The Human Consciousness Now...Our World in the Midst of Becoming...to What? Observe, contemplate Now.
LIMA, Jul 26 2024 (IPS) - The invasion of lands inhabited by Amazon indigenous communities is growing in Peru, due to drug trafficking mafias that are expanding coca crops to produce and export cocaine, while deforestation and insecurity for the native populations and their advocates are increasing
“Drug trafficking is not a myth or something new in this area, and we are the ones who defend our right to live in peace in our land,” said Kakataibo indigenous leader Marcelo Odicio, from the municipality of Aguaytía, capital of the province of Padre Abad, in the Amazonian department of Ucayali.“We are the ones who pay the consequences, we are visible to criminals, we are branded as informers, but I will continue to defend our rights. Along with the indigenous guard we will ensure that the autonomy of our territory is respected,” Marcelo Odicio.
Of the 33 million inhabitants of the South American country, around 800,000 belong to 51 Amazonian indigenous peoples. Overall, 96.4% of the indigenous population is Quechua and Aymara, six million of whom live in the Andean areas, while the Amazonian jungle peoples account for the remaining 3.6%.
The Peruvian government is constantly criticised for failing to meet the needs and demands of this population, who suffer multiple disadvantages in health, education, income generation and access to opportunities, as well as the growing impact of drug trafficking, illegal logging and mining.
A clear example of this is the situation of the Kakataibo people in two of their native communities, Puerto Nuevo and Sinchi Roca, in the border between the departments of Huánuco and Ucayali, in the central-eastern Peruvian jungle region.
For years they have been reporting and resisting the presence of invaders who cut down the forests for illegal purposes, while the government pays no heed and takes no action.
The most recent threat has led them to deploy their indigenous guard to defend themselves against new groups of outsiders who, through videos, have proclaimed their decision to occupy the territories over which the Kakataibo people have ancestral rights, which are backed by titles granted by the departmental authorities.
Six Kakataibo leaders who defended their lands and way of life were murdered in recent years. The latest was Mariano Isacama, whose body was found by the indigenous guard on Sunday 14 July after being missing for weeks.
In his interview with IPS, Odicio, president of the Native Federation of Kakataibo Communities (Fenacoka), lamented the authorities’ failure to find Isacama. The leader from the native community of Puerto Azul had been threatened by people linked to drug trafficking, suspects the federation.
Marcelo Odicio, president of the Native Federation of Kakataibo Communities, headquartered in the town of Aguaytía, in the department of Ucayal, in the Peruvian Amazon. Credit: Inforegión
During a press conference in Lima on 17 July, the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (Aidesep), that brings together 109 federations representing 2,439 native communities, deplored the government’s indifference in the situation of the disappeared and murdered leader, which brings to 35 the number of Amazonian indigenous people murdered between 2023 and 2024.
Aidesep declared the territory of the Amazonian indigenous peoples under emergency and called for self-defence and protection mechanisms against what they called “unpunished violence unleashed by drug trafficking, mining and illegal logging under the protection of authorities complicit in neglect, inaction and corruption.”
Lack of vision for the Amazon
The province of Aguaytía, where the municipality of Padre de Abad is located and where the Kakataibo live, among other indigenous peoples, will account for 4.3% of the area under coca leaf cultivation by 2023, around 4,019 hectares, according to the latest report by the government’s National Commission for Development and Life without Drugs (Devida).
It is the sixth largest production area of this crop in the country.
The report highlights that Peru reduced illicit coca crops by just over 2% between 2022 and 2023, from 95,008 to 92,784 hectares, thus halting the trend of permanent expansion over the last seven years.
These figures are called into question by Ricardo Soberón, an expert on drug policy, security and Amazonia.
Ricardo Soberón, a renowned Peruvian expert on drug policy, Amazonia and security. Credit: Walter Hupiú / IPS
“The latest World Drug Report indicates that we have gone from 22 to 23 million cocaine users, and that the golden triangle in Burma, the triple border of Argentina-Paraguay-Brazil and the Amazonian trapezoid are privileged areas for production and export,” Soberón told IPS.
The latter holds “Putumayo and Yaguas, areas that according to Devida have reduced the 2,000 hectares under cultivation. I don’t believe it,” he said.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), that commissioned the report, also lists Peru as the world’s second largest cocaine producer.
Soberón added another element that discredits the conclusions of the Devida report: the government’s behaviour.
“There is no air interdiction in the Amazonian trapezoid, the non-lethal interdiction agreement with the United States will be operational in 2025. On the other hand, there are complaints against the anti-drug police in Loreto, the department where Putumayo and Yaguas are located, for their links with Brazilian mafias,” he explained.
