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Friday, April 19, 2024
South African’s president reiterates commitment to support South Sudan to end transition peacefully
Elections will be watershed moment in country’s transition to democracy, says Cyril Ramaphosa
Benjamin Takpiny |19.04.2024 -
JUBA, South Sudan
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday reiterated his country’s commitment to support South Sudan to ensure a smooth end to the transitional period.
“We will provide every support possible within our means to ensure a democratic and peaceful end to the transitional period,” said South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, delivering Ramaphosa’s remarks.
Ramaphosa visited South Sudan on Tuesday and received a detailed briefing from President Salva Kiir Mayardit and other stakeholders on the status of the implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS), which was signed on Sept. 12, 2018
The R-ARCSS is coming to an end on Feb. 22, 2025 and must be preceded by elections scheduled for December 2024.
While in Juba, Ramaphosa met with the parties to the peace agreement and discussed the progress on its implementation.
“As we return to South Africa, we are hopeful that the parties will continue to engage in dialogue and find consensus on outstanding issues of the implementation of the revitalized agreement so that the people of South Sudan can look forward to a peaceful and democratic end to the transitional period,” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa said South Africa will hold general elections in May this year to afford their people their democratic right to choose their leaders.
“We are pleased that the National Elections Commission of South Sudan will observe our elections as part of the African Union Elections Observation Mission,” he said.
He said the people of South Sudan are eagerly waiting for the general elections, which will bring the end of the transitional period.
“These elections will be a watershed moment in the country’s transition to democracy. I understand that parties are engaged in a dialogue in order to agree on the necessary conditions for the holding of credible elections. This will require addressing the outstanding provisions of the revitalized agreement such as the adoption of the permanent constitution and the security arrangements.”
He said that lasting peace, stability and development will depend on how the collective leadership navigates the challenging times ahead.
“The revitalized agreement is a very comprehensive commitment on how to take the country forward, and the parties to it must be applauded. Progress in the implementation of the provisions of the R-ARCSS is laudable. However, more work is still outstanding,” he said.
Ramaphosa said that South Africa is deeply concerned about the ongoing conflict and humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan, which is also affecting other countries in the region, including South Sudan.
“We support the role of IGAD and the AU in the resolution of the conflict in Sudan and we would like to see their efforts intensified in this regard,” he said, referring to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the African Union.
On Feb. 22, 2020, South Sudan formed the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGoNU), which had long been provided for under Chapter 1 of the R-ARCSS signed between the government and opposition political parties to end years of ruinous conflict that has killed thousands of people and forced millions from their homes.
World Heritage Day: Israeli Attack Wipes Out 32 Gaza Cultural Sites
April 19, 2024
April 19, 2024
The ongoing Israeli onslaught on Gaza has decimated nearly 32 cultural institutions, both partially and entirely, the Palestinian Ministry of Culture revealed on World Heritage Day, marked on Thursday, April 18th.
The Ministry further disclosed that the war has obliterated 12 museums, vandalized approximately 2,100 ancient garments, and desecrated embroidery from museum artifacts and personal collections.
The ongoing war has also led to the destruction of around 195 historic buildings, predominantly in Gaza City, including cultural hubs and community establishments.
Additionally, 9 heritage sites and 10 historic mosques and churches, integral to the region’s collective memory, have suffered damages, the statement added.
Condemning the crimes committed by the occupation forces, the Ministry of Culture urged international organizations to safeguard Palestinian cultural heritage.
It also called for the enforcement of legal mechanisms compelling the Israeli occupation to comply with international conventions protecting cultural and natural heritage.
Prominent among the historical landmarks ravaged by the war are Al-Omari Mosque in Jabalia to the north, the Byzantine Church of Jabalia, Sheikh Sha’ban Mosque, and Al-Zafar Damri Mosque in Al-Shujaiya area of Gaza City.
Also targeted were Al-Khidr Shrine in Deir Al-Balah and Khalil Al-Rahman Mosque in Khan Younis, along with the Manuscripts Center.
The destruction of Al-Omari Mosque, Gaza City’s most renowned historic site dating back to the seventh century, stands as a poignant symbol of the cultural devastation wrought by the conflict.
In its scathing statement, the Ministry of Culture denounced the targeting of cultural centers as a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, notably the International Convention on the Prevention of Genocide and the prosecution of its perpetrators.
Reiterating its plea, the Ministry urged UNESCO and relevant organizations to establish a UN committee to investigate the legal and humanitarian violations inflicted upon Palestinian cultural heritage.
The Ministry emphasized that the obliteration and loss of this heritage constitutes a grievous loss to humanity at large.
Despite international calls for a halt to the Israeli occupation’s aggressive war on Gaza, and the International Court of Justice’s scrutiny over genocide allegations, the onslaught persists, targeting the civilian population and essential infrastructure, in defiance of a Security Council resolution urging an immediate ceasefire.
Shortlink for this post: https://daysofpalestine.ps/?p=53269
Kenya's Doctors' Strike - Is There an End in Sight?
Andrew Wasike/DW
Many patients in Kenya have been left without care as doctors continue to strike
18 APRIL 2024
Deutsche Welle (Bonn)
Doctors in Kenya have been on strike for five weeks, demanding better wages and working conditions. President William Ruto says his government is out of money to pay the medics. Meanwhile, patients remain without care.
The nationwide doctors' strike in Kenya began on March 12, with at least 4,000 medics demanding higher salaries as part of a 2017 collective bargaining agreement, better working conditions and the employment of intern doctors. Five weeks later, there is no sign of a compromise as the government claims it cannot allocate the necessary funds. DW has put together a timeline of the row so far.
Week 1: Demand for higher wages
Led by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), 1,210 intern doctors, medical doctors, pharmacists and dentists laid out their demands. These included a salary increase of up to 206,000 Kenyan shillings ($1,548, €1,451) per month
The doctors also called on President William Ruto's government to fulfill its 2017 promise to increase their salaries. The government rejected the doctors' demands and made a counteroffer which was rejected by the doctors' union.
Week 2: Health sector paralysis
In its second week, the strike caused widespread disruptions in healthcare services. With medical professionals absent from their posts, hospitals, and clinics, many patients were left unattended and desperate for medical assistance.
A 12-year-old boy taken to the hospital by his mother due to a broken leg wa s turned away from a hospital in Kakamega county in western Kenya because there were no doctors to assist.
Another patient affected by the ongoing doctors' strike told DW that he needed to raise money for an urgent spinal surgery.
Week 3: First casualty as doctors dig in
Kenyan doctors stopped offering emergency medical services at public hospitals as the strike entered its third week.
According to local media reports, a young man died from what first appeared to be a toothache but then advanced to a blood infection and malaria. He had been moved between several hospitals, seeking medical attention to no avail.
Many patients began turning to private clinics, which are costlier than public hospitals, to receive medical attention.
Week 4: Catholic bishops urge government to take action
Bishops under the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) call on President Ruto to "speedily" resolve the concerns of the striking doctors.
Meanwhile, Kenyatta National Hospital, the country's largest referral hospital, laid off 100 of its striking doctors and announced it had hired new staff as replacement.
Week 5: President Ruto lashes out at strike supporters
President William Ruto has expressed dismay at leaders endorsing the strike: "If you support them [the doctors], pay the money they are asking for," the president said.
Ruto insists that the government's offer is final -- a position the KMPDU firmly rejects. A Kenyan court has given the government and the medical union 48 hours to agree on a deal.
Edited by: Chrispin Mwakideu
Andrew Wasike/DW
Many patients in Kenya have been left without care as doctors continue to strike
18 APRIL 2024
Deutsche Welle (Bonn)
Doctors in Kenya have been on strike for five weeks, demanding better wages and working conditions. President William Ruto says his government is out of money to pay the medics. Meanwhile, patients remain without care.
The nationwide doctors' strike in Kenya began on March 12, with at least 4,000 medics demanding higher salaries as part of a 2017 collective bargaining agreement, better working conditions and the employment of intern doctors. Five weeks later, there is no sign of a compromise as the government claims it cannot allocate the necessary funds. DW has put together a timeline of the row so far.
