One of the creators of Oscar-nominated animation Waltz With Bashir has made a short film to alter Israeli perceptions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. A 90-second film Closed Zone has been launched online in support of the human rights group Gisha, which advocates freedom of movement for Palestinians. It shows a Palestinian boy chasing a bird but having his path blocked.
http://www.closedzone.com/

Source: India Resource Center

Kala Dera, India: The Coca-Cola company has continued to operate its bottling plant in Kala Dera in Jaipur, India even as the area has been declared a drought area last summer and the groundwater levels are falling sharply – leaving the largely agrarian community with severely restricted access to water.

Data obtained this week by the India Resource Center from the Central Groundwater Board, a government agency, confirm that groundwater levels in Kala Dera fell precipitously again – a drop of 4.29 meters (14 feet) in just one year between August 2008 and August 2009, from 30.83 meters below ground level to 35.12 meters respectively. (more…)

Karama’s delegation of 32 women from around the Arab world is headed to the UN in New York to participate in the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.   During the session, Karama’s team will join women’s activists from around the world to present a detailed review of progress towards fulfilling the gender equality goals set fifteen years ago in the Beijing Platform for Action and ten years ago in the Millennium Development Goals.
More information on  Karama’s web site.

This article is drawn from a speech given by Josina Machel at the 4th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights earlier this month in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Machel is a gender activist and a social entrepreneur and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Women’s Health Coalition.

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Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and the author of the seminal A People’s History of the United States, died on January 28 at the age of 87 of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California. He was in a swimming pool doing laps and was spotted immediately by lifeguards but died instantly.

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The CEDAW is made up of 16 substantial and 14 procedural articles. It is a surprisingly significant convention because it deliberately goes beyond conventional equality approaches and puts forward “positive measures” to promote women, and contains active political and legal steps towards gender equality.  See WIDE information and analysis (pdf format).  See also WIDE - CEDAW Campaign and Blog .

Source : Gender Action - Gender Action  announces the publication of its fourth “Gender Action Link”, Gender, the IFIs and Debt, which highlights how International Financial Institution debt exacerbates the feminization of poverty and undermines gender equality. The Link specifically examines typical gender impacts of IFI loan conditions on female workers such as an increase in the amount of care-work for women and the exclusion of poor women and girls from essential health services.    (more…)

Sex workers in Denmark are protesting a campaign against prostitution during the UN Climate Change Conference. The city of Copenhagen wants to discourage delegates from buying sex, despite the fact that it is perfectly legal there and has nothing to do with climate change. The sex workers’ interest group, SIO (Sexarbejdernes Interesseorganisation), was not consulted and so, annoyed, they are offering free sex to any conference delegate who turns in his ridiculous postcard (see below), which also went to 160 hotels.   See full text on  “Border Thinking on Migration, Trafficking and Commercial Sex”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The League of Arab States,  Karama,  and UNIFEM to Commemorate 30 Years of the CEDAW Treaty to End Discrimination Against Women

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The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution - emissions trading - on the negotiating table at Copenhagen and in other capitals. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the “devils in the details” in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and  distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about Cap &’ Trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you.

The Story of Cap & Trade from Story of Stuff Project on Vimeo.