He believes there was an attempt to whitewash “a government that is completely isolated”, referring to the administration led since December 2022 by interim president Dina Boluarte, with minimal levels of approval and questioned over a series of democratic setbacks.
Soberón, director of Devida in 2011-2012 and 2021-2022, has constantly warned that the government, at different levels, has not incorporated the indigenous agenda in its policies against illegalities in their ancestral areas.
This, he said, despite the growing pressure on their peoples and lands from “the largest illegal extractive economies in the world: drug trafficking, logging and gold mining,” the main causes of deforestation, loss of biodiversity and territorial dispossession.
Soberón argued that, given the magnitude of cocaine trafficking in the world, major trafficking groups need coca crop reserves, and Peruvian territory is fit for it. He deplored the minimal strategic vision among political, economic, commercial and social players in the Amazon.
Based on previous research, he says that the Cauca-Nariño bridge in southern Colombia, Putumayo in Peru, and parts of Brazil, form the Amazonian trapezoid: a fluid transit area not only for cocaine, but also for arms, supplies and gold.
Hence the great flow of cocaine in the area, for trafficking and distribution to the United States and other markets, which makes the jungle-like indigenous territories of the Peruvian Amazon attractive for coca crops and cocaine laboratories.
Soberón stresses it is possible to reconcile anti-drug policy with the protection of the Amazon, for example by promoting the citizen social pacts that he himself developed as a pilot project during his term in office.
It is a matter, he said, of turning the social players, such as the indigenous peoples, into decision-makers. But this requires a clear political will, which is not seen in the current Devida administration.
Mariano Isacama (left), a Kakataibo indigenous leader who disappeared and was murdered after allegedly receiving threats from people linked to drug traffickers. Next to him, the president of the indigenous organisation Orau, Magno López. Credit: Courtesy of Marcelo Odicio
“We will not stand idly by”
Odicio, the president of Fenacoka, knows that the increased presence of invaders in their territories is aimed at planting pasture and coca leaf, an activity that destroys their forests. They have even installed maceration ponds near the communities.
When invaders arrive, they cut down the trees, burn them, raise cattle, take possession of the land and then demand the right to title, he explained. “After the anti-forestry law, they feel strong and say they have a right to the land, when it is not the case,” he said.
He refers to the reform of the Forestry and Wildlife Act No. 29763, in force since December 2023, which further weakens the security of indigenous peoples over their land rights and opens the door to legal and illegal extractive activities.
The leader, who has a wife and two young children, knows that the role of defender exposes him. “We are the ones who pay the consequences, we are visible to criminals, we are branded as informers, but I will continue to defend our rights. Along with the indigenous guard we will ensure that the autonomy of our territory is respected,” he stressed.
In the native community of Puerto Nuevo there are 200 Kakataibo families, with 500 more in Sinchi Roca. They live from the sustainable use of their forest resources, who are at risk from illegal activities. “We just want to live in peace, but we will defend ourselves because we cannot stand idly by if they do not respect our autonomy”, he said.
LONDON, Jul 26 2024 (IPS) - Two politicians have just been sentenced to long prison terms in Eswatini. Their crime? Calling for democracy.
Mthandeni Dube and Bacede Mabuza, both members of parliament (MP) at the time, were arrested in July 2021 for taking part in a wave of pro-democracy protests that swept the southern African country. A third MP, Mduduzi Simelane, remains subject to an arrest warrant after going into hiding.
Dube and Mabuza have been detained since their arrest, and have reportedly been physically assaulted, denied medical treatment and prevented from seeing their lawyers while in custody. Last year they were found guilty on charges including murder, sedition and terrorism. Now they know their fate: Mabuza has been sentenced to 25 years and Dube to 18. Since the sentencing, Mabuza, who has a medical condition that needs a special diet, has reportedly been denied food in prison.
Dube and Mabuza are political prisoners. They had no hope of a fair trial, and their criminal convictions had no basis in reality. Eswatini’s criminal justice system does the bidding of the country’s dictator and Africa’s last absolute monarch, King Mswati III. For almost four decades, Mswati has ruled his kingdom with an iron fist. Mswati is constitutionally above the law, appoints the prime minister and cabinet and can veto all legislation. He also appoints and controls judges, who are routinely deployed to criminalise those who challenge his power.
Dube and Mabuza plan to appeal but know the odds are stacked against them.
Ongoing crackdown
The 2021 protests for democracy posed the biggest threat yet to Mswati’s untrammelled power. His response was brutal. At least 46 people were killed as security forces opened fired on protesters. Leaked footage revealed that it was Mswati who commanded the security forces to shoot to kill and ordered the arrest of the pro-democracy MPs.
