[podcast] Reality check on gender justice in Kyrgyzstan: Nurgul Dzhanaeva speaks

This podcast features Nurgul Dzhanaeva, President of the Forum of Women's NGOs of Kyrgyzstan, who has worked on SDG-related issues at the local, national, regional and global levels. From 2016-2019, she was instrumental in initiating the campaign “From Global to Local” which sought to integrate SDG Goal 5 – to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls – into Kyrgyzstan’s local sustainable development strategies and plans.

She is in conversation with Shobha Shukla, CNS Founder Executive Director and feminist development justice leader, at the Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (APFF 2024) in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

• Opening and closing instrumental piano music is played by young feminist Ms Tara Shukla Iyer from UK.

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts, TuneIn, Podtail, BluBrry, Himalaya, ListenNotes, American Podcasts, CastBox FM, Ivy FM, Player FM, iVoox, and other podcast streaming platforms.

[video] Kyrgyzstan: Would we deliver on gender justice? Nurgul Dzhanaeva speaks

[podcast] Reality check on gender justice in the Pacific: Nalini Singh of Fiji Women's Rights Movements speaks

This podcast features Nalini Singh, a noted Fiji's human rights activist and Executive Director of Fiji Women's Rights Movement (FWRM). She is in conversation with Shobha Shukla, a feminist development justice activist and CNS Founder Executive Director around the 4th Asia Pacific Feminist Forum on the theme of: Feminist world building - creative energies, collective journeys in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

• Opening and closing instrumental piano music is played by young feminists Ms Tara Shukla Iyer and Ms Reya Shukla Iyer from UK.

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts, TuneIn, Podtail, BluBrry, Himalaya, ListenNotes, American Podcasts, CastBox FM, Ivy FM, Player FM, iVoox, and other podcast streaming platforms.

[video] Fiji's human rights activist shares ground realities of gender justice in the pacific

Feminist world-building: Creative energies, collective journeys

watch the video | listen to podcast | हिन्दी

... So goes the theme of the 4th Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (APFF) which will be held in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand next month. This theme is a pointer towards channelising the energies of people of all genders who work to defend human rights and promote gender equality to collectively resist the patriarchal, militarised and greed-driven world we are living in, and envisioning a feminist world order.

It is not natural disasters but manmade barriers that block access to TB care

It is not natural disasters (like hurricanes or storms) which block access to TB care services most times, but manmade barriers that fuel injustices, inequities, greed, and risk factors that put people at risk of TB disease and death.

Latest UNAIDS data paint a grim picture of the HIV epidemic

A new report, In Danger, launched by UNAIDS just ahead of the 24th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2022) in Montreal, Canada, paints a grim picture of the global HIV epidemic. It reveals that during the last two years, progress in prevention and treatment of HIV has slowed down and resources have shrunk, putting millions of lives at risk.

People living with HIV demand end of medicine stockout: Indefinite sit-in begins

[हिंदी] Indefinite sit-in began on 21st July 2022 outside the offices of India’s AIDS programme of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to demand an end to the frequent stockouts of lifesaving HIV antiretroviral medicines. “We will not end the sit-in in Delhi outside the office of National AIDS Control Organization until there is a concrete action taken by the government to end the stockout, and our people in different states of India confirm that medicines have reached them,” said Hari Shankar Singh of Delhi Network of Positive People (DNP Plus).

Pandemic treaty talks resume amidst lurking corporate pressure

Unless profiteering from illness stops, corporations which are becoming richer even during disasters and pandemics, will continue to pressure governments to not advance pro-people policies. 'Normalization' of minting unbridled profits from illness, is one of the reasons why health and social welfare programmes have failed to deliver equitably. Extractive industries and those that siphon of natural resources for profits of a few (while billions of people suffer devastating impacts of climate emergencies), also need to be held to account if we want treaties like the Pandemic Treaty to work in letter and spirit.

Will Himalayan Indian state eliminate tuberculosis by 2023?

Two years before the pandemic had struck us, the hilly state of Himachal Pradesh in India had declared that it will eliminate tuberculosis (TB) by 2023 - two years before the national #endTB target (2025), and seven years before the global #endTB target (2030). State Chief Minister’s dedicated initiative had further galvanized the efforts towards containing the ancient disease. But are we on track?

Science must guide India, UK: Stoking vaccine nationalism will fail us all

One of the seven sins we should not commit as warned by Mahatma Gandhi, is "science without humanity". But are we conscious enough to ensure that the global fight against Covid is mindful of Gandhi ji’s message? 

UK's decision to consider vaccinated Indians as 'unvaccinated' stinks of apartheid, lacks scientific merit

Recent decision of the United Kingdom (UK) to consider fully vaccinated Indians along with some other nationalities as 'unvaccinated' lacks scientific merit and instead stinks of white supremacy and apartheid era. It is important to mention that 90% of the vaccines rolled out in India are Covishield. Covishield vaccine, is Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, whose research was done by UK based agencies but this vaccine under the name of 'Covishield' is being made in India and exported globally by Serum Institute of India. Serum Institute of India is also the world's largest vaccine manufacturer. Will UK also consider those vaccinated with Oxford AstraZeneca in its own nation as 'unvaccinated'?

Will inclusion and accountability take centrestage at the Generation Equality Forum?

Undoubtedly, the Generation Equality Forum which took place earlier this year, was a milestone to galvanize US$ 40 billion financial commitments for gender equality and human rights worldwide. This is the largest amount of investment to advance gender equality and women’s rights ever. It also launched a 5-year action journey (till 2026) "to achieve irreversible progress towards gender equality, founded on a series of concrete, ambitious and transformative actions, as well as ambitious policy and programme commitments from governments, philanthropy, civil society, youth organizations and the private sector."

[video] When 1 out of every 2 #tobacco user dies of tobacco-related diseases, then why is #BigTobacco legal?

[video] Why UNICEF head has always been an American white citizen since 1946? Why not from other UN member nations?

[video] Why is public transport not good enough to make private vehicle ownership unnecessary?

[video] Covid resources used for malaria/ dengue? Earlier all health system was diverted for Covid!

Are we hungry for change for genuinely transforming food systems?

Shobha Shukla - CNS

While the governments chant the mantra of "leaving no one behind", it is ironic that they are abetting corporate grabbing of land and resources, which is pushing farmers out of agriculture. Corporations are exercising more and more control over food and agriculture and influencing public policies. The forthcoming United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021, tentatively to be held in September 2021 and convened by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, purports to transform the way the world produces and consumes food, and leverage these actions to deliver progress on all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

[video] Father Stan Swamy's institutional murder: a blot on Indian democracy

Governments must adopt a strong political declaration that the global crisis mandates

Shobha Shukla - CNS

Because if they do not, then we are doomed to fail to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 (for which only 113 months are left). The clock is ticking but governments from around the world, who are convening at the United Nations High Level Political Forum (HLPF) seem to be regurgitating old timid commitments and shying away from taking bold decisions. The Covid-19 pandemic and cascading humanitarian crises warrant governments to adopt a strong enough Ministerial Declaration at HLPF 2021 which is critical for progressing towards a resilient recovery post-pandemic as well as for SDGs. The Ministerial Declaration is a major outcome of the HLPF, but sadly our governments failed to adopt one last year. The price of inaction for not taking genuinely transformative actions globally will not only be regressive, but will also worsen the already existing inequalities and injustices for the majority of the people.