Active Citizens

Opinion: If You’re Against Coal Mining, Walk In and Stop It

By Dorothee Haussermann and Martin Weis
“If you’re against coal mining, why don’t you just walk into a coal mine and stop the excavators?”

Poor Bear the Brunt of Corruption in India’s Food Distribution System

By Neeta Lal
Chottey Lal, 43, a daily wage labourer at a construction site in NOIDA, a township in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is a beleaguered man. After a gruelling 12-hour daily shift at the dusty location, he and his wife Subha make barely enough to feed a family of seven.

Black Women in the Americas Launch Decade of Struggle

By José Adán Silva
They say they are tired of waiting for justice after centuries of neglect and contempt due to the color of their skin. Black women leaders from 22 countries of the Americas have decided to create a political platform that set a 10-year target for empowering women of African descent and overcoming discrimination.

U.S. Urged to Ramp up Aid for Agent Orange Clean-Up Efforts in Vietnam

By Zhai Yun Tan
A key senator and a D.C.-based think tank are calling for Washington to step up its aid in cleaning up toxic herbicides sprayed by the United States in Vietnam during the war that ended 40 years ago.

Rome March Celebrates Pope’s Call for Urgent Climate Action

By Sean Buchanan
People of faith, civil society groups, and communities affected by climate change marched together in Rome Sunday Jun. 28 to express gratitude to Pope Francis for the release of his Laudato Si encyclical on the environment, and call for bolder climate action by world leaders.

Ghosts Of War Give Way to Development in Sri Lanka

By Amantha Perera
It is an oasis from the scorching heat outside. The three-storey, centrally air-conditioned Cargills Square, a major mall in Sri Lanka’s northern Jaffna town, is the latest hangout spot in the former warzone, where everyone from teenagers to families to off-duty military officers converge.

Fracking Expands Under the Radar on Mexican Lands

By Emilio Godoy
“People don’t know what ‘fracking’ is and there is little concern about the issue because it’s not visible yet,” said Gabino Vicente, a delegate of one of the municipalities in southern Mexico where exploration for unconventional gas is forging ahead.

Billions Pledged for Nepal Reconstruction – But Still No Debt Relief

By Kanya D'Almeida
A major donor conference in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, came to a close on Jun. 25 with foreign governments and aid agencies pledging three billion dollars in post-reconstruction funds to the struggling South Asian nation.

Helping People with Disabilities Become Agents of Change

By Nora Happel
Participation, political and economic empowerment, inclusion, accessible technology and infrastructure as well as indicators for meaningful implementation are among the key issues persons with disabilities want to see reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Journalists Pay the Price in Egypt’s Crackdown on Dissent

By Kitty Stapp
The Egyptian government is holding a record number of journalists in jail, a press freedom group said Thursday, despite promises to improve media freedoms in the country.

Heat Wave Picking Off Pakistan’s Urban Poor

By Zofeen Ebrahim
Over 950 people have perished in just five days. The morgues, already filled to capacity, are piling up with bodies, and in over-crowded hospitals the threat of further deaths hangs in the air.

The U.N. at 70: United Nations Disappoints on Its 70th Anniversary – Part Two

By James A. Paul
While member states, weakened in the neoliberal era, have pulled back from the U.N. and cut its budgets, a charity mentality has arisen at the world body. Corporations and the mega-rich have flocked to take advantage of the opportunity. They have looked for a quietly commanding role in the organisation’s political process and hoped to shape the institution to their own priorities.

Women’s Groups Say Gender Equality is a Must for Sustainable Development

By Beatriz Ciordia
On the eve of negotiations on the political declaration for the United Nations Summit to adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the Women’s Major Group (WMG) calls on governments to define a transformative agenda to ensure just, sustainable and rights-based development.

Costa Rican Women Try to Pull Legal Therapeutic Abortion Out of Limbo

By Diego Arguedas Ortiz
The lack of clear regulations and guidelines on therapeutic abortion in Costa Rica means women depend on the interpretation of doctors with regard to the circumstances under which the procedure can be legally practiced.

Bougainville Election Intensifies Hopes for Independence

By Catherine Wilson
A referendum on independence within the next five years dominated campaigning in the recent general election held in Bougainville, an autonomous region of 300,000 people in the east of Papua New Guinea (PNG), which emerged from a decade-long civil war 15 years ago.

On Kenya’s Coast, a Struggle for the Sacred

By Miriam Gathigah
Travel into the heart of Kenya’s southern Coast Province, nearly 500 km from the capital city of Nairobi, and you will come across one of the planet’s most curious World Heritage Sites: the remains of several fortified villages, revered by the indigenous Mijikenda people as the sacred abodes of their ancestors.

Smart Phones New Tool to Capture Human Rights Violations

By Thalif Deen
The widespread use of digital technology – including satellite imagery, body cameras and smart phones – is fast becoming a new tool in monitoring and capturing human rights violations worldwide.

Young People Lend a Hand to Trinidad’s Ailing Watersheds

By Jewel Fraser
Starting in 1999, the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) of Trinidad and Tobago began a 10-year effort to map the country’s water quality. They started to notice a worrying trend.

Critics of World Bank-Funded Projects in the Line of Fire

By Kanya D'Almeida
For an entire month beginning in February 2015, a group of between 40 and 50 residents of the Durgapur Village in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand would gather at the site of a hydroelectric power project being carried out by the state-owned Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDC).

U.N. Names Winners of First Nelson Mandela Prize

By Kitty Stapp
The winners of the first-ever United Nations Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize were announced Monday by General Assembly President Sam Kutesa, 25 years to the day that Mandela addressed the U.N. General Assembly to denounce apartheid in his home country of South Africa.

Democracy on the Retreat in Over 96 of the 193 U.N. Member States, Says New Study

By Thalif Deen
Democracy is on the retreat and authoritarianism is on the rise in more than 96 of the U.N.’s 193 member states, according to a new report released here.
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