BUENOS AIRES, Sep 17 2012 (IPS) – The Argentine government has opened legal aid centres in slum neighbourhoods, to provide a range of services, from assistance for immigrants and victims of domestic violence to dental care services. “Many of the situations can be solved by picking up the telephone,” said Ariel Pereira, coordinator of the […]
Category: Wellness
Wrangling Begins Over New Sustainable Development Blueprint
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 26 2012 (IPS) – As the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) limp towards their target date of 2015, the United Nations is shifting its focus to another long-term action plan: a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Indigenous baby and mother in Chihuahua, Mexico. Social movements want indigenous rights and gender equity […]
Anti-gay Stigma Hinders Bid to Lower Côte d’Ivoire’s HIV Rate
Clinique de Confiance was the first clinic in Côte d’Ivoire to begin targeting men who have sex with men. Credit: Robbie Corey-Boulet/IPS ABIDJAN , Dec 1 2012 (IPS) – When Emmanuel Kokou, a 28-year-old sex worker, moved from his native Togo to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in 2010, he knew there was a good chance that […]
Cheaper Medicine a New Year’s Gift for Salvadorans
SAN SALVADOR, Feb 1 2013 (IPS) – After years of delays and obstacles, a law regulating the pharmaceutical market has come into effect in El Salvador, giving its people access to medicines at more reasonable prices, with discounts of over 50 percent for some drugs sold in high volumes, like diabetes medication. The Medicines Law […]
Water Shortage Hits Pacific Women
There are many demands on a communal water tap in the Lord Howe Settlement in Honiara in the Solomon Islands. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS. HONIARA, Solomon Islands, Apr 8 2013 (IPS) – The Solomon Islands, a developing island nation in the south-west Pacific Islands, has one of the highest urbanisation rates in the region, and the […]
OAS Chief Calls for “Long-Awaited” Debate on Drug Policy
Women and children from the village where the Esparza family was murdered by soldiers in Mexico’s “drug war” demand justice outside the schoolhouse.Mónica González /IPS WASHINGTON, May 25 2013 (IPS) – Following the release of a major draft report on drug policy in the Americas, the secretary-general of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Jose […]
Rights Groups Push to Improve New York Sex Trafficking Law
In June, New York state legislature will vote on a bill that will increase protection for sex trafficking victims. Credit: Bigstock NEW YORK, Jun 13 2013 (IPS) – It started for Ruth when she was 12 years old and for Lowyal when she was 13. After being raped by her mother s boyfriend, Ruth ran […]
A Decade of Legal GM Soy in Brazil
GMOs are steadily advancing in Brazil, where transgenic crop varieties produced by multinational corporations grow alongside others developed nationally. Field of soy in Não-Me-Toque, in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. Credit: Nilson Konrad/IPS RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 30 2013 (IPS) – Ten years ago, Brazil yielded to agribusiness pressure and legalised the […]
For the Disabled, Progress Unearths More Questions
This article is the second of a two-part series exploring disability’s place in international development guidelines. In part one, IPS looked at the repercussions of ignoring disability on an international level. Part two asks: was the lack of attention simply an oversight or due in part to the complex nature of disability? The media and […]
Health Gaps Between Most Countries Could Close by 2035
In Swaziland, which has been hard-hit by the AIDS pandemic, an HIV-positive mother sits next to her 18-month-old baby girl. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS WASHINGTON, Dec 3 2013 (IPS) – The gap in health standards between the world’s poorest countries and the more advanced middle-income nations could close by the year 2035, according to a major […]