Citizens for Justice and Peace
25 million child marriages averted in the past decade: UNICEF
12-Mar-2018
UNICEF recently stated that child marriage has declined worldwide in recent years, with the past decade seeing the proportion of women who were married as children being reduced from 1 in every 4 to 1 in every 5. Most notable is the progress made in South Asia in the last ten years, with a girl’s risk of…
More than 5 million participate in “feminist strike” in Spain
10-Mar-2018
The Guardian reported that on Thursday, March 8, Spain’s Workers’ Commissions and the Workers’ General Union said that 5.3 million people had taken part in two-hour walkouts, held on the occasion of International Women’s Day. They were aimed at calling attention to sexism, domestic violence, and the gender pay gap. The unions called this “an unprecedented strike…
Funding cuts for slavery victims in the UK could raise risk of homelessness
10-Mar-2018
The United Kingdom’s government is cutting the financial aid it supplies to victims of slavery in the country by almost half, the Guardian reported, with the weekly allowance being reduced from £65 to £37.75. The financial aid is provided for 45 days after it is verified that someone was a victim of modern slavery. The Home…
No African country to achieve child malnutrition goal by 2030
10-Mar-2018
A new study has found that no country in the African continent is expected to achieve the United Nations’ goal of eliminating child malnutrition by 2030, the Guardian reported. The research was published in two papers in the journal Nature, and covered 51 African nations. According to Simon Hay, the papers’ senior author and director of geospatial…
Green Climate Fund authorises $1 billion for new initiatives
09-Mar-2018
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) recently authorised little over $1 billion to be put towards 23 initiatives to aid developing nations in cutting emissions and adapt to climate change, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported. The GCF is a global climate fund that has been established by the United Nations, and this is the most its…
South Korea reduces 68-hour workweek
09-Mar-2018
South Korea’s National Assembly has passed a law reducing the maximum weekly work hours from 68 to 52, the Guardian reported. The shorter workweek was one of President Moon Jae-in’s campaign promises; he also helped establish a 16% increase in the country’s minimum wage this year. The law was considered necessary to better living standards, generate…
India’s Cabinet approves bill to combat human trafficking
09-Mar-2018
India’s Cabinet has approved the Trafficking of Persons Bill, which will go before parliament during this ongoing session, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported. The bill is an attempt at making “India a leader among South Asian countries to combat trafficking,” by tackling the issue “from the point of view of prevention, rescue and rehabilitation,” the government said.…
United States border agents detain immigrant families in freezing cells: HRW
03-Mar-2018
In a recently released report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) detailed that United States’ Customs and Border Protection agents regularly hold families, including infants, in freezing holding cells after they are taken into custody at or near the border. For the report, HRW conducted 110 interviews with women and children, and found that border agents regularly separate…
Teen pregnancy rate in Latin America is “unacceptably high”: UN agencies
03-Mar-2018
The Thomson Reuters Foundation reported that three United Nations agencies–the Pan American Health Organization, the UN children’s agency (UNICEF), and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)–have said that there has not been enough progress in bringing down teenage pregnancy rates in Latin America and the Caribbean. The region has the second-highest rate worldwide. The report said there 66.5…
Police accused of employing death squad tactics against drug suspects in Mexico
03-Mar-2018
Mexican government prosecutors have filed charges accusing police in Mexico’s Veracruz state of establishing units that employed death squad-like strategies to kidnap and kill at least 15 people whom they suspected were drug runners and drug cartel informants, the Guardian reported. The indictment has alleged that police in marked patrol cars detained youths but did not…