of both parties and “particularly the young woman”.

The deputy grand imam of al-Azhar, considered by some Muslims to be the highest authority of Islamic jurisprudence, hammered out the document with his team and young activists at the first African summit on child marriage and female genital mutilation, which took place in Senegal this week.

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From Somali refugee to England’s first female Muslim football referee

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Jawahir Roble’s love of football was forged on the streets of wartorn Mogadishu. Now she is training and inspiring young female footballers in the UK

On a sunny afternoon, a group of mothers in hijabs sit on the bench of a football pitch, watching their daughters play football at the Stonebridge recreation ground in north-west London.

As World Cup fever grips the UK, the girls’ enthusiasm for the training session is matched by their obvious adoration of their coach and referee, Jawahir Roble, known as JJ to her friends.

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Human cost of Yemen war laid bare as the death toll nears 100,000

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Report outlines the war’s impact on civilians as well as fighters as the researchers call for resolution to conflict

As the court of appeal prepares to rule on the legitimacy of the British government’s continued supply of weapons to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, new figures show the conflict’s total death toll is fast approaching the 100,000 mark.

With no clear resolution in sight, the extent of civilian casualties caused by direct targeting has also been outlined in a report by the the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (Acled) as the war with Houthi rebels enters its fifth year.

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The mother challenging police and power to solve her daughter’s murder | Dan Collyns

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When Carolina’s body was found on wasteland in Ecuador’s capital, her mother, Amanda, did not believe she died of natural causes. Her investigation has now led to a conviction

Amanda* makes pastries to sell around the streets of Quito, she is not a detective. But the day after she buried her youngest daughter she “started to move” to track down those responsible.

Carolina Andrango had promised her mother she would not run away again. The 15-year-old had been through a difficult two years. She had fallen in with a bad crowd, her school grades had dropped and she had spent time in a drug rehabilitation clinic. She’d gone missing from home for days at a time. But on a shopping trip in August, it felt like happier times. Her mother bought her a new backpack and Carolina fooled about with her older sister, making a video on her phone.

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Migrants stranded at sea for three weeks now risk deportation, aid groups warn

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Group of 75 people survive prolonged ordeal but could now be made to leave Tunisia

A group of migrants who spent nearly three weeks trapped onboard a merchant ship in torrid conditions face possible deportation to their home countries after they were finally allowed to disembark in Tunisia, aid groups have warned.

The 75 migrants, about half of whom are minors or unaccompanied children, were rescued on 31 May by the Maridive 601 only to spend the next 20 days at sea as European authorities refused to let them land.

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Mother and baby stranded in Pakistan: claims of Home Office ‘negligence’

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British resident Nina Saleh unable to return home with adopted baby after being refused visa three times

A Norwegian woman who has lived in Britain for 20 years says she has been left stranded in Pakistan after travelling there to adopt a baby.

The UK Home Office has refused Nina Saleh a visa to return home with baby Sofia three times, despite Saleh going through a stringent and lengthy adoption process in the UK with British authorities’ involvement.

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More than 70 million people now fleeing conflict and oppression worldwide

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One in every 108 people were displaced in 2018, yet offers of resettlement were half level of previous year

The number of people forced to flee their homes across the world has exceeded 70 million for the first time since records began, the UN’s refugee agency has warned.

About 70.8 million – one in every 108 people worldwide – were displaced in 2018. This includes people who were forced to flee their homes last year, as well as people who have been unable to return home for years.

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‘The fight isn’t over’: nurses’ leap of protest from an Indian hospital roof

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The two medical workers in Punjab who survived a dramatic end to their rooftop hunger strike over staff rights

Everyone who works at Rajindra hospital in Patiala knows Karamjit Kaur Aulakh. Their eyes follow the 35-year-old nurse as she walks around the hospital with the support of her crutch. Others stop by to ask how she is after her fall.

On 28 February Aulakh jumped from the dome of the main building at Rajindra hospital, where she had sat for 23 days on a rooftop hunger strike. The leap of almost 15 metres was a desperate cry for attention to her cause, and left her with three major fractures in her right leg. Joining her in the protest was her colleague Baljit Kaur Khalsa, who was not injured in the jump.

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Yemen’s Houthi rebels accused of diverting food aid from hungry

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Head of UN’s World Food Programme threatens suspension of food aid if safe delivery not assured

The head of the United Nations food agency has accused Yemen’s Houthi rebels of diverting food from the country’s hungriest people and threatened to suspend food aid.

David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), said the agency had found “serious evidence” that food supplies had been diverted in the capital, Sana’a and other Houthi-controlled areas in the country, which is in the midst of a four-year civil war. He called on the Houthis to implement agreements that would allow the UN agency to operate independently.

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Bomb attack on busy market kills 30 people in north-east Nigeria

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Further 42 people wounded as three people detonate devices in Konduga, Borno state

Thirty people were killed when three people blew themselves up on Sunday night in a busy market in north-east Nigeria, which has seen a recent increase in attacks by militant groups.

Many were watching the evening news and waiting for the football to come on when the bombs went off in the village just outside Konduga, Borno state, wounding a further 42 people.

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‘I told my daughter I’d be home’: long ordeal ends for crew stranded at sea

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Abandoned at sea in desperate conditions for 18 months, the MV Azraqmoiah’s crew have finally been reunited with their families

After 18 months stranded on a cargo vessel miles off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, with little food or water, no wages and little means of communication, Captain Ayyappan Swaminathan’s ordeal is finally over.

In April, the Guardian reported the story of Ayyappan and his 10-strong crew, one of the most extreme cases of seafarer abandonment in recent years.

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‘I’ll never have another child’: the mothers failed by Mexico’s hospitals

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In one of Mexico’s poorest states, women from minority backgrounds are increasingly at risk of abusive treatment during pregnancy and childbirth

Nancy Martínez was 17 when she went into labour. Though her age meant she was considered a high-risk pregnancy, she was left alone for several hours without monitoring or pain medication.

Nurses told Martínez to be quiet and put up with the pain, while doctors mocked her mother, Nancy Ceron Diaz, denying her information about her daughter’s condition.

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WHO calls for more funds to fight DRC Ebola outbreak

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Panel backs off from declaring international emergency despite spread into Uganda

The World Health Organization has backed off from declaring that an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an international emergency despite it spreading into Uganda.

After long discussions, a WHO committee ruled that although the outbreak was an emergency for DRC, it did not fit the criteria to be declared a public health emergency of international concern.

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Progress on ending child labour stalls in countries supplying goods to west

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China, India and Bangladesh among otherwise thriving countries failing to make headway on issue affecting 152 million minors

Progress towards ending child labour has stalled in the countries most likely to be supplying goods to the west, a study has found.

Despite high economic growth and big improvements in education and development, countries such as China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia have made little progress in tackling child labour.

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