While peaceful protesters like Dube and Mabuza have been criminalised, in contrast no one has faced justice for the state-sanctioned killings. And the dangers faced by pro-democracy activists haven’t subsided. In January 2023, Thulani Maseko, a human rights lawyer and a leading democracy campaigner, was shot dead in front of his family. As well as heading the key network of groups calling for a peaceful transition to democracy, he was the two MPs’ lawyer.
His killing came just hours after Mswati warned democracy activists that mercenaries would ‘deal with’ them. No one has been held to account for the crime, while Maseko’s widow, Tanele Maseko, has faced harassment. In March she was arrested and her passport and phone were confiscated when she returned to Eswatini from South Africa.
The authorities have continued to arrest, abduct and detain activists, and others have survived evident assassination attempts and arson attacks. Mswati’s latest prime minister has warned the media they may face tighter regulation. The state has also used violence to repress further protests. An election was held in 2023 but, as usual, political parties were banned and candidates had to go through a selection process designed to exclude dissenting voices.
With authoritarian rule and the ability of those in power to ignore people’s demands come corruption and impunity. Most of Eswatini’s 1.2 million people live in poverty but Mswati and the royal family enjoy vast wealth and lavish lifestyles, paid for by the proceeds of the major assets they directly control.
No dialogue
The national dialogue Mswati promised in response to the 2021 protests never happened. Instead, he held a Sibaya – a traditional gathering where he was the only person allowed to speak.
Mswati only promised to hold a dialogue after South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa intervened. South Africa has a clear role to play here: it borders Eswatini on three sides, is by far its biggest trading partner and is home to many of its exiled democracy activists, while Mswati has also reportedly imported South African mercenaries. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is also supposed to be involved. But there’s been little pressure for action from South Africa and Eswatini has worked to keep itself off SADC’s agenda.
South Africa and SADC should remind Eswatini of its obligations under the global and African treaties it has adopted, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The government must roll back its repression, including the laws on public order, sedition and terrorism used to jail Dube and Mabuza. Releasing the two of them would be a good start.
Andrew Firmin is CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 26 2024 (IPS) - “The world must rise to the challenge of rising temperatures,” says the UN Secretary-General as he launches a call to action on extreme heat and its impact on society and the environment.
On Thursday, Secretary-General António Guterres announced the launch of a joint report drawing from the expertise of ten UN organizations, including UNICEF, ILO, OCHA and WHO. The Call for Action on Extreme Heat explores the multidimensional impact of extreme heat on lives and livelihoods, which is only further evidence of the climate crisis.
The UN’s call for action targets four key areas in the efforts to combat extreme heat: providing care to those most vulnerable, protecting workers, boosting the resilience of economies and societies through data and science, investing in renewable energy and phasing out fossil fuels, thereby limiting the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius under the Paris Agreement.
Secretary-General António Guterres briefs reporters on extreme heat. Credit: UN photo
June 2024 was the 13th consecutive hottest month on record. Experts have warned that the consecutive record-setting global temperatures are indicative that average temperatures will only rise in the coming years, and some areas will even become inhabitable as people will be physically unable to withstand the heat. In the report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that Central and South America, southern Europe, Southern and Southeast Asia, and Africa will be the most affected by heat-related mortality by 2100.
“Billions of people are facing an extreme heat epidemic, wilting under increasingly deadly heatwaves, with temperatures topping 50 degrees Celsius around the world. That’s 122 degrees Fahrenheit. And halfway to boiling,” Guterres said. He emphasized this point by referencing recent global incidents, such as a heatwave in Sahel this April and the deaths of more than 1300 pilgrims in Saudi Arabia during this year’s Hajj.
So far, the impact of extreme heat has been felt across livelihoods and the environment. However, it does not affect everyone equally. Multiple factors, such as gender, age, and pre-existing medical conditions, can determine the impact. For this reason, those most vulnerable to the impact of extreme temperatures include older people, people living with disabilities, pregnant women and children.
The quality of housing is also a factor, and as such, the report further identifies people living in poverty as most at-risk, or rather, people who live in poor housing that lacks access to cooling or proper ventilation. Furthermore, urban areas are much warmer compared to rural areas. Cities are bearing the brunt due to their built environment, congestion, concentrated energy use and heat absorption from concrete and other building materials. This is known as the urban heat island effect.
The working population is also disproportionately exposed to excessive heat. A new ILO report notes that at least 70 percent of the global working population, or 2.41 billion workers, are at risk of exposure to high temperatures, which have resulted in 22.85 million injuries, and at least 18,970 deaths annually. Workers in Africa, the Arab states, and Asia and the Asia-Pacific are among the most affected by 93 percent, 84 percent, and 75 percent, respectively. Rising temperatures have also affected productivity, which drops by 50 percent. The report recommends that measures be put into place to protect the health of all workers through a rights-based approach, along with reporting and surveillance mechanisms for incidents brought on by heat stress.
