At the Second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 8-10 September, African leaders committed to the climate and health nexus and their desire to advance climate-resilient and adaptive health systems on the continent.
In normal times, women in Afghanistan face dire living conditions relative to their counterparts in other parts of the world, given the iron grip of Taliban repression. However, the powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar, Nangarhar, and Laghman at the end of August was out of the ordinary.
As the climate crisis intensifies, long-term adaptation strategies have become urgent. Among the most effective nature-based solutions are mangroves—resilient coastal forests that protect communities, preserve biodiversity, and capture carbon.
Eunice Dumbuya, a young activist in Freetown, Sierra Leone, still remembers being called promiscuous after getting a contraceptive implant a few years ago. She knew the risks of an unplanned pregnancy in her conservative country, so she made a choice.
A United Nations report calling for the global abolition of surrogacy has sparked intense debate among experts, with critics arguing that blanket bans could harm the very women the policy aims to protect.
On Monday, three decades on from the historic Fourth World Conference on Women, the General Assembly meets to discuss recommitting to, resourcing, and accelerating the implementation of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action – an historic agreement which mapped the path to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.
Winnie Wambui leans forward on the panel stage, microphone in hand, scanning the room until she spots a raised hand.
Wars and oppression leave behind not just rubble and graves. They leave behind invisible wounds, profound trauma carried by survivors. And most often, women carry the largest burden. They are targeted not only because of their gender, but because surviving and leading threaten structures based on patriarchy and domination.
In recent months, the humanitarian crisis in Haiti has taken a considerable turn for the worse, with armed gangs continuing to exert dominance over nearly 90 percent of the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Rising violence, the collapse of essential services for millions, and severe cuts to humanitarian funding have left the international community struggling to provide immediate relief and find a sustainable, long-term solution.
Despite climate change being a health risk multiplier, health is often underrepresented in climate negotiation processes.
Experts attribute this to a lack of funding by the African governments and a lack of capacity building among climate negotiators.
As climate shocks intensify across East Africa, from failed rains in Kenya’s arid north to devastating floods in Tanzania’s coastal belt, the region’s banks are emerging as unlikely but powerful players in the resilience race.
In recent weeks, the walls of the Afghan capital have been plastered with slogans about women's hijab: “Unveiling is a sign of ignorance”; “Hijab is a father's honour and the pride of Muslims
”.
This year marks half a century since the start of Lebanon’s civil war in 1975 - a conflict that lasted 15 years, killed over
150,000 lives, and resulted in as many as 17,000 missing. Decades later, the legacy of that war is still everywhere: in the silence of classrooms without history books, in families who never knew what happened to their missing loved ones, and in violence made mundane in all parts of society.
United Nations aid organizations are rallying after a series of earthquakes and powerful aftershocks wreaked unprecedented havoc across eastern Afghanistan—particularly in the mountainous provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar.
This year marks the fourth anniversary of the Taliban retaking power in Afghanistan. All these years have been one long nightmare for the women of Afghanistan, the ones who have borne the brunt of oppression – arguably the worst of its kind anywhere in the world.
If European colonialism had never happened in Canada, matriarchy would still have been strong in Indigenous culture.
CIVICUS discusses civil society’s challenges in engaging with United Nations (UN) processes with an activist from a Salvadoran queer-led organisation who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.
On 7 August, the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights delivered a groundbreaking decision that could transform women’s lives across the Americas. For the first time in international law, an international tribunal recognised care as an autonomous human right.
Advisory Opinion 31/25, issued in response to a request from
Argentina, elevates care – long invisible and relegated to the private sphere – to the level of a universal enforceable entitlement.
Generally thought to be diseases of the wealthier classes, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like hypertension and diabetes are on the rise among India’s underprivileged working classes in semi-urban and rural sprawls.
Sexual violence against women and children during wars should not be considered collateral damage. "It is strategy, it is systematic, and it is used more and more," Permanent Representative of Denmark to the United Nations (UN) Christina Markus Lassen said.
CIVICUS speaks about the Iranian regime’s execution of political prisoners with Safora Sadidi, a human rights activist with the Women’s Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Safora lost her father and six family members to the theocratic regime, and has dedicated over two decades to the Iranian Resistance’s international efforts.