Active Citizens

Local Communities in Mexico Question Benefits of Mayan Train

By Emilio Godoy
"If thousands of people flock to this town, how will we be able to service them? I'm afraid of that growth," Zendy Euán, spokeswoman for a community organisation,said in reference to the Mayan Train (TM) project, a railway network that will run through five states in southern Mexico.

Tunisia – the Exception

By Erik Larsson
Eight years have passed since the Arab Spring. In many countries, the uprising was crushed, but in Tunisia democracy gained a foothold. Arbetet Global travelled to the small country town Side Bouzid to find out why.

Global Migration Compact May Help Combat the Myth that Migrants are Liabilities

By Kingsley Ighobor
In August 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May visited countries in Africa, sparking hope of increased foreign direct investments (FDI) in the continent.

Not Just the Big Guys Are Against the Compact

By Souleymane Brah Oumarou
A few hours after the adoption of the United Nation’s Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in Marrakech, a consortium of Moroccan human rights organisations—La Vie Campesina—held a sit in protest in front of Marrakech’s Grand Post Office. In the statement issued on December 11, the leaders of the 15 organisations denounced the compact.

AI to map Chinese strikes

By Erik Larsson
29 years ago, Han Dongfang survived the hail of bullets at Tiananmen Square. Now, he lives in Hong Kong and maps Chinese labour market strikes. Arbetet Global caught up with him at the ITUC World Congress in Copenhagen.

Water, an Environmental Product of Agriculture in Brazil

By Mario Osava
For the first time in her life, retired physical education teacher Elizabeth Ribeiro planted a tree, thorny papaya, native to Brazil's central savanna.

Citizen Action in Europe’s Periphery: “An Antidote to Powerlessness”

By Daan Bauwens
Unjustified extra charges on drinking water, exploitation of labourers in the countryside and uncontrolled property speculation. In Europe’s periphery, citizens' initiatives show how all too prevalent modern-day ailments can be tackled successfully. More often than not with the help of artists.

Central America: Eradicating Gender Violence is Vital to State Security

By Richard Barathe
María is a 35-year old Salvadoran woman with three young children. Growing up, María knew her mother but never met her father. When María was six, she started working at the Central Market of San Salvador and at the age of 12 she was raped and became pregnant for the first time.

Thermal Houses Keep People Warm in Peru’s Highlands

By Mariela Jara
Thirty families from a rural community more than 4,300 meters above sea level will have warm houses that will protect them from the freezing temperatures that each year cause deaths and diseases among children and older adults in this region of the southeastern Peruvian Andes.

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.
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