While the nation does possess legitimate political rights, including free and fair elections, lack of human rights in Guinea-Bissau continues to make victims out of its citizens. As of 2016, these included abuses such as corruption of government officials as well as violence and discrimination of women and children.
The list continues on, according to the U.S. Department of State. Other abuses included unfair and abusive treatment of detainees, lack of due process and human trafficking. No effective action was taken against the perpetrators of human rights in these situations.
In particular, prisoner detention stands out as one of the most grotesque human rights abuses. The conditions of detention facilities are life-threatening, according to the state departments.
“Cells lack running water, adequate heating, ventilation, lighting and sanitation. Detainees’ diets were poor and medical care was virtually non-existent,” stated the human rights report in 2016. The means by which detainees arrive in these deplorable conditions often violates another human right, lack of due process, as authorities often “arbitrarily” arrest and detain people.
Police are, for the most part, ineffective and corrupt, which might result be a result of their lack of regular payment by the state. Lack of funding results in insufficient of training as well as scarce resources for police to carry out their duties properly. Unfortunately, almost all levels of law enforcement are susceptible to coercion, threats and bribes, including the attorney general’s office.
Consequently, unlawful arrests continue to be made, violating human rights in Guinea-Bissau. These include arrests without warrants and the holding of detainees for longer than the permitted period of time. Additionally, military detainees were often not informed of charges against them.
To add to the human rights abuses conducted throughout the justice system, the independent courts, including judges, were “poorly trained, inadequately and irregularly paid and subject to corruption.”
It appears that those accused of suspected of crime in the state have very little security, as human rights in Guinea-Bissau are not enforced. Furthermore, there continues to be no administrative means of addressing human rights violations.
Little progress had been made in improving these conditions, and the justice system remains extremely weak to this day. One of the only few actions of accountability undertaken by the state was in July 2015 in the Oio region, where three officers were sentenced to imprisonment for human rights abuses.
Investigations continue to be made by human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International. The citizens of Guinea-Bissau are desperately in need of intervention from the international community.
– Melanie Snyder
Photo: Flickr
Causes of Poverty in Luxembourg
In Luxembourg, most people live comfortably. Since 2009, the employment rate has increased by more than 16 percent but the current unemployment rate is only 5.9 percent – well below the European average of 10.4 percent. Generous social benefits and laws condemning discrimination against women, ethnic minorities and disabled people further improve the overall quality of life in Luxembourg.
Despite these promising conditions, poverty is still an issue in Luxembourg. In 2013, the threshold for the risk of poverty amounted to approximately €1,665. During that year, about 15.9 percent of people living in the country found themselves in that category – of this group, 23.9 percent were children.
An article written by Gornick and Jantti identified Luxembourg as a high income country with disproportionately high child poverty. In the study, they found that children in Luxembourg were 20 percent more likely to be poor than the overall population.
One of the main causes of poverty in Luxembourg is having lived in poverty before. The risk of remaining poor or becoming poor for those who have previously lived in poverty is about 70 percent. On the other hand, those who have had no prior experience with poverty only face a four percent risk of entering poverty. Consequently, 60 percent of the level of state dependence is made up of those who have previously experienced poverty.
The Luxembourg Chamber of Employees identified another one of the causes of poverty in Luxembourg. They analyzed the relationship between the risk of poverty and cost of housing and found that nearly one third of tenants faced the risk of poverty. In other European countries, such as France and Germany, this risk is much lower.
One way that the Luxembourg government attempts to fight poverty and social exclusion is through the minimum guaranteed income (MGI). The MGI is given to people or households who fall below a certain threshold and its main goal is to provide sufficient means of existence and opportunities for social and professional inclusion.
Efforts such as the MGI are critical steps to improving poverty in Luxembourg. While many live comfortably and the country is prosperous in several ways, still more must be done to assist those in poverty and to lower the unnaturally high proportion of children in poverty.
– Lauren Mcbride
Photo: Flickr
Justice System Violates Human Rights in Guinea-Bissau
While the nation does possess legitimate political rights, including free and fair elections, lack of human rights in Guinea-Bissau continues to make victims out of its citizens. As of 2016, these included abuses such as corruption of government officials as well as violence and discrimination of women and children.
The list continues on, according to the U.S. Department of State. Other abuses included unfair and abusive treatment of detainees, lack of due process and human trafficking. No effective action was taken against the perpetrators of human rights in these situations.
