"Russian authorities believe over 30,000 people from South Ossetia have fled across the border into North Ossetia, part of Russia. UNHCR estimates that close to 160,000 people have been uprooted since clashes began between Georgian and South Ossetian forces, with Russian forces becoming involved in South Ossetia and in the region of Abkhazia in north-western Georgia. According to Georgian authorities, the official death toll in the Caucasus country is 213, with over 400, mostly soldiers, being treated in hospitals." - UN news centre

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 25-Aug-2008

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A Fair Go for Children: Actions to Address Child Poverty in New Zealand - The report for the Children's Commissioner Dr Cindy Kiro and Barnardos, found almost a quarter of New Zealand's children lived in poverty and offers a plan to reduce that number - HRC... "A society that meets the needs of its children and young people, including an adequate standard of living, is building a future in which everyone is more likely to enjoy their human rights." - Rosslyn Noonan.

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 25-Aug-2008

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Register now to HOST a dinner party and raise money for Arica. Eat So They Can is an international fundraiser that invites citizens of the world to participate in what is collectively one huge dinner party; where something as simple as sharing a meal with friends can help stop child poverty. The event is co-initiative of the Global Volunteer Network (GVN) and the GVN Foundation.

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 25-Aug-2008

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The French Republic’s Human Rights Prize, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, for 2008, presented by the Prime Minister of the French Government, is open to applications.

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 25-Aug-2008

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Aggressive Colombian army offensives in the department of Nariño against both guerrilla forces and reorganized narco-paramilitary groups have led to increased displacement in rural areas between villages and along the River Patía. The river, a major artery linking the Andes with the Pacific, has been the site of much recent fighting as new illegal armed groups struggle to control transit and communication routes for coca production. - Andrea Lari and Jake Kurtzer, Refugees International

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 01-Aug-2008

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The objective of the Africa Progress Panel is to focus world leaders’ attention on delivering on their commitments, particularly the good governance and economic support which is imperative for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Panel members will draw on the expertise of institutions working on African issues to present a rigorous and independent assessment of progress. ~ Four crises dominate the global economy today - a financial crisis in the developed countries, an energy crisis that is worsening by the day, climate change which is becoming both better understood and more urgent, and a food crisis which is devastating to the world’s poorest citizens. - APP

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 01-Aug-2008

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Employers of skilled migrants in New Zealand have identified a top ten check list for successful workplace relations.

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 29-Jul-2008

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According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), some 12 million people worldwide are unable to claim citizenship to any country and are at risk of statelessness, because of war, secession, change of state boundaries or past discrimination. The new bill increases U.S. efforts to encourage states to recognize people who have no nationality "...U.S. Congress will be offering new hope to 12 million stateless people worldwide by making the prevention and resolution of statelessness a high priority for U.S. foreign policy for the first time," said Ken Bacon, president of Refugees International. "Reducing statelessness not only increases the quality of life for these individuals; it increases stability within nations, reduces forced displacement and trafficking, and even lessens refugee flows." - Refugees International

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 01-Jul-2008

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The UN agency is calling on municipalities in each region to create networks of cities to improve their policies to fight discrimination and promote diversity, mutual respect and dialogue. The goal is for each regional coalition to implement its own 10-point action plan to tackle discrimination specific to its region, covering areas such as education, housing, employment and cultural activities.

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 01-Jul-2008

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Every night more than 850 million people, most of them women and children, go to bed hungry. For these people, tomorrow won’t be any better. Hunger is the leading cause of death worldwide, killing an estimated 10 million people every year – more than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. The United Nations World Food Programme estimates that one child dies every five seconds from hunger related causes. Melanie Heaphy looks at the global food crisis and what it means for the world’s poor.

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 01-Jul-2008

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Human Rights Watch documented numerous incidents of intimidation, violence and manipulation of the vote by Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party before, during and after the June 27 runoff vote. In the neighborhoods of Chitungwiza and Westlea, several people told Human Rights Watch that in the early hours of June 28, ZANU-PF supporters went door to door, forcing people to show their fingers for signs of the indelible ink which shows that a person voted. The ZANU-PF supporters took those who did not have ink on their fingers to ZANU-PF bases in the areas and beat them with batons and thick sticks. - HRW

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 01-Jul-2008

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"Global biofuel policies are not solving the climate or fuel crises but are instead contributing to food insecurity and inflation, hitting poor people hardest, according to a new report by international agency Oxfam. In today’s report “ Another Inconvenient Truth”, Oxfam calculates that rich country biofuel policies have dragged more than 30 million people into poverty, according to evidence that biofuels have already contributed up to 30% to the global rise in food prices. “If you drive up to a petrol station and there is a sign over the biofuel mix that says ‘Sourced from Indonesia’, does it tell you that indigenous people in Borneo have just lost their forest home? Clearly not,” said Coates. “Oxfam supports having a biofuels bill, but we need to sort out the sustainability criteria first and then have a review period to make sure the framework is adequate at protecting both the environment and people,” he added." - OXFAM

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 01-Jul-2008

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In the land of one-child policy, the death of an only child is unimaginable. Greiving parents are protesting after the shoddily built schools that were the only hope of a future for their children turned into death traps during the Sichuan Province Earthquake in China. "the number of student deaths seems likely to exceed 10,000, and possibly go much higher, a staggering figure that has become a simmering controversy in China as grieving parents say their children might have lived had the schools been better built." - By JIM YARDLEY Published: May 25, 2008 (NY Times - Grief in the Rubble: Chinese Are Left to Ask Why Schools Crumbled)

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 02-Jun-2008

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Xenophobic violence continues against thousands of immigrants to South Africa as unemployment and housing shortages increase. "Those left behind by the nation’s post-apartheid economy commonly blame those left even further behind, the powerless making scapegoats of the defenseless" "A familiar litany of complaints against foreigners are passionately, if not always rationally, argued: They commit crimes. They undercut wages. They hold jobs that others deserve." - By BARRY BEARAK and CELIA W. DUGGER Published: May 20, 2008 (NY Times)

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 02-Jun-2008

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"Ms. Safia, a 25-year-old mother of five, has not eaten in a week. Her 1-year-old son is starving too, an adorable, listless boy who doesn’t even respond to a pinch... This may be no accident. The Ethiopian government is struggling with an insurgency in the Ogaden, and the report said that “food is clearly being used as a weapon,” with the government starving out rebel areas, while a mysterious warehouse of American-donated food was discovered across the road from an Ethiopian Army base." - Jeffrey Gettleman (NY Times)

• Posted by AbbyWendy
• Published: 02-Jun-2008

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