News headlines in 2023, page 158

AFOGADOS DA INGAZEIRA, Brazil, Jun 24 (IPS) - "The biodigester really gives a huge boost to those who have the courage to do things," said Maria das Dores Alves da Silva, based on her own experience as a 63-year-old small farmer.

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) on Saturday said it was gravely concerned at reports of “wanton killings” by “Arab” militia in Sudan’s West Darfur backed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), primarily targeting men from the Masalit community.

The Ukrainian city of Kharkiv had just survived another missile attack in the spring of 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion, when historian, architect, and documentary filmmaker Maxim Rosenfeld stood in the penthouse of a ruined office building, presenting his concept for a new urban landscape after a UN-supported team of international and local architects adopted his vision.

BUENOS AIRES, Jun 23 (IPS) - Viviana Mazur is a doctor at the Santojanni Hospital in Mataderos, a working-class neighborhood in Buenos Aires. She has witnessed the advances in women's rights in Argentina, where until 2020 abortion was only allowed on two grounds, while it is now available on demand up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.

PARIS, Jun 23 (IPS) - As the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact unfolds in Paris on 22-23 June, Forus, a global network representing over 22,000 civil society organisations across Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Pacific, calls for the respect of human rights and for meaningful inclusion of civil society in shaping financial systems and structures.

BRATISLAVA, Jun 23 (IPS) - As well as creating a humanitarian crisis, the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in Ukraine has wrought enormous environmental damage which may never be undone, ecologists have said.

LONDON, Jun 23 (IPS) - The violence keeps coming in Myanmar, under military rule since February 2021. The junta stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, with evidence of systematic use of killings, rape, torture and other gross human rights violations in its attempt to suppress forces demanding a return to democracy.

LONDON, Jun 23 (IPS) - Long before Hollywood highlighted the dangers of commercial fishing in The Perfect Storm, Deadliest Catch and other programming, governments around the world knew that this was one of the most hazardous jobs, killing thousands of fishers every year.

Family court systems worldwide are being impacted by “deeply embedded gender bias” which is leaving women and children vulnerable to violence and “immense suffering”, an independent UN human rights expert said on Friday.

The Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) convened for an ambassadorial-level meeting in New York on Friday to tackle the issue of organized crime in the Sahel. Poverty, institutional fragility and massive insecurity have created favourable conditions for the proliferation of organized crime across the vast African region.