News headlines in 2018, page 7

NEW YORK, Dec 11 (IPS) - Jessica Neuwirth is founder of Donor Direct Action, an international organization which partners with women's groups working to end commercial sexual exploitation on the front lines around the world.

Seventy years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was signed in the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. Following two devastating world wars the United Nations General Assembly set out a brand new vision of human rights that the world could agree on going forward. It is still the benchmark by which most modern-day human rights organisations live.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11 (IPS) - Despite the rise in women's resistance, women's rights continue to be sidelined and increasingly face blatant attacks, Amnesty International said.

KATOWICE, Poland, Dec 11 (IPS) - In order for African countries to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), they will require further human capacity building, and there must be involvement of the private sector from the start of the planning process.

KUALA LUMPUR & SYDNEY, Dec 11 (IPS) - Over the last two decades since the Global Compact, the United Nations has increasingly embraced the corporate sector, most recently to raise finance needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), i.e., for Agenda 2030. But growing big business influence has also compromised analyses, recommendations, policies and programme implementation, undermining the SDGs.

KATOWICE, Poland, Dec 11 (IPS) - Although Indonesia has attained decent economic growth of over five percent in the last decade, in order to ensure sustainable growth in the future the switch to renewable energy (RE) will be critical, says the country's government.

MEXICO CITY, Dec 10 (IPS) - The northern Mexican state of Sonora seeks to position itself at the forefront in Mexico in the sustainable transformation of its economy. But it faces major challenges, such as greening its energy mix and relying less on mining, which is highly polluting and leaves little benefit to its public coffers.

MARRAKECH, Morocco, Dec 10 (IPS) - Morocco may be hosting the United Nation's historic Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) conference. But when it comes to remittances—migrant employees, entrepreneurs and business owners all face the same challenge in Morocco: sending money legally to their home countries.

MARRAKECH, Morocco, Dec 10 (IPS) - Safe, orderly and regular migration received support today, Dec. 10, with the adoption by 164 countries of the first-ever inter-governmentally negotiated agreement to cover all dimensions of international migration.

ACCRA, Dec 10 (IPS) - 14-year-old Fatima sat opposite me, a defiance to her body language, yet a vulnerability that made me want to tell her it was okay to cry. She was telling me how for the past year she had dropped out of the school theatre club, had no interest in Physics anymore, which used to be her favourite subject, and had no friends. Fatima had been labeled the ‘bad girl' in her class.

MARRAKESH, Morocco, Dec 10 (IPS) - Alice Thomas is Refugees International's Climate Displacement Program Manager.

The fact that a handful of countries have indicated their intention not to come to Marrakesh to endorse the compact signifies how the issue of migration has been politicized and become a political flashpoint.