Heat stress was identified as the leading cause of weather-related deaths. While high exposures to heat can cause heat strokes, a fatal medical emergency, continued exposure can increase the likelihood and risk of other medical conditions, such as kidney issues, cardiovascular health, diabetes, mental health, and the transmission of infectious diseases. Health issues brought on by exposure to extreme heat can put more stress on healthcare services, yet the most exposed regions do not have adequate resources to address them in their health facilities.
Extreme heat is felt across multiple additional sectors. The use of air conditioners and other cooling systems accounts for 20 percent of global electricity consumption, in a time where more than half of the electricity is still generated through burning fossil fuels. In the food and agricultural sectors, crop yields fell by 45 percent in 2022 because of extreme temperatures and phenomena such as droughts and wildfires.
“Extreme heat amplifies inequality, inflames food insecurity, and pushes people further into poverty,” said Guterres.
The UN’s call for action targets four key areas in the efforts to combat extreme heat: providing care to those most vulnerable, protecting workers, boosting the resilience of economies and societies through data and science, investing in renewable energy and phasing out fossil fuels, thereby limiting the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius under the Paris Agreement.
Guterres called on the international community, the public and private sectors, and governments to make concentrated efforts to address the issue. Guterres also repeated his demand for the phasing out of fossil fuels as an energy source, singling out G20 countries for their renewed agreements for oil and gas licenses.
“The problem is that climate change is running faster than all the measures that are now being put in place to fight it. And that is why it is important to understand that we need a huge acceleration of all the dimensions of climate action,” Guterres said.
The report notes that there are ways to reduce the fallout of extreme heat risks. Investing in reasonable occupational and safety hazards could save up to USD 361 billion. Concentrated actions to reduce energy demand in the cooling sector globally could save up to USD 1 trillion and the power sector up to USD 5 trillion by 2050.
In recent years, climate change has brought about abnormal temperatures and weather phenomena that even developed countries have struggled to deal with without a serious fallout on their populations. With heatwaves not even sparing the West, Guterres hopes that this will perhaps spur them into urgent, immediate action.
“Now the heat is being felt by those who have decision-making capacity.”
IPS UN Bureau Report
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 26 2024 (IPS) - When Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a pact last month to revive a Cold War-era mutual defense pledge between two of the world’s nuclear powers, it also had the implicit support a third nuclear power standing in the shadows: China.
The new nuclear alliance, which has triggered fears in Japan and South Korea, ensures the possible sharing of Russia’s knowledge of satellites and missile technologies with North Korea.
The new pact, has also resulted in a sharp divide between Russia, China and North Korea on the one hand and the US, Japan and South Korea on the other.
But one lingering question remains: Will these new developments force—at least in the not-too-distant future—South Korea to go nuclear, joining the world’s nine nuclear powers: the U.S., UK, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
The New York Times quoted Cheong Seong-chang, the director of the Center for Korean Peninsula Strategy at the Sejong Institute, as saying: “It is time for South Korea to have a fundamental review of its current security policy, which depends almost totally on the US nuclear umbrella to counter the North Korean nuclear threat.”
And quoting North Korea’s official Central News Agency, the Times said Putin and Kim agreed that if one country found itself in a state of war, then the other would provide “military and other assistance with all means in its possession without delay.”
Addressing the UN General Assembly, Ambassador Kim Song of North Korea said nuclear weapons are stockpiled in many countries, including the U.S., yet Pyongyang is the only one facing sanctions: Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider
Alice Slater, who serves on the boards of World BEYOND War and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, told IPS the fact that Russia is allying with North Korea and China at this time is a result of the failure of U.S. diplomacy, and the drive by the U.S. military-industrial-congressional-media-academic-think tank complex (MICIMATT) to expand the U.S. empire beyond its 800 U.S. military bases in 87 nations.
The U.S., she said, is now surrounding China with new bases recently established in the Pacific and forming AUKUS, a new military alliance with Australia, the UK and the U.S.
“The U.S. has been breaking its agreement made with China in 1972, as we now are arming Taiwan despite promises made by Nixon and Kissinger to recognize China and remain neutral on the question of the future of Taiwan, to where the anti-communist forces retreated after the Chinese Revolution,” said Slater, who is also a UN NGO Representative for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
According to a report in the Associated Press (AP) wire on July 12, the U.S. and South Korea have signed joint nuclear deterrence guidelines for the first time, “a basic yet important step in their efforts to improve their ability to respond to North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats.”
