News headlines in March 2015, page 15

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 03 (IPS) - If we look at the headlines or the latest horrifying YouTube clip, Mar. 8 – International Women's Day – may seem a bad time to celebrate equality for women.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 03 (IPS) - Despite all the political hoopla surrounding an international pledging conference in Cairo last October to help rebuild Gaza, the reconstruction of the Israeli-devastated territory is apparently moving at the pace of paralytic snail.

SANTIAGO, Mar 03 (IPS) - Women leaders from every continent, brought together by U.N. Women and the Chilean government, demanded that gender equality be a cross-cutting target in the post-2015 development agenda. Only that way, they say, can the enormous inequality gap that still affects women and children around the world be closed.

GAZA CITY, Mar 03 (IPS) - "I have lost all meaning in life after the death of my child, I will never forgive anyone who caused the tearing apart of his little body.  I appeal to all who can help and stand with us to achieve justice and punish those who killed my child."

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 03 (IPS) - Nearly half of the four billion people who reside in the Asia-Pacific region are women. They comprise two-thirds of the region's poor, with millions either confined to their homes or pushed into the informal labour market where they work without any safeguards for paltry daily wages. Millions more become victims of trafficking and are forced into prostitution or sexual slavery.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 02 (IPS) - The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has criticised member states for ‘cherry-picking' human rights – advocating some and openly violating others – perhaps to suit their own national or political interests.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 02 (IPS) - Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba was Monday named winner of the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, believed to be the most lucrative individual award in the world.

SANTIAGO, Mar 02 (IPS) - Women's participation in decision-making is highly beneficial and their role in designing and applying public policies has a positive impact on people's lives, women leaders and experts from around the world stressed at a high-level meeting in the capital of Chile.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 02 (IPS) - Was the four-year-old military conflict in Syria, which has claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, mostly civilians, triggered at least in part by climate change?

BEIT LAHIYA, Northern Gaza Strip, Mar 01 (IPS) - Extensive damage to Gaza's environment as a result of the Israeli blockade and its devastating military campaign against the coastal territory during last year's war from July to August, is negatively affecting the health of Gazans, especially their food security.