NUNZIUM

News That Matters

15/08/2022 ---- 17/08/2022

Menstruating women in India still have to live under several restrictions - they are considered impure and are excluded from social and religious events, sometimes even their own kitchens. In some rural and tribal communities, women have to stay in separate menstrual huts when they get their period. Recently, some young women have begun displaying their "period charts" on the walls or doors of their homes. The charts, that mentions the dates and duration of their periods, are not only helping them keep track of their monthly cycles - they are also helping break walls of shame that surround the topic in the country. A different idea is coming from Scotland which became the first country to make period products free. It may take time for mindsets to change but this can be a good start to make the difference.

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Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the world’s most prominent political prisoner. As secretary of the National League for Democracy she played a vital role in Myanmar’s transition to momentary democracy a decade ago. In 1991 she was awarded the Nobel Prize “for Peace for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights”. She is now detained since the military coup in 2021 and she has already been sentenced for a number of charges to 11 years. Today her prosecution continues and she has been sentenced to additional 6 years in prison in a trial held with closed doors. The trials handing down one guilty sentence after another to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate are widely seen as an attempt by the military to remove her from politics in view of the promised elections next year.

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World leaders meet at the UN in New York for more talks to save the world's oceans from overexploitation. The UN High Seas Treaty has been through 10 years of negotiations but has yet to be signed. If agreed, it would put 30% of the world's oceans into conservation areas by 2030. Campaigners hope it will protect marine life from overfishing. Moreover, human activities like deep-sea mining and the access to marine genetics resources (MGR) will be regulated. The treaty would place parts of the world's oceans into a network of Marine Protected Areas. We hope such treaty will be signed (and enforced).

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