News headlines in July 2011, page 27

Governments and soldiers alike must uphold their human rights obligations while in another country, the European Court on Human Rights ruled in Strasburg last week.

The United Nations Security Council approved the one-year UN Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) consisting of seven thousand military personnel and up to 900 civilians, UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq, told reporters Friday.

The human spirit has a truly remarkable capacity -the ability to generate hope from the most devastating of crises. This ability to create value can be seen in the response to the earthquake that struck Japan on March 11.

Violence against women is rampant, devastating and tolerated in South Sudan and the new country needs to address these gross human rights violations and train people, especially soldiers, to respect women’s rights.

Ali Mohsen knows how to tell a good fish story. The wiry, white-haired Egyptian mariner weaves a yarn about his childhood days when the sea was so full of fish that one could simply dangle a hand net over the side of the boat and pull up a seafood dinner. This morning, his crew spent hours out at sea with only four kilos of small fish to show for it.

In dire need of money to assist her family back home, 27-year-old Makeda from Ethiopia was forced to return to the Middle East as a domestic worker.

While ‘data exclusivity’ clauses will not feature in the India-European Union free trade agreement (FTA), the threat posed by the impending deal to the world’s supply of cheap generic drugs is far from over.

Confused foreign tourists arriving at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport on Friday would be forgiven for thinking that a terrorist attack was about to take place.

Macklina Kenyi, 33, ran away from South Sudan to avoid being raped and abducted by the rebels during the war. She has since been studying in Kenya but on Jul. 9 she returned to Juba to witness the birth of her country.

Reports of extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, kidnappings and assaults are some of the heavy baggage that U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay is taking home from Mexico.