Today UNEP and Puma announced the launch of Play for Life, a campaign designed to promote the International Year of Diversity (2010). The campaign will include the 12 teams that Puma sponsors in Africa, including 4 World Cup qualifiers -- Algeria, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, and Gabon. Cameroon captain Samuel Eto'o will take a leading role.
Somalia has long been one of the most dangerous places in the world for UN-affiliated aid workers. Beyond the general lawlessness of the place is the fact that one of the main insurgent groups, al Shabaab, has specificily targeted aid workers and UN agencies as enemies.
UNICEF just published a success story on female education in India, and it’s inspiring. It profiles thirteen-year-old Arfa Khatun, who refused when her parents tried to commit her to marriage, and her parents accepted that refusal. That’s pretty amazing, especially in West Bengal, where almost half of marriages involve girls under 18.
The U.S.
In June 2008, Ban Ki Moon called on all UN member states to end restrictions on travel based on HIV status, saying "60 years after the Universal Declaration on Human Rights] it is shocking that there should still be discrimination against those at high risk, such as men who have sex with men, or stigma attached to individuals living with HIV." At the time twelve countries-- Armenia, Colombia, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sudan, the United States and Yemen -- barred en
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is mandating that airline passengers from a few countries will be selected for special screening. From the Washington Post:
It's been a little over a week since my last post on the crazed reaction to a mundane executive order issued by President Obama regarding certain diplomatic privileges that will be extended to the International Criminal Police Organization--Interpol.