Meeting on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol commended what they called “the tremendous progress” that their countries’ alliance has made a year after creating a joint Nuclear Consultative Group.
Last year, the U.S. and South Korea launched the consultative body to strengthen communication on nuclear operations and discuss how to integrate U.S. nuclear weapons and South Korean conventional weapons in various contingencies, said the AP report.
Meanwhile, Abolition 2000, the Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, will host a seminar in Geneva on July 30, titled “Denuclearization in North-East Asia through a 3+3 Model Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone.”
Tensions, unresolved conflicts and nuclear weapons policies of nuclear armed and allied states active in North-East Asia (China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the USA) increase the risks of armed conflict and nuclear war in the region, says Abolition 2000.
“Unilateral disarmament by any one of these countries is highly unlikely while other countries in the region continue with robust nuclear deterrence policies. What is required is a regional approach to nuclear disarmament which maintains the security of all.”
The 3+3 model for a North-East Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone envisages an agreement where-by the three territorial countries in the zone (Japan, North Korea and South Korea) would mutually relinquish their reliance on nuclear weapons in return for credible and enforceable security guarantees from China, Russia and the US that they would not be threatened with nuclear weapons.
This agreement would provide part of a more comprehensive peace agreement to formally end the Korean War.
The proposal is being seriously discussed amongst academics, legislators and civil society organizations in Japan, South Korea and the USA. The upcoming event aims to broaden the discussion to include delegations to the NPT Prep Com.
Denuclearization in North-East Asia through a 3+3 Model Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone. Credit: Abolition 2000
Asked about the rising nuclear threats from North Korea, State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said July 22: “We have made clear on a number of occasions that we prefer diplomacy to deal with this situation, and the North Koreans have shown that they are not in any way interested in that.”
Responding to a question on the consequences of Russia being driven closer to North Korea and China, Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State said: “I think we’ve seen two things. We have seen that, although that was something that was in the works for a long time, and maybe some of it’s accelerated as a result of the war in Ukraine, but we’ve also seen something else that’s been quite remarkable.”
During a Fireside Chat at the Aspen Security Forum, moderated by Mary Louise Kelly of National Public Radio (NPR) on July 19, Blinken said: “I’ve been doing this for more than 30 years. I have not seen a time when there’s been greater convergence between the United States and our European partners and our partners in Asia in terms of the approach to Russia, but also in terms of the approach to China, than we’re seeing right now.”
“We’ve built convergence across the Atlantic, we’ve built it across the Pacific, and we’ve built it between the Atlantic and the Pacific. So, I would take our team and the countries that we’re working with than anything that Russia’s been able to put together.
“Beyond that, I think there are going to be – and we’ve already seen a lot of strains in these groupings. It’s not particularly good for your reputation to be working closely with Russia and helping it perpetuate its war in Ukraine.
“So, I think China is very uncomfortable in the position it’s in, but for now we do have a challenge, which is China is providing not weapons, unlike North Korea and Iran, but it’s providing the inputs for Russia’s defense industrial base.”
Seventy percent of the machine tools that Russia is importing come from China, he pointed out. And ninety percent of the microelectronics come from China. And that’s going into the defense industrial base and turning into missiles, tanks and other weapons.
“We’ve called out China on that. We have sanctioned Chinese companies. But more to the point, so have many others. And we just saw that in Europe a couple of weeks ago. And China can’t have it both ways. It can’t all at once be saying that it’s for peace in Ukraine when it is helping to fuel the ongoing pursuit of the war by Russia.
“I can’t say that it wants better relations with Europe when it is actually helping to fuel the greatest threat to Europe’s security since the end of the Cold War,” Blinken declared.
This article is brought to you by IPS Noram, in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International, in consultative status with UN ECOSOC.
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UNITED NATIONS, Jul 26 2024 (IPS) - Around the world countries are taking powerful steps to protect people’s rights, dignity, and health. Dominica and Namibia became the most recent to decriminalize same-sex relations. South Africa made strides towards decriminalizing sex work.
Japan’s Supreme Court ruled that compulsory sterilization for transgender people is unconstitutional, and for the first time the essential role of harm reduction was recognized in a UN resolution on narcotic drugs.
These achievements all contribute to the landmark 10-10-10 HIV targets, adopted by countries in the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, to reduce new infections and tackle criminalization, stigma and discrimination and gender inequality, issues especially critical for people living with HIV and key populations, including sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people, people who inject drugs, and the incarcerated.
Yet, for every heartening step toward justice, setbacks and barriers remain. In the last three months alone, Georgia’s parliament moved to curb LGBTIQ+ rights, Iraq criminalized same-sex relationships, countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have signed into law sweeping restrictions on civil society and the Malawi courts upheld a ban on same-sex conduct.
