News in English

30.08.2005 If the referenda on the prohibition of commercialization of guns happened today, Brazilian civilians would no longer be able to buy or sell arms. A survey on public opinion done by IBOPE in 143 Brazilian cities showed that 81% of the population is in favor of putting an end to gun commercialization – 17% are against the prohibition and 2% do not have an opinion or did not answer the question.

29.08.2005 Severine Macedo is a youth leader and youth representative on the board of FETRAF-SUL. FETRAF (Federaçao dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura Familiar) is a trade union of family farmers and FETRAF-SUL is a regional organization based in the southern Brazilian states of Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul. FETRAF-SUL has 100,000 members and works with 300,000 union and non-union families.

29.08.2005 When the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect in 1994, it was not only meant to put Mexico on the fast track to economic recovery and development, but to quickly reverse the severely declining fortunes of a large part of the Mexican population, extending from middle-class professionals to extremely poor campesinos. It was hoped that employment opportunities would grow in number, in quality and in remuneration. In the words of Mexico’s then-President Carlos Salinas, the Agreement was supposed to create jobs instead of migrants.

29.08.2005 What to do with Hugo? That’s a question that is bedeviling the Bush administration, which sees its centuries-old hegemonic hold on Latin America and the Caribbean slipping.

23.08.2005 Ampam Karakras is a man on a mission. A Shuar from the Ecuadorian Amazon, he recalls the days when the Shuar (or Jivaro as they were then known to Westerners) were famed for their secret technique of shrinking human heads. As a youth, he was sent to boarding schools run by Salesian Catholic priests where he learned Spanish and was educated in Western ways. But unlike indigenous boarding school experiences in other parts of the world, Ampam’s years among the Salesians strengthened his appreciation both for the value of education and for the Shuar people and their culture.

18.08.2005 In an Open Letter to all Mexican political parties, Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan challenged the leaders to make human rights the cornerstone of Mexican life and a fundamental central pillar of their electoral manifesto.

17.08.2005 More than four years ago, women, feminist and human rights organizations from these countries began a process of reflection on and denunciation of the violations that threaten women’s dignity. Today, numerous organizations are networking on a regional level from the perspective of what they call the "demandability" of the economic, social, and cultural rights of women.

11.08.2005 Colombia’s demobilization process is strengthening the power of paramilitary groups without furthering a genuine peace, Human Rights Watch said in a new report.

11.08.2005 Lurking in the dunes along the highway just 50 kilometers south of the U.S.-Mexico border city area of El Paso - Ciudad Juárez are heaps of uncontained radioactive waste. The secret in the desert sands recently was revealed by Mexican nuclear physicist Bernardo Salas Mar, a former employee of the federal atomic power plant in Veracruz state who was fired after publicly disclosing its radioactive contamination of the Gulf of Mexico.

10.08.2005 Despite some progress over the last decade, indigenous peoples around the world continue to live in hardship and danger due to the failure of states to uphold their fundamental human rights.