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Wednesday, November 11, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Active Citizens
ECONOMY-RUSSIA: Duma Deputies Dispute IMF-Required Austerity Bill
Russian President Boris Yeltsin Wednesday berated, bribed and begged his parliamentarians, to get them to endorse a sweeping austerity plan and meet conditions set by the International Monetary Fund.DISARMAMENT-RUSSIA: Chemical Weapons Destruction Plan Crawls To Halt
Russia will miss its global treaty deadline and will fail to destroy its massive chemical weapons stocks by the year 2008, admits Stanislav Petrov, head of the country's chemical and biological defence forces.TRADE-KAZAKHSTAN/CHINA: Border Pact Removes Last Hurdle To New Ties
By signing an agreement on Saturday that resolves their long-running border dispute, Kazakhstan and China crossed the last hurdle to forging strong economic and diplomatic links.POLITICS-RUSSIA: Far-Right Sows Nationalist Grapes of Wrath
With billions of roubles owed millions of desperate workers across Russia, demands for money and jobs have swiftly developed into angry public protests against the federal government and its policies.RIGHTS: Russian Navy Journalist May Face Treason Charges Next Month
Military journalist Captain Grigory Pasko, well known for his investigations into secret nuclear dumping as a reporter for the Russian Navy newspaper Boyevaya Vakhta (Combat Vigil), could face charges of high treason next month.POLITICS-BALKANS/RUSSIA: Moscow More Cautious Of NATO Than Belgrade
With NATO fighter-bombers prowling his borders, Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic apparently thinks it prudent to consent to Russian mediation in the deepening standoff between Belgrade and the West over the Kosovo crisis.RIGHTS-TURKMENISTAN: Opposition Vows To Win Democratic Reforms
The European Union has promised to take 'appropriate measures' if the human rights situation worsens in Turkmenistan. But the country's democratic opposition doubt there is much chance of it improving, at least in the near future.LABOUR-RUSSIA: Russia Faces A Long Hot Summer Of Labour Unrest
Russia's angry public employees, led by the miners, plan to step up their campaign to force the state to pay billions of roubles in unpaid wages.ENVIRONMENT-RUSSIA: Massive Floods Devastate Siberian Republic
Over 50,000 people have been made homeless and 15 people have died in floods which are sweeping through Russia's Siberian republic of Yakutia.ENVIRONMENT-KIRGIZSTAN: Truck Crash Cyanide Spill’s Deadly Effects
Almost 700 people have been forced to seek medical treatment as the spillage from a May truck accident which tipped kilos of sodium cyanide into a river in Kirgizstan continues to poison unsuspecting locals. One woman has died.HEALTH-RUSSIA/UKRAINE: Dying Under Chernobyl’s Shadow
The problems of Chernobyl, the 1986 scene of the world's worst nuclear accident to date, did not end when engineers sealed up the shattered hulk of the plant's Reactor IV in a giant concrete and steel 'sarcophagus' casing.RIGHTS-UZBEKISTAN: Ever Deeper Embroiled In Islamist Row
More Islamists are going on trial in Uzbekistan, charged with involvement in last year's unrest in the south-eastern city of Namangan, as president Islam Karimov backs up a draconian new law on religious activism passed this month.UKRAINE: Living With The Aids Crisis
Oksana, her husband and their one-year-old child were a happy family before her blood test last autumn. But then she had to abort her second pregnancy and was told that, at the age of 22, she has ten years at most to live -- she had tested HIV-positive.ENVIRONMENT-RUSSIA: Major Increase In Radioactive Contamination
Environmentalists have secured top secret details on the level of radioactive contamination caused by Russia's rotting nuclear submarine bases on the Kola Peninsula.HEALTH: Five Young People Infected With HIV Every Minute
The young are the primary victims of AIDS. Five people aged between ten and 24 contract the HIV virus every minute worldwide. This was the message of world experts gathered in Moscow Wednesday to launch a global awareness campaign.ENVIRONMENT-GEORGIA: Chequered History Of Unwanted Nuclear Waste
Despite protests from environmentalists and Scots nationalists, Georgia is continuing preparations to remove unwanted uranium fuel from an old nuclear reactor, ready for the U.S. to ship to Scotland.TRADE-RUSSIA: Nuclear Ministry Targets Cuba, Iran, Ukraine And More
Far from being deterred by U.S. attempts to put a stop to its exports of nuclear technology to countries deemed 'unsuitable' by Washington, Russia clearly plans to push nuclear sales whereever the market takes it.POPULATION-RUSSIA: Free Market Reform Sets The Wolves Loose
Economic reforms in Russia are having a deadly knock-on effect on the isolated indigenous peoples of north- east Siberia -- where cuts in funds for official wolf culls have allowed the wolf population to ravage the region's reindeer stock.ENVIRONMENT: Chinese Raiders Target Russian Far East’s Ginseng
Chinese traders are crossing the Russian borders en masse and stripping its far eastern taiga forests of ginseng -- dismaying Russian environmental officials, powerless to stop the illegal incursions.ENVIRONMENT: Radioactive Waste Claiming Casualties In Chechnya
Radioactive waste illegally dumped in the secessionist Russian republic of Chechnya, usually under cover of the chaos of the 1994-6 conflict, is still claiming casualties years later.POLITICS: A Hiccup In The Tajik Peace Process
Peace processes throughout the world have one thing in common: they do not progress in a linear fashion. They tend to move three steps forward, followed by two steps backward, along a path that is more often zigzag than straight.« Previous Page — Next Page »
Global Citizen Festival in New York. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Active citizens are committed to social change because they know that it is achievable. However, major political challenges face active citizens across the world. For example, in authoritarian regimes in Latin America where the hegemonic party has been in power for decades on end, protestors and human rights activists face enormous repression and struggle to materialize their advocacy into concrete results. The same can be said for Africans, where a shift towards elected government in recent decades has yet to translate into an effective voice in decision-making. Now, the Strengthening Citizen Demand for Good Governance, which uses evidence-based approaches – funded by DFID's Governance and Transparency Fund – seeks to raise their voices.
In 2025, the CIVICUS Monitor’s People Power Under Attack report revealed that civic freedoms are severely limited in 122 of 198 countries and territories, and only 7.2% of the global population now lives in countries where civic space is open. Through partnership with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and CIVICUS, IPS reporters across the continent will seek to define the extent and limits of state capability, government accountability and the responsiveness of leaders to the needs of citizens.
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