Active Citizens

Activists Say Fracking Fails to ‘Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful’

By Emilio Godoy
U.S. activist Vera Scroggins has been sued five times by the oil industry, and since October 2013 she has faced a restraining order banning her from any properties owned or leased by one of the biggest players in Pennsylvania’s natural gas rush, Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation.

Western Double Standards on Deadly Cluster Bombs

By Thalif Deen
The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) banned the use of these deadly weapons for two primary reasons: they release small bomblets over a wide area, posing extended risks beyond war zones, and they leave behind unexploded ordnance which have killed civilians, including women and children, long after conflicts have ended.

Opinion: A Call for Public Participation in National Budget Processes

By Amitabh Mukhopadhyay
After forming governments, authorising them to tax us and to spend on our collective needs, do we remain watchful about our money? No, we don’t. Not even when we know governments borrow from money markets on the strength of the tax fund created, often beyond our means to repay. Why?

Mental Health Another Casualty of Changing Climate

By Jed Alegado and Angeli Guadalupe
Jun* is in chains, tied to a post in the small house that resembles a fragile nipa hut. His brother did this to prevent him from hurting their neighbours or other strangers he meets when he’s in a ballistic mood. Jun has been like this for three years now, but since Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines two years ago, his symptoms have worsened.

Opinion: Women’s Major Role in Culture of Peace – Part Two

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury
Another reality that emerges very distinctly in culture of peace is that we should never forget when women – half of world’s seven billion plus people - are marginalised and their equality is not established in all spheres of human activity, there is no chance for our world to get sustainable peace in the real sense.

Opinion: Promoting Culture of Peace Through Dialogue – Part One

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury
This week, for the fourth time in a row, the annual gathering of the apex intergovernmental body of the United Nation deliberating on peace and non-violence will take place at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

Women Revolutionise Waste Management on Nicaraguan Island

By José Adán Silva
A group of poor women from Ometepe, a beautiful tropical island in the centre of Lake Nicaragua, decided to dedicate themselves to recycling garbage as part of an initiative that did not bring the hoped-for economic results but inspired the entire community to keep this biosphere reserve clean.

Investigators Dismiss Mexican Government’s Official Story on Missing Students

By Kanya D'Almeida
A group of independent investigators has roundly dismissed the Mexican government’s claims that the 43 students who went missing in the southwestern city of Iguala last fall were burned to ashes in a garbage dump, reigniting an international outcry against the disappearance and heaping pressure on the government to provide answers to families of the victims.

Opinion: Protecting Lives Must Come First in Law Enforcement

By Dr. Anja Bienert
Everyone has the right to life. This principle is enshrined in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and appears in numerous international treaties and national laws.

World Running Out of Time to Save Oceans

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations is posting a new environmental warning: the world is running out of time to prevent the gradual degradation of the world’s oceans and the widespread destruction of marine life.

Q&A: “We Must Put Everything Aside and Just Focus on Water”

By Stella Paul
Globally, more than 748 million people do not have access to safe drinking water. That is more than double the population of the entire United States.

European Residents Offer Support, Homes to Refugees

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
As the migration crisis in Europe continues to grow and government response remains slow, European citizens have taken it upon themselves to act by opening up their homes to those in need.

CORRECTION/Who Will Pay the Price for Australia’s Climate Change Policies?

By Neena Bhandari
Rowan Foley has spent many years as a ranger and park manager, caring for Uluru–Kata Tjuta National Park Aboriginal lands in the spiritual heart of Australia’s Red Centre in the Northern Territory. He has been observing the effects of soaring temperatures and extreme weather events on his people, residing in some of the hottest regions of the country.

Impeachment Motion Stirs Political Waters in Somalia

By Nora Happel
The impeachment motion Somali parliamentarians filed against President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Aug. 12 has created a political standoff that might further threaten the country’s stability shortly ahead of planned elections in 2016.

Despite Treaty, Conventional Arms Fuel Ongoing Conflicts

By Thalif Deen
Despite last year’s Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the proliferation of conventional weapons, both legally and illegally, continues to help fuel military conflicts in several countries in the Middle East and Africa, including Syria, Iraq, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen.

Activists Criticise Offshore Drilling as Obama Prepares for Arctic Summit

By Leehi Yona
A one-day summit taking place here on Aug. 31 hopes to bring Arctic nations together in support of climate action against a backdrop of criticism of offshore oil drilling in the region.

Will New Sri Lankan Government Prioritize Resettlement of War-Displaced?

By Amantha Perera
The new Sri Lankan government that was voted in on Aug. 17 certainly didn’t inherit as much baggage as its predecessors did during the nearly 30 years of conflict that gripped this South Asian island nation.

Alternative Destinations Emerge as Cuba Gets Ready for Tourism Boom

By Ivet González
Along the road to the Viñales valley, travelled by thousands of tourists to Cuba, lies the home of self-taught artist Miguel Antonio Remedios, which he has turned into a sort of museum to show visitors a wooden home typical of this mountainous area in the west of the country.

Shifting Sands: How Rural Women in India Took Mining into their Own Hands

By Stella Paul
Thirty-seven-year-old Kode Sujatha stands in front of a hut with a palm-thatched roof, surrounded by a group of men shouting angrily and jostling one another for a spot at the front of the crowd.

U.S. Provides Cover for Use of Banned Weapons in Yemen

By Thalif Deen
The United States is providing a thinly-veiled cover virtually legitimising the use of cluster bombs – banned by an international convention – by Saudi Arabia and its allies in their heavy fighting against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Opinion: Mexico’s Gruesome War Against Migrants

By Carolina Jiménez
“Pray for me.” Those are the last words Eva Nohemi Hernández Murillo told her mother, Elida Yolanda, through a patchy phone line on the evening of Aug. 22, 2010.
« Previous Page — Next Page »
*#*