Some 60 percent of the world’s chronically hungry people are women and girls. This is because women often have unequal access to resources, education and income, and because they participate less in decision-making.How we can help: donate, play freerice.com, send a message of solidarity, spread the word.
And when hunger and undernutrition affect women, they also affect their children. More than 19 million children are born annually with low birth weight, often the result of their mothers receiving inadequate nutrition before and during pregnancy.
Inherited hunger
These babies are 20 times more likely to die in infancy, and those who survive are more likely to remain malnourished throughout childhood. It is also likely they will face health and learning difficulties all their lives.
This means that hunger and its effects are passed from generation to generation.
But women are not merely victims of hunger. They are also the most effective solution to combating and preventing hunger.
Women as solution
In many countries, women form the backbone of the agricultural sector and food systems, making up the bulk of agricultural labourers.They also play a key role in guaranteeing food security for the entire household.
Experience shows that in the hands of women, food is far more likely to reach the mouths of needy children.
WFP is committed to using its policies, programmes and actions to promote women’s empowerment as a key to improving food security for all.
It will be the first strike of bloggers ever.
On July 14, 2009, Italian bloggers will muzzle themselves in the Web as well as in Piazza Navona in Rome, at 7PM where they will meet to protest against an Italian government bill (the Alfano decree) introducing a number of new rules which will limit the freedom of expression in Italian internet.
The so-called "obligation to rectify" imposed to the manager of an information site (blogs, social networks such as Facebook, Twitter etc) clearly appears to be a pretext. In fact such imposition, in terms of bureaucratization of the network and of very heavy penalties for users, shall make of the new decree an internet-killer.
The practical effects shall be to cause the independent sites and blogs to cease or materially reduce their publications. The apparent intent of introducing criteria of responsibility hides the attempt to make life difficult or impossible for bloggers and users of shared sites (for example: You Tube...)
The fact is that bloggers are already entirely liable, from a penal standpoint, in the event of crimes such as insults, defamation etc: there is no need to introduce unbearable penalties for "citizen-journalists" who do not intend to submit themselves to the bureaucracy and the burdens contemplated in the Alfano decree.
The plurality of information, regardless of the media, internet, newspapers, radio and tv networks etc, is a fundamental right of men and citizens, on which democracy and freedom are based. The Alfano decree is an attack to the freedom of all media, from the major newspapers to the smallest blog.
For this reason we invite all Italian blogs and sites to a day of silence, in the day in which newspapers and tv networks will also remain silent. It is a message of all operators in the media world, who jointly shout to the political world: "we don not want to be gagged". We therefore invite all citizens with a blog or a site to publish this logo and maintain it for the entire day of July 14 next.
Defending the press, the tv and radio networks, the journalists and the Web, we firmly defend the basic freedom of information and the future of our democracy.
Alessandro Gilioli
Guido Scorza
Enzo Di Frenna
The mother of Palestinian Billal Nabham, cries after his body was found under the rubble of a house, after being missing for 20 days, in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza strip, on January 19, 2009.
Remember there is still no cure for AIDS.Bloggers unite and fight back for Democracy and defense of basic human rights. A call in the Greek blogosphere arises, urging every blogger simultaneously to communicate, publish or sign the following text
"Not in our Name
"The situation in Greek prisons is unacceptable. Radical changes in the prison system should be a first priority".
- Karolos Papoulias, Head of State, 6/11/08
"We are human. Prisoners but still human, I tell you".
- Vangelis Pallis, prisoner, 9/11/08
From November 3rd, all detainees in prisons throughout the country are on a hunger strike, claiming what should be respected, but is not: their lost dignity. What they face is the criminal silence of the mainstream media and the indifference of the political leadership. To this silence and political practices all we who sign this text DO NOT CONSENT.
The conditions in Greek prisons are unspeakable and may be understood only by the cold language of mathematics. In the supposedly reformatory institutions of the country a total of 417 detainee deaths were recorded over the past decade, while the rate has literally taken off to such a degree, that every month four people die in the hands of the State. Capacity in Greek prisons reaches 168% (10,113 detainees for 6019 spaces) with a ratio of minimum space for each man in some cases reaching 1square meter, while the daily public spending per prisoner is the meager 3.60 €. Prison cells are miserable, reminiscent of medieval times and health care is almost non - existent. At the same time, the Greek judicial system sends in prison one in every thousand of the overall population, while detainees without trial (in custody) are up to the 30% of the total number of prisoners. If quality of our Democratic system of governance is characterized by its prisons, then our Democracy is in crisis. If detainment is a penalty imposed for criminal behaviors by the State in the name of society, then in the case of Greek prisons we should all be accountable and most responsible of all, the Authorities. Facing such a reality all we who sign this text respond NOT IN OUR NAME.
The data revealed by official bodies for Greek prisons outline inhuman conditions of detention. According to a recent Report of the European Committee on the Prevention of Torture (2007), has found incidents of torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners, threats against their life along with series of violations in relation to their conditions of detention, deficits in investigating and punishing the perpetrators, incidents of violence in collusion with doctors and prison-guards and unacceptable health and medical care conditions. The European Court of Human Rights has issued a series of decisions, convicting the Greek state regarding abuse and / or other rights’ violations of prisoners by prison Authorities. The Greek National Commission on Human Rights has taken a decision – catapult, noting human rights’ abuses in Greek prisons and suggesting certain direct actions to resolve them. The Greek Ombudsman complains about the lack of cooperation with competent state Authorities, causing them literally to be banned from entering the country’s prisons for the last two years. The country’s bar associations, Non-Governmental Organizations, such as Amnesty International, and many political / social institutions unanimously denounce the unacceptable conditions in Greek prisons and call for greater cooperation to overcome the problem. If human rights are to be enjoyed by every human being, depriving it of detainees in Greek prisons, is an open wound for our society. In this situation those who sign this text agree to SMASH COMMUNICATION BARRIERS BETWEEN PRISONS AND SOCIETY.
Prisoners going on hunger strikes, resort to the last bastion of resistance left to them, their own life. A month before the strikes commenced, there has been a last call to the political leadership to solve their problems, as things were getting unbearable, but nothing happened. To stop the hunger strikes, prisoners have specific, realistic and decent demands that restore their lost dignity and recover their basic human rights.As a response to Greek prisoners’ mobilization the political leadership stands in indifference, acts only to make promises for the future and to repress their movements. Nevertheless, an indifferent stance of the political leadership at this stage will certainly mean dead hunger strikers. In these circumstances we say that we cannot remain passive waiting for the news of deaths from hunger strikes but we will stand by them. If the defense of democracy and human rights require the watchfulness of all of us, now is a chance for all, to take steps away from indifference and evasions of the problem.
Faced with the tension that prevails in prisons all over the country, we who sign this text consider the political leadership fully responsible for anything that will happen and demand both institutionally and in practice that BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL PRISONERS IN THE COUNTRY ARE GUARANTEED."
On November, the 21st, this text will be sent in bulk to all members of the Greek parliament and to the mass media encouraging them for its republication. The text will have attached the signatures (URL hyperlinks) of all blogs, forums and web pages that adopted it. We urge for its republication and dissemination, so that the struggle of Greek prisoners for basic human rights gets the international attention and coverage, it deserves".