Week 1: Demand for higher wages
Led by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), 1,210 intern doctors, medical doctors, pharmacists and dentists laid out their demands. These included a salary increase of up to 206,000 Kenyan shillings ($1,548, €1,451) per month
The doctors also called on President William Ruto's government to fulfill its 2017 promise to increase their salaries. The government rejected the doctors' demands and made a counteroffer which was rejected by the doctors' union.
Week 2: Health sector paralysis
In its second week, the strike caused widespread disruptions in healthcare services. With medical professionals absent from their posts, hospitals, and clinics, many patients were left unattended and desperate for medical assistance.
A 12-year-old boy taken to the hospital by his mother due to a broken leg wa s turned away from a hospital in Kakamega county in western Kenya because there were no doctors to assist.
Another patient affected by the ongoing doctors' strike told DW that he needed to raise money for an urgent spinal surgery.
Week 3: First casualty as doctors dig in
Kenyan doctors stopped offering emergency medical services at public hospitals as the strike entered its third week.
According to local media reports, a young man died from what first appeared to be a toothache but then advanced to a blood infection and malaria. He had been moved between several hospitals, seeking medical attention to no avail.
Many patients began turning to private clinics, which are costlier than public hospitals, to receive medical attention.
Week 4: Catholic bishops urge government to take action
Bishops under the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) call on President Ruto to "speedily" resolve the concerns of the striking doctors.
Meanwhile, Kenyatta National Hospital, the country's largest referral hospital, laid off 100 of its striking doctors and announced it had hired new staff as replacement.
Week 5: President Ruto lashes out at strike supporters
President William Ruto has expressed dismay at leaders endorsing the strike: "If you support them [the doctors], pay the money they are asking for," the president said.
Ruto insists that the government's offer is final -- a position the KMPDU firmly rejects. A Kenyan court has given the government and the medical union 48 hours to agree on a deal.
Edited by: Chrispin Mwakideu
Chinese-sponsored water, sanitation project launched in Kenya
(Xinhua) 13:01, April 19, 2024
NAIROBI, April 18 (Xinhua) -- A water project co-sponsored by the Jiangsu People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the Amity Foundation, an independent Chinese social organization, was launched on Thursday in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
Ma Xin, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China Jiangsu Provincial Committee and executive vice governor of Jiangsu Province, said that the water program seeks to expand access to clean water for residents in Kenya's informal settlements.
"The program is an important measure for Jiangsu to help the Belt and Road countries improve people's livelihood and welfare through social forces," Ma said at a ceremony attended by Chinese and Kenyan government officials.
Jiangsu Province has embraced the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and is carrying out a series of cooperation projects focusing on development and improving people's livelihoods among the Belt and Road countries, he added.
Esther Passaris, a lawmaker in Nairobi, said that the Chinese-backed water project will contribute to improving the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for the Kenyan people.
So far, the Kenya-China partnership has resulted in practical cooperation that has achieved remarkable results, including increasing the availability of clean piped water in informal settlements, she said. "Our two countries are ready to consolidate political mutual trust, deepen comprehensive cooperation, and bring China-Kenya relations to a new level," Passaris said.
David Matinde, a representative of the beneficiary communities, said that the project is expected to have a positive impact on at least 7,000 beneficiaries living in marginalized communities. He added that the water and sanitation project will also ensure that students maintain high levels of cleanliness, thereby avoiding illnesses caused by waterborne diseases.
(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
BNSF Railway says it didn’t know about asbestos that’s killed hundreds in Montana town
BY MATTHEW BROWN AND AMY BETH HANSON
April 18, 2024
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of an asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program.
Attorneys for the Warren Buffett-owned company say the railroad’s corporate predecessors didn’t know the vermiculite it hauled over decades from a nearby mine was filled with hazardous microscopic asbestos fibers.
The case in federal civil court over the two deaths is the first of numerous lawsuits against the Texas-based railroad corporation to reach trial over its past operations in Libby, Montana. Current and former residents of the small town near the U.S.-Canada border want BNSF held accountable for its alleged role in asbestos exposure that health officials say has killed several hundred people and sickened thousands.
Looming over the proceedings is W.R. Grace & Co., a chemical company that operated a mountaintop vermiculite mine 7 miles (11 kilometers) outside of Libby until it was closed 1990. The Maryland-based company played a central role in Libby’s tragedy and has paid significant settlements to victims.
Asbestos victims in Montana want Buffett’s railroad company held responsible
U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris has referred to the mining company as “the elephant in the room” in the BNSF trial. He reminded jurors several times that the case was about the railroad’s conduct, not W.R. Grace’s separate liability.
Federal prosecutors in 2005 indicted W. R. Grace and executives from the company on criminal charges over the contamination in Libby. A jury acquitted them following a 2009 trial.
How much W.R. Grace revealed about the asbestos dangers to Texas-based BNSF and its corporate predecessors has been sharply disputed.
The railroad said it was obliged under law to ship the vermiculite, which was used in insulation and for other commercial purposes, and that W.R. Grace employees had concealed the health hazards from the railroad.
Former railroad workers said during testimony and in depositions that they knew nothing about the risks of asbestos. They said Grace employees were responsible for loading the hopper cars, plugging the holes of any cars leaking vermiculite and occasionally cleaned up material that spilled in the rail yard.
Former rail yard worker John Swing said in previously recorded testimony that he didn’t know asbestos was an issue in Libby until a 1999 newspaper story reporting deaths and illnesses among mine workers and their families.
Swing also said he didn’t think the rail yard was dusty. His testimony was at odds with people who grew up in Libby and recall dust getting kicked up whenever the wind blew or a train rolled through the yard.
The estates of the two deceased plaintiffs have argued that the W.R. Grace’s actions don’t absolve BNSF of its responsibility for knowingly exposing people to asbestos at its railyard in the heart of the community.
Their attorneys said BNSF should have known about the dangers because Grace put signs on rail cars carrying vermiculite warning of potential health risks. They showed jurors an image of a warning label allegedly attached to rail cars in the late 1970s that advised against inhaling the asbestos dust because it could cause bodily harm.
BNSF higher-ups also should have been aware of the dangers because they attended conferences that discussed dust diseases like asbestosis in the 1930s, attorneys for the plaintiffs argued.
The Environmental Protection Agency descended on Libby after the 1999 news reports. In 2009 it declared in Libby the nation’s first ever public health emergency under the federal Superfund cleanup program.
The pollution in Libby has been cleaned up, largely at public expense. Yet the long timeframe over which asbestos-related diseases can develop means people previously exposed are likely to continue getting sick and dying for years to come, health officials say.
Family members of Tom Wells and Joyce Walder testified that their lives ended soon after they were diagnosed with mesothelioma. The families said the dust blowing from the rail yard sickened and killed them.
In a March 2020 video of Wells played for jurors and recorded the day before he died, he lay in a home hospital bed, struggling to breathe.
“I’ve been placed in a horrible spot here, and the best chance I see at release — relief for everybody — is to just get it over with,” he said. “It’s just not something I want to try and play hero through because I don’t think that there’s a miracle waiting.”
___
Brown reported from Billings, Mont.
WARREN BUFFET'S CHOO CHOO
- In this April 27, 2011, file photo, the entrance to downtown Libby, Mont., is seen. BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday, April 19, 2024, that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of the asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program.
- In this April 27, 2011, file photo, the entrance to downtown Libby, Mont., is seen. BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday, April 19, 2024, that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of the asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program.
(AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
- Dr. Lee Morissette shows an image of lungs damaged by asbestos exposure, at the Center for Asbestos Related Disease, Thursday, April 4, 2024, in Libby, Mont. BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday, April 19, 2024, that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of the asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program.
- Dr. Lee Morissette shows an image of lungs damaged by asbestos exposure, at the Center for Asbestos Related Disease, Thursday, April 4, 2024, in Libby, Mont. BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday, April 19, 2024, that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of the asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program.
(AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
- Environmental cleanup specialists work at one of the last remaining residential asbestos cleanup sites in Libby, Montana, in mid-September. BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday, April 19, 2024, that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of the asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program.
- Environmental cleanup specialists work at one of the last remaining residential asbestos cleanup sites in Libby, Montana, in mid-September. BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday, April 19, 2024, that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of the asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program.
