The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) still haven’t been achieved. Much progress has been made but, only nine months from the deadline, accomplishing them remains out of reach. What are the MDGs. They are the most ambitious targets ever set by the United Nations to improve living conditions for the world’s population. They were drafted
Piplantri, a small Indian village located in the north-western Rajasthan State, celebrates female newborns with planting trees. It is a countertrend compared to the Indian subcontinent, where the birth of a girl child is generally considered anything but a blessing. Due to prenatal ultrasounds, able to indicate foetus’ gender, millions of female
Death penalty remains an exception on Earth. This hopeful sentence describes well what was said in the Amnesty International’s new report on the death sentences executed in 2014. The official number (607) has dropped by 22 percent with respect to 2013 while the number of the countries that carried out at least an execution is the
Infrastructural developments carried out by governments, often with the participation of international organisations such as the World Bank, cause the forced eviction of countless communities in developing countries. These projects are evaluated in terms of their most immediate ends, without taking into consideration their long terms effects. Amongst which, too often, is the at times
A group of 40 Afghan women passionate about cycling and part of the Afghanistan’s Women’s National Cycling Team is trying to break country’s tradition barriers. The aim is to spread the idea that women can freely practice any sports, despite the conservative society of Afghanistan consider sport as an inappropriate activity for women. Masooma
Palm oil is an edible oil plant that is a common ingredient in many consumer products, and it has become the most widely produced vegetable oil worldwide. Palm oil global consumption increased sharply: in 2014 it amounted to 56.63 million metric tonnes, and it is expected to exceed 60 million in 2015, according to studies by The
La giornata istituita dall’Unesco ha l’obiettivo di valorizzare il ruolo dell’espressione poetica nella promozione del dialogo interculturale, della comunicazione e della pace.
China has become the world’s third largest exporter of arms and has overtaken Germany, France and the UK. This is the most surprising datum of the analysis on the world’s major arms importers and exporters between 2010 and 2014, carried out by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the institute that since 1950 keeps track
Italians like packaging-free shopping. Supermarket chains but also small commercial activities with no packaging are on the rise.
Isis, borne of a leadership split within Al Qaeda, envisions the role of women differently from the historic organisation of Islamic militancy. According to Al Qaeda, women must be passive and submissive. For Isis, they must be subordinated, but they are also called to participate actively in the construction and maintenance of the Islamic Caliphate.
