The Chronicle Library Shelf: Towards a Nuclear Weapon Free World
In politics, timing is everything. The same might be said for book publishing. The appearance of Towards a Nuclear Weapon Free World at this new moment of rich potential for nuclear disarmament is a stroke of fortune.
Combatting HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa – Investing in Health Can Make the Difference
Globalization is a powerful driver for development and the generation of wealth. But even as the world becomes more interconnected, hundreds of millions of women, men and children are still confined to extreme poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease.
Primary Health Care: Now More Than Ever
In 1978, the Declaration of Alma-Ata at the International Conference on Primary Health Care launched primary health care as a route to better health for all. The ambition was bold. The Declaration of Alma-Ata responded to a world characterized by vast and largely avoidable differences in the health status of populations, and mapped out a strategy for reducing these gaps through fundamental changes in the way health systems were organized and care delivered. As the Declaration of Alma-Ata argued, enlightened policy that made fair access to health care an explicit objective could raise the level of health within populations, enabling people to lead socially and economically productive lives, and thus driving overall development.
Where Food And Energy Compete
Since 2007, global food and energy prices have been increasing steeply, hitting economies reliant on energy and food imports with great force like a silent tsunami. Rising food costs have led to social unrest in some 30 countries. Food and energy security is more closely connected with political stability than ever before. How to balance food security and energy needs is becoming a burning topic in the international community.
The Secretary-General's Agenda: Indispensable For Sustainable Development
Global sustainable development and security are deeply interconnected, a fact that is increasingly recognized by world leaders. Sustainable development signifies the challenge of combining economic development with environmental sustainability.
Sexual Violence as a War Tactic - Security Council Resolution 1888: Next Steps
At the end of September 2009, two sharply contrasting events coincided: the United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton introduced resolution 1888 at the United Nations Security Council on 30 September which, like resolution 1820 passed the previous year, condemns conflict-related sexual violence and aims to equip the Ãå±±½ûµØwith measures to prevent it and to address impunity.
The Radical Middle: Building Bridges Between the Muslim and Western Worlds
The long list of incidents that have revealed the intensifying tension between the Muslim and Western worlds over the past few years is countless. The terrorist attacks of 9/11, the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, and the interminable conflict between Israelis and Palestinians are merely the highest profile examples of a global state of affairs whose ramifications extend to even the very local and regional levels.
Will Climate Change Impact the Right to Health and Development?
Never before in human history has the world had such a wealth of knowledge, skills and resources invested in keeping its communities well. Why, then, is global health heading into a perfect storm? A human rights-based approach -- framed in terms of the right to the highest attainable standard of health, and the right to the basic determinants of health such as clean water and food, shelter, education, health services and equality -- is the most promising. Through this lens, the circumstances of those most at risk can be holistically addressed.
Green Architecture In India: Combining Modern Technology With Traditional Methods
We have been trying to address the ill effects of modern energy-depleting technology by inventing new technologies in architecture. While such a quest is inevitable, I propose combining solutions developed by our ancestors with contemporary technological innovations to achieve significant results in sustainable architecture.
The Gross Divide Between the Rich and the Poor
I could not believe my eyes when I walked through the narrow dirt pathways between the hundreds of rickety tin shacks in the township of Khayalitisha in South Africa. A beautiful African girl, not much younger than me, wearing a pale pink skirt that casually hung below her hips and a white, dirt-stained tank top, led me to Sekwamkele's hut.
The Ideology of Racism: Misusing Science to Justify Racial Discrimination
In his exceptionally insightful book, Racism: A Short History, Stanford University historian George M. Fredrickson notes the paradox that notions of human equality were the necessary precondition to the emergence of racism.
4 Doable Actions for Mother and Newborn Care
With only six years to go before the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health, some countries have made encouraging progress, while many have stagnated, or worse, slipped backwards since the Millennium Declaration was adopted in 2000.
Living Modified Organisms, At Your Nearest Store
Over the last two decades, there has been rapid advancement in the development and application of modern biotechnology -- a technology that involves taking genetic material from one organism and inserting it into another to give it a desired characteristic. This new technology is complex and arouses much debate.
A Decade of Fighting for our Lives
A group of South African activists founded the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) on 10 December 1998, International Human Rights Day. It was no accident that TAC was formed exactly fifty years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The backbone of TAC is its use of advocacy to fight for the realisation of the right to health, which is enshrined both in international treaties and in the South African Constitution.
Surviving on Pennies: We Must Help the World's Most Deprived
Seven years ago, the international community made a commitment to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and hunger between 1990 and 2015. Now at the halfway point between its declaration and the target deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, it is obvious the world has made significant progress.