(Kurt Wilson/The Missoulian via AP, File)
BY MATTHEW BROWN AND AMY BETH HANSON
April 18, 2024
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of an asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program.
Attorneys for the Warren Buffett-owned company say the railroad’s corporate predecessors didn’t know the vermiculite it hauled over decades from a nearby mine was filled with hazardous microscopic asbestos fibers.
The case in federal civil court over the two deaths is the first of numerous lawsuits against the Texas-based railroad corporation to reach trial over its past operations in Libby, Montana. Current and former residents of the small town near the U.S.-Canada border want BNSF held accountable for its alleged role in asbestos exposure that health officials say has killed several hundred people and sickened thousands.
Looming over the proceedings is W.R. Grace & Co., a chemical company that operated a mountaintop vermiculite mine 7 miles (11 kilometers) outside of Libby until it was closed 1990. The Maryland-based company played a central role in Libby’s tragedy and has paid significant settlements to victims.
Asbestos victims in Montana want Buffett’s railroad company held responsible
U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris has referred to the mining company as “the elephant in the room” in the BNSF trial. He reminded jurors several times that the case was about the railroad’s conduct, not W.R. Grace’s separate liability.
Federal prosecutors in 2005 indicted W. R. Grace and executives from the company on criminal charges over the contamination in Libby. A jury acquitted them following a 2009 trial.
How much W.R. Grace revealed about the asbestos dangers to Texas-based BNSF and its corporate predecessors has been sharply disputed.
The railroad said it was obliged under law to ship the vermiculite, which was used in insulation and for other commercial purposes, and that W.R. Grace employees had concealed the health hazards from the railroad.
Former railroad workers said during testimony and in depositions that they knew nothing about the risks of asbestos. They said Grace employees were responsible for loading the hopper cars, plugging the holes of any cars leaking vermiculite and occasionally cleaned up material that spilled in the rail yard.
Former rail yard worker John Swing said in previously recorded testimony that he didn’t know asbestos was an issue in Libby until a 1999 newspaper story reporting deaths and illnesses among mine workers and their families.
Swing also said he didn’t think the rail yard was dusty. His testimony was at odds with people who grew up in Libby and recall dust getting kicked up whenever the wind blew or a train rolled through the yard.
The estates of the two deceased plaintiffs have argued that the W.R. Grace’s actions don’t absolve BNSF of its responsibility for knowingly exposing people to asbestos at its railyard in the heart of the community.
Their attorneys said BNSF should have known about the dangers because Grace put signs on rail cars carrying vermiculite warning of potential health risks. They showed jurors an image of a warning label allegedly attached to rail cars in the late 1970s that advised against inhaling the asbestos dust because it could cause bodily harm.
BNSF higher-ups also should have been aware of the dangers because they attended conferences that discussed dust diseases like asbestosis in the 1930s, attorneys for the plaintiffs argued.
The Environmental Protection Agency descended on Libby after the 1999 news reports. In 2009 it declared in Libby the nation’s first ever public health emergency under the federal Superfund cleanup program.
The pollution in Libby has been cleaned up, largely at public expense. Yet the long timeframe over which asbestos-related diseases can develop means people previously exposed are likely to continue getting sick and dying for years to come, health officials say.
Family members of Tom Wells and Joyce Walder testified that their lives ended soon after they were diagnosed with mesothelioma. The families said the dust blowing from the rail yard sickened and killed them.
In a March 2020 video of Wells played for jurors and recorded the day before he died, he lay in a home hospital bed, struggling to breathe.
“I’ve been placed in a horrible spot here, and the best chance I see at release — relief for everybody — is to just get it over with,” he said. “It’s just not something I want to try and play hero through because I don’t think that there’s a miracle waiting.”
___
Brown reported from Billings, Mont.
Africa: To End Aids, We Must Reclaim Our Unyielding Pursuit of Equity
18 APRIL 2024
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Geneva)
Another key objective is to reduce stigma and discrimination as barriers to HIV prevention, care and treatment. The West Africa regional Stigma Index 2.0 report, based on data from 10,910 people living with HIV in seven countries in the region, found that, among key populations, people who inject drugs and transgender women had the biggest difficulties in accessing testing, care and treatment.
HIV Challenge is One of Equity, Not Science
The fight against HIV is no longer a challenge of science, but one of equity. For us to accelerate progress once again, we must reclaim that strong spirit of equity that animated us two decades ago. That means focusing on the communities most affected by HIV. In Africa, the focus on adolescent girls and boys is an urgent imperative.
Although HIV incidence in adolescent girls and young women has greatly declined in the past decade, 4,000 girls and young women still get infected with HIV every week across the world, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. This is unacceptable. This group continues to suffer conditions that are the most iniquitous of all, with structural injustices that predispose them to diseases.
If we are to prevent HIV infections in this population, we must bring together diverse partners to invest in long-term efforts to keep girls in schools.
Education turns girls into women with the possibility of more equal opportunities, and protects them from diseases such as HIV. Educated girls register lower rates of teenage pregnancies, sexual violence, early marriages, and ultimately lower HIV infections.
We must also accelerate investments in programs that support comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights, particularly for adolescent girls and young women.
And we must ensure that young women and girls are front and center of projects that seek to engage them. These are some of the goals the Global Fund partnership is seeking to achieve with projects such as Voix EssentiELLES and the HER Voice Fund, which strive to meaningfully engage young women and girls in key health programs and decision-making forums in their communities.
To end the HIV infections in young women and girls, we must also reduce infections amongst their sexual partners. That means investing in efforts to transform cultural and social norms that predispose men and boys to HIV and that shape their engagement with girls and women in their communities.
It also means that men at high risk of HIV infection are tested and supported to start and stay on treatment. Protecting heterosexual men and boys from HIV can also help protect women and girls from HIV.
We must seek to renew our focus on promoting equity. We know how to do this. We did it at the turn of the millennium with our drive for equity in HIV treatment. Let us now move forward and end this unfinished fight by reducing HIV infections among the most affected communities. To get there, we can be reenergized by the goals and the unyielding spirit of those golden years of progress in the fight against HIV.
This op-ed was originally published on Health Policy Watch.
Africa: Empower African Youth So They Can Put an End to Aids
18 APRIL 2024
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Geneva)
By Adv. Bience Gawanas, Vice-Chair of the Global Fund Board
As HIV practitioners gather this week in Yaoundé for AFRAVIH, the largest international Francophone conference on HIV/AIDS, and a few months before the 25th International AIDS Conference in Munich, the Vice-Chair of the Global Fund Board urges renewed focus on promoting equity in the fight against HIV particularly for groups that continue to suffer a disproportionate proportion of HIV infections.
Every step we make in the fight against HIV today is going to be painstaking - we must press harder for progress. In the early years of the fight against this virus, our gains were often rapid and immense because everywhere you looked, there was great need. Those were devastating times: The disease killed three million people in 2000, more than 2.4 million of them in Africa. In the southern tip of the continent, where I am from, the disease was threatening to disintegrate the very fabric of society.
When the world came together to form partnerships like that of the Global Fund and PEPFAR, it was to challenge the injustice that only the rich could get HIV treatment. It was to stop the possibility of losing a generation of people in many low- and middle-income countries as well as those who were stigmatized and discriminated against because they were considered "different".
I am proud to say that we have since come a long way. From less than 50,000 people on treatment for HIV in Africa in 2000 to more than 20 million today, HIV prevention innovations have proliferated, reducing HIV infections dramatically.
And yet, more than 1.3 million people were infected with the virus in 2022.
These infections are now happening primarily amongst the most marginalized: Men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, trans women and sex workers. More so, their voices are increasingly silenced, and they are under constant threat of violence and abuse, as discriminatory legislation directed against LGBTI people is surging around the world. Among these groups, young people aged 15-24 years old bear a disproportionate burden of HIV and are even more vulnerable, facing greater barriers to accessing health services.
Long Road Remains
In Francophone African countries (24 countries - 373.3 million people), the HIV burden is lower than in the rest of the continent. However, they accounted for 16% of all new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa in 2022.
