Citizens for Justice and Peace
Colombia supreme court directs government to protect Amazon rainforest in historic case
11-Apr-2018
Colombia’s apex court has informed the country’s government that it must take immediate steps to protect the Amazon rainforest and check increasing deforestation, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported. In January, 25 young plaintiffs aged seven to 26 sued Colombia’s government, saying that its inaction in protecting the Amazon imperilled their future and infringed on their constitutional…
170 young people contract HIV daily in Central and West Africa
09-Apr-2018
86% of the world’s HIV-positive children and adolescents live in sub-Saharan Africa, the Los Angeles Times reported. In Central and West Africa, 80% of the children who have HIV do not get antiretroviral therapy, which makes it the region with the lowest rate of access to the treatment in the world. According to the latest research…
UN Secretary General says Yemen is “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis”
09-Apr-2018
In his remarks to the Pledging Conference on Yemen, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Yemen “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” saying that more than 22 million people in the country require “humanitarian aid and protection.” He added that around 18 million people are “food insecure; one million more than when we convened last year.” Guterres said that…
India under threat of food insecurity from climate change: Study
09-Apr-2018
A global study has found that India is among the nations that are most under threat of food insecurity because of extreme weather stemming from climate change, PTI reported. Researchers led by the UK’s University of Exeter considered how climate change could impact the how vulnerable various countries are to food insecurity, i.e. a situation in which…
Vietnam: Six activists sentenced for up to 15 years in prison for trying to “overthrow the state”
06-Apr-2018
Six activists in Vietnam have received sentences of seven to 15 years in jail for “attempting to overthrow the state,” the Guardian reported. These are the most stringent sentences in Vietnam. The activists received their sentences following a one-day trial that was conducted “under heavy security”. The activists have ties to the Brotherhood for Democracy, an…
Many American college students are going hungry
06-Apr-2018
An online survey conducted by the Wisconsin HOPE lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that many college students in the United States said that they had gone hungry in the previous month, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported. According to the study, researchers have reported on 43,000 students at 66 educational institutions in 20 American states…
Laws preventing women from working affect economic growth, equality: Study
06-Apr-2018
According to a recent World Bank study, laws that prevent women from working or restrict their ability to own businesses are negatively affecting the world’s growth and economic equality, The Guardian reported. The study considered 189 economies. In 104 of these, women are prohibited from working at night, or from working in fields like energy…
More than 120 million people struggled with acute food insecurity in 2017
29-Mar-2018
The recently released Global Report on Food Crises found that around 124 million in 51 countries struggled with acute food insecurity in 2017, according to the FAO. This figure was 11 million higher than 2016. According to the report, acute food insecurity is defined as hunger so severe that it poses an immediate threat to lives…
Nearly half a million students left school in Yemen since 2015: UNICEF
29-Mar-2018
According to the United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, almost half a million children in Yemen have left school since 2015. That year, Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in Yemen’s civil war. The total number of children in Yemen who lack access to education is two million. Meritxell Relano, UNICEF’s representative in Yemen said, “The journey to…
Mexican police officers convicted of journalist’s murder
29-Mar-2018
Two police officers in Mexico have been found guilty and sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment for the murder of journalist Moisés Sánchez, an uncommon instance for Mexico, where crimes against members of the media largely go unpunished, the Guardian reported. Sánchez was killed in the violence-ridden state of Veracruz, considered the most dangerous area for journalists…