In particular, prisoner detention stands out as one of the most grotesque human rights abuses. The conditions of detention facilities are life-threatening, according to the state departments.
“Cells lack running water, adequate heating, ventilation, lighting and sanitation. Detainees’ diets were poor and medical care was virtually non-existent,” stated the human rights report in 2016. The means by which detainees arrive in these deplorable conditions often violates another human right, lack of due process, as authorities often “arbitrarily” arrest and detain people.
Police are, for the most part, ineffective and corrupt, which might result be a result of their lack of regular payment by the state. Lack of funding results in insufficient of training as well as scarce resources for police to carry out their duties properly. Unfortunately, almost all levels of law enforcement are susceptible to coercion, threats and bribes, including the attorney general’s office.
Consequently, unlawful arrests continue to be made, violating human rights in Guinea-Bissau. These include arrests without warrants and the holding of detainees for longer than the permitted period of time. Additionally, military detainees were often not informed of charges against them.
To add to the human rights abuses conducted throughout the justice system, the independent courts, including judges, were “poorly trained, inadequately and irregularly paid and subject to corruption.”
It appears that those accused of suspected of crime in the state have very little security, as human rights in Guinea-Bissau are not enforced. Furthermore, there continues to be no administrative means of addressing human rights violations.
Little progress had been made in improving these conditions, and the justice system remains extremely weak to this day. One of the only few actions of accountability undertaken by the state was in July 2015 in the Oio region, where three officers were sentenced to imprisonment for human rights abuses.
Investigations continue to be made by human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International. The citizens of Guinea-Bissau are desperately in need of intervention from the international community.
– Melanie Snyder
Photo: Flickr
Common Diseases in Sint Maarten
When traveling to any island or foreign country, the CDC recommends a series of vaccinations to prevent illness from communicable diseases. It is recommended that travelers to Sint Maarten receive these vaccinations:
These vaccinations help prevent common diseases in Sint Maarten from spreading to tourists. A non-vaccine-preventable disease that is common is dengue fever. This is a leading cause of febrile illness among travelers from the Caribbean, South America and southeast Asia.
Common diseases in Sint Maarten can be spread by many means. The female Aedes aegypti mosquito transmits mosquito-borne diseases such as Zika, dengue and chikungunya. Taking precautions against mosquitoes by using bed nets at night, insect repellent and wearing long sleeve shirts and long pants can prevent these diseases. Zika is especially dangerous for pregnant women, as it can lead to birth defects. Others should use protection when there and home, and while traveling.
According to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), cancer is a non-communicable, common disease in Sint Maarten that causes death. Among females, breast cancer is the most prevalent, followed by cervical cancer. Prostate cancer is the leading cause of death among men, with lung cancer coming in second. Lung cancer is also a contributor to a high number of deaths among women. These cancers can be caused by genetics or environmental factors.
Non-environmental factors such as overeating have led to childhood obesity, which is seen as an epidemic in the youth of Sint Maarten based on the Youth Obesity Research study done in 2010. In 12-17-year-olds, the prevalence of overweight is 39 percent, and of that group, 54 percent are obese. The study also indicated that 60 percent of youths do not participate in sports and rarely consume fruits and vegetables.
The government has declared its aim to ensure that their “education sectors promote programs aimed at providing healthy school meals and promoting healthy eating.” They want to make a difference by promoting physical activity and providing healthy food choices in the schools. In order to achieve this goal, the schools will need to cooperate with the parents and educate them on healthy eating at home as well as at school.
The common diseases in Sint Maarten vary from non-communicable to communicable, to preventable and non-preventable. The good news is that making healthy lifestyle choices and taking the necessary precautions, one can easily avoid disease.
– Stefanie Podosek
Photo: Flickr
How to Help People in Timor-Leste
1. Support NGOs working for the people of Timor-Leste
Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) are working to advance social and economic causes. CARE Australia is working to decrease the country’s 35 percent literacy rate and they are also working to improve maternal health in under-resourced rural communities. Oxfam Australia is also working to lift rural communities out of poverty through efforts to improve food security, essential services and infrastructure development. Peace Fund Timor-Leste collaborates and funds NGOs that focus on peace-building activities in the youth development area. Using these organizations as examples, a great way to help the people of Timor-Leste is to research more organizations, evaluate their impact and donate or volunteer your time.
2. Call Congress
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is doing essential work in Timor-Leste. They’ve deployed USAID community police officers to 442 villages to contribute to post-independence stability. USAID is also working to improve the skills of the Ministry of Health staff in reproductive, maternal and newborn health; Timor-Leste still has the highest maternal and under five mortality rates in Southeast Asia. USAID also assists in increasing farm income and improving nutrition for rural households throughout the nation. USAID has been working in Timor-Leste since the early 1980s, with both the government and other development partners; in the fiscal year 2016, the agency spent about $14 million in Timor-Leste. As of now, the 2017 fiscal budget is still under debate and USAID may be at risk of receiving budget cuts. One way to help is to contact Congress and urge them to protect the international affairs budget, particularly for the country of Timor-Leste.
On average, post-conflict countries take between 15 and 30 years to transition into stability. Considering this, Timor-Leste has made excellent progress thus far; however, there is still work to be done. The people of Timor-Leste deserve to live in a resilient nation where economic stability, political rights and social welfare are guaranteed to its citizens.
– Hannah Seitz
Photo: Flickr
Listening to Africa
In order to understand global poverty and effective methods to eradicate it, data must be gathered on people and their living conditions, whatever they may be. Historically, groups such as the World Bank would collect this data personally, traveling to sites and interviewing locals. However, this can be a vastly ineffective way to gather data for the aforementioned reasons, as people may migrate or the area may be too dangerous to travel. Listening to Africa is an organization investing in technology to help solve this problem.
Listening to Africa is a program set up by the World Bank Group to collect data on global poverty. Listening to Africa is using mobile phones supplemented by information from statistical offices and nongovernmental organizations in Africa in order to systematically collect data on extremely poor regions.
The program marries two different approaches; face-to-face interviews and follow-up phone calls to monitor selected regions. Respondents are asked some simple questions to begin the process and take part in 20-minute phone calls each month as the program is carried out. Those who complete the surveys successfully are awarded credit to their phones. Data from these calls is then paired with data collection done in the field and with other statistical offices to help better understand real time conditions in impoverished regions.
Listening to Africa has a great potential for data analysts to communicate with policy-makers on actual conditions of these regions, which will, in turn, allow them to better serve these communities and eventually help bring global poverty to an end.
– Casey Hess
Photo: Flickr
Causes of Poverty in Malta
For the island nation of Malta, poverty is an issue that must be addressed, especially with recent data that suggests that not only is poverty a persistent issue within this country, but also an issue that is on the rise. The causes of poverty in Malta are important to understand in order to address this issue.
Malta is located in the Mediterranean Sea, just south of Italy, and is comprised of a population of over 400,000 people. Of the 400,000 people who live on this island, 16.3 percent live below the poverty line, according to a 2015 estimate. Furthermore, according to European Union (EU) statistics, Malta is one of 14 European countries that experienced an increase in poverty between 2008 and 2014. After Greece, Spain and Cyprus, Malta experienced the fourth greatest increase in poverty during this period.
One cause of poverty in Malta is unemployment; an estimated 4.8 percent of Maltese people are unemployed. Nevertheless, there are many positive signs which indicate positive growth for Malta’s economy that could alleviate unemployment for many. The Maltese economy is strongly dependent on foreign trade, manufacturing and tourism, which have contributed to an economy that has grown 4.5 percent per year – the largest growth of any European country between 2014 and 2016.
There are also certain groups of Maltese people who are more vulnerable to being affected by poverty. Those that have been victims of violence and neglect, the mentally ill, immigrants, the disabled and those from single-parent households are more likely to live in poverty and therefore rely on social services. In particular, poverty affects the elderly – those over 65 – on this island at a significantly higher rate – 22 percent – than other age groups in the population. Many of those who are particularly vulnerable to poverty have also been pushed in that direction by falling into a pattern of being heavily indebted.
Despite the recent trend toward poverty, Malta is largely heading in a positive direction. Economically, the country is thriving and this economic growth could increase the unemployment rate and be used to further guarantee social services that could alleviate poverty for at-risk groups of people. Nonetheless, there is still a lot of work to be done and the causes of poverty in Malta need to be addressed fully in order to see progress.
– Jennifer Faulkner
Photo: Flickr
Human Rights in San Marino: The Fight for Gender Equality
Securing human rights in San Marino, one of the world’s oldest republics, has been a progressive and relatively successful venture. The state is a multi-party democracy where authorities maintain effective control over law enforcement.
According to the Department of State, no outrageous human rights abuses have taken place in San Marino in recent years. Although, according to various international organizations, the state still needs to reduce gender inequality and further the protection of women’s rights in particular.
