RIGHTS-GERMANY: ‘Catholic Church Protects Paedophile Priests’

The Catholic Church has for decades protected paedophile priests and clerics who sexually abused children from judiciary prosecution, according to German theologians, law experts, and internal church documents.

HEALTH: Addressing Preterm Births Crucial to Anti-Poverty Goals

Reducing the annual 13 million preterm births and 3.2 million stillbirths should be a global public health priority, says a report released Monday which asserts that significant reductions in these numbers could be achieved by improving access to low-cost interventions in both low and high-income countries.

JAMAICA: Young Offenders Caught Up in Adult System

For years, Jamaica's correctional system has been under the glare of the international spotlight.

RIGHTS: U.N. Goals on Education Under Widespread Attack

The relentless attacks on educational institutions in war zones - along with growing threats against academics, teachers and school-going children - have jeopardised one of the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - education for all by 2015.

CANADA: Khadr Case Raises Broad Questions on Child Combatants

Ottawa's refusal to repatriate a former child soldier, 23-year-old Omar Khadr, back to Canada to face justice in the country of his birth opens to the door to a trial before a controversial U.S. military commission process that has been challenged for its use of evidence gleaned from interrogation after torture.

MUSIC-BRAZIL: ‘Enchanted’ Guitars for Social Change

Perfectly in tune, in spite of the off-key world of Terra Encantada ("Enchanted Land"), a shanty town in this Brazilian city, the guitars of Daniel Sant'Anna's orchestra strike up the "Ode to Joy", played by children and teenagers who are looking for a way forward in their lives.

ROMANIA: Starting Early on Human Rights With School Textbook

A textbook on human rights activism, being introduced in Romanian schools this year, steers away from preaching and uses interviews with global and local rights activists to suggest how young people may get involved.

HEALTH: 10-Billion-Dollar Vaccine Pledge by Gates Hailed

The pledge by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to provide 10 billion dollars over 10 years on vaccines aimed at reducing child mortality in the world's poorest countries was hailed by global health organisations around the world Friday.

HEALTH: Rotavirus Vaccine Making Headway in Africa

New vaccination programmes against rotavirus are starting to have a positive impact, and could eventually prevent hundreds of thousands of child deaths a year, according to a new report.

SWAZILAND: Dreams of Free Education Deferred

Ten-year-old Tembuso Magagula sat outside her classroom with her shoulders hunched against the cold today, tears streaming from her eyes. Her long-awaited first day of school had turned into a nightmare.

HAITI: ‘Adoption Not the Best Choice for Quake Orphans’

Thirty-three children from Haiti arrived in France to adoptive parents Friday evening, as charities and international organisations differed on whether adoptions should be speeded up or halted while the search for relatives continues.

RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: Naming the “Disappeared”

Through the "My Name Is Not XX" campaign, the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation is working to identify the remains of thousands of victims who were forcibly disappeared during the country's 1960-1996 armed conflict, by inviting their relatives to provide DNA samples.

CHILE: Eliminating Slums

Chile, touted as Latin America's great economic success story, has gone a long way towards reducing poverty and eliminating the country's slums. But a new study shows that disadvantages are still faced by 50,000 children living in shantytowns.

DEVELOPMENT-FIJI: Amid Economic Slump, Children Face Bleak Future

Shonal Chand, 16, has ditched school to work full time to assist his financially struggling family. He sells pineapples, watermelons and other local seasonal fruits by the roadside six days a week.

ARGENTINA: “Myth” of Egalitarian Society Fading Away for Young People

A study on young people and human development in South America's Mercosur trade bloc indicates that while in Brazil, the country's longstanding social inequality is the focus of at least somewhat successful efforts to combat it, in Argentina the vision of an equitable society is fading away.

POVERTY-ZIMBABWE: Multiple Appeals to Support Zimbabweans

While food is readily available in shops and some political and economic stability is returning in Zimbabwe, vulnerable groups such as children and people living with HIV and AIDS still face a shortage of food.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Youth See Their Future in the Balance

Young people from 44 countries are demanding that world leaders take decisive action on climate change. The time for talk is over, they declared at the end of a weeklong Children's Climate Forum here.

RIGHTS-TURKEY: Jailing Kurdish Children to Undermine Dissent

Turkey is signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, but that does not stop minors in the country's Kurdish dominated eastern and southeastern regions from ending up with stiff jail sentences.

MEDIA-ARGENTINA: Fighting Stereotypes of Slums ‘From the Inside’

A group of local residents from Villa 1-11-14, a slum on the outskirts of the Argentine capital, put out a magazine aimed at breaking down the stereotypes propagated by the mainstream media, which associate neighbourhoods like theirs only with drugs, crime and marginalisation.

NICARAGUA: A Month of Free Fun and Games for Poor Children

More than one million poor children in Nicaragua will enjoy a massive Christmas celebration this month, complete with recreational activities and presents, organised by the government of President Daniel Ortega. But the opposition is criticising the project as populist and eccentric.

AFRICA: Campaign to Unite Against Malaria Kicks Off

Growing up in Cameroon, Joseph-Antoine Bell and his friends used to think that by playing football they could get rid of malaria.