South Sudan on brink of genocide – one more victim of western policies in Africa

Human rights organizations, genocide watch groups and the UN secretary-general are warning of a potential genocide in South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, and asking the UN Security Council and regional leaders to take action. “All of the early warning signals for mass atrocities in South Sudan are there,” a special commission to South Sudan reported at a UN Human …

César Chelala – Poverty: The Dark Side of the American Empire

If we have learned anything from this last presidential election it’s that poverty continues to be an ignored concept by president-elect Trump and by U. S. politicians. Although both avoid using the word like a naked man avoids a poisonous snake, poverty is integral to the current reality of the U.S. socio- political landscape. The selection by president- elect Trump …

Nadia Prupis – Canada Accused of Complicity in Mining Companies’ Abuse of Women and Girls

The Canadian government is failing to protect women against human rights abuses by supporting and financing mining companies that are involved in discrimination, rape, and violence abroad, according to a new report submitted to the United Nations on Monday. The report (pdf), written by EarthRights International (ERI), MiningWatch Canada, and the Human Rights Research and Education Center Human Rights Clinic …

Anne Weir Schechinger and Craig Cox – Think US agriculture will end world hunger? Think again

The United Nations has forecast that world food production must double to feed 9 billion people by 2050. That assertion has become a relentless talking point in the growing debate over the environmental, health and social consequences of American agriculture. America’s farmers, we are told, must double their production of meat products and grains to “feed the world.” Otherwise, people …

Vandana Shiva – Seeds of suicide

May 22 has been declared International Biodiversity Day by the United Nations. It gives us an opportunity to become aware of the rich biodiversity that has been evolved by our farmers as co-creators with nature. It also provides an opportunity to acknowledge the threats to our biodiversity and our rights from IPR monopolies and monocultures. Just as our Vedas and …

GRAHAM PEEBLES – Hungry and Frightened: Famine in Ethiopia 2016

Millions of the poorest, most vulnerable people in Ethiopia are once again at risk of starvation. Elderly men and women, weak and desperate, wait for food and water; malnourished children lie dying; livestock, bones protruding, perish. According to a statement issued by the World Food Programme (WFP) on 6th February, over 10 million of the most vulnerable require urgent humanitarian …

Lisa Schlein – UN: Record-breaking 60 Million Forcibly Displaced Worldwide

GENEVA— The U.N. refugee agency warns the number of people forcibly displaced from their homes is likely to exceed 60 million in 2015. The UNHCR has released its Mid-Year Trends 2015 report covering global forced displacement during the first six months of this year. The UNHCR report does not include the hundreds of thousands of refugees who made the perilous …

PHILIP GIRALDI – The “A” Word That Terrifies Washington

Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has declared that there will be a thorough investigation of the recent U.S. destruction of a hospital in Afghanistan that killed 22, including 12 of the medical staff, with more than thirty still missing in the rubble. The hospital, run by Geneva-based Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders), had informed the U.S. headed international military force of both its …

Antony Loewenstein – South Sudanese simply want an end to civil war

A woman in a black and white dress stood with a huge pot on her head. She had walked for days, with her two young children also carrying goods, to reach the camp for internally displaced persons in Bentiu, South Sudan. They were all exhausted by the time they registered with the International Organisation for Migration at the facility that …

One in Every 122 Humans Forcibly Displaced by War and Persecution: UN – Sarah Lazare

As wars and persecution escalate worldwide, one out of every 122 people on the planet is a refugee, seeking asylum, or internally displaced, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported Thursday. Taken together, this population of humans wrenched from their homes by violence would constitute the 24th largest country in the world. The agency’s new report, Global …