Nigeria’s leader Goodluck Jonathan has said he will ask MPs to amend the constitution so that future presidents serve a single, longer term in office.
The constitution currently limits presidents to two four-year terms.
There has been speculation in Nigerian newspapers that the proposed amendment would enable President Jonathan to extend his term in office. Continue reading Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan proposes one-term limits
KINSHASA, 29 June 2011 (IRIN) – Two years after the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) promulgated the Law on Child Protection, an estimated 3,000 children remain in prisons across the country.
The law, which came into effect in January 2009, replaced a 1950 colonial law on juvenile delinquency that set the age of criminal responsibility at 16, leading to a number of severe penalties against children, including life imprisonment and the death sentence. Continue reading DRC: Children still in prison despite law
Prior consultation: a right that ensures other indigenous rights.
Karin Anchelía Jesusi
The right to consultation for indigenous peoples in Peru has existed for the last 17 years, since the ratification of the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples; nevertheless, timber, petroleum, and mining concessions on indigenous lands are still granted without prior consultation in the communities, causing an increase in the number of social conflicts. Continue reading The right to determine their development
Mgr Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli has protested at NATO bombing of civilian targets in his diocese. “They are hitting civilian targets such as food stores” he said. “A few days ago, NATO warplanes hit a food store just outside Tripoli, which contained oil, pasta, tomato sauce. A river of oil came out of the warehouse which was destroyed. I know they have also hit a social centre. By what right does one hit a food centre? ” Continue reading Libya: archbishop protests after NATO bombs hit food stores
Leonardo Boff
Theologian
Earthcharter Commission
Einstein’s phrase is very true today: «a crisis cannot be resolved by the mentality that created it.» It is too late to just make reforms; they do not change the mentality. We need to start from another frame of mind, founded in principles and values that can sustain a new form of civilization. Otherwise, we will have to accept a path that leads us to the precipice. The dinosaurs have already gone down that path. Continue reading Facing the crisis: four principles and four virtues
By Miriam Gathigah
NAIROBI, Jul 25, 2011 (IPS) – For the first time ever, the finance minister has allocated almost four million dollars from the current national budget to provide free sanitary pads to schoolgirls. This comes after persistent pressure from women parliamentarians who took the issue of girls’ absenteeism from school, due to lack of sanitary pads, to parliament. It was a campaign that left their male counterparts speechless, for such matters are rarely spoken about in public, let alone in parliament, in Kenya’s conservative society. Continue reading Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting at Work
Latin American Press
Prior consultation: a right that ensures other indigenous rights.
Karin Anchelía Jesusi
The right to consultation for indigenous peoples in Peru has existed for the last 17 years, since the ratification of the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples; nevertheless, timber, petroleum, and mining concessions on indigenous lands are still granted without prior consultation in the communities, causing an increase in the number of social conflicts. Continue reading The Right to determine their Development
By Miriam Gathigah
NAIROBI, Jul 25, 2011 (IPS) – For the first time ever, the finance minister has allocated almost four million dollars from the current national budget to provide free sanitary pads to schoolgirls. Continue reading Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting at Work
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