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Sunday, November 15, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Gender
HEALTH-ASIA: Where Are the Religious Leaders?
"Thank God for condoms!" Donald Messer of the U.S.-based Centre of Church and Global AIDS declared during one of the many sessions at an AIDS conference for the Asia-Pacific, which ended here Thursday.
AUSTRALIA: Campaign for 'Comfort Women' Apology Intensifies
Activists here are stepping up their campaign to urge Australia's parliament to pressure the Japanese government to formally apologise to, and compensate, so-called 'comfort women', a euphemism for women across the Asia Pacific region who were forced into sexual slavery by Japan's military during the Second World War.
Q&A: "Punishment Has to Be Top Priority in U.S. Military"
Ann Wright is a former U.S. diplomat who served in the military for 29 years.COLOMBIA: A Country in Flight
While the street sweepers clean up huge piles of rubbish in the Tercer Milenio park in the centre of the Colombian capital, young police officers have been posted there to prevent any more people displaced from their rural homes by the armed conflict from trying to camp there.LABOUR-GUATEMALA: Domestics Finally Gain (Limited) Rights
"What really hurt was that they refused me my right to rest before and after I had my baby. Even when my contractions started, they wouldn't let me go to the hospital," said Mildred Díaz, a Guatemalan domestic employee, talking about the worst aspects of her job.
HEALTH: Go Away With Your Spray
Zinaldina dos Reus, Zizi for her friends, is washing clothes by a stream near the airport in São Tomé. Her toddler plays nearby. Zizi, 21, can't remember the last time she or her husband had malaria, years ago. She credits the free bed nets and anti-mosquito home spraying regularly supplied countrywide since 2004.POLITICS-US: Sotomayor Sworn In Following Senate PR
With Sonia Sotomayor's swearing in over the weekend as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, legal experts are aggressively debating what was learned from her four days of gruelling testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee - and whether these hearings are instructive or merely Capital Hill's version of Kabuki Theatre.
RIGHTS-SOUTH AFRICA: Women Want Land to Call Their Own
In 1956, twenty thousand women marched to parliament to protest discriminatory pass laws. The march, commemorated as Women’s Day in South Africa on Aug. 9 each year, has become iconic of women’s quest for equality.
BRAZIL: Bringing Community Mental Health to the Poor
Zilá Ferreira and Juraci Lisboa were in the grip of depression since 1996 – the former over the death of her mother, and the latter because she was "abandoned with seven children under 14."
AFRICA: Raising the Profile of Gender-Based Violence
Imagine you are a journalist; you get a tip for a story about a sexual assault on a ten-year-old girl, and pitch it to your editor.
DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Women in Pursuit of Knowledge
While Africa is still far from having adequate capacity for scientific innovation, women are more and more present in the field of research for the continent's sustainable development.MIDEAST: Prison Toughens Palestinian Women
In her office at the Bethlehem women's counselling centre, Khawla Al-Azraq recounts her memories from Israeli prison as vividly as if they were yesterday: the routine physical and psychological abuse, the nightly room searches, the hunger strikes and other collective actions in protest against their conditions, and the intense study sessions with her fellow prisoners.
DRC: Respect and Protect Civilians
A government offensive against rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that began in January has dramatically increased sexual violence in the provinces of North and South Kivu.HEALTH-AFRICA: Family Planning: Expand Role For Private Sector
Dwindling donor support in the face of rising contraceptive demand, combined with diminishing government budgets could make already widespread shortfalls in the provision of contraceptives worse. African reproductive health experts are suggesting that the private sector could be the key to filling the gap.POLITICS-US: First Latina Appointed to the Supreme Court
United States Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor - the first Latina Supreme Court nominee and the third woman appointed to the court - won her confirmation vote in the Senate today setting the stage for her swearing in at a White House ceremony as early as tomorrow.
SWAZILAND: Govt in Court Over Property Rights
In a battle for gender equality, well-known Swazi women’s rights activist Doo Aphane has taken government to court. Aphane is contesting legislation that prohibits her from registering property in her maiden name jointly with her husband.
PAKISTAN: Ruined Farmers Say Children Won't Go to School
Fertile Swat's famous orchards of peach, plum and apple were just starting to ripen when the Pakistan military launched an air and land attack on Taliban fighters in end-April, uprooting tens of thousands of civilians.
CULTURE: Young Women in Chat Rooms Beware
Internet and mobile phones have spawned a new kind of marriage in the Gulf.
RIGHTS: Outspoken Activists Defend Africa’s Sexual Diversity
The second World Outgames, held in the Danish capital, offered up a veritable smorgasbord of sport, politics and arts while celebrating sexual and gender diversity. But it also reminded participants that bigotry against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, sometimes culminating in violence, remains a scourge across the world.
AGRICULTURE: Cultivating Rural Prosperity in Cameroon
Emilie Nyate has a two million CFA smile on her face these days. She's one of the beneficiaries of the Roots and Tubers Market- Oriented Programme, known better by its French acronym of PNDRT, which is transforming the lives of small-scale farmers in Cameroon.CUBA: Following the Trail of a Woman Who Lived as a Man
When Cuban historian and anthropologist Julio César González and his Spanish friend Alberto Góngora Sanz arrived at the birthplace of Swiss physician Enriqueta Favez, in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland, their joy at finally reaching their destination was so great that they broke into tears and dropped to the ground in the square across the street from her house.« 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.
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