News headlines for “Democracy”, page 269
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.
Reclaim Your Rights: Defend Indigenous Peoples Lands
- Inter Press Service

QUEZON CITY, Philippines, Dec 17 (IPS) - Rights are earned through hard-fought struggles. And for Indigenous Peoples (IP), its fulfillment comes from the collective and continuous defense of ancestral land and territory, and assertion of their ways of life and the right to self-determination.
Lockdown in Chains
- Inter Press Service

Dec 16 (IPS) - Long before the Covid-19 pandemic grounded much of the world, lockdown, confinement, violence, and isolation was the daily reality for hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities around the world. Many are locked in sheds, cages, or tethered to trees and are forced to eat, sleep, urinate, and defecate in the same tiny area, sometimes for years. Why? Simply because they have a mental health condition—a psychosocial disability.
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.
Getting Children in Lebanon Back to School Amongst Multiple Crises
- Inter Press Service

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec 15 (IPS) - Education and health care were high on the agenda when the United Nations vowed to work toward a better future by setting 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be met by 2030.
USA Downgraded as Civil Liberties Deteriorate Across the Americas
- Inter Press Service

São Paulo/ Washington DC, Dec 15 (IPS) - Few images better illustrate the recent decline in civil liberties in the United States than that of peaceful protesters near the White House being violently dispersed so Donald Trump could stage a photo-op.
Intellectual Property Monopolies Block Vaccine Access
- Inter Press Service

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 (IPS) - Just before the World Health Assembly (WHA), an 18 May open letter by world leaders and experts urged governments to ensure that all COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests are patent-free, fairly distributed and available to all, free of charge.
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.
Womens Bodies, COVID-19 and Male Chauvinism
- Inter Press Service

STOCKHOLM / ROME, Dec 11 (IPS) - COVID-19 has in some nations been converted into a noxious, political issue. One of many worrying examples is the rhetoric of Brazil´s president.
Global Issues