Most Afghan women prisoners jailed for being victims of rape Two-thirds of women imprisoned in Afghanistan were jailed for illegal sexual relations, a category that includes infidelity and premarital sex but also punishes the victims of rape. A newly formed consultant council, the Women and Children's Justice Shura, hopes to draw attention to their plight […]
The sacrifice that some children make at such young age is hard for most to imagine, but across the world many young people sacrifice their education and future to support that of their families. War, natural disasters and poverty have left many families and children seeing little options for survival and prosperity, causing many to […]
“A society in which adults are estranged from the world of children, and often from their own childhood, tends to hear children's speech only as a foreign language, or as a lie…. Children have been treated … as congenital fibbers, fakers and fantasisers.” – Beatrix Campbell, British journalist. Do we hear the voices of the […]
Many heard the buzz and outrage over China's now infamous lip singing little girl at the opening ceremony. The 7 year old, Yang Peiyi, had won a national song contest to sing at the Opening Ceremonies, was replaced by 9 year old Lin Miaoke, who was deemed as more attractive, and suitable for the world […]
Yesterday, August 12th, was International Youth Day 2008, this year's theme is; Youth and Climate Change: Time for Action. Climate change is an increasingly growing problem, which affects everyone, especially those who will inherit the mistakes of the past. It is essential that young people across the globe be given a voice in working to combat […]
Russia has long seen itself as the designated protector of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, however the relative quite cease-fire was broken last Thursday as Russian troops once again asserted their might and hold on the region, catching innocent civilians in the wake. It is estimated that some 100,000 people have been displaced since the […]
Child marriage question riles Saudi society The issue of child marriages in Saudi Arabia has united an unlikely coalition of opponents including human rights groups, clerics, journalists and intellectuals who decry the practice as harmful to children. Saudi officials now find themselves under increasing pressure to legislate a legal age for marriage, something the kingdom […]
Yesterday, August 9, 2008 marked the first International Day of the World's Indigenous People, The first event of its kind to take place, thanks to the landmark adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the General Assembly in September 2007. The convention and the event seeks to promote the culture and […]
Some 2 million people die each year of AIDS, and around 33 million people around the world are infected with HIV. A shortage of healthcare providers, access to treatment facilities, high cost and often unavailability of ARVs , and a lack of adequate education, has lead the disease's spread to continue climb. Therefore the HIV/AIDS epidemic of […]
"Children find everything in nothing; men find nothing in everything." – Giacomo Leopardi (1798,1837), Italian poet and philosopher, from Zibaldone Scelto. It is true that as we grow our eye's seem to change, we seem to lose the wide and open vision that we had in childhood. Our eye's no longer see everything with hopefulness, […]
MOZAMBIQUE: HIV-positive children still not getting treated ‘ According to provincial data, more than 15,000 children are living with HIV, but only 2,000 of them – 13 percent – are being treated, an extremely low percentage compared to HIV-positive adults: more than half the women who need treatment, and 42 percent of the men, are […]
This week, 1-7 August 2008, is World Breastfeeding Week In conjunction with the Olympics next August, WBW 2008 calls for greater support for mothers in achieving the gold standard of infant feeding: breastfeeding exclusively for six months, and providing appropriate complementary foods with continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond. As every country […]
In April in the post, Girls In Yemen Forced to Marry Too Young, an introduction to the abuses committed against girls who are forced into marriage too early, including highlighting the hindrance that child marriage is placing on the country's development. According to a recent study by Sana University, researchers found the average age of […]
Ex-Oprah school matron pleads not guilty in South Africa on Tuesday, July 29, 2008. Virginia Mokgobo, 27, arrested in November and out on bail, is facing charges relating to common assault, harassment and soliciting a minor to perform indecent acts and verbal abuse. Pillay confirmed as human rights chief The UN General Assembly unanimously confirmed […]
“In music, a call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first. It corresponds to the call-and-response pattern in human communication and is found in many traditions.” Last night just outside DC in […]