Every action we take now will make a difference
With just one year left to meet these targets, we are still off track. What’s more, the global pushback on human rights and gender equality, constraints on civil society, and the acute funding gap for HIV prevention and addressing structural and social barriers, threaten continued progress on AIDS.
This is the time to re-double our efforts. Every single action taken now to meet the 10-10-10 targets will improve the lives and wellbeing of those living with HIV and other key populations well into the future. It will protect the health and development gains of the AIDS response.
If we are to realistically end AIDS by 2030, we must, in lockstep with recent scientific advances, urgently accelerate efforts by shaping enabling policy environments.
Together with partners, UNDP will use its platform at the AIDS 2024 conference, along with a new #Triple10Targets campaign, to call for urgent action to accelerate progress in scaling national key population-led strategies, promoting allyship and inclusive institutions and unlocking sustainable financing.
Community leadership
Key populations and their sexual partners remain at the highest risk for HIV, accounting for 55 percent of all new HIV infections in 2022 and 80 percent of new HIV infections outside of sub-Saharan Africa, a trend which persists. The heightened risk they face is, in part a result of stigma, discrimination and criminalization.
The heart of the HIV response was built by community advocates, past and present, on its inextricable links to human rights. People living with HIV and other key populations are still leading the charge, based on their experiences and knowledge of what their communities need to tackle discriminatory laws and HIV-related criminalization, which deny them services and violate their human rights.
The recent overturning of a colonial-era sodomy law in Namibia, brought to court by Friedel Dausab, a gay Namibian man, showcases such courageous leadership.
But those most affected by and at risk of discrimination, exclusion and violence must not be left to tackle this alone. Their efforts are that much more effective and powerful when met with global solidarity and inclusive institutions, backed by collaboration and investment.
UNDP continues to promote and prioritize the meaningful engagement of people living with HIV and other key populations in decision-making spaces and policy design, through the work done by SCALE, #WeBelong Africa and Being LGBTI in the Caribbean and its HIV and health work more broadly.
The role for allies
Expanding and deepening networks of allies, in particular fostering links between key populations and scientists, health workers, legal professionals, policymakers, faith leaders, media and the private sector, will be vital to building a sustainable HIV response. Finding common ground with broader social movements is a critical element to policy change and reform.
One such UNDP-led initiative brings together members from the judiciary in regional fora in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean to deepen knowledge and understanding of law, rights and HIV, and the impact of punitive laws and policies.
This work has contributed to informing judicial decisions upholding the rights of marginalized communities in Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Mauritius and Tajikistan and beyond.
Hundreds of parliamentarians worldwide can now support LGBTIQ+ inclusion through the Handbook for Parliamentarians on Advancing the Human Rights and Inclusion of LGBTI People. These demonstrate how allies can use their power and privilege to shape inclusive polices and institutions that support the dignity and human rights of people living with and affected by HIV.
Unlocking innovative financing
Progress will not be possible without addressing the funding gap. Yet investment in HIV is declining, and funding for primary prevention programmes in low- and middle-income countries has dropped, with a sobering 80 percent gap in 2023.
Countries must boost sustainable investments in the HIV response. This includes both for services and for addressing the structural barriers for these services, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
Through SCALE, UNDP funds 44 key population-led organizations in 21 countries, boosting capacities to share good practice and remove the structural barriers which impede their access to services and violate their human rights. In the Philippines, Cebu United Rainbow LGBT Sector (CURLS) is working towards comprehensive key population protection ordinances, contributing to the recently-signed Implementing Rules and Regulations of Mandaue City’s LGBTIQ+ Anti-Discrimination Ordinance. These will encourage LGBTIQ+ communities to more proactively engage with services.
Strong national leadership and inclusive institutions are also vital to scaling up funding. Last year UNDP worked with 51 countries to expand innovative financing for HIV and health, utilizing strategies such as investment cases, social contracting, inclusive social protection, health taxes and co-financing.
Achieving health for all
As polycrisis threatens the hard-won gains of the HIV response and the clock winds down on the 10-10-10 targets, we must remain steadfast and focused on the task; scaling national key population-led strategies, promoting allyship and inclusive institutions, and unlocking sustainable funding. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
Achieving the 10-10-10 targets will not only be a victory against this preventable disease, but also against the stigma and discrimination faced by those left furthest behind, ultimately benefiting the health of people everywhere.
There is no path to ending AIDS as a public health threat without the triple ten targets.
Mandeep Dhaliwal is Director of the HIV and Health Group, UNDP; Kevin Osborne is Manager, SCALE Initiative, HIV and Health Group, UNDP.
