New York ends schoolchildren's UN visits, citing safety concerns
New York City has ordered city schools to suspend all class visits to the United Nations headquarters over concerns that the facility, now more than 50 years old, is not meeting current fire and safety codes. The city and UN have been at loggerheads over the pace of implementing upgrades after city inspections conducted in 2006 and 2007. While many of the suggested upgrades have been carried out, the city reports concerns about the absence of fire doors in certain parts of the complex.
Guinea-Bissau world's deadliest place for pregnant women
Pregnancy and childbirth spells a death sentence for 1,100 out of every 100,000 live births in Guinea-Bissau, according to the UN Development Programme, making it one of the world's deadliest places to be pregnant or have a baby. "In two minutes a women here can die for a simple reason that elsewhere could so easily be solved," Catarina Furtado, a Portuguese actress and the goodwill ambassador for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) told IRIN.
Global Report: Climate change inaction equals human rights violation
Oxfam International argues that emissions produced by the world's wealthiest nations produce costs — in the form of externalities like flooding, droughts and intensified storms — that are borne primarily by the world's poorest nations. Oxfam submitted its report to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, suggesting a change in the framing of the global warming crisis
GUINEA-BISSAU: Maternal mortality among world's highest
Pregnancy and childbirth spells a death sentence for 1,100 out of every 100,000 live births in Guinea-Bissau, according to the UN Development Programme, making it one of the world's deadliest places to be pregnant or have a baby. "In two minutes a women here can die for a simple reason that elsewhere could so easily be solved," Catarina Furtado, a Portuguese actress and the goodwill ambassador for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) told IRIN.
JORDAN: Government under pressure to fight trafficking
A lawsuit in a US court over the alleged involvement of a Jordanian company in human trafficking has forced the Jordanian government to act against the practice. The Ministry of Interior has formed committees to draft legislation banning trafficking and to investigate conditions of foreign workers in Qualified Industrial Zones and other areas, Ziad Zubi, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said on 10 September.
SOMALIA: Schools close in protest over insecurity
A three-day protest against insecurity and attacks targeting educational institutions in Mogadishu has shut down most schools and left thousands of children out of class, locals said. “Almost 90 percent of primary and secondary schools in Mogadishu are participating in the strike,” said Abdulkadir Omar Roble, spokesman for the Education Fraternity, an umbrella organisation of education networks in the city, which organised the protest. See also School attacks “must stop”
NIGER: Thousands in north sit out another school year
An on-going desert conflict has shuttered almost 30 out of some 370 schools in the north, affecting more than 2,000 students, according to an IRIN count in August 2008. Many of these students are entering their second year of missed classes, in a country where only 12 percent of women and 18 percent of men are able to read by age 24, according to Niger government statistics.
KENYA: Separated children eking a living in Rift Valley town
Months after the Kenyan government began resettling hundreds of thousands of people displaced during clashes that followed the December elections, hundreds of children are living without their parents in harsh conditions in Rift Valley province. “At least 1,123 children have been separated from their parents in Molo,” said Irene Mureithi, executive director of the Child Welfare Society of Kenya (CWSK), a charitable organisation, established in 1955 to implement programmes aimed at protecting and promoting children's rights.
GUINEA: Youths pledge continued demonstrations until lights come on
Sporadic youth-led demonstrations have rocked blacked-out neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Guinea's capital Conakry during the past week. Altogether, hundreds of youths have demonstrated in near-darkness, lit only by dozens of burning vehicles, against the state-run Electricity of Guinea (EDG), the country's sole electricity source.
PAKISTAN: Delay in vaccine procurement puts newborns at risk
The National Institute of Health in Islamabad said the programme targeted seven vaccine-preventable diseases, including poliomyelitis, tetanus and neonatal tetanus, diphtheria, Pertussis (whooping cough), measles and childhood forms of tuberculosis. It has also recently introduced the Hepatitis-B immunisation for children under one, dramatically reducing the incidence of the disease. However, parents such as those of Muhammad Hussain are concerned because in government health facilities across the Punjab, a severe shortage of some vaccines, including the combined diphtheria, Pertussis, tetanus (DPT) and Hepatitis-B shot is being reported.
