Active Citizens

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.

Crisis Drives Nicaragua to an Economic and Social Precipice

By José Adán Silva
Five months after the outbreak of mass protests in Nicaragua, in addition to the more than 300 deaths, the crisis has had visible consequences in terms of increased poverty and migration, as well as the international isolation of the government and a wave of repression that continues unabated.

Preservation of the Klamath River – a Life or Death Matter for the Yurok People

By Emilio Godoy
Fishermen are scarce in the Klamath River delta, unlike other fishing season, because climate change has driven up water temperatures which kills off the salmon, the flagship species of this region in northern California.

Equality and Territory: the Common Struggle of Indigenous Women in the Andes

By Mariela Jara
"At the age of 18 I was the first female leader in my organisation, my grandfather who was a male chauvinist demanded that I be beaten because I was sitting among men," said Teresita Antazú, an indigenous leader of the Yanesha people in Peru's Amazon region.

Land, Water and Education, Priorities for Chile’s Mapuche People

By Orlando Milesi
The right to land and water, as well as to multicultural education, are the top priority demands of Mapuche leaders working with their communities in the Araucanía region and in Santiago, Chile’s capital.

Amid Chronic Violence, Millions of Afghans Face Risks of Drought Related Displacement

By Enayatullah Azad
Amid a precarious security situation in Afghanistan, the worst drought in recent history, that hit two out of three provinces in Afghanistan in July, has destabilized the lives of tens of thousands of civilians, some of whom have already been displaced.

The Fight for the Right to Abortion Spreads in Latin America Despite Politicians

By Fabiana Frayssinet
The Argentine Senate's rejection of a bill to legalise abortion did not stop a Latin American movement, which is on the streets and is expanding in an increasingly coordinated manner among women's organisations in the region with the most restrictive laws and policies against pregnant women's right to choose.

Q&A: A New Leader with a Vision to Redefine Human Rights

By IPS Correspondents
The human rights movement must be bigger, bolder, and more inclusive if we are to tackle today’s challenges, said Amnesty International’s first South African Secretary General.

Use of Water for Electricity Generation Triggers Outcry in Mexico

By Emilio Godoy
One of the fears of the people of the Sierra Huasteca mountains in the state of San Luis Potosi in northeast Mexico is the construction of combined cycle power plants, which would threaten the availability of water.

Take Charge of Your Food: Your Health is Your Business

By Sunita Narain
The minimum we expect from the government is to differentiate between right and wrong. But when it comes to regulating our food, it’s like asking for too much. Our latest investigation vouches for this. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)’s pollution monitoring laboratory tested 65 samples of processed food for presence of genetically modified (GM) ingredients.

Scientists Warn of the Imminent Depletion of Groundwater in Chile’s Atacama Desert

By Orlando Milesi
Eighteen national science prize-winners in Chile have called for a halt to the over-extraction of water in the four regions over which the Atacama Desert spreads in the north of the country, a problem that threatens the future of 1.5 million people.

Campaigns Promote Women’s Participation in Latin America

By Fabiana Frayssinet
An alternative network in Brazil promotes women's participation in elected offices with media support. This campaign, like others in Latin America, seeks to reverse a political landscape where, despite being a majority of the population, women hold an average of just 29.8 percent of legislative posts.

Sousa, a Solar Power Capital in an Increasingly Arid Brazil

By Mario Osava
Sousa, a municipality of 70,000 people in the west of Paraíba, the state in Brazil most threatened by desertification, has become the country's capital of solar energy, with a Catholic church, various businesses, households and even a cemetery generating solar power.
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