Active Citizens

Legal Weapons Have Failed to Curb Femicides in Latin America

By Fabiana Frayssinet
Left blind by a beating from her ex-husband, Susana Gómez barely managed to avoid joining the list of nearly 2,800 femicides committed annually in Latin America, but her case shows why public policies and laws are far from curtailing gender-based violence in the region.

President-Elect’s Security Plan Disappoints Civil Society in Mexico

By Emilio Godoy
"Setback" and "disillusionment" were the terms used by Yolanda Morán, a mother whose son was the victim of forced disappearance, to describe the security plan outlined by Mexican president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who takes office on Dec. 1.

‘A Turtle is Worth More Alive Than Dead’

By Nalisha Adams
On the north-eastern shores of Trinidad and Tobago, on the shoreline of Matura, more than 10,000 leatherback turtles climb the beaches to nest each year. But there the local community is keenly area of one thing: ‘a turtle alive is worth more than a turtle dead.”

Solar Energy Drives Social Development in Brazil’s Favelas

By Mario Osava
"We can't work just to pay the electric bill," complained José Hilario dos Santos, president of the Residents Association of Morro de Santa Marta, a favela or shantytown embedded in Botafogo, a traditional middle-class neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro.

Women Make the Voice of Indigenous People Heard in Argentina

By Daniel Gutman
The seed was planted more than 20 years ago by a group of indigenous women who began to gather to try to recover memories from their people. Today, women are also the main protagonists of La Voz Indígena (The Indigenous Voice), a unique radio station in northern Argentina that broadcasts every day in seven languages.

Climate of Repression a Dark Cloud over Upcoming Elections in Fiji

By Josef Benedict
Powdery white beaches. Crystal clear turquoise water. Palm trees swaying in the breeze.This is the postcard picture of paradise that comes to mind when tourists think of Fiji. But for many citizens of the South Pacific’s largest island nation, and its media, the reality is anything but blissful.

Empowering Women in Post-Conflict Africa

By Amber Rouleau
While its conflict ended in 2007, Northern Uganda struggles with its legacy as one of the most aid-dependent regions in the world.

Rainwater Harvesting Eases Daily Struggle in Argentina’s Chaco Region

By Daniel Gutman
"I've been used to hauling water since I was eight years old. Today, at 63, I still do it," says Antolín Soraire, a tall peasant farmer with a face ravaged by the sun who lives in Los Blancos, a town of a few dozen houses and wide dirt roads in the province of Salta, in northern Argentina.

A “Crisis Point” for Human Rights Defenders

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
Globally, the people working to defend our human rights are increasingly under attack, reaching a “crisis point.”

Youth in Latin America Learn About Paths to Clean Energy

By Mariela Jara
Young Peruvians plan to take advantage of the knowledge acquired in Brazil's semi-arid Northeast to bring water to segments of the population who suffer from shortages, after sharing experiences in that ecoregion on the multiple uses of renewable energies in communities affected by climatic phenomena.

African Union Makes Moves to Neutralise Africa’s Main Human Rights Body

By David Kode
For many African activists based on the continent, getting to a major human rights summit just underway in The Gambia is likely to have been a challenging exercise. The journey by air from many African countries to the capital, Banjul, for the 63rd Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), could have been prohibitively expensive, involved transiting through multiple cities and taken days.

An Ounce of Democracy

By Abdoulaye Mar Dieye
As the old adage goes: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Nowhere is this more appropriate than when it comes to conflict. Violent conflict causes not only human suffering and destruction but robs entire societies of development and growth.

Honduran Migrant Caravan Moves Northwards, Defying all Obstacles

By Daniela Pastrana
A long chain of people is winding its way along the highways of Chiapas, the southernmost Mexican state. It is moving fast, despite the fact that one-third of its ranks are made up of children, and it has managed to avoid the multiple obstacles that the governments of Honduras, Guatemala and now Mexico, under pressure from the United States, have thrown up in a vain effort to stop it.

Women as Liberia’s Guardians of Peace

By Franck Kuwonu, Africa Renewal
Not long ago, images of child soldiers and the nation of Liberia were wedded in the minds of the international community. The country was struggling to end a horrific civil war, but military efforts were going nowhere.

Latin American Rural Women Call for Recognition and Policies

By Mariela Jara
Rural women in Latin America play a key role with respect to attaining goals such as sustainable development in the countryside, food security and the reduction of hunger in the region. But they remain invisible and vulnerable and require recognition and public policies to overcome this neglect.

Farmers Generate Their Own Electricity in El Salvador

By Edgardo Ayala
In Lilian Gómez’s house, nestled in the mountains of eastern El Salvador, the darkness of the night was barely relieved by the faint, trembling flames of a pair of candles, just like in the houses of her neighbours. Until now.

Cyber Attacks Growing Problem in Developing Nations

By Silvia Baur-Yazbeck
Few experiences undermine a digital financial services (DFS) customer’s finances and trust in DFS like becoming the victim of a cybercrime. This is especially true of low-income customers, who are least able to rebound from the losses, and of the newly banked, whose trust in financial services may be fragile.

G20 Women’s Summit Pushes for Rural Women’s Rights

By Daniel Gutman
Rural women play a key role in food production, but face discrimination when it comes to access to land or are subjected to child marriage, the so-called affinity group on gender parity within the G20 concluded during a meeting in the Argentine capital.

Maldives Envoy tells UN About Peaceful Transfer of Power

By Arul Louis
Maldives is currently going through a peaceful transfer of power to opposition leader Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who was elected president last month, the nation's Permanent Representative Ali Naseer Mohamed assured the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

Local Communities in Mexico Show Ways to Fight Obesity

By Emilio Godoy
Manuel Villegas is one of the peasant farmers who decided to start planting amaranth in Mexico, to complement their corn and bean crops and thus expand production for sale and self-consumption and, ultimately, contribute to improving the nutrition of their communities.

In Argentina, Agriculture Ignores the Right to Food

By Daniel Gutman
In front of one of the busiest railway stations in the capital of Argentina, there are long lines to buy vegetables, which farmers themselves offer directly to consumers, at prices several times lower than those seen in stores.
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