News headlines in April 2019, page 6

BELGRADE, Apr 15 (IPS) - This article is part of a series on the current state of civil society organisations (CSOs), which will be the focus of International Civil Society Week (ICSW), sponsored by CIVICUS, and scheduled to take place in Belgrade, April 8-12.

Abraham M. Keita says he was nine years old when a girl of thirteen was sexually assaulted and strangled in his home community in Liberia.

TUNIS, Apr 12 (IPS) - This article is part of a series on the current state of civil society organisations (CSOs), the focus of International Civil Society Week (ICSW), sponsored by CIVICUS, which concluded in Belgrade, April 12

Mouna Ben Garga is an Innovation Officer with CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organisations.Sometimes a peak into the future reminds us just how stuck we are in the past and present.

It was the talk of the Middle East's largest annual media industry gathering: a robot journalist – the region's first – that wowed some 3,000 industry leaders and practitioners at the Arab Media Forum (AMF) in Dubai recently.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 12 (IPS) - This article is part of a series on the current state of civil society organisations (CSOs), which is the focus of International Civil Society Week (ICSW), sponsored by CIVICUS, and scheduled to conclude in Belgrade, April 12The civic space in several African countries, including Tanzania, Burundi, Zambia, Sudan, Mozambique, Somalia and Eritrea, is gradually shrinking – and mostly under authoritarian leaders and repressive regimes.

CASTRIES, Apr 12 (IPS) - Jua Kali is a social enterprise tackling waste management and helping to reduce reliance on St. Lucia's only landfill, which will reach the end of its lifespan in 2023. The company, with its slogan ‘Trashing the Idea of Waste,' hosts waste collection drives through pop up depots that encourage residents to bring in glass, plastic and tin cans in exchange for supermarket shopping points.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 12 (IPS) - Dr. Azza Karam is a Senior Advisor at the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), Coordinator of UN Interagency Task Force on Religion, and Professor on Religion and Development at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

Since 2008, a number of articles/opinions have been written, on the nexus between religion and development.

In chronological order, the articles first made the case for why ‘religion matters' to the attainment of developmental objectives, noting how religious leaders are critical to changing social norms which can be in contradiction to human rights, and noting the extent to which faith-based organisations (FBOs) have anyway served as the original social service providers known to human kind.

BELGRADE, Apr 11 (IPS) - This article is part of a series on the current state of civil society organisations (CSOs), which is the focus of International Civil Society Week (ICSW), sponsored by CIVICUS, and scheduled to conclude in Belgrade, April 12.

Lysa John, Secretary-General of CIVICUS, in her opening address to the International Civil Society Week (ICSW)

It is an incredible privilege to welcome you all to the ‘International Civil Society Week'. I am going to remind us of the reasons that make it so important for us to be here in Belgrade this week.

BELGRADE, Apr 11 (IPS) - This article is part of a series on the current state of civil society organisations (CSOs), which will be the focus of International Civil Society Week (ICSW), sponsored by CIVICUS, and scheduled to take place in Belgrade, April 8-12.

"Stay safe. There's no story worth dying for."

That's the message to journalists from Nada Josimovic, programme coordinator of Amsterdam-based media rights organisation Free Press Unlimited.

BANGKOK, Thailand, Apr 11 (IPS) - Dr. Ulysses Dorotheo is Executive Director of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA)*

The image of a smoking toddler from Indonesia horrified the world but did little to motivate local policy makers to enact measures to protect children and youth from the harms of tobacco use. Indonesia has one of the world's highest smoking rates where two out of three men and about 40 percent of adolescent boys smoke.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 11 (IPS) - While figures have dropped, the "inhuman" use of the death penalty still remains too common worldwide, a human rights group said.

GENEVA, Apr 11 (IPS) - This article is part of a series on the current state of civil society organisations (CSOs), which is the focus of International Civil Society Week (ICSW), sponsored by CIVICUS, and scheduled to conclude in Belgrade, April 12.

Susan Wilding is the head of the Geneva office at CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organisations. Anti-government protesters invading Serbia's state-owned television station, demanding that their voices be heard. Journalism bodies writing to the Albanian prime minister over plans to censor online media outlets. A Belgrade corruption-busting reporter forced to flee his house that had been torched; a Montenegrin investigative journalist shot in the leg outside her home.