Thanks to concerted efforts from the Global Fund and other partners, the AIDS-related mortality rate in Francophone African countries has declined by 82% between 2000 and 2022. In the same time period, the AIDS-related mortality rate fell by 95% in Burundi, by 91% in Rwanda, and by 90% in Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso.
The number of new HIV infections in Francophone Africa also decreased, from 325,000 in 2000 to 108,000 in 2022. Between 2001 and 2022, HIV incidence rates declined by 92% in Burundi and Rwanda, and by 91% in Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso. Through Global Fund-supported programs, antiretroviral therapy coverage in Francophone Africa significantly increased from 4% in 2005 to 72% in 2022.
Still, a long road lies ahead to achieve key objectives, such as elimination of AIDS in children. As many Francophone countries still have high rates of vertical transmission, it is of the utmost importance to improve both prevention and pediatric care simultaneously.
As HIV practitioners gather this week in Yaoundé for AFRAVIH, the largest international Francophone conference on HIV/AIDS, and a few months before the 25th International AIDS Conference in Munich, the Vice-Chair of the Global Fund Board urges renewed focus on promoting equity in the fight against HIV particularly for groups that continue to suffer a disproportionate proportion of HIV infections.
Every step we make in the fight against HIV today is going to be painstaking - we must press harder for progress. In the early years of the fight against this virus, our gains were often rapid and immense because everywhere you looked, there was great need. Those were devastating times: The disease killed three million people in 2000, more than 2.4 million of them in Africa. In the southern tip of the continent, where I am from, the disease was threatening to disintegrate the very fabric of society.
When the world came together to form partnerships like that of the Global Fund and PEPFAR, it was to challenge the injustice that only the rich could get HIV treatment. It was to stop the possibility of losing a generation of people in many low- and middle-income countries as well as those who were stigmatized and discriminated against because they were considered "different".
I am proud to say that we have since come a long way. From less than 50,000 people on treatment for HIV in Africa in 2000 to more than 20 million today, HIV prevention innovations have proliferated, reducing HIV infections dramatically.
And yet, more than 1.3 million people were infected with the virus in 2022.
These infections are now happening primarily amongst the most marginalized: Men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, trans women and sex workers. More so, their voices are increasingly silenced, and they are under constant threat of violence and abuse, as discriminatory legislation directed against LGBTI people is surging around the world. Among these groups, young people aged 15-24 years old bear a disproportionate burden of HIV and are even more vulnerable, facing greater barriers to accessing health services.
Long Road Remains
In Francophone African countries (24 countries - 373.3 million people), the HIV burden is lower than in the rest of the continent. However, they accounted for 16% of all new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa in 2022.
Thanks to concerted efforts from the Global Fund and other partners, the AIDS-related mortality rate in Francophone African countries has declined by 82% between 2000 and 2022. In the same time period, the AIDS-related mortality rate fell by 95% in Burundi, by 91% in Rwanda, and by 90% in Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso.
The number of new HIV infections in Francophone Africa also decreased, from 325,000 in 2000 to 108,000 in 2022. Between 2001 and 2022, HIV incidence rates declined by 92% in Burundi and Rwanda, and by 91% in Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso. Through Global Fund-supported programs, antiretroviral therapy coverage in Francophone Africa significantly increased from 4% in 2005 to 72% in 2022.
Still, a long road lies ahead to achieve key objectives, such as elimination of AIDS in children. As many Francophone countries still have high rates of vertical transmission, it is of the utmost importance to improve both prevention and pediatric care simultaneously.
Another key objective is to reduce stigma and discrimination as barriers to HIV prevention, care and treatment. The West Africa regional Stigma Index 2.0 report, based on data from 10,910 people living with HIV in seven countries in the region, found that, among key populations, people who inject drugs and transgender women had the biggest difficulties in accessing testing, care and treatment.
HIV Challenge is One of Equity, Not Science
The fight against HIV is no longer a challenge of science, but one of equity. For us to accelerate progress once again, we must reclaim that strong spirit of equity that animated us two decades ago. That means focusing on the communities most affected by HIV. In Africa, the focus on adolescent girls and boys is an urgent imperative.
Although HIV incidence in adolescent girls and young women has greatly declined in the past decade, 4,000 girls and young women still get infected with HIV every week across the world, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. This is unacceptable. This group continues to suffer conditions that are the most iniquitous of all, with structural injustices that predispose them to diseases.
If we are to prevent HIV infections in this population, we must bring together diverse partners to invest in long-term efforts to keep girls in schools.
Education turns girls into women with the possibility of more equal opportunities, and protects them from diseases such as HIV. Educated girls register lower rates of teenage pregnancies, sexual violence, early marriages, and ultimately lower HIV infections.
We must also accelerate investments in programs that support comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights, particularly for adolescent girls and young women.
And we must ensure that young women and girls are front and center of projects that seek to engage them. These are some of the goals the Global Fund partnership is seeking to achieve with projects such as Voix EssentiELLES and the HER Voice Fund, which strive to meaningfully engage young women and girls in key health programs and decision-making forums in their communities.
To end the HIV infections in young women and girls, we must also reduce infections amongst their sexual partners. That means investing in efforts to transform cultural and social norms that predispose men and boys to HIV and that shape their engagement with girls and women in their communities.
It also means that men at high risk of HIV infection are tested and supported to start and stay on treatment. Protecting heterosexual men and boys from HIV can also help protect women and girls from HIV.
We must seek to renew our focus on promoting equity. We know how to do this. We did it at the turn of the millennium with our drive for equity in HIV treatment. Let us now move forward and end this unfinished fight by reducing HIV infections among the most affected communities. To get there, we can be reenergized by the goals and the unyielding spirit of those golden years of progress in the fight against HIV.
This op-ed was originally published on Health Policy Watch.
Africa: Empower African Youth So They Can Put an End to Aids
The Global Fund
16 APRIL 2024
By Patrick Fouda
Ahead of the largest French-language international conference on AIDS--to take place in Yaoundé from April 15 to 19 (AFRAVIH)--the RAJ+ AOC group of activists and social entrepreneurs and one of its leaders, Patrick Fouda, are urging African societies to trust that young people can effectively combat the epidemic that has ravaged the continent for too long.
When AIDS swept across Africa at the end of the last century, many of our governments were denying or downplaying the problem and it was the young people who mobilized. Large numbers of them were affected so they gave their energy, and even their lives, to fight a scourge which offered little hope of survival before antiretroviral drugs became widely available. They organized into associations and demanded that the world grant them the right to drugsand health care. Their fight was a resounding success.
Today, with the support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and other partners, most African countries are running major programs to combat the disease. The programs include health care, the distribution of antiretrovirals and preventive products, and responding to the stigmatization of and discrimination against HIV-positive people. The results are encouraging. Since 2010, West and Central Africa has managed to reduce by 50 percent the number of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths.
This generally positive picture does, however, have a darker flip side: in Africa, young people aged 15 to 24 are still the most HIV-vulnerable group. Young women face harmful gender norms that reduce their ability to protect themselves against HIV and AIDS. Such norms also put them at risk of transmitting the virus to their children through lack of access to prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) treatment. Young people under the age of 25 may face laws, customs and social structures that exclude them from effective HIV prevention education. Every week, over 300 teenagers in West and Central Africa become HIV-positive, and many are unaware of it. For example, in my country of Cameroon, only 4 out of 10 teenagers know their HIV status. Yet knowing one's serostatus is an essential step in benefiting from antiretroviral treatment and other health care services. As for children under the age of 14, the situation is of even greater concern. In West and Central Africa, two thirds of HIV-positive children do not receive any paediatric antiretroviral medication at all. In addition, almost half of HIV-positive pregnant women do not have access to PMTCT, which explains why one quarter of the world's HIV-positive children live in West and Central Africa.
