Linked with NGLS – UN Non-Governmntal Liaison Service.
Mithre J. Sandrasagra has been covering the the United Nations for IPS since 1999. Before that he administered a sustainable development trust in Sri Lanka. As UN Correspondent, he has covered political wrangling at the UN, with regard to peacekeeping, disaster relief, health, human rights and gender. In 2007, he was appointed Editor at Large … He also serves as IPS Administrator for the North American region … (full text, IPS).
In the Nuba mountains region in Southern Kordofan, for example, the indigenous Nuba tribe expressed concern over the damaging of trees and other vegetation due to the recent presence of the camel-herding Shanabla tribe. Like many pastoralist communities, the Shanabla have been forced to migrate south in search of adequate grazing land lost in the north to agricultural expansion and drought. Some Nuba warned of « restarting the war » if this damage did not cease, according to UNEP. Many sensitive areas are also experiencing a « deforestation crisis » which has led to a loss of almost 12 percent of Sudan’s forest cover in just 15 years. Some areas are expected to undergo a total loss of forest cover within the next decade … (full text).
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Mithre J. Sandrasagra – USA
WATER DAY: Key Development Goals Stagnating.
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 29 (IPS) – A new treaty designed to promote and protect the rights of the world’s 650 million persons with disabilities opens for signature at the United Nations on Friday. At its core, the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ensures that persons with disabilities enjoy the same human rights as everyone else, and are able to lead their lives as fully-fledged citizens who can make valuable contributions to society … (full text).
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY: Women’s Lives Unraveling in Occupied Iraq.
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 18 (IPS) – The protection and well-being of children in Sudan are at a critical juncture, according to a report released Wednesday by Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, a global network of non-governmental organisations. Despite the 2005 peace agreement that ended 21 years of civil conflict between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, Darfur remains host to one of the largest humanitarian operations in the world: 92 NGOs and Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and 14 UN agencies maintain a presence there … (full text).
DEVELOPMENT: Digital Divide Becoming a Vast Chasm.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that more than two million women are living with fistula in developing countries and an additional 50,000 to 100,000 new cases occur each year. These WHO estimates are based on the number of women seeking treatment, and are likely to be gross underestimates. The estimates were also made in 1989. There are no new statistics because « the problem of fistula is a neglected, under-prioritised issue », Kate Ramsey, project analyst of the Reproductive Health Branch of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), told IPS. « We suspect the number of victims is much higher, » Ramsey stressed, following a panel discussion on efforts to eliminate fistula that took place here on the sidelines of the 50th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women … (full text).
He interviews:
- In September 2000, world leaders gathered at the United Nations for the Millennium Assembly promised to halve extreme hunger and poverty, halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and provide universal primary education, all by 2015. The series of targets, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), also include promoting gender equality, reducing child and maternal mortality, ensuring environmental sustainability and building a global partnership for development. Mithre J. Sandrasagra is interviewing Salil Shetty about these goals: … (full text).
- Fiddling with the prototype for a low-energy green laptop designed for children in developing countries, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan may have inadvertently shown up some of the concerns that critics have with the machine. Annan easily broke the wind-up crank which powers the $100 computer. Mithre J. Sandrasagra spoke with Ethan Zuckerman, co-founder of the Harvard-based Global Voices about the OLPC programme and the prototype laptop unveiled here. Global Voices, a project of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, is a non-profit global citizens’ media project. It is a place where people can go to read internet-logs or ‘blogs’ posted by people all over the world – China, Bangladesh, Haiti, Senegal, Tunisia to name a few – on a variety of topics … (full text).
- The hard facts about hunger and poverty have not changed much over the past 10 years. In some cases the situation has even gotten worse. Mithre J. Sandrasagra interviews Edouard Aho-Glele … (full text).
- Meeting last year in Gleneagles, Scotland, the G8 group of rich countries pledged to prioritize Africa for debt relief, accelerated aid, and increased trade. One year later, most of those initiatives have not bourne fruit. The only part of the programme running according to schedule is debt relief, which can look very good on paper but translates into very little on the ground. Poverty is an affliction of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), but the solutions to it lie in altering the policies of developed countries. Mithre J. Sandrasagra interviews Johan Lovald … (full text).
U.N. TO CREATE PERMANENT FORUM FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES. « Enforced disappearance is a crime under international human rights law and — when it occurs in war — under international humanitarian law. It is tantamount to deleting a person’s very existence and denies him or her the basic protection of the law to which every man and woman, irrespective of guilt or innocence, is entitled, » said Philip Spoerri, director of law at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). « The damage to the bereft, who, unlike the bereaved, continue to hope against hope, is far-reaching and long-lasting, affecting not only individuals but the societies in which they live, » stressed Spoerri. Since its creation in 1980, the Geneva-based U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has submitted more than 50,000 individual cases to governments in more than 90 countries … (full text)..
In June 2005, the government of Qatar hosted the Second South Summit, a meeting of world leaders from the 132 developing nations, who discussed strengthening their partnership. Al-Nasser currently serves as the president of the High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation. IPS U.N. correspondent Mithre J. Sandrasagra recently interviewed Al-Nasser. (full text).
Persons with Disabilities: Objects of “Charity and Pity” No More.
Nova York, 19/06/2006 – O uso continuado da pena de morte nos Estados Unidos provoca atritos no vínculo deste país com seus aliados e representa um obstáculo na guerra contra o terrorismo, segundo especialistas em direitos humanos. Cada vez mais governos se negam a extraditar suspeitos para países como Estados Unidos e China, pois não recebem a garantia de que os réus não serão executados. Esta resistência levou o governo do presidente George W. Bush a recorrer a ações equivalentes a seqüestro para evitar as normas internacionais sobre extradição … (tita ferreira).
Derechos humanos: desaparecidos, pero no olvidados.
From 1997 to 1999 Mithre worked to establish the Living Heritage Trust (LHT) in Sri Lanka. LHT works in remote villages all over the country to provide sustainable alternatives to urbanization. In 2004, Mithre capitalized on LHT’s network active on Sri Lanka’s east coast to finance and build the first houses for victims following the tsunami. After returning to New York at the end of 1999, Mithre began working as IPS UN Correspondent and IPS Administrator for the North American and Caribbean regions. In 2003, he began serving as Managing Editor of the IPS UN Journal Terra Viva. Mithre holds a Bachelors Degree in International Relations and Economics from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, as well as a Masters Degree in Journalism from Columbia University in New York … (full text).
Find him and his publications on ZoomInfo; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that more than two million women are living with fistula in developing countries and an additional 50,000 to 100,000 new cases occur each year. These WHO estimates are based on the number of women seeking treatment, and are likely to be gross underestimates. The estimates were also made in 1989. There are no new statistics because « the problem of fistula is a neglected, under-prioritised issue », Kate Ramsey, project analyst of the Reproductive Health Branch of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), told IPS. « We suspect the number of victims is much higher, » Ramsey stressed, following a panel discussion on efforts to eliminate fistula that took place here on the sidelines of the 50th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women … (full text).
links:
White Negroes & the 8% Exit: Disappearance of the Caucasian Race, the Self-Preservation is the first Law of Nature;
Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Qualities, Women as Role Models in Peace Efforts;
Gender Justice or Just Gender? The Role of Gender in Sexual Assault Decisions at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia;