Tag Archives: 4: Favorable

Health + Ability

Jamaica News | People with Disabilities

Jamaica-based disability foundation to focus on education in annual conference
  • The Nathan Ebanks Foundation was founded by Christine Staple-Ebanks as a disability support organization after Staple-Ebanks found local resources lacking after her child was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
  • Poor visibility of disability issues in the country have made public advocacy and resource-building difficult, a problem which the foundation tackles through its annual conferences.
  • Scheduled for October 28-31 in Montego Bay, this year’s conference will focus on inclusive education both to inform Jamaicans with disabilities of their rights and to combat lack of awareness about disability issues in Jamaica.

“What floored me was not the diagnosis, it was what to do. All the different specialists that we went to were only telling me what my child would never ever do but no one could tell me what my role was as a mother or how I could better support my child.”

Read more:
“Conference to help educate, sensitise people about disabilities” (The Jamaica Observer)
The Nathan Ebanks Foundation

Race + Color + Ethnicity

U.S. News | Black Americans

Thousands gather in Washington D.C. for “Justice or Else” rally commemorating 20th anniversary of the Million Man March
  • Black leaders, celebrities, and community members joined in a march to the National Mall as a return to the public forum on Black community issues, with black women and children joining men in the movement for social justice.
  • As he did twenty years earlier, Louis Farrakhan fronted the event, touching on the issues of communal responsibility, reproductive rights, and economic boycotting in his speech.
  • Other speakers spoke about the current movement for criminal justice reform and inter-communal and international issues, including women’s rights, Native American solidarity, and Palestine.

Read more:
“‘Justice or Else’ Rally Marks 20th Anniversary of Million Man March” (Voice of America)
“History in the Making: Million Man March 20th Anniversary” (The Root)
“20 years after the Million Man March, a fresh call for justice on the Mall” (Washington Post)
“Million Man March Activists Chant Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Alright’ on 20th Anniversary” (Billboard)

(Image Credit: AP, via Voice of America)

Gender

Turkey Feature | Women

Turkey’s Chic Women

Women from around Turkey converged on Istanbul and 9 other cities across the country for the third-annual Chic Women’s Bicycle Tour, a solidarity bike ride to promote transportation equality for women as well as sustainable transportation options in cities riddled with motorized vehicular traffic. Decked out in a colorful potpourri of dresses, hats, flowers, and balloons, the women dressed in resistance to attempts by conservatives to dictate to women how they should dress and act in public. Al-Monitor spoke with organizers about the history and mission of the ride, while Hürriyet provided a vibrant gallery of event attendees.

Read and view more:
“Pedal power gets Turkish makeover” (Al-Monitor)
“‘Chic women’ across Turkey’s western coast cycle for sustainable transportation” (Hürriyet News Daily)

(Image Credit: AA Photo, via Hürriyet News Daily))

Age, Gender, Ideology + Affiliation

Netherlands News | Women & Youth

European court rules brothel owners in Amsterdam must share language with sex workers
  • The European Court of Justice ruling sided with the city of Amsterdam, which blocked the application of a brothel owner to run a Red Light District window rental space because the owner could not communicate in the language of some of the workers.
  • The business owner had his business plan denied because he rented to Hungarian and Bulgarian immigrant workers who did not speak Dutch and whose languages the owner did not speak.
  • The court cited the safety of women, human trafficking vulnerability, the prevention of sex work by minors, and pimping deterrence as justifications.

Read more:
“Court: Amsterdam brothel owners must speak prostitutes’ language” (The NL Times)
“Double Dutch barred in Amsterdam brothels” (AFP, via Yahoo! News)

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/LeDeuxAlpe, via The NL Times)

Age, Gender, Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity

U.S. News | Haitian Immigrant Youth

In Search of Home

After the 2010 earthquake that devastated much of their country’s infrastructure, thousands of Haitians immigrated to the U.S. in search of a place to rebuild their lives. However, the traumatic psychological and material effects of the catastrophe made integration into their new homes difficult. PRI profiles efforts in Boston, home to one of the biggest Haitian-American communities in the U.S., to provide a space of transition for Haitian boys in search of familiarity.

Read more:
“A ‘home’ away from home is helping young Haitians in the US cope with trauma of 2010 earthquake” (Public Radio International)

(Image Credit: Rupa Shenoy/WGBH, via PRI)

Age, Gender

Malawi News | Girls

Malawi program promotes girls’ sexual and reproductive rights by stepping up health education
  • The Unite for Body Rights program was launched as a coalition of sexual rights organizations under the Center for Youth Empowerment and Civic Education in three districts (Dedza, Mangochi, and Chikhwawa).
  • Promoting family planning, re-enrollment for dropouts, and the reporting of sexual and domestic abuse, the program works to combat child marriage and educational disengagement among girls.
  • Thousands of peer educators along with teachers, church leaders, and health service providers have been targeted and trained in the provision of comprehensive sexual and reproductive education, with gains tentatively seen in implemented districts.

Read more:
“Stepping up game in girls’ sexual health and rights” (Mana Online)
Unite for Body Rights, Malawi

(Image Credit: via SRHR Alliance)

Gender

Tajikistan Feature | Girls

Video

Biking Tradition

Young Tajik girls are taking transportation into their own hands by biking to school, a significant endeavor that can involve up to a 10-kilometer round trip. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty learns why one girl decided to take up the trip.

Watch the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty video on YouTube.

