Siriel-Media

ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Law on Forest Rights Fails to Deliver	more
BHUBANESWAR, India, Mar 13 (IPS) - A four-year-old landmark law that was supposed to bring profound changes in the lives of India?s tribal and forest-dwelling peoples has failed to deliver on that promise.
RIGHTS: Gender Confab Marked by Political Uncertainties	more
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS/TerraViva) - When a two-week meeting on gender empowerment concluded at U.N. headquarters Friday, there were several lingering questions crying out for answers.
POLITICS-NIGERIA : In the Shadows of Men: Women?s Political Marginalisation	more
KANO, Mar 12 (IPS) - Ten years after Nigeria returned to civil rule women still play second fiddle in the male-dominated politics of Africa?s most populous nation, women politicians and activists say.
DEVELOPMENT-CAMEROON: Are Women the Magic Bullet for "Electoral Apathy"?	more
YAOUNDE, Mar. 12 (IPS) - A support network for women's political participation, are challenging head-on what it calls "electoral apathy", after noting a growing trend in electoral abstention.
RIGHTS: Guatemala, El Salvador Ordered to Heed Rulings	more
SAN SALVADOR, Mar 12 (IPS) - Guatemala and El Salvador have a terrible record in terms of compliance with the recommendations and sentences handed down by the inter-American human rights bodies on cases involving appalling abuses like forced disappearance, torture and massacres committed during the armed conflicts in the two Central American countries.
PHILIPPINES: Reproductive Health Tests Candidates? Political Guts	more
MANILA, Mar 12 (IPS) - Filipino voters who have yet to make up their minds about their choice for their next president are being advised: look at each aspirant?s stance on reproductive health to help them gauge the candidate?s leadership mettle and political guts.
IRAQ: Women Miss Saddam	more
BAGHDAD, Mar 12 (IPS) - Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year's maternity leave; that is now cut to six months. Under the Personal Status Law in force since Jul. 14, 1958, when Iraqis overthrew the British-installed monarchy, Iraqi women had most of the rights that Western women do.
EGYPT: Population Growth Overtakes Literacy Rise	more
LUXOR, Mar 12 (IPS) - Literacy programmes are teaching millions of Egyptians to read, but are struggling to keep up with the country's high population growth.
MIDEAST: Building Settlements, Not Peace	more
JERUSALEM, Mar 12 (IPS) - "The best laid-schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley" (Scottish for 'going wrong').
RIGHTS: U.S. Concerned Over Curbs on NGOs, Press, Internet	more
WASHINGTON, Mar 11 (IPS) - Releasing its annual report on the state of human rights around the world, the U.S. State Department Thursday said it was increasingly concerned about curbs imposed by foreign governments on civil society groups, the press, and Internet use.
POLITICS: Sri Lanka Garners Support Against U.N. Probe	more
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (IPS) - Sri Lanka, which won a grueling decades-long battle against one of the world's most ferocious terrorist organisations last May, has scored a diplomatic victory in its ongoing war of words with the United Nations.
CHILE: Aftershocks Rock Inaugural Ceremony	more
SANTIAGO, Mar 11 (IPS) - While Chile's new rightwing President Sebasti�n Pi�era, who announced that he would lead "a government of reconstruction," was being sworn in Thursday, the earthquake-ravaged country was shaken by major aftershocks.
KENYA: Proposed Constitutional Amendment Sets Back Women?s Rights	more
NAIROBI, Mar 11 (IPS) - Lillian Mutuku, a 34-year-old mother of three, describes her home in Katine area, in Kenya?s Eastern province Tala, as a harsh place to live. The soil is poor, she says, the sun beats down mercilessly and vegetation is sparse.
EGYPT: U.N. Slams Abuse of Emergency Law	more
NEW YORK, Mar 11 (IPS) - Despite diplomatic maneuvering designed to block any review of its human rights record, a United Nations special rapporteur has told the U.N. Human Rights Council that proposed changes in Egypt's constitution "would create a permanent legal state of emergency".
SOUTH AFRICA: Gender Loses Out in Basic Education Crisis	more
CAPE TOWN, Mar 11 (IPS) - With the 15th-year review of the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women taking place at the ongoing Commission on the Status of Women in New York, South African teachers and education experts say they fear that a special focus on the advancement of girls is getting lost amidst the growing levels of poverty in the country.