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, recently congratulated the state for its success in combating violence against women during his visit in 2015.
The prevention of violence against women has been successful due to legislation passed throughout the last decade, including the “Prevention and elimination of violence against women and gender violence” in 2008. The decree to implement the law was passed in 2012, according the U.N. It also provided an assistance center for victims of violence.
Additionally, during this time, a special study group was established by the San Marino delegation which specializes in meeting the requirements of the Council of Europe Convention for preventing and combating violence against women.
Despite progress against violence, women in San Marino continue to face hurdles in practicing their human rights. According to Muižnieks, action should be taken to address the gender gap in employment and political participation, along with action to combat harmful gender stereotypes.
The commissioner suggested in 2015 that these goals regarding human rights in San Marino, particularly for women, can be achieved through increased efforts by and resources towards the Authority for Equal Opportunities in the state. He also suggested goals of gender equality could be made through the state’s ratification of the Council of Europe Istanbul Convention. San Marino ratified and entered the Istanbul Convention early in 2016, confirming its commitment to ensure human rights and women’s rights in the country.
– Melanie Snyder
Why the Poverty Rate in Tunisia Is Still High
Tunisia proved the authority of its democracy when 2010 uprisings overthrew a decade-long dictatorship. That same year, the World Bank found that the poverty rate in Tunisia had been cut in half since the start of the century. Tunisia’s GDP has doubled as it approaches 10 years since that revolution, but rural areas are still stuck in a rut of poverty.
Most economic growth is localized to coastal, urban communities. The agricultural sector only contributes 10 percent to the overall GDP, but 35 percent of the country’s population competes for that small percentage. The result is that two-thirds of the country’s poor population lives in rural, agrarian areas.
Still, Tunisia is considered a success story and role model for other countries fighting poverty. The government implemented programs to improve the national status of education, healthcare and infrastructure after the new democracy took hold in 2011, and the aggregate influence was tangible. But the disparity remains, and the poverty rate in Tunisia is as much as 30 percent higher in some rural regions.
The Devastating Effects of the Poverty Rate in Tunisia
In hard to access areas, potable water and electricity are only available to 65 percent of people. This leaves nearly half of the poor population without water or electricity. The number of women receiving prenatal care is 35 percent lower in rural areas, and infant mortality rates are significantly higher. The Tunisian government has made basic healthcare accessible to all people, regardless of income, so the adverse statistics seem to represent a different problem.
Literacy rates (a strong indicator of poverty) are just above 98 percent for males between 15-24, and near 96 percent for females of the same age across Tunisia. These are promising figures, just like the overall improvement in poverty rate in Tunisia, but again there is a disparity in rural areas. Dropout rates for primary education remain at about 50 percent for the whole country, disproportionately attributed to children in poverty, and especially to girls in rural areas. The statistical stagnancy represents a social emphasis on patriarchy rather than education, and it is more and more clear that one father’s agrarian income can no longer support a family.
Tunisia’s battle against poverty shows that change begins with people. The poverty rate in Tunisia will continue to improve as the people continue to seek self-sufficiency. The civilian uprising that created their new democracy was an inspiration to similar countries, and hope remains that societal examples within that new democracy will make education and health a greater priority in rural areas.
– Brooke Clayton
Photo: Google
How to Help People in Swaziland
Helping Vulnerable Children Access Necessary Resources
Due to the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS which predominantly affects the country’s younger population, many children have lost one or both of their parents. Parents of children who are HIV-positive often cannot afford retroviral therapy. Many HIV-positive children are cut off from basic health services and education. One in 10 children in Swaziland is severely malnourished. There is also a low school enrollment rate of 60.1 percent, with one in five primary-school-aged children not enrolled in primary school.
Organizations such as SOS Children’s Villages and the World Food Programme are currently working on providing orphaned and vulnerable children with access to education and healthcare services. SOS Children’s Villages provides daycare and medical assistance in three different locations in Swaziland. The World Food Programme also provides nutritious meals to children at community-led daycare centers throughout the country. The project aims to provide vulnerable children with both nutrition and access to social services such as early childhood education, psychosocial support and basic healthcare services.
