Languages
Saturday, November 14, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Gender
RIGHTS-JAPAN: Get Cracking on Gender Equality
Japan's new female justice minister has promised to get serious about gender equality.
PERU: Guinea Pigs Spell Independence for Women
In a rural village in the Peruvian Andes, very near yet so far from the popular tourist destination of Cuzco, the guinea pig, a rodent native to the region, has become "woman’s best friend" – an important means for women to earn money to support their families, as well as to learn how to defend their rights.
HEALTH-INDIA: Positive Approach to Life
At an age when most 20-year-olds dream of living a perfect life, Kousalya Periasamy found hers shaken by personal tragedies.
VIETNAM: Ethnic Minorities More Gender Divided
A drunk man slaps his wife, she hits the ground and the audience of mainly women laughs. At a question and answer session that follows in Tay, one of the many ethnic minority languages, women stand up to talk at length about why husbands shouldn't hit their wives and why, as women, they deserve equal respect.RIGHTS: Security Council Backs Advocate for Women in War Zones
The U.N. Security Council Wednesday called on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a special representative to intensify efforts to end sexual violence against women and children in conflict situations.
HEALTH-LIBERIA: Rainy Season Deadly for Pregnant Women
As heavy rain hammers the grass thatch roof of her mud hut, Goromah Borbor huddles inside and quietly describes how her daughter Annie died while giving birth.HEALTH-KENYA: Affordable New Weapon Against Cervical Cancer
Faced with an increase in the number of cervical cancer cases, Kenya has adopted a simple, cheap yet effective visual inspection method of detection. Ideal for low resource settings, the test is offering reprieve to thousands of women who die annually from the disease.
LATIN AMERICA: Black Population – Still Largely Invisible
Making the contributions by black people to the cultural heritage of Latin America visible is one big step towards pulling people of African descent out of the poverty and marginalisation in which so many still live, said participants at a regional seminar in the Uruguayan capital.RIGHTS: Women’s Groups Take on Laws Based on Sex
When a landmark U.N. conference on women adopted a "platform for action" in Beijing in 1995, member states were urged to commit themselves to revoke all existing laws in their statute books that discriminate on the basis of sex.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: No More Blackouts In This Village
Travel through any Dominican town and you are likely to hear someone yell out, "llegó la luz" - the lights are back on! The country is notorious for its faulty and expensive electric service, which is more often dead than live.
Q&A: “Latin America Faces a Tough Balancing Act”
Chile is leading the way towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), while Honduras is seriously lagging behind, says Alicia Bárcena, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
PHILIPPINES: Ban on Abortion Prevails
Sitting in an apartment in central Manila, 70-year-old Lydia (her second name has been withheld to protect her identity) speaks in hushed tones. A manghihilot, or traditional midwife, she is wary when talking about her experiences of abortion, an often-taboo subject in the Philippines.CHILE: Activists Press Candidates to Take a Stance on Women’s Rights
Chilean women’s organisations are not at all willing to lose what they have gained during the present government of President Michelle Bachelet. Aware of the importance of the female vote in the December presidential elections, they are seeking commitments from candidates to further progress for women.
DEVELOPMENT: ‘Gender Is No Distraction in Climate Change Talks’
As the countdown to the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit draws to a close, gender and climate change advocates are doubling their efforts to make sure that 23 gender-related paragraphs in the negotiating text will make it to the new treaty that will be hammered out in December.DEVELOPMENT: Gender Advocates Keep a Close Eye on Climate Talks
After nine months of a rollercoaster ride pushing for a gender perspective on climate change, advocates are finally beginning to reap the fruits of their labour.ZIMBABWE: Virgins Forced into Marriage to ‘Appease’ Evil Spirits
Three years after being seized from their families and forced to marry and have sex with adult men in a Shona ritual to appease an avenging spirit, five teenagers are facing a dismal reality.RIGHTS-JAPAN: Women Talk: ‘We Want Greater Gender Equality’
"I hope to see a society where women can comfortably work and raise a family ... at the same time."UGANDA-RIGHTS: Bride Price: You Feel You Are Family Property
John Owor is a paid spokesperson for brides and grooms. His job is to represent one of the parties during traditional marriage negotiations, which involves the payment of a bride price.
LATIN AMERICA: Strides and Setbacks for Domestic and Rural Workers
In the last few years, several Latin American countries have attempted to improve labour conditions for rural workers and domestics, whose labour rights have long been ignored. But the new laws, even those with limited scope, are not always enforced.RIGHTS: Shelters Open for Battered Husbands
One in three women is ill-treated by someone or other in family homes, survey after survey shows. And so the total of three men living in shelter in a small home for battered husbands may seem unmentionably small in comparison.
RIGHTS-AFRICA: Uganda Women Seek Gender Recovery Plan
After two decades of war during which thousands of children were used as child soldiers and many women raped, northern Uganda’s recovery plan is to be spent on building roads rather than helping the country’s most vulnerable.« Previous Page — Next Page »
Women make up half the world's population, but don't nearly share half of the world's wealth, well-being and opportunity. Two-thirds of the world poor are women, disproportionally exposing women to precarious living conditions, disease and unmitigated natural disasters. The media, meanwhile, remains a male-dominated sector in much of the world, contributing to women's voices lacking a crucial amplifier to put their concerns on political agendas and unleash the development potential of their ingenuity. Rather than then stereotypical victims of local and global forces, women are also organizer, innovators, conservators and community builders. These are some of their stories.
The Week with IPS
NEXT STOP - SDGs
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