Q&A: Equality Is Feminism	more
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (IPS/TerraViva) - "I think that Islam has been misinterpreted. No Islamic law says violate women's rights and repress women," says Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. "Democracy, human rights and women leadership are absolutely not hostile to the Islamic doctrine." And women in Iran are well aware of that, she says.
BURMA: Despite Loss at Oscars, Film A Testament to Courage	more
BANGKOK, Mar 11 (IPS) - It may have not won an Oscar, but its having been a final contender for the prestigious statue at the U.S. Academy Awards on Mar. 7 has taken ?Burma VJ? to heights never achieved by previous films depicting the oppression and courage in military-ruled Burma.
THAILAND: Media Caught in Red-or-Yellow Divide Too	more
BANGKOK, Mar 11 (IPS) - Anyone who is still trying to look for neutrality or balance in the Thai media in these days of political ferment, ahead of large anti-government protests expected in the capital, has a pretty tough job.
VIETNAM: Reports of Child Abuse A Wake-up Call for Parents, Gov't	more
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Mar 11 (IPS) - Vietnamese parents think of day care centres and kindergartens as safe, happy places to leave their children in, given the pressures of work and harder times. But they are no longer so sure now, after a series of incidents about mistreatment of young children that has shocked the public.
RIGHTS: Africa's Success Stories in Gender Empowerment	more
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 (IPS/TerraViva) - Whenever gender empowerment is a vibrant topic of discussion internationally, some of the countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America are invariably singled out for their success stories in politics, education, health care or civil liberties even as Africa is mostly left out of political reckoning - and wrongly so.
KENYA: New Bill to Improve State Witness Protection, If Passed	more
NAIROBI, Mar 10 (IPS) - Kenyans affected by the violence that erupted after the country?s disputed presidential elections in 2007 may soon be able to speak out without fear. A new bill will offer better protection to state witnesses.
EDUCATION-TANZANIA: Pregnant Teens Forced Out of School	more
DAR-ES-SALAAM, Mar 10 (IPS) - Pregnancy is the leading cause of dropouts for school girls in Tanzania. And a national law forbidding young mothers to return to school after giving birth did not make it any easier for them to continue their education.
LATIN AMERICA: Abortion - Still Illegal, Still Killing, Despite Growing Awareness	more
CARACAS, Mar 10 (IPS) - Although most of the governments in Latin America today are described as progressive, abortion is only legal in one country, while in five countries it is banned under all circumstances, even when the mother's life is at risk.
POLITICS: Sri Lanka Locks Horns with UN over Experts? Panel	more
COLOMBO, Mar 10 (IPS) - The war of words between the Sri Lankan government and the United Nations has begun all over again, this time over the creation of an experts? panel on the island?s human rights record.
FINANCE: Self-Policing of Extractive Industries a "Dismal" Failure	more
WASHINGTON, Mar 9 (IPS) - An international initiative that seeks to reform how governments profit from their natural resources should not reduce its existing standards of membership solely because candidate countries have been reluctant or incapable of meeting them, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday.
RIGHTS: "Famine Marriages" Just One Byproduct of Climate Change	more
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 9 (IPS/TerraViva) - The negative fallout from climate change is having a devastatingly lopsided impact on women compared to men, from higher death rates during natural disasters to heavier household and care burdens.
HAITI: The Camp That Vanished	more
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Mar 9 (IPS) - Perched near the top of a steep hill, the fractured pink walls of Villa Manrese overlook the rest of the capital city. Both ends of the three-story compound have collapsed, spilling into mounds of rubble. The first floor was pulverised into a layer of dust. There are still bodies inside.
RIGHTS: Middle East Women Ahead But Not Home	more
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 9 (IPS) - Male leaders fail to break the Mideast impasse. Enter women from Israel and the Palestinian territories working together. And? it would have been nice to say they succeeded where the men failed.
MALAWI: Patrilineal Inheritance Prevents Women?s Access to Land	more
LILONGWE, Mar 9 (IPS) - Mercy Gondwe, 51, from Rumphi in northern Malawi, was married for 34 years. When her husband died in 2008, she assumed she would inherit the land they had been cultivating together since they got married. But this was not the case.
RIGHTS: Fewer Jobs, Less Money, Same Old Story	more
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 9 (IPS) - "What do I get from them? Nothing but bullsh*t," says Nupur Acharya, reflecting about how she is treated by her husband and two grown sons on daily basis.