And yet, while HIV continues to wreak havoc among the under-25 age group, young people are, paradoxically, the population that is the least frequently consulted or listened to at the national and regional levels regarding matters related to sexual health and HIV. Yesterday's young people, those who were at the helm of the first response to HIV/AIDS, are now parents, elders and leaders who manage HIV/AIDS programs and are barely receptive to this major, current, and timeless issue in the response to HIV and AIDS. The participation of the most affected communities at all levels of the HIV response that our elders built by winning hard-won battles, is still the most important but least acted upon principle in the fight against AIDS, as far as young people are concerned. We will only succeed in eliminating the disease if the leadership is passed on from one generation to the next and by training and empowering young people so that they can become fully involved in the response. This is essential for two reasons: This is necessary for two reasons: Firstly, without the input of young people, national programs and development partners struggle to identify HIV and AIDS needs because HIV-positive or at-risk young people are not a homogeneous population. Rather, they are interconnected groups with different needs: young girls, urban youth, adolescents from remote areas, teenagers who have dropped out of school, young migrants or refugees, or young populations made vulnerable by stigma and discrimination. Secondly, if we fail to identify the needs, programs will be unable to address all adolescents and young people using approaches that suit each of the different groups. For example, some young people are afraid to go to their local health center for HIV screening because they fear being recognized or stigmatized. Whereas they would turn to more informal structures, such as youth associations, to obtain self-tests to use at home.
Without the essential contribution of young people, we risk sacrificing our common dream of putting an end to AIDS. Indeed, the more a country, a culture or a program excludes HIV-affected communities from decision-making on sexual health and HIV, the more frequently the disease is transmitted and is therefore able to persist. In Africa, those communities are predominantly young people.
The situation requires more targeted investments in PMTCT, paediatric antiretrovirals, youth education on gender and HIV prevention, anti-stigma and anti-discrimination programs, and strengthening the leadership and institutional capacity of youth-led organizations. All the above are essential if we are to maintain the gains of the past and secure our future. And they must be built, implemented and evaluated with, by, and for young people.
We are the future of Africa. If nothing is done, many of us will continue to die due to lack of appropriate health care, medication and prevention. Unless urgent, concerted action is taken with us, for us and by us, many of us will be condemned to a lifetime of living with a now-preventable virus. The road to eliminating HIV and AIDS began with yesterday's young people. And it will end with today's young people. They will put an end to the epidemic and enable the emergence of the first AIDS-free generation in Africa in half a century, if their voices are heard and if they participate fully in the response.
Patrick Fouda, Co-founder and Executive Director of the West and Central Africa Network of Positive Adolescents and Youth (RAJ+ AOC)
This op-ed was originally published on Jeune Afrique.
16 APRIL 2024
By Patrick Fouda
Ahead of the largest French-language international conference on AIDS--to take place in Yaoundé from April 15 to 19 (AFRAVIH)--the RAJ+ AOC group of activists and social entrepreneurs and one of its leaders, Patrick Fouda, are urging African societies to trust that young people can effectively combat the epidemic that has ravaged the continent for too long.
When AIDS swept across Africa at the end of the last century, many of our governments were denying or downplaying the problem and it was the young people who mobilized. Large numbers of them were affected so they gave their energy, and even their lives, to fight a scourge which offered little hope of survival before antiretroviral drugs became widely available. They organized into associations and demanded that the world grant them the right to drugsand health care. Their fight was a resounding success.
Today, with the support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and other partners, most African countries are running major programs to combat the disease. The programs include health care, the distribution of antiretrovirals and preventive products, and responding to the stigmatization of and discrimination against HIV-positive people. The results are encouraging. Since 2010, West and Central Africa has managed to reduce by 50 percent the number of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths.
This generally positive picture does, however, have a darker flip side: in Africa, young people aged 15 to 24 are still the most HIV-vulnerable group. Young women face harmful gender norms that reduce their ability to protect themselves against HIV and AIDS. Such norms also put them at risk of transmitting the virus to their children through lack of access to prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) treatment. Young people under the age of 25 may face laws, customs and social structures that exclude them from effective HIV prevention education. Every week, over 300 teenagers in West and Central Africa become HIV-positive, and many are unaware of it. For example, in my country of Cameroon, only 4 out of 10 teenagers know their HIV status. Yet knowing one's serostatus is an essential step in benefiting from antiretroviral treatment and other health care services. As for children under the age of 14, the situation is of even greater concern. In West and Central Africa, two thirds of HIV-positive children do not receive any paediatric antiretroviral medication at all. In addition, almost half of HIV-positive pregnant women do not have access to PMTCT, which explains why one quarter of the world's HIV-positive children live in West and Central Africa.
And yet, while HIV continues to wreak havoc among the under-25 age group, young people are, paradoxically, the population that is the least frequently consulted or listened to at the national and regional levels regarding matters related to sexual health and HIV. Yesterday's young people, those who were at the helm of the first response to HIV/AIDS, are now parents, elders and leaders who manage HIV/AIDS programs and are barely receptive to this major, current, and timeless issue in the response to HIV and AIDS. The participation of the most affected communities at all levels of the HIV response that our elders built by winning hard-won battles, is still the most important but least acted upon principle in the fight against AIDS, as far as young people are concerned. We will only succeed in eliminating the disease if the leadership is passed on from one generation to the next and by training and empowering young people so that they can become fully involved in the response. This is essential for two reasons: This is necessary for two reasons: Firstly, without the input of young people, national programs and development partners struggle to identify HIV and AIDS needs because HIV-positive or at-risk young people are not a homogeneous population. Rather, they are interconnected groups with different needs: young girls, urban youth, adolescents from remote areas, teenagers who have dropped out of school, young migrants or refugees, or young populations made vulnerable by stigma and discrimination. Secondly, if we fail to identify the needs, programs will be unable to address all adolescents and young people using approaches that suit each of the different groups. For example, some young people are afraid to go to their local health center for HIV screening because they fear being recognized or stigmatized. Whereas they would turn to more informal structures, such as youth associations, to obtain self-tests to use at home.
Without the essential contribution of young people, we risk sacrificing our common dream of putting an end to AIDS. Indeed, the more a country, a culture or a program excludes HIV-affected communities from decision-making on sexual health and HIV, the more frequently the disease is transmitted and is therefore able to persist. In Africa, those communities are predominantly young people.
The situation requires more targeted investments in PMTCT, paediatric antiretrovirals, youth education on gender and HIV prevention, anti-stigma and anti-discrimination programs, and strengthening the leadership and institutional capacity of youth-led organizations. All the above are essential if we are to maintain the gains of the past and secure our future. And they must be built, implemented and evaluated with, by, and for young people.
We are the future of Africa. If nothing is done, many of us will continue to die due to lack of appropriate health care, medication and prevention. Unless urgent, concerted action is taken with us, for us and by us, many of us will be condemned to a lifetime of living with a now-preventable virus. The road to eliminating HIV and AIDS began with yesterday's young people. And it will end with today's young people. They will put an end to the epidemic and enable the emergence of the first AIDS-free generation in Africa in half a century, if their voices are heard and if they participate fully in the response.
Patrick Fouda, Co-founder and Executive Director of the West and Central Africa Network of Positive Adolescents and Youth (RAJ+ AOC)
This op-ed was originally published on Jeune Afrique.
Afghan women: The silentCED victims of Taliban brutality
The Taliban is on a relentless mission to erase women from
the political, economic, and societal discourse of Afghanistan.
Fayzabad, Badakhshan province, February
Published 19 Apr 2024
Sex and Gender
The Taliban’s Supreme Leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada has vowed to start stoning women to death in public. On 23 March, in a voice message aired on a Taliban-controlled broadcast service, he stated, “We will flog the women … we will stone them to death in public [for adultery] …You may call it a violation of women’s rights when we publicly stone or flog them for committing adultery because they conflict with your democratic principles…[But] I represent Allah, and you represent Satan.”
Taliban “officials” are already ruthlessly “punishing” women on a regular basis. Women are flogged a minimum of 30 times for behaviour that is normal elsewhere in the world, such as using a mobile phone, talking with men, falling in love or having a relationship – because for the Taliban all these activities are adulterous in nature.
Unfortunately, international silence is not only enabling the Taliban’s brutal rule in Afghanistan, but also legitimising criminal activities against women made through numerous “decrees”. This began in September 2021 when the Taliban brought down the signboard of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and replaced it with the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, one of its strictest ministries. The Taliban have since introduced more than 50 decrees that directly restrain the rights and dignity of women, and, as was expected, none of these decrees have been reversed.
