"FAO considers indigenous and tribal peoples, with their wealth of ancestral knowledge, key strategic partners in the fight against hunger. Their voices must be heard in order to find together a new balance between human needs and the needs of the planet, new mechanisms able to guarantee environmental and social justice, and new models of food production, distribution and consumption to relieve the pressure on natural resources and ensure to future generations the resources they will need to feed themselves."
FAO Director-General, José Graziano da Silva
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), have remained the overarching development framework for the world for the past 15 years. The data and analysis presented in this report prove that, with targeted interventions, sound strategies, adequate resources and political will, even the poorest countries can make dramatic and unprecedented progress. The report also acknowledges uneven achievements and shortfalls in many areas.
Direct Link to Full 2015 Report
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2015_MDG_Report/pdf/MDG%202015%20rev%20(July%201).pdf
http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/publications/mdg-report-2015.html
By Natasha Geiling - June 24, 2015
The last week of June, governments from around the world convened at the United Nations headquarters to negotiate important pieces of the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda, a plan that builds on preexisting anti-poverty targets adopted by countries around the world. With negotiations underway, more than 600 organizations are taking to social media and sending representatives to the halls of the UN to remind delegates of an issue often overlooked in sustainable development: the role of women’s rights, especially when it comes to climate change.
“A lot of people do not understand the links between women’s rights and climate change,” Eleanor Blomstrom, program director at the Women’s Environment & Development Organization, told ThinkProgress. “We often talk about it in terms of gender gaps and climate change impacts, and those [climate] impacts exacerbate existing [gender] inequalities.”
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a harmful practice that is recognised worldwide as a human rights violation.
The practice of FGM violates:
-
Right to physical and mental integrity
-
Right to highest attainable standard of health
-
Right to be free from all forms of discrimination against women (including violence against women)
-
Right to freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
-
Rights of the child, and
-
in extreme cases, right to life
FGM has been documented in certain parts of Africa, Asia and Middle East. It is now encountered in Europe as well. Most often, girls and women are taken to their countries of origin during school holidays where they are confronted with the pressure to be cut.
