The Global Pulse Journal Blog

[This article was originally posted on Open Forum, a blog supported by the community of Health and Human Rights: An International Journal]

On December 22, New Zealand and Belgium became the 25^th and 26^th nations to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). The convention needs only four more ratifications to achieve the 30-state minimum to enter into force. Once in force, it will enact a ban on the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of most cluster munitions, which include bombs, missiles, or rockets that open midair to scatter tens to thousands of small submunitions over a wide area. The CCM also requires that states destroy their stockpiles in eight years, clear contaminated land within ten years, and provide victim assistance. Read the rest of this entry →

Centers for cholera treatment in northern Mozambique have been vandalized recently due to a belief that they are actually causing cholera, rather than treating it.  The misunderstanding is partly blamed on the similarity between the Portuguese words for Cholera and Chlorine, since Chlorine is used to treat water and prevent cholera.  (Mozambique was a Portuguese colony until the mid-1970’s).

See the full story here: http://allafrica.com/stories/200911120948.html

This is from the Washington Post (free subscription required):

For the women of eastern Congo, a U.S.-backed Congolese military operation meant to save them from abusive rebels has turned into a nightmare of its own.

An already staggering epidemic of rape has become markedly worse since the January deployment of tens of thousands of poorly trained, poorly paid Congolese soldiers, with people in front-line villages such as this one saying the soldiers are not so much hunting rebels as hunting women. Read the rest of this entry →