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Europe News | LGBT Refugees

European LGBT groups provide assistance to LGBT and other refugees
  • As Germany has become the destination for many refugees and migrants, the Lesbian and Gay Federation has opened a center in Berlin for LGBT refugees.
  • LGBT groups and individuals in Macedonia, Slovenia, Hungary, and elsewhere have also provided support and services to refugees passing through, including LGBT refugees fleeing violence in Syria and Iraq.
  • Syrian gay man Subhi Nahas spoke to ISIS’s persecution of gender and sexual minorities at a U.N. Security Council meeting in August, calling on more active response to provide escape for LGBT individuals from the region.
“For my compatriots who do not conform to gender and sexual norms, the 11th hour has already passed. …They need your help now.”
Read the full story at the Washington Blade.
(Image Credit: Jure Poglajen, via The Washington Blade)
Sexual + Gender Minorities

Nepal News | LGBT

New Nepal constitution enshrines rights of LGBT citizens
  • Along with wide-ranging inclusion of vulnerable classes, gender and sexual minorities were identified as being entitled to political protections.
  • The constitution is the first to be approved since the 2008 abolition of the Nepalese monarchy.
  • Marriage is not defined in the constitution, but a special tribunal called upon by the Supreme Court has recommended the extension of marriage rights to sexual minorities.
“The nation’s leadership has affirmed that its LGBT citizens deserve the constitutional right to live their lives free from discrimination and fear.”
Read the full story at the Washington Blade.
Sexual + Gender Minorities

Global News | Intersex

UN declares intersex genital surgeries a human rights violation
  • Intersex advocates and NGO leaders convened in Geneva for a UN Human Rights Council meeting to discuss intersex surgeries, infanticide, and discrimination against intersex people.
  • The recognition follows a 2013 report calling on nations to end the medical practice affecting the estimated 1 in 2,000 born with ambiguous sex traits.
  • Some in the medical community bristled at the comparison of the surgery to torture, arguing that the declaration inhibits doctors’ research into and understanding of intersex patients.

“Physicians constantly say to me that lawsuits and laws are not the way to change medical practice. …And I say, I agree with you, but if you will not change your practices — then that’s what it’ll take.”

Read the full story at BuzzFeed News.

(Image Credit: M. Spencer Green/AP, via BuzzFeed)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

U.S. News | Native American

1 Comment
U.S. government reaches major settlement with Native American tribes
  • Government and tribal officials have submitted a plan for $940 million to settle claims brought by more than 600 tribes and agencies.
  • The tribes have suffered from a quarter-century of underfunding by the federal government for basic programs like education, housing, law enforcement, and environmental management.
  • A round of finger-pointing between the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Congress, and the President resulted in a 2012 Supreme Court ruling holding the government liable for payment.

“Tribal self-determination and self-governance will continue to be our North Star as we navigate a new chapter in this important relationship and we are committed to fully funding contract support costs so that tribal contracting can be more successful.”

Read the full story at BuzzFeed News.

(Image Credit: Mary Hudetz/AP, via BuzzFeed)

Age

China News | Children

Abducted or abandoned children in China see greater adoption opportunity under new rules
  • Authorities have capped the search for abandoned and trafficked children’s biological families at a year, allowing for them to be adopted from orphanages after that period.
  • Previously, children were left in indefinite limbo as long as their cases were active with search authorities.
  • More than 13,000 children were abducted last year alone according to the government, with the U.S. State Department estimating as many as 20,000 a year falling prey to traffickers and other kidnappers.

Read the full story at Reuters.

Sexual + Gender Minorities

El Salvador News | LGBT

El Salvador toughens punishments for hate crimes against LGBT individuals
  • The country’s lower chamber approved changes that will see those convicted of identity-based homicide against LGBT individuals facing up to 50 years in prison.
  • The changes increase the maximum penalty for hate crimes–which also include racially, ethnically, and religiously based targeting–by 20 years.
  • Gender continues to lag behind other protected classes, however, with those convicted of homicides against women facing 20 to 30 years of imprisonment.

“We have made a lot of progress in the democracy (of the country). This is a significant step toward the recognition of rights in the LGBT community.”

Read the full story at teleSUR.

(Image Credit: EFE, via teleSUR)

Nationality + Migration

Brazil News | Refugees

Brazilian president welcomes refugees as asylum process is expedited
  • President Dilma Rousseff reiterated Brazil’s openness to taking in refugees to support international efforts to provide haven to the millions of refugees pouring out of Asia and Africa.
  • In addition to granting 90-day tourist visas to asylum seekers awaiting their application results, the government approved a new program to simplify the asylum application process.
  • Brazil has led Latin America in providing asylum to Syrian refugees, having welcomed 1,740 into the country.

Read the full story at teleSUR.

Nationality + Migration

Canada Feature | Refugees

Video

Finding Refuge across an Ocean

For Toronto native Samia Tecle, the more than 5,000 miles separating her from the heart of the global migration crisis may as well be 5. Matthew House, the refugee reception services organization Tecle works for, provides accommodations and administrative services for newly arrived refugees, who, having no place to live, are counted among Toronto’s homeless population. Tecle tells the Globe and Mail of the Matthew House’s work and of the importance of Canadian solidarity with new arrivals.

“This is a global crisis. This is as much Canada’s issue as it is Italy’s or Greece’s or Turkey’s.”

View the Globe and Mail video on YouTube.