Source: UNDP
IPS UN Bureau
Jul 25 2024 (IPS) - July 28th is World Hepatitis Day, created to celebrate the life and work of Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Baruch Samuel Blumberg. Blumberg’s work contributed to the discovery of hepatitis B, and the development of a vaccine that could prevent infection with this infectious viral disease. These discoveries revolutionized the public health response in preventing the liver cancer that hepatitis B causes.
The hepatitis B vaccine has been used for decades to save lives. Babies are given the vaccine at birth to protect them from getting infected with the hepatitis B virus, thus reducing the risk of children developing chronic liver disease or liver cancer later on in life. Many millions of people around the world are today free from the fears and trauma of living with hepatitis B as a result of the vaccine that Blumberg helped develop.
Approximately 95% of infants who catch hepatitis B will develop a chronic infection, and roughly a quarter of them will eventually die from liver disease. This is why infant vaccination against hepatitis B is so important.
Only 18% of African infants have received the hepatitis B birth dose vaccine at birth in 2022, compared to 90% in Asia, so intensified efforts are required to protect the next generation of children around the world
The WHO recommends that all babies receive the vaccine as soon as possible after birth, preferably within 24 hours, followed by two or three doses four weeks apart. This gives babies about 100% protection against infection from hepatitis B and against developing chronic liver disease or liver cancer later on in life.
Kudos to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, national governments and other international partners, who have ensured that many children around the world have been vaccinated against the hepatitis B virus, especially in low-middle income countries.
My own children are among those who have benefited from these programs and from Blumberg’s research, as they were vaccinated against Hepatitis B at birth.
Not all babies are as fortunate, especially in Africa, where out-of-stock vaccines, home deliveries and weak health systems stand in the way of their receiving this life-saving intervention within 24 hours of delivery.
Only 18% of African infants have received the hepatitis B birth dose vaccine at birth in 2022, compared to 90% in Asia, so intensified efforts are required to protect the next generation of children around the world.
I never got the hepatitis B vaccine when I was born, as the birth dose was only introduced fairly recently in most countries in the Global South. Nor was I vaccinated when I was employed as a healthcare provider in a hospital – which is where I should have been protected but is the place I got infected in 2004. I am fortunate to have been diagnosed early though, and take daily medication to stop my liver from developing cancer.
Despite Blumberg’s breakthroughs, however, hepatitis is still a killer disease. It still causes the deaths of over 800,000 people globally every year, the majority of whom are diagnosed too late when they already have advanced liver disease.
Today, as we commemorate Blumberg’s birthday and mark World Hepatitis Day, we need to ask ourselves why that is. We need to ask why there is still such low awareness of hepatitis around the world. Why hasn’t this scientific breakthrough of discovering hepatitis B translated into eliminating the hepatitis B virus? Why have only 4% of hepatitis B patients been diagnosed while only 2.2% have been treated? Why have there been such poor investments into mass testing and treatment programs around the world to identify and place the “missing millions” on treatment?
We need to say clearly that this is not acceptable. as delays in testing and treatment is likely to lead to many more developing liver complications unnoticed. To eliminate hepatitis by 2030, we need to intensify efforts to reduce deaths by 65%. This means we MUST scale-up testing to find undiagnosed populations living with hepatitis B and C, the majority of whom do not know their status.
It is a big shame that I contracted the virus in a place where I should be safe and protected, the hospital. This is the fate of many healthcare workers around the world and babies who do not receive the hepatitis B vaccine to protect them from getting an infection.
Baruch Bloomberg would be turning in his grave if he knew that despite the available vaccines and treatments there are so many people who cannot access them due to poor funding from government and donors across the world! We owe more to him and his memory.
The global community has the opportunity to turn off the tap of new hepatitis B infections and save millions of children and the global community from the fears of liver cancer attributable to hepatitis B in the future. Let this World Hepatitis Day be the day we decide to honor Blumberg’s memory in deed as well as word.
Danjuma Adda, M.P.H., is the executive director of the Centre for Initiative and Development in Nigeria and a senior fellow with Aspen Institute. He was the committee chair of the 2024 World Hepatitis Summit and the past president of the World Hepatitis Alliance.
NOUMEA, New Caledonia , Jul 25 2024 (IPS) - New Caledonia, a French overseas territory of about 290,000 people in the southwest Pacific, is facing a challenging recovery from weeks of civil unrest that erupted in mid-May, leaving an aftermath of destruction and political turmoil.
A vote by the French Parliament to change the territory’s electoral roll in favor of pro-France loyalists unleashed anger and clashes across the islands between police and pro-independence supporters, most of whom are indigenous Kanaks.
