By Thalif DeenReprint | |  Print |

This article is part of a series on the current state of civil society organisations (CSOs), which will be the focus of International Civil Society Week (ICSW), sponsored by CIVICUS, and scheduled to take place in Belgrade, April 8-12.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 28 2019 (IPS) - The widespread political repression in countries such as the Philippines, Egypt and Saudi Arabia– and rising right-wing nationalism in the US, Brazil, Italy, India, Poland and Hungary– have increasingly triggered attacks on human rights and civil society organisations (CSOs).

The annual 2019 “State of Civil Society” report released March 27 details a “terrifying picture of fundamental freedoms under serious threat in 111 of the world’s countries”– well over half of all the countries globally.”

Only four per cent of the world’s population live in countries where fundamental freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression are respected and enabled.

Authored by the Johannesburg-based CIVICUS, a global alliance of CSOs and activists dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society worldwide, the study warns that the rise of right-wing populism and the influence of anti-rights extremist groups are helping to fuel these threats to democracy in so many nations.

BY Michael Flynn, Trump’s disgraced former national security adviser, was behind it.

Alex WardFeb 19, 2019, https://www.vox.com/world/2019/2/19/18231812/saudi-arabia-nuclear-flynn-trump-democrats

trump-democrats

President Donald Trump meets Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Oval Office at the White House on March 20, 2018, in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images

President Donald Trump meets Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Oval Office at the White House on March 20, 2018, in Washington, DC.

Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images

A new report from House Democrats reveals disturbing new details about a secretive effort by top Trump administration officials to sell sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia — in defiance of at least some of the nation’s ethics statutes.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee on Tuesday released a report — accompanied by a tranche of internal White House emails — detailing a scheme spearheaded by now-disgraced former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to sell technology for roughly 40 nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia.

Facts Don’t Interfere With Propaganda Blitz Against Venezuela’s Elected President

By: Joe Emersberger 

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Published 19 February 2019

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio poses for a photo as he awaits the arrival of U.S. President Trump to speak about Venezuela at Florida International University in Miami. | Photo: Reuters

OPINION

 U.S. Senator Marco Rubio poses for a photo as he awaits the arrival of U.S. President Trump to speak about Venezuela at Florida International University in Miami.

Dismantling Propaganda Against Venezuela’s Elected Presid...

by Joe Emersberger

The installations of the silver mine located in the rural municipality of San Rafael Las Flores, in Guatemala, have been closed since 2017, as the result of a Constitutional Court ruling in response to the struggle by local inhabitants, who had not been properly consulted, as required by law. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

SAN SALVADOR, Feb 19 2019 (IPS) - Like an octopus, metals mining has been spreading its tentacles throughout Central America and dealing a blow to the region’s agriculture and natural ecosystems, according to affected villagers, activists and a new report on the problem.

“Where the mining company is operating was land that peasants leased to plant corn and beans, our staple crops. But since the company came in, there is no land left to farm,” said Lesbia Villagrán, who lives in the municipality of San Rafael Las Flores in eastern Guatemala.

Minera San Rafael, a subsidiary of the Canadian company Tahoe Resources, set up shop in this rural municipality of just over 9,000 people in 2007, and since then local residents in different villages scattered throughout this municipality and nearby areas have been organised to bring its operations to a halt.

THERE IS NO NEW NORMAL; JUST UNHEEDED WARNINGS, LOST OPPORTUNITY AND OPPORTUNISTIC ADAPTING

A Glimpse through time

By Joan Russow

Global Compliance Research Project

Classifying or even postulating the consequences of climate change as the “new normal” has exonerated those who are responsible; the National governments for failing to act, the fossil fuel industry for years of countering climate change, and for other industries foreseeing benefits from disasters.

A Glimpse through time

The Right to Life, Liberty, and Land

Erin Myers Madeira who leads the Nature Conservancy’s Global Programme on Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities says that communities outperform the government and other stakeholders in stopping deforestation and degradation. The Akaratshie community from the Garu and Tempane districts have been able to restore degraded land. Credit: Albert Oppong-Ansah/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 7 2019 (IPS) - Sustainable land management is becoming more important than ever as rates of emissions, deforestation, and water scarcity continue to increase. But what if you don’t have rights to the land?
While the impact of agriculture on land is well known, the relationship between land degradation and land tenure seems to be less understood.

In fact, research has shown that insecure land tenure is linked to poor land use as communities have fewer incentives to invest in long-term protective measures, thus contributing to environmental degradation.

“Establishing secure tenure and secure rights to territory and resources for indigenous people and local communities is one of the most important things we can do around achieving positive outcomes for conservation,” said Erin Myers Madeira who leads the Nature Conservancy’s Global Programme on Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.

By Desmond BrownReprint | |  Print |

IPS correspondent Desmond Brown interviews DOUGLAS SLATER, Assistant Secretary General at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat.

A fisher in Barbados. The Caribbean’s fish stocks have been affected by climate change. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

GEORGETOWN, Feb 5 2019 (IPS) - In recent years Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have experienced escalated climate change impacts from hurricanes, tropical storms and other weather-related events thanks to global warming of 1.0 ° Celsius (C) above pre-industrial levels. And it has had adverse effects on particularly vulnerable countries and communities.

CARICOM countries and other small island and low-lying coastal developing states have long been calling for limiting the increase in average global temperatures to below 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Regional countries have also noted with grave concern the findings of the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C. The report noted that climate-related risks for natural and human systems including health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security and economic growth are significantly higher at an increased global warming of 1.5 °C than at the present warming levels of 1 °C above pre-industrial levels.