News headlines for “Human Population”, page 125
A Decade after the Arab Spring, Tunisia Fails to Keep up with the Process of Democratisation
- Inter Press Service

NEW DELHI, India, Dec 22 (IPS) - Ten years ago a young street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi set himself afire in the central Tunisian provincial town of Sidi Bouzid to protest against police harassment. Bouazizi’s sacrificial act served as a catalyst and inspired the Tunisian people to take over the streets that led to the Jasmine Revolution in the country. On January 4, 2011 Mohamed Bouazizi died, and ten days later the country's authoritarian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s rule ended when he fled to Saudi Arabia.
Empowering Women through Wisdom
- Inter Press Service

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Dec 22 (IPS) - During the COVID 19 lockdown in Sri Lanka, seven women from diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds came together to deliver Wisdom and their message that women must be empowered and their voices for national unity must be heard through this movement.
Islamic Feminists Speak on Fight to Reclaim Rights
- Inter Press Service

NEW DELHI, India, Dec 22 (IPS) - The court victory to allow women into the inner sanctum of a Sufi shrine in Mumbai was a significant victory for a secular rights-based movement led by Muslim women. However, there is a fear the political climate in India regarding Muslims, could put the women’s rights agenda on the back foot.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Child Marriage and Other Gender-Based Violence
- Inter Press Service

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Dec 21 (IPS) - I recently visited rural areas of Bangladesh amid the COVID-19 pandemic and returned to Dhaka with a new understanding of the impact that COVID-19 is having on child marriage, a harmful practice that is a global challenge. The fundamental shift that I saw was that child marriage, which has typically been encouraged by struggling parents, is now being encouraged by struggling girls. This worrisome trend underscores a new burden of the pandemic on the poor.
Ugandas School Plan for Refugee Children Could Become a Global Template
- Inter Press Service

KAMPALA/KIKUBE/RWAMWANJA, Uganda, Dec 21 (IPS) - Thirteen-year-old Wita Kasanganjo is a pupil at Maratatu Primary School in the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement based in Uganda’s Hoima district. But last month, when Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni ordered the re-opening of schools for the first time since the mid-March nationwide closure, Kasanganjo was not part of the returning group of students. The government, in a cautious lifting of coronavirus lockdown restrictions, has allowed only pupils who are part of the final year or candidate classes to return to their schooling.
Online Violence, Fueled by Disinformation and Political Attacks, Deeply Harms Women Journalists
- Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (IPS) - An alarmingly high number of women journalists are now targets of online attacks associated with orchestrated digital disinformation campaigns. The impacts include self-censorship, retreat from visibility, an increased risk of physical injury, and a serious mental health toll. The main perpetrators? Anonymous trolls and political actors.
How Africa can Lead the World in the COVID-19 Recovery
- Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON DC, Dec 18 (IPS) - Africa, compared to Asia, Europe and the US, has largely escaped the devastating death toll of COVID-19, accounting for a fraction of the world’s 63 million cases.
Pandemic Puts Jamaican Children at Heightened Risk of Abuse
- Inter Press Service

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Dec 16 (IPS) - In Jamaica, school playgrounds are deserted, filled only with phantom shrieks of delight. Blackboards remain devoid of arithmetic and uniforms hang wrinkle-free in closets. When the first case of Covid hit Jamaican shores in early March, the government closed primary and secondary schools and over 500,000 children transitioned to remote learning. The majority of schools have yet to resume face-to-face classes since the March 13 closure.
Helping Women to Step out of the Shadow Pandemic of Women Abuse
- Inter Press Service

NEW YORK, Dec 14 (IPS) - The United Nations Secretary-General’s UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women campaign marked the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence (25 November to 10 December 2020) at a time when COVID-19 exacerbated the conditions women operate under.
Discriminatory Laws Still Holding Women Back in the Middle East
- Inter Press Service

NEW DELHI, India, Dec 14 (IPS) - Decades of aggressive efforts to create equal opportunities for women, shatter the glass ceiling and build a more inclusive society only ends up in failure, when the key stake holders refuse to acknowledge discriminatory laws, socio-cultural and religious set ups that continue to threaten progress made by the female work force.