Among the notorious decrees:In December 2021, the Taliban announced that women weren’t allowed to travel more than 70 kilometres without a Mahram-male relative to escort them.
In May 2022, the Taliban ordered all women to observe “proper hijab”, preferably by wearing a chadari, a loose black garment covering body and face, in public and made male relatives responsible for enforcing the ban or face punishment.
Factors contributing to the horrid situation for women include a failure to deal decisively with perpetrators, a culture of impunity, and perceptions that violence against women is “normal”.In August 2022, the Taliban established the women’s morality police department, specifically going after women to implement their rules and edicts.
In December 2022, the Ministry of Higher Education issued a written order to public and private universities, suspending female education until further notice.
The Taliban’s edicts, decrees, and overall outlook are the product of a deadly blend of tribal codes of conduct and strictest interpretation of Islam. A woman is consequently considered to be the property of male members of her family, clan and tribe. There is no scope for a woman to assert her existence in such a patriarchal social setup. She is the sole carrier of the burden of “honour”, and can be legally mutilated and killed for defiling it.
Factors contributing to the horrid situation for women include a failure to deal decisively with perpetrators, a culture of impunity, and perceptions that violence against women is “normal”. Illiteracy and low levels of public awareness also contributes, along with traditional patterns of marriage, women’s limited access to justice and the lack of security. It means on the streets of Kabul and in other provinces there is an unprecedented increase in number of woman beggars. They are begging for just a little bread for themselves and for their children.
The Taliban regime is systematically excluding half the population from the public sphere and also subjugating them in private space. In his Eid-ul-Adha message of 25 June last year, Akhundzada declared: “necessary steps have been taken for the betterment of women as half of society in order to provide them with a comfortable and prosperous life according to the Islamic Shariah”.
However, this hollow statement is exposed by reality. Afghan women are raped, assaulted, maimed, abducted, forcefully wedded, arrested, whipped and murdered by the Taliban. Moreover, they are also suffering at psychological level. As the UNAMA “Summary report of country-wide women’s consultations” described in September last year:
Harassment, intimidation, and violence on the street by both Taliban and ordinary men is reportedly an increasingly common reality for women who are seen as defying decrees. Women spoke of psychological issues, including depression, insomnia, loss of hope and motivation, anxiety, fear, aggression, isolation and increasingly isolationist behaviour, and suicidal ideation.
Apart from women of Afghanistan, the Taliban is not even sparing the female staff working in foreign missions and embassies. Countries are either shutting offices or relocating. In December 2022, Jan Egeland, the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said that the banning of female staff was a big blow and therefore the organisation suspended all work. In February last year, Saudi Arabia evacuated diplomats and embassy staff from Kabul after the Taliban barred all female employees of the embassy from working.
The Taliban’s previous rule from 1996 to 2001 caused tremendous damage to Afghan women. The earlier regime was notorious for petrifying the mind and body of Afghan women with lashings, public executions, stoning, and sexual violence. This time around, the Taliban is normalising violence against women. It is difficult to quantify the extent exploitation and harassment, particularly of women, as most of the cases go unreported. The Taliban is on a relentless mission to erase women from the political, economic, and societal discourse of Afghanistan.
The Taliban is on a relentless mission to erase women from
the political, economic, and societal discourse of Afghanistan.
Fayzabad, Badakhshan province, February
(Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)
Published 19 Apr 2024
Sex and Gender
The Taliban’s Supreme Leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada has vowed to start stoning women to death in public. On 23 March, in a voice message aired on a Taliban-controlled broadcast service, he stated, “We will flog the women … we will stone them to death in public [for adultery] …You may call it a violation of women’s rights when we publicly stone or flog them for committing adultery because they conflict with your democratic principles…[But] I represent Allah, and you represent Satan.”
Taliban “officials” are already ruthlessly “punishing” women on a regular basis. Women are flogged a minimum of 30 times for behaviour that is normal elsewhere in the world, such as using a mobile phone, talking with men, falling in love or having a relationship – because for the Taliban all these activities are adulterous in nature.
Unfortunately, international silence is not only enabling the Taliban’s brutal rule in Afghanistan, but also legitimising criminal activities against women made through numerous “decrees”. This began in September 2021 when the Taliban brought down the signboard of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and replaced it with the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, one of its strictest ministries. The Taliban have since introduced more than 50 decrees that directly restrain the rights and dignity of women, and, as was expected, none of these decrees have been reversed.
Among the notorious decrees:In December 2021, the Taliban announced that women weren’t allowed to travel more than 70 kilometres without a Mahram-male relative to escort them.
In May 2022, the Taliban ordered all women to observe “proper hijab”, preferably by wearing a chadari, a loose black garment covering body and face, in public and made male relatives responsible for enforcing the ban or face punishment.
Factors contributing to the horrid situation for women include a failure to deal decisively with perpetrators, a culture of impunity, and perceptions that violence against women is “normal”.In August 2022, the Taliban established the women’s morality police department, specifically going after women to implement their rules and edicts.
In December 2022, the Ministry of Higher Education issued a written order to public and private universities, suspending female education until further notice.
The Taliban’s edicts, decrees, and overall outlook are the product of a deadly blend of tribal codes of conduct and strictest interpretation of Islam. A woman is consequently considered to be the property of male members of her family, clan and tribe. There is no scope for a woman to assert her existence in such a patriarchal social setup. She is the sole carrier of the burden of “honour”, and can be legally mutilated and killed for defiling it.
Factors contributing to the horrid situation for women include a failure to deal decisively with perpetrators, a culture of impunity, and perceptions that violence against women is “normal”. Illiteracy and low levels of public awareness also contributes, along with traditional patterns of marriage, women’s limited access to justice and the lack of security. It means on the streets of Kabul and in other provinces there is an unprecedented increase in number of woman beggars. They are begging for just a little bread for themselves and for their children.
The Taliban regime is systematically excluding half the population from the public sphere and also subjugating them in private space. In his Eid-ul-Adha message of 25 June last year, Akhundzada declared: “necessary steps have been taken for the betterment of women as half of society in order to provide them with a comfortable and prosperous life according to the Islamic Shariah”.
However, this hollow statement is exposed by reality. Afghan women are raped, assaulted, maimed, abducted, forcefully wedded, arrested, whipped and murdered by the Taliban. Moreover, they are also suffering at psychological level. As the UNAMA “Summary report of country-wide women’s consultations” described in September last year:
Harassment, intimidation, and violence on the street by both Taliban and ordinary men is reportedly an increasingly common reality for women who are seen as defying decrees. Women spoke of psychological issues, including depression, insomnia, loss of hope and motivation, anxiety, fear, aggression, isolation and increasingly isolationist behaviour, and suicidal ideation.
Apart from women of Afghanistan, the Taliban is not even sparing the female staff working in foreign missions and embassies. Countries are either shutting offices or relocating. In December 2022, Jan Egeland, the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said that the banning of female staff was a big blow and therefore the organisation suspended all work. In February last year, Saudi Arabia evacuated diplomats and embassy staff from Kabul after the Taliban barred all female employees of the embassy from working.
The Taliban’s previous rule from 1996 to 2001 caused tremendous damage to Afghan women. The earlier regime was notorious for petrifying the mind and body of Afghan women with lashings, public executions, stoning, and sexual violence. This time around, the Taliban is normalising violence against women. It is difficult to quantify the extent exploitation and harassment, particularly of women, as most of the cases go unreported. The Taliban is on a relentless mission to erase women from the political, economic, and societal discourse of Afghanistan.
AP Explains: 4/20 grew from humble roots to marijuana's high holiday
Marijuana advocates are gearing up for April 20
ByGENE JOHNSON
Marijuana advocates are gearing up for April 20
ByGENE JOHNSON
Associated Press
April 18, 2024,
SEATTLE -- Saturday marks marijuana culture’s high holiday, 4/20, when college students gather — at 4:20 p.m. — in clouds of smoke on campus quads and pot shops in legal-weed states thank their customers with discounts.