But, at the heart of the political grievances of Kanaks, who comprise about 40 percent of the population, are their experiences over more than a century and a half of entrenched inequality, compared to the non-Kanak population. This includes disparities in educational outcomes and high unemployment.
“Many people do not finish school and don’t have qualifications or diplomas. Many families do not have the money and cannot afford to send their children to school,” Stelios, a young Kanak father who lives in the capital, Noumea, told IPS. “Although within families, people help to support each other.”
New Caledonia, which has large nickel reserves, has a robust economy with a gross domestic product (GDP) of USD 9.62 billion in 2022, compared to USD 1.06 billion in neighboring Vanuatu and USD 4.9 billion in Fiji. But there is a substantial gap in incomes and standards of living between the indigenous and long-term non-Kanak settlers. Poverty and unemployment are major issues for Kanaks who live in remote rural communities and informal urban settlements on the outskirts of the capital, Noumea. While the overall poverty rate is 19.1 percent in New Caledonia, it rises to 45.8 percent in the Loyalty Islands Province, where most of the residents are Kanaks.
In Noumea’s city park, a young child stands between the statues of Pro-France politician, Jacques Lafleur, and pro-Independence Kanak leader, Jean-Marie Tjibaou, performing a handshake at the signing of the 1988 Matignon Accords in New Caledonia. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS
Eddie Wayuone Wadrawane, an Associate Lecturer and educational sciences expert at the University of New Caledonia, reports that there is a direct connection between the educational gap for Kanaks and their challenges to finding secure employment. While the unemployment rate for people under the age of 30 in the territory is 28.3 percent, the rate rises to 41.3 percent for those without a qualifying degree.
Kanaks, the indigenous islanders, have lived under some form of French governance since the mid-nineteenth century, when the islands became a colony. After World War II, New Caledonia was granted the status of an ‘overseas territory’ with greater recognition of citizenship and indigenous rights.
But a long history of poverty, loss of land to colonial authorities, forced removal onto reservations and marginalization from political participation triggered numerous Kanak uprisings over decades, culminating in a major outbreak of conflict with French authorities in the 1980s. The negotiations that followed the hostilities led to two agreements between the French Government and local leaders. The Matignon Accord in 1988 and Noumea Accord, signed in 1998, pledged, among other provisions, to address the socioeconomic disparities for the Kanak population, such as lack of access to education, and lack of consultation in governance and political processes.
Public services and economic opportunities are concentrated in the South Province, which includes the capital, Noumea. But there have been gains during the last twenty years with government efforts to improve infrastructure and access to services, such as education, in the more undeveloped North and Loyalty Islands Provinces, where the majority of Kanaks live. The number of Kanak graduates from universities and similar tertiary institutions rose from 99 in 1989 to 3,200 in 2014. But significant disparities remain and it is reported that only 8 percent of Kanaks possessed a university degree in 2019.
“A major part of the philosophy of the Matignon and Noumea Accords was the notion that New Caledonia was not ready for independence because there were no Kanak people in middle or high-level management or in the professions,” Dr David Small, Senior Lecturer at Above the Bar School of Educational Studies and Leadership at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury, told IPS.
But the French education system “is highly selective and there are so many ways that Kanak people can slip out of it. Kanak people are also attuned to and highly critical of the colonial nature of education in New Caledonia,” he continued.
During the Pro-Independence protests in May across New Caledonia against the French Government’s electoral reforms in the territory, a large proportion of people demonstrating on the streets were youths aged 15–25 years. They were venting anger not just at the electoral changes but at the hardships and inequalities that have marked their lives. Patience among the younger generation is running out and they are no longer willing to wait indefinitely for the promises of better lives and opportunities to become a reality.
‘Schooling can play a major role to give those youth [who are disenfranchised] new perspectives and bring about societal reforms in general,’ Wadrawane claims. Yet, Dr Small says that many Kanak youths are losing faith in the idea of New Caledonian society being a meritocracy and, hence, also the ability of education to enable success and achievement in employment and life.
But Stelios is one of those who persisted at school and completed secondary education, receiving the Baccalaureate certificate.
“And I have a job. I work at a school, assisting staff,” he said. He is also the father of three young children, all under the age of 7, and is adamant that they will be educated too.
Education experts, such as Wadrawane, advocate that further retaining indigenous students in the education system also requires incorporating Kanak culture and languages into the curricula.
“At present, the [school] curricula appeal more to students from metropolitan France and less so for those from the French overseas territories,” Wadrawane writes. He believes that “greater cultural awareness of youth in primary and secondary education is a philosophical, social and educational necessity” to reducing inequalities and enhancing their citizenship.
IPS UN Bureau Report