495 journalists were killed between 2014 and 2018, an 18% increase over the previous 5-years.
Only 131 cases of journalists’ killings are reported as being resolved since 2006, representing an overall impunity rate of 88%.
Beyond fatal attacks, journalists endured other violations such as physical attack, kidnapping, enforced disappearance, imprisonment and torture.
Harassment and other harmful acts are increasingly prevalent in the online sphere, and are especially dire for women journalists.
Syria was the most dangerous country for journalists, followed by Mexico and Afghanistan.
The Arab States region, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia and the Pacific account for more than three quarters of killings. Source: UNESCO 2019
A PRAYER FOR TODAY:
God of truth,
we give thanks this day for those who work in the media,
investigating, communicating, holding people in power to account.
We ask you to bless them with wisdom and strength -
showering them with the sense of satisfaction that comes from a job well done!
Give those who investigate crimes against journalists the courage and determination to bring perpetrators to account.
Perhaps tolerance is a simple as following the teaching of Jesus to "Treat others as you'd like to be treated!"
A PRAYER FOR TODAY
While the United Nations designates today an International Day for Tolerance,
we know that you, God of all people, call us to something higher,
to something beyond mere tolerance.
We pray that you would enable and empower us to be people of love and compassion,
who actively seek the good of the other and work to to that day when people from all tribes and tongues might come together in peace, embracing and delighting in our differences.
4.2 billion people live without safely managed sanitation – more than half the global population. (WHO/UNICEF 2019)
673 million people still practise open defecation worldwide. (WHO/UNICEF 2019)
Today, at least 2 billion people will have to use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces. (WHO 2019)
Inadequate sanitation is estimated to cause 432,000 diarrhoeal deaths every year and is a major factor in diseases such as intestinal worms, trachoma and schistosomiasis. (WHO 2019)
297,000 children under five are estimated to die each year from diarrhoea as a result of unsafe drinking water, sanitation, and hand hygiene. (WHO 2019)
All of the above is not because we don't have the technology! After all, human beings went to the Moon over 50 years ago! Do we, and the governments who serve us, need to re-align some priorities?
Let's spend a few moments imagining what it must feel like not to have a toilet.
What might you have to do if there was no toilet available?
Why might this have a disproportionate effect on females?
What are the possible consequences of not having a toilet?
A PRAYER FOR TODAY (from CAFOD)
Loving God,
we pray for a world of justice
where everyone has access to
a toilet and clean water.
May all our sisters and brothers throughout the world
Welcome to World Children's Day! This used to be called Universal Children's Day but the day has been re-branded!
This day was set up in 1954 by the United Nations. In 1959, the UN agreed its Declaration on the Rights of the Child. In 1989 the Convention on the Rights of the Child became the most widely ratified international human rights treaty, setting out a number of children’s rights including:
the right to life,
to health,
to education
to play,
to family life,
to be protected from violence,
to not be discriminated,
and to have their views heard.
Here's a short but brilliant video (1 min 17 secs) from the children of Yemen!
Here's another video clip (2 mins 54 secs) which gives a bit more information and which includes one particularly surprising fact about a country which does not give its children the same rights as others around the world!
1 in 3 women and girls experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, most frequently by an intimate partner
Only 52% of women married or in a union freely make their own decisions about sexual relations, contraceptive use and health care
Worldwide, almost 750 million women and girls alive today were married before their 18th birthday;
200 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM)
1 in 2 women killed worldwide were killed by their partners or family in 2017; while only 1 out of 20 men were killed under similar circumstances
71% of all human trafficking victims worldwide are women and girls, and 3 out of 4 of these women and girls are sexually exploited
Violence against women is as serious a cause of death and incapacity among women of reproductive age as cancer, and a greater cause of ill health than traffic accidents and malaria combined.
Here's a video (2 mins 33 secs) which gives us all food for thought!
This day was established way back in 1977 when the UN declared that Israel's occupation of Arab territories was illegal and that peace could only come about in the region if Israel withdrew from these places. No such withdrawal has taken place.
In 2018, Maria Fernanda Espinosa (the President of the General Assembly of the UN) reported that:
43% of the Palestinian population were refugees - and half of them were below the age of 18
47% of the population of the Gaza strip were living with food insecurity
the average water consumption of the Palestinian populations in Gaza was 66 litres per day - well below the recommended ration of 100 litres per day.
The Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, said on this day in 2018:
"Today, in particular, our hearts are heavy with the suffering of the people in Gaza.
Approximately two million Palestinians remain blocked in increasing poverty and unemployment, with limited access to adequate health, education, water and electricity.
Young people see little prospect of a better future.
I urge Israel to lift restrictions on the movement of people and goods, which also hamper the efforts of the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies, without jeopardizing legitimate security concerns.
I call on Hamas and other militant groups to halt their military build-up in Gaza, including the indiscriminate launching of rockets and incendiary devices directed at Israel. "
There seems to be little progress and, all the while, people suffer!
A PRAYER FOR TODAY
O Lord, You are the peace and peace emanates from You.
O God of Glory and Majesty grant us security and safety,
and alleviate the suffering of your people.
O Lord, bring comprehensive and just peace to our country and region
so that our people and the peoples of the Middle East and the whole world
would enjoy the fruit of peace, stability and coexistence.
We want peace for us and for our neighbours.
We seek prosperity and peace of mind for ourselves and for others alike.
O Lord, answer our prayers and make successful our endeavors
for you are most just, most merciful, Lord of the Worlds.
This prayer was offered by the Muslim President Abbas of Palestine in Rome when he met Pope Francis and Shimon Peres, the Israeli President in June 2014.
Chemical weapons have been used for centuries. In the 17th century, France and Germany signed an agreement NOT to use poison bullets! In 1899, countries at the Hague Peace Conference declared they would not use projectiles which contained "asphyxiating or deleterious gases".
However, during the First World War, over 100,000 humans died and more than 1 million were wounded by the use of gas.
In the Second World War, gas was not used in combat but was used in the Holocaust Concentration Camps.
In 1997, the Chemical Weapons Convention (proposed in 1993) came into force on 29 April. Its purpose was, “for the sake of all mankind, to exclude completely the possibility of the use of chemical weapons.”
And so, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was set up to monitor this happening. There have undoubtedly been huge successes and OPCW Member States represent about 98% of the global population and landmass, as well as 98% of the worldwide chemical industry. The OPCW was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for what it has done to eliminate chemical weapons. OPCW claim to have eliminated 97% of all chemical weapons.
However, throughout the Syrian Civil War (which started in 2011) - and as recently as 2017 - chemical weapons have been used.
An estimated 40.3 million people are in modern slavery, including 24.9 in forced labour and 15.4 million in forced marriage.
There are 5.4 victims of modern slavery for every 1,000 people in the world.
1 in 4 victims of modern slavery are children.
Out of the 24.9 million people trapped in forced labour, 16 million people are exploited in the private sector such as domestic work, construction or agriculture; 4.8 million people in forced sexual exploitation, and 4 million people in forced labour imposed by state authorities.
Women and girls are disproportionately affected by forced labour, accounting for 99% of victims in the commercial sex industry, and 58% in other sectors.
A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Loving God,
who sees the unseen and notices the unnoticed,
help each of us to hear the Hidden Voices of those
who pray for release from slavery.
We pray for those who work to end exploitation and trafficking
that they (and we) be strengthened in resolve to free your people.
We pray this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN
(Adapted from prayer by The Rt Revd Dr Alastair Redfern, Chair of The Clewer Initiative.)