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Cotton Subsidies Remain Big Hurdle in WTO Doha Round

Small-scale farmers like Zimbabwean Ruth Chikweya will be hit hard if the Doha Round does not ensure safeguards against import surges. (Credit: Tonderai Kwidini/IPS)

GENEVA - The Doha Round was launched in 2001 in Doha, Qatar, to provide a developmental dimension to global trade by enabling developing and least developed countries to secure enhanced access for their products in rich country markets. However, there is a pronounced shift in the negotiations in the last seven years -- from developmental issues to the purely market-driven concerns of the dominant players.

Posted in Food/Water, global trade, Human Rights, Africa

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 15, 2008
10:36 AM

CONTACT: CARE
Nairobi: Bea Spadacini, CARE, spadacini@ci.or.ke, +254.725.22.1036
Geneva: Melanie Brooks, CARE, mbrooks@care.org, +41.79.590.3047

On World Food Day, 17 Million People Face Starvation in the Horn of Africa

NAIROBI - October 15 - In Ethiopia, at least 6.4 million people need emergency food aid. In Somalia, nearly half the population is slowly starving, and the country is facing a food crisis unseen since the famine of the early 1990s. And in Kenya, poor families are paying as much as 80 percent of their income just on food alone.

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CARE is one of the world's largest, non-political international humanitarian and development organizations. CARE has been providing emergency assistance and development programs in the Horn of Africa since 1968.
Posted in Human Rights, Africa

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 13, 2008
1:44 PM

CONTACT: Human Rights Watch (HRW)

Ethiopia: Draft Law Threatens Civil Society

Donor Governments Should Condemn Assault on Rights

NEW YORK - October 13 - Ethiopia's parliament should reject a draft law that would criminalize human rights activity and seriously undermine civil society groups, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on donor governments to speak out publicly against the bill, which is expected to be introduced in parliament this month.

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Posted in Human Rights, Africa

Global Crises Compound Refugees' Woes: UN

Congolese refugee Kikimba Kambale cares for his daughter as she sleeps on the street in Kampala, Uganda. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that around 1,700 people fleeing violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have sought refuge in Uganda. The Democratic Republic of Congo has one of the highest numbers of IDPs in the world and it is also the site of one of the worst and least recognized humanitarian crises. (AFP/File/Walter Astrada)

WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (OneWorld) - The global financial, food, and fuel crises and the negative impacts of climate change pose a severe threat to the world's 37 million uprooted people, and will likely increase their numbers, warned the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Monday.

Posted in global trade, Human Rights, Afghanistan, Africa, Asia

Nigerian Conflict A Warning for Big Oil in Iraq

Fighters with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) raise their riffles to celebrate news of a successful operation by their colleagues in the Niger Delta on September 17. Nigeria's woes should give Big Oil pause as they look to exploit the oil wealth of Iraq. (AFP/File/Pius Utomi Ekpei)

Recurrent violence in oil-rich parts of Nigeria may provide a sobering lesson for oil companies hoping to work in Iraq - a place that is much more dangerous despite the fact that attacks are at their lowest level in more than four years.

Representatives of 35 international oil companies will meet with Iraqi government officials in London on Monday to discuss the bidding process for eight enormous oil and gas fields. If the contracts are approved, they could lead to the biggest foreign stake in Iraq since the industry was nationalized more than 30 years ago.

Posted in Africa, Iraq, Oil

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 6, 2008
3:05 PM

CONTACT: Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

International Community Failing Civilians in North Kivu, Congo

Lack of Adequate Assistance and Protection to Population in War Torn Province

GOMA, DRC - October 6 - In the most volatile parts of North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), violence has reached its highest levels in years while assistance is hardly reaching those most in need, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes since full-scale war resumed at the end of August and are living in fear, without the means to meet their most basic needs.

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Posted in Activism, healthcare, Human Rights, Africa

Kenya: Government Wants to Impose GMOs 'By Force'

Genetically-modified corn in this Greenpeace file photo.

NAIROBI - The grand scheme to introduce genetically modified foods into Kenya seemed to shift into top gear after the Ministry of Agriculture launched a campaign last month to make the country appreciate them.

First, Minister for Agriculture, William Ruto, who has on several occasions publicly expressed his support for the introduction of GM foods into the country, launched the National Biotechnology Awareness Strategy last month.

Posted in Africa, GM Food

Rendition Victims "Missing" in Ethiopia

UNITED NATIONS - A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses the Ethiopian government of detaining at least 10 victims of unlawful rendition incommunicado and without charge since early 2007.

According to the New York-based watchdog group, the detainees were interrogated by U.S. officials last year.

Posted in Africa, Torture

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2008
3:23 PM

CONTACT: Planned Parenthood
Diane Quest, 202-973-4851

Bush Administration Withholds Birth Control, Putting Women in Africa in Serious Jeopardy

WASHINGTON - October 2 - Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) is appalled by the Bush administration's latest move to put women's lives in danger by withholding contraceptives, a critical family planning resource, from women in six African countries. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is mandating that several African governments terminate a program that allows Marie Stopes International (MSI), one of the world's leading family planning organizations, to provide contraceptives in those countries.

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Planned Parenthood Federation of America is the nation's leading sexual and reproductive health care advocate and provider. We believe that everyone has the right to choose when or whether to have a child, and that every child should be wanted and loved. Planned Parenthood affiliates operate more than 880 health centers nationwide, providing medical services and sexuality education for millions of women, men, and teenagers each year. We also work with allies worldwide to ensure that all women and men have the right and the means to meet their sexual and reproductive health care needs.
Posted in healthcare, Human Rights, Politics, Africa, Reproductive Rights, Women's Rights

More Blowback From the War on Terror

Salon Editor's note: This article is adapted from a report published Wednesday by Human Rights Watch on renditions conducted in the Horn of Africa in 2007. Read the full report here.

Posted in Human Rights, Politics, War/Empire, Africa, Torture
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