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Thursday, September 17, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Arabs Rise for Rights
Human Rights Council Issues First-Ever UN Condemnation of Syria
The special session on Syria held by the United Nations Human Rights Council Friday agreed on neither an international mission of enquiry, as originally foreseen, nor a lower level fact-finding mission - only a mission by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.YEMEN: Youth Ready to Confront Gender Roles
Despite being at the forefront of sweeping changes taking place in the country, the lives of the majority of Yemeni women are restricted to early marriage, motherhood and serving husbands, according to a new study by Women Without Borders (WWB), a Vienna based public relations and advocacy platform for women’s voices around the world.SYRIA: Deraa a City Under a Dark Siege
As darkness fell across it, Deraa was a city under siege. Tanks and troops control all roads in and out. Inside the city, shops are shuttered and nobody dare walk the once bustling market streets, today transformed into the kill zone of rooftop snipers.Amid Turmoil, a Nuke-Free Middle East May Be in Jeopardy
A proposed international conference on a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, tentatively scheduled for 2012, may be in jeopardy amid the growing political turmoil sweeping across the Arab world - and Israel's fears of negative fallout on its own security.Battle Continues for Libya’s Misurata
Libya's opposition fighters are battling Muammar Gaddafi's forces on the country's western border, while fighting continues in the besieged city of Misurata.BAHRAIN: McCarthyism in Manama?
As the savage crackdown on the majority Shiite opposition movement drags on in Bahrain, King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa's military regime – backed by the hefty armed forces of Sunni- dominated Saudi Arabia – has moved from launching outright assaults on peaceful protestors on the streets of Manama in broad daylight into the murky waters of what experts are calling state terror, featuring all the old tactics of petrifying a population into submission.
YEMEN: Children Dragged Into Dangerous Protests
Children are increasingly facing frontline risks at Yemen’s anti-government protests. Parents are bringing them to demonstrations in the belief that they too are necessary for sacrifices in the revolution against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.GCC Brokers Power Transfer for Yemen’s Embattled Leader
The official Yemeni opposition group, the Joint Meetings Party (JMP), has announced it will sign a deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Wednesday which will officially transfer President Ali Abdullah Saleh's powers, temporarily, to his vice president Abd al-Rab Mansur al Hadi.Friends or Foes, Syria’s Neighbours Wary of Assad’s Ouster
As Syria accelerates a violent crackdown on opposition demonstrators, the country's rising instability and uncertain future are already reverberating beyond its borders in Iran, Israel, Lebanon and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.Toll Rises as Army Storms Syrian Towns
Syrian troops backed by tanks and heavy armour have stormed the southern town of Deraa and also Douma, a suburb of the capital Damascus, resulting in many deaths and dozens of arrests.Arab Refugees Suffer Mind Disorders
Amidst the political upheavals across the Arab world, a new U.N. study highlights the need for neurological health services to monitor brain disorders among displaced people.Arab Spring Stalls as U.S. Defers to Saudi “Counter-revolution”
As the so-called Arab Spring enters its sixth month, it appears to have run into seriously wintry headwinds.Two-Faced Arab League Losing Ground
As the Cairo-based Arab League continues to back western military intervention in support of the popular rebellion in Libya, the League's failure to back similar uprisings in other Arab countries - most notably Bahrain - has led to charges of double standards.EGYPT: Corruption Ran in the Family
Ousted president Hosni Mubarak ran Egypt as his own private estate, carving up its resources and siphoning off its capital into offshore accounts. But he didn’t do it alone: he had help from his family and a few trusted friends.Women Struggle to Unite Fractured Bahrain
Women in Bahrain have launched new initiatives to tackle sectarian tensions that emerged as the fallout of widespread unrest sweeping the country since Feb. 14.Libyan Choice: Starve or Run
Rights groups have condemned the indiscriminate attacks on residential areas in Misrata, that have worsened an already dire situation.LIBYA: Obama Resists Allied Pressure for Escalation
Even as the conflict in Libya appears increasingly stalemated, the administration of President Barack Obama seems determined to resist growing allied pressure to commit more U.S. military resources to the fight.Hezbollah Challenges Bahrain Govt
Hezbollah’s hardening stance in the Bahraini crisis has sowed discord between Lebanon and the Gulf island, currently home to about 5,000 Lebanese expatriates. As the situation escalates, many fear that the status of other Lebanese in the rest of the Gulf could come under threat.EGYPT: Silence Shrouds New Security Agency
In mid-March, Egypt's transitional government formally dissolved the hated State Security Investigations (SSI) apparatus, meeting a longstanding demand of the opposition. But in the month since, authorities have remained tight- lipped about the SSI's planned successor agency, raising fears that the transformation will be in name only.U.S. Denies It Is Trying to Undermine Assad
As anti-government protests in Syria showed no sign of abating, the U.S. State Department Monday denied that it was seeking the regime's ouster.Thousands Attend Syria Protesters’ Funerals
Tens of thousands of Syrians have attended the funerals for protesters killed in the central city of Homs, chanting slogans demanding the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, the country’s president.« Previous Page — Next Page »
The Arab Spring has changed the Arab seasons that have followed; it had to. The struggle continues in Syria; in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and in countries that did not change that dramatically, such as Bahrain and Yemen, the political world, and the tone of society itself has changed. IPS has not left these countries with the headlines that accompanied cataclysmic changes. We continue to track changes closely, always keeping in our sights first the rights of peoples, and then reporting changes from fresh, newsy and human perspective.
Middle East & North Africa