This year’s edition provides an occasion for activists to reflect on how far their movement has come, with recreational pot now allowed in nearly half the states and the nation’s capital. Many states have instituted “social equity” measures to help communities of color, harmed the most by the drug war, reap financial benefits from legalization. And the White House has shown an openness to marijuana reform.
Here’s a look at 4/20's history:
The origins of the date, and the term “420” generally, were long murky. Some claimed it referred to a police code for marijuana possession or that it derived from Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35,” with its refrain of “Everybody must get stoned” — 420 being the product of 12 times 35.
But the prevailing explanation is that it started in the 1970s with a group of bell-bottomed buddies from San Rafael High School, in California's Marin County north of San Francisco, who called themselves “the Waldos.” A friend’s brother was afraid of getting busted for a patch of cannabis he was growing in the woods at nearby Point Reyes, so he drew a map and gave the teens permission to harvest the crop, the story goes.
During fall 1971, at 4:20 p.m., just after classes and football practice, the group would meet up at the school’s statue of chemist Louis Pasteur, smoke a joint and head out to search for the weed patch. They never did find it, but their private lexicon — “420 Louie” and later just “420” — would take on a life of its own.
The Waldos saved postmarked letters and other artifacts from the 1970s referencing “420,” which they now keep in a bank vault, and when the Oxford English Dictionary added the term in 2017, it cited some of those documents as the earliest recorded uses.
A brother of one of the Waldos was a close friend of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, as Lesh once confirmed in an interview with the Huffington Post, now HuffPost. The Waldos began hanging out in the band’s circle and the slang spread.
Fast-forward to the early 1990s: Steve Bloom, a reporter for the cannabis magazine High Times, was at a Dead show when he was handed a flier urging people to “meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais.” High Times published it.
“It’s a phenomenon,” one of the Waldos, Steve Capper, now 69, once told The Associated Press. “Most things die within a couple years, but this just goes on and on. It’s not like someday somebody’s going to say, ‘OK, Cannabis New Year’s is on June 23rd now.’”
While the Waldos came up with the term, the people who made the flier distributed at the Dead show — and effectively turned 4/20 into a holiday — remain unknown.
With weed, naturally.
Some celebrations are bigger than others: The Mile High 420 Festival in Denver, for example, typically draws thousands and describes itself as the largest free 4/20 event in the world. Hippie Hill in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park has also attracted massive crowds, but the gathering was canceled this year, with organizers citing a lack of financial sponsorship and city budget cuts.
College quads and statehouse lawns are also known for drawing 4/20 celebrations, with the University of Colorado Boulder historically among the largest, though not so much since administrators banned the annual smokeout over a decade ago.
Some breweries make beers that are 420-themed, but not laced, including SweetWater Brewing in Atlanta, which is throwing a 420 music festival this weekend and whose founders went to the University of Colorado.
Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, California, releases its “Waldos’ Special Ale” every year on 4/20 in partnership with the term’s coiners. That's where the Waldos will be this Saturday to sample the beer, for which they picked out “hops that smell and taste like the dankest marijuana,” one Waldo, Dave Reddix, said via email.
4/20 has also become a big industry event, with vendors gathering to try each other's wares.
The number of states allowing recreational marijuana has grown to 24 after recent legalization campaigns succeeded in Ohio, Minnesota and Delaware. Fourteen more states allow it for medical purposes, including Kentucky, where medical marijuana legislation that passed last year will take effect in 2025. Additional states permit only products with low THC, marijuana's main psychoactive ingredient, for certain medical conditions.
But marijuana is still illegal under federal law. It is listed with drugs such as heroin under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, meaning it has no federally accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
The Biden administration, however, has taken some steps toward marijuana reform. The president has pardoned thousands of people who were convicted of “simple possession” on federal land and in the District of Columbia.
The Department of Health and Human Services last year recommended to the Drug Enforcement Administration that marijuana be reclassified as Schedule III, which would affirm its medical use under federal law.
According to a Gallup poll last fall, 70% of adults support legalization, the highest level yet recorded by the polling firm and more than double the roughly 30% who backed it in 2000.
Vivian McPeak, who helped found Seattle's Hempfest more than three decades ago, reflected on the extent to which the marijuana industry has evolved during his lifetime.
“It's surreal to drive by stores that are selling cannabis,” he said. “A lot of people laughed at us, saying, ‘This will never happen.’”
McPeak described 4/20 these days as a “mixed bag.” Despite the legalization movement's progress, many smaller growers are struggling to compete against large producers, he said, and many Americans are still behind bars for weed convictions.
“We can celebrate the victories that we've had, and we can also strategize and organize to further the cause,” he said. “Despite the kind of complacency that some people might feel, we still got work to do. We've got to keep earning that shoe leather until we get everybody out of jails and prisons.”
For the Waldos, 4/20 signifies above all else a good time.
“We’re not political. We’re jokesters,” Capper has said. “But there was a time that we can’t forget, when it was secret, furtive. ... The energy of the time was more charged, more exciting in a certain way.
“I’m not saying that’s all good — it’s not good they were putting people in jail,” he continued. “You wouldn’t want to go back there.”
___
Associated Press writer Claire Rush contributed from Portland, Oregon.
April 18, 2024,
SEATTLE -- Saturday marks marijuana culture’s high holiday, 4/20, when college students gather — at 4:20 p.m. — in clouds of smoke on campus quads and pot shops in legal-weed states thank their customers with discounts.
This year’s edition provides an occasion for activists to reflect on how far their movement has come, with recreational pot now allowed in nearly half the states and the nation’s capital. Many states have instituted “social equity” measures to help communities of color, harmed the most by the drug war, reap financial benefits from legalization. And the White House has shown an openness to marijuana reform.
Here’s a look at 4/20's history:
The origins of the date, and the term “420” generally, were long murky. Some claimed it referred to a police code for marijuana possession or that it derived from Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35,” with its refrain of “Everybody must get stoned” — 420 being the product of 12 times 35.
But the prevailing explanation is that it started in the 1970s with a group of bell-bottomed buddies from San Rafael High School, in California's Marin County north of San Francisco, who called themselves “the Waldos.” A friend’s brother was afraid of getting busted for a patch of cannabis he was growing in the woods at nearby Point Reyes, so he drew a map and gave the teens permission to harvest the crop, the story goes.
During fall 1971, at 4:20 p.m., just after classes and football practice, the group would meet up at the school’s statue of chemist Louis Pasteur, smoke a joint and head out to search for the weed patch. They never did find it, but their private lexicon — “420 Louie” and later just “420” — would take on a life of its own.
The Waldos saved postmarked letters and other artifacts from the 1970s referencing “420,” which they now keep in a bank vault, and when the Oxford English Dictionary added the term in 2017, it cited some of those documents as the earliest recorded uses.
A brother of one of the Waldos was a close friend of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, as Lesh once confirmed in an interview with the Huffington Post, now HuffPost. The Waldos began hanging out in the band’s circle and the slang spread.
Fast-forward to the early 1990s: Steve Bloom, a reporter for the cannabis magazine High Times, was at a Dead show when he was handed a flier urging people to “meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais.” High Times published it.
“It’s a phenomenon,” one of the Waldos, Steve Capper, now 69, once told The Associated Press. “Most things die within a couple years, but this just goes on and on. It’s not like someday somebody’s going to say, ‘OK, Cannabis New Year’s is on June 23rd now.’”
While the Waldos came up with the term, the people who made the flier distributed at the Dead show — and effectively turned 4/20 into a holiday — remain unknown.
With weed, naturally.
Some celebrations are bigger than others: The Mile High 420 Festival in Denver, for example, typically draws thousands and describes itself as the largest free 4/20 event in the world. Hippie Hill in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park has also attracted massive crowds, but the gathering was canceled this year, with organizers citing a lack of financial sponsorship and city budget cuts.
College quads and statehouse lawns are also known for drawing 4/20 celebrations, with the University of Colorado Boulder historically among the largest, though not so much since administrators banned the annual smokeout over a decade ago.
Some breweries make beers that are 420-themed, but not laced, including SweetWater Brewing in Atlanta, which is throwing a 420 music festival this weekend and whose founders went to the University of Colorado.
Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, California, releases its “Waldos’ Special Ale” every year on 4/20 in partnership with the term’s coiners. That's where the Waldos will be this Saturday to sample the beer, for which they picked out “hops that smell and taste like the dankest marijuana,” one Waldo, Dave Reddix, said via email.
4/20 has also become a big industry event, with vendors gathering to try each other's wares.
The number of states allowing recreational marijuana has grown to 24 after recent legalization campaigns succeeded in Ohio, Minnesota and Delaware. Fourteen more states allow it for medical purposes, including Kentucky, where medical marijuana legislation that passed last year will take effect in 2025. Additional states permit only products with low THC, marijuana's main psychoactive ingredient, for certain medical conditions.
But marijuana is still illegal under federal law. It is listed with drugs such as heroin under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, meaning it has no federally accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
The Biden administration, however, has taken some steps toward marijuana reform. The president has pardoned thousands of people who were convicted of “simple possession” on federal land and in the District of Columbia.
The Department of Health and Human Services last year recommended to the Drug Enforcement Administration that marijuana be reclassified as Schedule III, which would affirm its medical use under federal law.
According to a Gallup poll last fall, 70% of adults support legalization, the highest level yet recorded by the polling firm and more than double the roughly 30% who backed it in 2000.
Vivian McPeak, who helped found Seattle's Hempfest more than three decades ago, reflected on the extent to which the marijuana industry has evolved during his lifetime.
“It's surreal to drive by stores that are selling cannabis,” he said. “A lot of people laughed at us, saying, ‘This will never happen.’”
McPeak described 4/20 these days as a “mixed bag.” Despite the legalization movement's progress, many smaller growers are struggling to compete against large producers, he said, and many Americans are still behind bars for weed convictions.
“We can celebrate the victories that we've had, and we can also strategize and organize to further the cause,” he said. “Despite the kind of complacency that some people might feel, we still got work to do. We've got to keep earning that shoe leather until we get everybody out of jails and prisons.”
For the Waldos, 4/20 signifies above all else a good time.
“We’re not political. We’re jokesters,” Capper has said. “But there was a time that we can’t forget, when it was secret, furtive. ... The energy of the time was more charged, more exciting in a certain way.
“I’m not saying that’s all good — it’s not good they were putting people in jail,” he continued. “You wouldn’t want to go back there.”
___
Associated Press writer Claire Rush contributed from Portland, Oregon.
UN Security Council Of 70 Years Ago Does Not Reflect The Realities Of Today: US
US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, at a speech in Tokyo, where she is travelling, indicated that Russia and China are the only two countries in the Security Council who are opposed to the expansion of this 15-membered powerful wing of the United Nations.
PTI
Updated on: 19 April 2024
UNSC of 70 years ago does not reflect the realities of today
Aligning with the Indian argument, the United Nations Security Council of 70 years ago does not reflect the realities of today, a top US diplomat at the UN has said asserting that the Biden administration supports G-4 members becoming permanent members of the UN Security Council.
US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, at a speech in Tokyo, where she is travelling, indicated that Russia and China are the only two countries in the Security Council who are opposed to the expansion of this 15-membered powerful wing of the United Nations.
“Previously the United States, China and Russia agreed on one thing, and that was that we did not want to see changes in the Security Council. But in 2021, the US pulled out of that, and we’ve made clear that it is important that we see reform in the Security Council and broadly in the UN,” she said.
“The Security Council of 70 years ago does not reflect the realities of today, where we have 193 (Member States), where Africa does not have a permanent seat, Latin America does not have a permanent seat, and other countries around the world and other regions are not represented in a significant way in the Council,” she said.
“So one, we have made clear in our discussions with some of the members of the so-called G4 – Japan, Germany, and India (and Brazil) – we support their becoming permanent members of the Security Council," she said.
"And the (US) President reinforced this in his speech last year, again reaffirming our support for permanent seats for Africa and Latin America and additional elected seats on the Council. Over the course of the past year, I have had a series of listening tours among regional groupings to get their ideas on how we might move this agenda forward. We are continuing to work on that,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
“Whether it will happen –, I know it won’t happen by September. It’s not something that’s easy to accomplish. I think one of the things I learned during the listening tour is that it’s going to require a lot of work. There’s no agreement among the 193 members on how this might work, but there is agreement that we do need change, and we have to work together to figure out how that change will take place and what form that change will be. But it is something that we are absolutely committed to, and we’re working to bring it to fruition,” she said in response to a question.
In Japan, she also met with Japan’s National Security Advisor Takeo Akiba.
“They discussed plans to strengthen cooperation at the UN, including trilaterally with the Republic of Korea. They also highlighted the importance of maintaining close coordination in response to North Korea's continued development of its unlawful nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, its ongoing human rights violations and abuses, as well as its growing military cooperation with Russia in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions,” a media release said.
India has been at the forefront of years-long efforts to reform the Security Council, saying it rightly deserves a place as a permanent member at the UN high table, which in its current form does not represent the geo-political realities of the 21st Century.
Currently, the UNSC has five permanent members - China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. Only a permanent member has the power to veto any substantive resolution.
Last month, India presented a detailed model on behalf of the G4 nations of Brazil, Germany, Japan and itself for Security Council reform.
The G4 model proposes that the Security Council’s membership increase from the current 15 to 25-26, by adding by adding six permanent and four or five non-permanent members.
US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, at a speech in Tokyo, where she is travelling, indicated that Russia and China are the only two countries in the Security Council who are opposed to the expansion of this 15-membered powerful wing of the United Nations.
PTI
Updated on: 19 April 2024
UNSC of 70 years ago does not reflect the realities of today
Aligning with the Indian argument, the United Nations Security Council of 70 years ago does not reflect the realities of today, a top US diplomat at the UN has said asserting that the Biden administration supports G-4 members becoming permanent members of the UN Security Council.
US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, at a speech in Tokyo, where she is travelling, indicated that Russia and China are the only two countries in the Security Council who are opposed to the expansion of this 15-membered powerful wing of the United Nations.
“Previously the United States, China and Russia agreed on one thing, and that was that we did not want to see changes in the Security Council. But in 2021, the US pulled out of that, and we’ve made clear that it is important that we see reform in the Security Council and broadly in the UN,” she said.
“The Security Council of 70 years ago does not reflect the realities of today, where we have 193 (Member States), where Africa does not have a permanent seat, Latin America does not have a permanent seat, and other countries around the world and other regions are not represented in a significant way in the Council,” she said.
“So one, we have made clear in our discussions with some of the members of the so-called G4 – Japan, Germany, and India (and Brazil) – we support their becoming permanent members of the Security Council," she said.
"And the (US) President reinforced this in his speech last year, again reaffirming our support for permanent seats for Africa and Latin America and additional elected seats on the Council. Over the course of the past year, I have had a series of listening tours among regional groupings to get their ideas on how we might move this agenda forward. We are continuing to work on that,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
“Whether it will happen –, I know it won’t happen by September. It’s not something that’s easy to accomplish. I think one of the things I learned during the listening tour is that it’s going to require a lot of work. There’s no agreement among the 193 members on how this might work, but there is agreement that we do need change, and we have to work together to figure out how that change will take place and what form that change will be. But it is something that we are absolutely committed to, and we’re working to bring it to fruition,” she said in response to a question.
In Japan, she also met with Japan’s National Security Advisor Takeo Akiba.
“They discussed plans to strengthen cooperation at the UN, including trilaterally with the Republic of Korea. They also highlighted the importance of maintaining close coordination in response to North Korea's continued development of its unlawful nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, its ongoing human rights violations and abuses, as well as its growing military cooperation with Russia in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions,” a media release said.
India has been at the forefront of years-long efforts to reform the Security Council, saying it rightly deserves a place as a permanent member at the UN high table, which in its current form does not represent the geo-political realities of the 21st Century.
Currently, the UNSC has five permanent members - China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. Only a permanent member has the power to veto any substantive resolution.
Last month, India presented a detailed model on behalf of the G4 nations of Brazil, Germany, Japan and itself for Security Council reform.
The G4 model proposes that the Security Council’s membership increase from the current 15 to 25-26, by adding by adding six permanent and four or five non-permanent members.
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