JOHANNESBURG, Apr 05 (IPS) - South Africa celebrated human rights month this March with President Zuma recalling the "heroism of our people who stood up for their rights." However, this same month which commemorates the sacrifices of those who took part in the struggle against apartheid and those who died in the Sharpeville Massacre of 21 March 1960 was not a happy one for today's civil society activists and organisations engaged in defending human rights. Two shocking incidents raise troubling questions for the future of civil society in the country.

NEW DELHI, India, Apr 05 (IPS) - Women comprise nearly half of India's 1.2 billion population, yet gender bias and patriarchal mindsets continue to plague them well into the 21st century. Even holy places -- temples and mosques -- it seems aren't free from discriminating against the fair sex.

MANAGUA, Apr 05 (IPS) - A three-year drought, added to massive deforestation in the past few decades, has dried up most of Nicaragua's water sources and has led to an increasingly severe water supply crisis.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 04 (IPS) - Land mines are not the only type of explosive devices that families returning home after conflicts risk stumbling across, representatives from the UN's Mine Action Service (UNMAS) told journalists here Monday.

NEW YORK, Apr 04 (IPS) - At the invitation of President Obama, on April 1 more than 50 leaders of countries, including all countries possessing nuclear arsenals, except Russia and North Korea, gathered in Washington for the fourth Nuclear Security Summit.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Apr 04 (IPS) - When Africa's oldest protected marine area, Tsitsikamma -- the largest in the world, incorporating 80 km of rocky coastline, bustling with marine life, much of it endangered -- was opened as a pilot for public fishing on December 15, 2015, there was a big outcry.

WASHINGTON DC, Apr 01 (IPS) - On March 29, Papua New Guinea became the first country to formally submit the final version of its national climate action plan (called a "Nationally Determined Contribution," or NDC) under the Paris Agreement. The small Pacific nation's plan to transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 is no longer just an "intended" nationally determined contribution (INDC) – it is now the country's official climate plan.

GAZA, Mozambique, Apr 01 (IPS) - Angelina Chiziane starts her day by getting her husband ready for work in a small village in the southern province of Gaza, Mozambique, some 216 kilometers away from the capital, Maputo.

ASUNCION, Apr 01 (IPS) - Néstor Colman, 69, remembers the river overflowing its banks nine times in Bañado Sur, the poor neighourhood in the Paraguayan capital where he was born and has lived all his life. "A record," he jokes.