from UNHCR
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, April 9 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency and the Colombian government have signed an agreement that could protect or restore the land rights of hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
The accord was signed Tuesday in Bogotá by UNHCR Representative in Colombia Jean-Noel Wetterwald and Colombia's Agriculture Minister Andres Felipe Arias. The pact was given further weight by the attendance of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at the signing ceremony.
"The agreement provides a framework for the coordination of various projects already in place for the legal protection of abandoned lands and also plans for new initiatives to restore displaced people's property rights," explained Jean-Noel Wetterwald, UNHCR's representative in Colombia.
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Sunday, April 13, 2008
UNHCR and Colombia sign accord to protect land rights of displaced
Monday, March 24, 2008
Dengue fever epidemic hits Brazil
from Xinhua News Agency via ReliefWeb
The Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro is suffering an epidemic of dengue fever, State Secretary of Health Sergio Cortes said Thursday.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008
UN rushes aid to 60,000 flood-beleaguered Ecuadorians
from UN News Centre
United Nations agencies are rushing food, medicines and other assistance to Ecuador to assist tens of thousands of people in need after heavy rains have inundated much of the South American country.
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Sunday, March 2, 2008
Colombia: Over 3,000 people receive food aid
from ReliefWeb
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has distributed food supplies to over 3,000 people – around 800 families – living in 21 settlements near the town of Samaniego in Nariño department, Colombia.
The inhabitants of this rural area are currently facing a critical situation as a result of the armed conflict in the region.
After gaining access to the area and assessing the needs of the affected population, the ICRC distributed a total of 25 tonnes of food.
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Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Brazil police force to combat Amazon deforestation
from AlertNet
Brazil's federal police said it launched an operation on Monday aimed at fighting deforestation in the Amazon, a week after townspeople clashed with local police over illegal sawmills.
About 300 federal police agents and troopers from the paramilitary national security force arrived in northern Para state in helicopters and a caravan of vehicles. The operation dubbed Arch of Fire should have a total of 1,000 agents on the ground when it is in full force, the agency said.
"This operation will be permanent in nature," a federal police spokesman said.
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Thursday, October 4, 2007
Paraguay's Hopes of Meeting Millenium Goals Slipping Away
from IPS
ASUNCION, Oct 4 (IPS) - In spite of official claims to the contrary, it is becoming less and less likely that Paraguay will meet the health goals the United Nations member countries committed themselves to achieve by 2015, experts say.
A study published by Dr. Antonio Arbo, head of paediatrics at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Asunción, indicates that far from showing progress, health indices have worsened in recent years.
The report places Paraguay among the five countries with the highest child mortality rates in the Americas. In Paraguay, for every 1,000 live births, 25 children die before reaching their fifth birthday.
This figure has not varied much in the past 12 years, Arbo said. "In 1995 it was 30 children per 1,000, and now it remains at between 25 and 30 children per 1,000," he told IPS.
Other countries in the region with high child mortality rates are Haiti, with 60 deaths of children under five per 1,000 live births, Bolivia with 55 per 1,000, and Guyana and Guatemala.
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