International Women’s Day, 2025
Rule Breakers: The Compelling True Story of Afghan Girls Who Risked All to Learn

Like the Afghan robotics team, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises in the United Nations, is breaking the 'rules' and continuing to educate young women in that country despite an edict from the Taliban denying girls a secondary school education.

International Women’s Day, 2025
UN: Women’s Rights Face ‘Unprecedented’ Pushbacks

Girls and women worldwide are facing growing threats to their security and rights, from threats to their education access to severe poverty and multiple forms of violence. In 2024, nearly one in four governments worldwide reported a backlash to women’s rights, as a new report from UN Women reveals.

How the Arts Play a Role in the Fight for Nuclear Disarmament

This week countries and communities converge in New York for the 3rd Meeting of State Parties on the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), with multiple side events to address the social, political and cultural impact of nuclear abolition across different sectors.

Nuclear Weapons, Far from Diminishing, Keep Rising

The United Nations, whose primary mandate is to maintain international peace and security, has been one of the longstanding leaders in the global campaign for a world without nuclear weapons. But the progress has been relatively slow – despite the growing number of anti-nuclear treaties. Perhaps the only consolation is the absence of a nuclear attack or a nuclear war in over 80 years.

International Women’s Day, 2025
In Zanzibar, Women Turn the Tide with Sponge Farming

In the early morning, as the tide pulls away, Zulfa Abdallah ties her scarf tightly around her head. She adjusts her goggles, places a snorkel across her forehead, and wades into the chest-deep waters off Jambiani village in Zanzibar. The Indian Ocean is her livelihood now, its waves offering a lifeline to women like her who confront challenges of poverty and climate change.

Anti-LGBTQI Legislation in Europe Curbs Speech Freedom, Democracy—Report

LGBTQI communities across Europe and Central Asia are being ‘weaponized’ by governments as part of a wider attack on fundamental human rights and freedoms, rights activists have warned.

Not Seen in Living Memory: Kashmir’s Rivers Run Dry, Snow Disappears, and Hope Dissipates

The picturesque Kashmir Valley is battling nature’s fury. This time of year, its majestic mountains would typically be capped with thick snow, and its emerald streams would gush with fresh waters. However, none of these scenes are visible this year.

Tanzanian Speaker Calls for Urgent Investment in Youth to Harness Demographic Dividend

Speaker of the Tanzanian Parliament and President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Tulia Akson, has called for bold and immediate investments in young people to unlock the demographic dividend and accelerate sustainable development across Africa and Asia.

Is the UN Facing its Biggest Single Crisis in 80 Years?

The United Nations, in its nearly 80-year-old history, is on the verge of fighting for its survival, as the Trump administration continues with its threats to drastically cut funding and pull out of several UN agencies which provide mostly humanitarian assistance worldwide. Elon Musk, the tech billionaire, who acts as a virtual Prime Minister to President Trump, has called on the U.S. to exit the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United Nations.

COP16 Agrees to Raise Funds to Protect Biodiversity

The second round of the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP16, concluded in the early hours of Friday, February 28 in Rome, with an agreement to raise the funds needed to protect biodiversity.

African Leaders Challenged To Unite Against Energy Transition Mineral Oppressors

Renewable energy and climate change activists have challenged African heads of state to take a united stance to safeguard essential mineral resources, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other parts of the continent, which are selfishly exploited by foreign miners with disregard for poverty-stricken local communities.

Life-Changing Quarry Mining Shatters Lives in Zimbabwe

On Christmas Day in 2022, 27-year-old Thabani Dlodlo’s eight-year-old son drowned in a flooded pit dug up by quarry miners in the vicinity of Pumula North, a high-density suburb in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city. As if that was not enough, just a week after New Year’s Day the following year, Dlodlo’s neighbor, 36-year-old Sethule Hlengiwe, also lost her six-year-old daughter after she drowned in another pit flooded with rainwater near her home in Bulawayo.

DAWN Calls on ICC to Investigate U.S. Officials for War Crimes in Gaza

On February 24, the human rights organization Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate former U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, among other U.S. government officials, for aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes that deliberately infringed on human rights in the Gaza Strip. This poses significant implications for the future of U.S. foreign policy and the role of impunity in world conflicts.

Mussel Divers in Kerala Face Livelihood Loss, with Species Habitat Under Threat

Ibrahim Basheer plunges into the sea and disappears. He remains gone for a couple of minutes before resurfacing for a deep breath of air, repeating this for the next half an hour. When he finally climbs aboard his boat, the net sack around his neck is filled with mussels—his catch for that diving trip. He rests for a short while before diving into the sea again—needing one more such trip to fill the basket he has brought along.

CARICOM Leaders Take Steps to Tackle Crime, Climate, Trade and Food Crises

CARICOM leaders wrapped up a crucial meeting on February 21, reaffirming their commitment to tackling pressing regional challenges with unity and resolve. From crime and security to education, trade and climate change, the leaders highlighted the need for decisive action amid global uncertainties.

Is the UN’s Human Rights Agenda in Jeopardy?

The UN’s human rights agenda is in danger of faltering since the Geneva-based Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) is planning to “restructure” the office, under the moniker OHCHR 2.0. But this proposal, if implemented, would result in the abolition of the Special Procedures Branch, established by the Human Rights Council (HRC), to report and advise on human rights from thematic and country-specific perspectives.

Humanitarian Groups Face Challenges in Reaching the Sudanese Displaced Population

In the final quarter of 2024 ,there has been an escalation in the Sudanese civil war, with armed clashes between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) having grown in brutality. Heightened insecurity has pushed millions of people into displacement, hunger, and poverty. Additionally, the continued hostilities have made it difficult for humanitarian organizations to scale their responses up.

How Tanzania’s Farmers, Pastoralists Paid the Price for a World Bank Project

A hush had fallen over Mbarali District, but it was not the quiet of peace—it was the silence of uncertainty. Just months ago, the rolling plains were gripped by fear as government-backed rangers, dressed in olive green fatigues, roamed through villages, seizing cattle, torching homes, and forcing entire communities to the wobbly edge of survival. The REGROW project, a USD 150 million initiative funded by the World Bank to expand Ruaha National Park (RUNAPA), had promised tourism growth and environmental conservation. What it delivered was a brutal campaign of state-sanctioned land grabbing under the guise of protecting nature.

Blamed for ‘Causing’ Droughts: Zimbabwe’s LGBTQI Community Faces Climate Crisis Head-on

Takudzwa Saruwaka is hoeing weeds in a cowpea field in eastern Zimbabwe one morning in February, trying to beat torrential rains threatening from the gray clouds above.

Social Media in the Global South Needs More Protections

In the western world, numerous studies over the past two decades have shown that the rise of social media in popularity has been linked to negative mental health symptoms, especially among young people. Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), and TikTok have been criticized for fostering competitive and toxic environments, which contribute to higher rates of anxiety, cyber-bullying, depression, disordered eating, and low self-esteem. While the use of social media in the Global South has skyrocketed in the late 2010s, the ramifications on people in those regions has received much less coverage in mainstream media.

Food, Water, Crime, Climate Change: CARICOM Leaders Begin 48th Conference with Commitment to Joint Action on Critical, Common Concerns

Leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are meeting in Bridgetown from Feb. 19-21, as the world grapples with multiple crises, including escalating geopolitical conflicts, climate change and rising food insecurity.