Can I bargain with the Mayor?

The municipality of Gaza is one of the largest in the Gaza Strip . This town took a new step to address the eight-year-long Israeli siege that greatly affected the work of all service sectors. The municipality’s civil servants found a solution to overcome the lack of municipals cars: bicycles. The project welcomed by Gazans and environmental institutions. First, transportation has been an ongoing problem for years, prompting engineers to consider alternatives. Those presented the idea to provide a bicycle for each of the fifty inspectors at the town hall as an interim solution. This project was approved and implemented in September 2014 by local authority. Each bicycle has a unique serial number and bears the Gaza municipality’s logo. They were all painted orange to distinguish them from other bicycles in the city.  Now, citizens are happy to see the inspectors make their rounds in their neighborhoods. They please with the continuous attention by the inspectors in ensuring t

The conduct of hostilities and violations of the Minsk ceasefire agreements has resulted in repeated damage to the water pipe system in eastern Ukraine, putting tens of thousands of civilians living on both sides of the contact line without access to piped water. The current shortages in water in the conflict ‐ affected areas of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions could leave civilians bitterly cold throughout the coming winter as central heating systems break down and have lasting consequences on food production. The thematic report, Access to Water in Conflict ‐ affected Areas of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions, says that the situation has been exacerbated by the fact that the existing water infrastructure was already in need of repairs even before the fighting commenced in spring 2014. Hostilities prevented further repair works from taking place. Moreover the functionality of essential water pumps has decreased due to the shelling of the electrical systems which powered them. Acce

There is an urgent need to enhance the capacities of Ukraine to address the issue of gender-based violence adequately. A three-day assessment mission to the country evidences it. Accompanied by international experts, many NGO, like WAVE (Women Against Violence Europe), met with government stakeholders and representatives of civil society and the international community in Kyiv. Experts saw that preventing and combating gender-based violence and violence against women is an indispensable prerequisite for personal safety and security and thus a major contribution to the stability of a country. Ukraine must undertake efforts to tackle this issue in a comprehensive and inclusive way. Europe’s NGO stand ready to assist the country in these endeavours." The tensions and hostilities have had negative consequences on the prevalence of domestic violence. Internally displaced women in particular have been experiencing increased incidences of violence with reported cases to NG

OSCE Special Representative promotes sustainable assistance to children without parental care in Eastern Europe MINSK, 3 April 2015 – Preparing children to live independently after they leave state-run boarding schools is a key step in combating human trafficking in minors,”  said on Friday OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Ambassador Madina Jarbussynova. “Teaching life skills is something that we have stressed in our ongoing project for children without parental care,” Jarbussynova added. “It provides them with the tools, as well as the necessary self-confidence, to contribute to their societies as working adults.” The Special Representative made the remarks at the conclusion of a two-day roundtable with leading experts from Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus who gathered in Minsk to exchange good practices and share their expertise. Social workers, government officials and NGO representatives form a core group of experts that wi

Illegal immigrants living in Spain will once again have the right to free primary healthcare with a general practitioner (GP), after losing access in 2012.Undocumented residents will not be getting their health cards back, however. Health Minister Alfonso Alonso said the Popular Party (PP) government has decided to backtrack on its earlier decision “for public health reasons,” because it is “more practical” and “in order to not saturate the emergency services.” Under the health reform of 2012, free access to all public health services was taken away for illegal immigrants. Instead, general care was restricted to minors and pregnant women, although any migrant could still visit a hospital’s emergency room in the event of an accident or if they had an infectious disease. “We see it very clearly now, and we are working on it,” said the minister in an interview with Efe news agency. “It makes no sense for them not to be seen in primary care.” The decision attracted strong cri

Women make up half of the population. After a war, they should be actively involved in any changes and solutions that shape and affect their society, including conflict prevention and resolution. Experience with many conflict resolutions has demonstrated that it is of crucial importance to allow for women's full and equal participation in peace and security matters. The inclusion of women increases the likelihood of achieving sustainable peace. Unfortunately, women are often not seen as stakeholders in peace processes, even though they are affected by conflict as well as men. The world needs to move beyond seeing women as passive civilians or mere victims and recognize the crucial role of women in rebuilding societies and promoting peace. Women must play a role as decision makers in all phases of conflict resolution, from prevention to crisis management to peace talks to post-conflict reconciliation. The fifteenth anniversary of the adoption UN Security Council Re

I condemn attacks that killed a security guard at a synagogue and a participant in a freedom of speech event in Copenhagen on Saturday. I am shocked by the terrorist attacks in Copenhagen on the weekend. While such attacks affect us all, they have a particularly strong impact on the daily lives of Jewish people; now is the time to stand together against these crimes based on hatred, including those based on anti-Semitism. Government must   take all appropriate efforts to meet the security needs of Jewish communities.  Such attacks are a strong reminder of the need to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms – including the freedom of speech – and for effective responses to all bias, discrimination and violence targeting different communities. Saturday’s shooting followed the killing, on 7 January 2015, of 12 people in an attack on the Charlie Hebdo Magazine, of a police officer on the next day, and then of four people during an attack on a kosher

I  condemn a terrorist attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris today that left at least 12 dead of which 10 are Charlie Hebdo staff, including cartoonists Charb, Cabu, Tignous and Wolinski. Several people were wounded . This is an unprecedented attack on media freedom and freedom of expression, My condolences go to the families and colleagues of the victims.” At least two gunmen entered the editorial offices and opened fire before fleeing. Swift condemnation and reaction came from top French authorities. This is the deadliest attack in the history of the French press and the third attack on French newspapers in recent years. The offices of Charlie Hebdo were also fire bombed in 2011. In November 2013 a gunman opened fire in the offices of the newspaper Libération.