WORLD - The African Mirror

Nov

07

2024

New study offers future vision for UN peacekeeping

WORLD

AN independent study has outlined what future models of UN peacekeeping are needed to address new and evolving global threats. The study, commissioned by the UN’s Department of Peace Operations, is intended to inform a ministerial meeting in May next year in Berlin on the future of peacekeeping. The report found that UN peacekeeping remains an “effective multilateral tool for preventing and limiting armed conflict, sustaining peace, as well as responding to a broader range of threats to international peace and security”. But it does recognise that “fresh thinking” is needed about what roles peacekeeping can and should play. It acknowledges a backdrop…

Nov

06

2024

By The African Mirror

America projected to choose Trump over a woman — again

WORLD

VICE President Kamala Harris is projected to lose the presidential election, a stunning outcome for millions of Americans who had hoped to elect the first woman to the presidency. Harris’ defeat follows a truncated and unusual campaign that left her with just over 100 days to make her case to the American people, against a rival who had long cemented his grip over the Republican Party. Harris promised Americans an end to the chaos and division she said have plagued the nation, making a pitch for an “opportunity” economy, reproductive freedom, and a robust standing military to quiet global unrest. In the…

Nov

06

2024

By CHABELI CARRAZANA

These parents brought their kids to the ballot box, in more ways than one

WORLD

JUST as she’d done as a little girl with her mom, Elle Arlook walked up to a voting precinct in Washington, D.C., Tuesday morning — but this time with her own daughter, 6-year-old Mariama. She counted six other moms with their daughters already in line. Arlook’s mother, Karen Nussbaum, was the head of the Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau in the Clinton administration and an ardent labour leader who brought little Elle to picket lines and ballot boxes. “I always got my sticker,” said Arlook, who works in diversity, equity and inclusion. Now a mother of two, this was Arlook’s…

Nov

06

2024

By The African Mirror

‘Exceptional achievement’: Humanitarians reach over 105,000 with polio vaccine in north Gaza

WORLD

DESPITE ongoing attacks and access challenges, humanitarians have managed to inoculate over 105,000 children in north Gaza with the second and final dose of the oral polio vaccine, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. Speaking from Gaza, WHO Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, told journalists that between 2 and 4 November, the campaign reached 88 per cent of 119,000 children under 10. Close to 84,000 children also received vitamin A to boost their immunity. “This is an exceptional achievement,” he said. Just three days ago, WHO had warned that reaching the target was…

Nov

06

2024

By The African Mirror

Thailand takes major step towards ending statelessness

WORLD

THE Thai Cabinet’s approval of an accelerated pathway to permanent residency and nationality for nearly half a million stateless people is a historic development. This decision brings long-awaited relief for 335,000 longtime residents and members of officially recognized minority ethnic groups and nearly 142,000 of their children born in Thailand. This will lead to a dramatic reduction of statelessness in the country, resolving the situation of the majority of nearly 600,000 people registered as stateless in Thailand. Thailand continues to be a leader in the eradication of statelessness. It pledged at the Global Refugee Forum 2023 to resolve statelessness and…

Nov

06

2024

By BARBARA RODRIGUEZ

As Americans head to the polls, a women-led workforce is on high alert

WORLD

It’s Election Day in America and voters are heading to the polls this Tuesday to cast ballots in a historic election that could produce the nation’s first woman president or its oldest. At the center of this exercise in democracy will be election officials, a predominantly women-led workforce that has been preparing for months and even years to make the vote-counting process more secure and transparent. “Elections and voting have become so politicized,” said Christina Baal-Owens, executive director of Public Wise, an organization that advocates for fair elections. “There’s a lot of really wonderful civil servants who are just trying to do their…

Nov

05

2024

By ERRIN HAINES

Black women meet to mobilize on Sunday before Election Day

WORLD

ON the Sunday before Election Day, Black women gathered on Zoom as they had done every Sunday for four years in a moment of unity, sisterhood and gratitude. For the last 15 Sundays, they came together as part of the coalition Win With Black Women to strategize and organize to help elect Vice President Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States. Harris joined the final call to thank them for their support and to ask for their help one more time. “I thank everyone for building a coalition that has been hard at work to support our…

Nov

05

2024

By The African Mirror

Journeys of Hope: Venezuelan families on the move across South America

WORLD

FIVE-YEAR-OLD Maria stands in Aguas Verdes, a Peruvian border village near Ecuador, holding an apple and a smile that defies the hardships endured. Her family’s story mirrors many others who have left Venezuela’s economic situation. Rosa, Maria’s mother, shares the harrowing story of their journey from Venezuela, driven by the difficulties of affording food and essential medicines. They took a bus across Venezuela until they reached the waiting arms of Cesar’s father across the border in Colombia. Now the family is heading to Lima hoping to find a brighter future. “Many of us suddenly found ourselves with nothing but a…

Nov

05

2024

By JASMIN LILIAN DIAB

The moral imperative to protect Lebanon’s LGBTIQ+ displaced

WORLD

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By Jasmin Lilian Diab MOST of the over 1 million civilians who have been forced to flee their homes in Lebanon by the escalating war between Israel and Hezbollah are facing immense hardship. But hidden within that number are LGBTIQ+ people who have been displaced, and their challenges in accessing safety and aid are compounded by another battle – a fight for visibility and acceptance in a society that often refuses to acknowledge their existence and has selectively targeted them at different points in the country’s political history. While Lebanon is known…

Nov

04

2024

By AMANDA BECKER

After losing a constitutional right, America picks a president

WORLD

A former school board member in Michigan spent the final weeks before the election sitting around the kitchen table with her daughters, calling voters to ask them to back abortion rights, because as a nurse midwife and a mother she is terrified. A grandmother in Arizona whose top issue is abortion — one many years ago saved her life — left the Republican Party in 2020, then campaigned vigorously this year for a ballot measure to protect the procedure in a state where it’s currently banned after 15 weeks. A woman in Pennsylvania who runs an organization supporting crime victims…