FGM is a taboo and complicated topic in Liberia and it is dangerous for women to speak out about it. Credit: Travis Lupick/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 22 2013 (IPS) – The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF released a report Monday that gives the most complete picture of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) ever published.

Over 125 million women and girls have undergone the practice, and there are 30 million women and girls at risk of the procedure in the next decade. The is a culmination of 20 years of research from 29 countries across Africa and Asia, using national surveys. began to look closely at FGM/C 10 years ago.

Egypt is the highest-ranking coun…

IPS U.N. Bureau Chief Thalif Deen interviews UNFPA Senior Advisor DR. AZZA KARAM

Azza Karam, Senior Advisor on Culture at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 20 2013 (IPS) – The United Nations is considered one of the world s most secular institutions, with 193 member states representing peoples of different faiths and cultures and professing religious and agnostic beliefs.

Still, faith-based organisations (FBOs) continue to play a vital role in a wide range of issues on the U.N. s political, social and economic agenda, including human rights, population, food, health, education, children, peacekeeping, di…

Kayla Moore, in photo with her infant niece, suffered a mental health crisis and died in police custody. She is remembered in a community birthday celebration by her sister, Maria Moore. Credit: Doug Oakley/IPS

BERKELEY, California, U.S., Nov 26 2013 (IPS) – Just before midnight on Feb. 12, Kayla Xavier Moore’s roommate dialed 911. Moore, 41, a paranoid schizophrenic, was off her prescription meds and highly agitated. The roommate thought he knew the drill – Moore would be taken to a psychiatric hospital, stabilised with medication and allowed to go home in 72 hours.

That’s not what happened. Finding Moore had an outstanding warrant, Berkeley police decided to ta…

Lindiwe Dlamini nurses her six-week-old baby boy. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

MBABANE, Jan 7 2014 (IPS) – Smiling as she breastfeeds her six-week-old baby boy, Lindiwe Dlamini, 38, is optimistic about his future.

Dlamini, who is HIV-positive, is determined that her baby will not be infected. The mother of three – who conceived her first two children when she was HIV-negative – was on antiretroviral therapy (ART) when she delivered a healthy boy in November.

Now she is feeding him on breast milk and nothing else for six months – advice she received during antenatal care. She knows mother’s milk is more nutritious and carries antibodies.

“Bre…

Martin Khor, executive director of the South Centre, warns that negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement are a matter of life and death.

GENEVA, Mar 9 2014 (IPS) – If you or some family members or friends suffer from cancer, hepatitis, AIDS, asthma or other serious ailments, it’s worth your while to follow the negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement and other similar bilateral trade agreements.

It’s really a matter of life and death. For the TPPA can cut off the potential supply of cheaper generic medicines that can save lives, especially when the original branded products are priced so sky-high that very few can afford them.

Recently, a cancer specialist in New Zealand (one of the TPPA counties) warned that the TPPA would prolon…

People displaced by militancy and the military operation wait to get registered in Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 2 2014 (IPS) – Every night in his sleep, Rizwan Ahmed sees his sons being killed. “When he wakes up, he starts crying. He realises they are dead and it was the nightmare he has been having,” says Dr. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the psychiatrist treating him.

Ahmed, 51, used to be a school employee in Bara Khyber Agency in Pakistan’s militancy-hit Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) before tragedy struck almost a year ago. “He lost his two sons in the violence back home. His grief moun…

From Jun. 30 to Jul. 1, 800 health experts, officials and activists will gather in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the third Partners’ Forum around the Action Plan for Women’s and Children’s Health

According to an African proverb, “every woman who gives birth has one foot on her grave.” It is time to make this proverb a historical fact and not a present reality. Credit: Mercedes Sayagues/IPS

NAIROBI, Jun 27 2014 (IPS) – An African proverb says that every woman who gives birth has one foot on her grave.

Sadly, this is still true today, especially within the context of the AIDS epidemic.

In spite of the huge advances in the prevention of mother…

The PNG Government has recently introduced legislation to outlaw polygamy and increase the country’s rate of official marriage and birth registrations. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

SYDNEY, Jul 28 2014 (IPS) – New legislation recently passed in the southwest Pacific Island state of Papua New Guinea (PNG) outlawing polygamy has been welcomed by experts in the country as an initial step forward in the battle against high rates of domestic violence, gender inequality and the spread of AIDS.

“If polygamy remained acceptable, wives would never speak for their rights and they and their children would continue to be silent victims of violence,” Dora Kegemo …

WASHINGTON, Sep 16 2014 (IPS) – A multilateral arbitration panel here began final hearings Monday in a contentious and long-running dispute between an international mining company and the government of El Salvador.

An Australian mining company, OceanaGold, is suing the Salvadoran government for refusing to grant it a gold-mining permit that has been pending for much of the past decade. El Salvador, meanwhile, cites national laws and policies aimed at safeguarding human and environmental health, and says the project would threaten the country’s water supply.“This mining process would use some really poisonous substances – cyanide, arsenic – that would destroy the environment. Ultimately, the people suffer the consequences.” — Father Eric Lopez

The country als…

Gender inequalities explain why prevention is failing to contain HIV infection among young women in East and Southern Africa. UNAIDS calls for a major effort to reduce their risk of infection. Credit: Mercedes Sayagues/IPS

NAIROBI, Nov 7 2014 (IPS) – Experts are raising alarm that years of HIV interventions throughout Africa have failed to stop infection among young women 15 to 24 years old.

“Prevention is failing for young women,” says Lillian Mworeko, HIV expert with , based in Uganda.

Among women in East and Southern Africa, four out of ten new HIV infections among women aged 15 years and over happen among  those aged 15 to 24, according to the J…