Providing Treatment for HIV/AIDS and TB
With 26 percent of people aged 15 to 49 living with HIV, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS has also greatly depleted Swaziland’s labor force. Tuberculosis (TB) is also one of the leading causes of death in the country, although 80 percent of TB patients are also infected with HIV. In order to combat the spread of these diseases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Swazi Ministry of Health work together to broaden the scope of HIV testing and antiretroviral treatment in Swaziland. Since 2012, thousands have been provided with access to antiretroviral treatment, HIV testing and counselling services. In addition to helping those in need, combating HIV will also help ease the strain HIV puts on the Swazi economy.
Providing Communities with Sustainable Sources of Clean Water
Approximately 330,000 people in Swaziland do not have access to a source of clean water, and half a million people do not have access to adequate sanitation. Every year, over 200 children under the age of five die due to diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor water and sanitation conditions in Swaziland. The high incidence of HIV/AIDS only makes the need for safe water and hygiene even greater.
This is why organizations such as WaterAid and the Thirst Project have made it their goal to provide a source of clean water to all those in Swaziland who do not currently have one. WaterAid works with local communities to introduce affordable technologies that can be easily maintained by the communities themselves. It also lobbies the Swazi government to ensure water and hygiene are prioritized and budgeted for.
The Thirst Project also works to bring clean water sources to communities and hopes to have provided all Swazi communities in need with safe water by 2022. “They build something sustainable, that’s not going to dry up even though there are tremendous droughts right now in Swaziland,” states Paola Pozzaglia Nilsen, an adviser for a local chapter of the Thirst Project in New York. Nilsen added that clean water is an integral part of how to help people in Swaziland as it helps communities to become self-sufficient, healthier, and safer.
By investing in the nutrition and education of children, the treatment of diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis and the construction of clean water sources, progress toward eradicating poverty in Swaziland can begin to happen.
– Amanda Quinn
Photo: Flickr
Causes of Poverty in Uruguay
In recent years, Uruguay has been lauded as a success story in economic progress and poverty reduction. According to the World Bank, which has played an enormous role in supporting the Uruguayan economy in the past decade, poverty in Uruguay has decreased from 11.6% in 2020 to 10.6% in 2021.
Extreme poverty has nearly been eradicated, but poverty still exists in this Latin American country. The causes of poverty in Uruguay can be summarized in three major categories: lack of education for young children, the rapidly modernizing rural sector and discrepancies in economic status between men and women.
Most Vulnerable Population in Uruguay
A large majority of the impoverished population in Uruguay is made up of women and children. Children aged less than 15 make up a large percentage of the most impoverished sector. Further, rural families who fall in the poorest 20% of the population tend to have the largest number of children. This inverse relationship between family size and economic status contributes to the lack of nourishment and education available to the children in these families. Research performed by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean revealed extreme learning deficiencies in children at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum.
The modernization of the rural sector has also played a large role in perpetuating the high level of poverty in the more rural regions of Uruguay. As rural production work is streamlined with the rise and availability of new technologies, those employed by rural producers are being forced out of work. While the more urban areas of Uruguay remain positively impacted by modernization, the number of rural workers who are finding themselves unemployed due to modernization is also on the rise.
In both rural and urban areas of the country, women make up a large proportion of the workforce. In fact, at 45.7%, Uruguayan women have one of the highest participation rates in the labor industry in all of Latin America. Still, the discrepancy in wages between men and women is enormous and one of the main causes of poverty in Uruguay. With Uruguayan women earning about 67% of men’s income on average, it is no wonder that women fall into the most impoverished sector far more often than men.
Women also continue to fulfill traditional obligations in the home, allowing them less mobility and less time to work for pay. As a result, single-mother households make up a large part of the poverty sector in Uruguay. There is certainly still much work to be done in restructuring agribusiness, education and wage disparity between men and women if the causes of poverty in Uruguay are to be addressed in the coming years. However, the progress that Uruguay has experienced in the past decade is no small feat.
Assistance From the World Bank
With assistance from the World Bank, the Uruguayan government has implemented a development process—a composite of loans, insurance, donations and informational exchange—that has had outstanding results. In 2013, Uruguay was ranked as a high-income country with the largest middle class in the Americas, at 60% of the population. Beyond economics, Uruguayan citizens have an extremely high level of confidence in their government, based largely upon low levels of corruption and governmental stability.
Overall, Uruguay is an anomaly in Latin America in terms of its financial independence and high level of equal opportunity for citizens. Though poverty still exists in the country, the prospects for decreasing it even further are extremely favorable as Uruguay continues to grow and prosper as an egalitarian and economically stable country.
– Bhavya Thamman
Photo: Flickr
Updated: May 27, 2024