A participant walks under a rainbow flag during a gay pride parade promoting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, in Chandigarh, India March 18, 2018. REUTERS/Ajay Verma
NEW DELHI, July 12 (Reuters) - Gay people in India face deep-rooted trauma and live in fear, the Supreme Court said on Thursday before deciding whether or not to scrap a colonial-era ban on homosexuality.
Gay sex is considered taboo by many in socially conservative India, and despite opposition to lifting the ban from other petitioners and some lawmakers, activists were hopeful of a positive judgment after Thursday's hearing.
UPU Director General Bishar A. Hussein, WSIS+10 High Level Meeting, 10 June 2014, Geneva, Switzerland
On behalf of the UPU, I wish to join the eminent leaders who spoke before me in emphasizing the important role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the social and economic transformation of the lives of the citizens of the world.
ICTs have, in the recent past, created many opportunities as well as challenges for societies. The use of ICTs has enabled the growth of international trade and commerce, and transformed the lives of millions of people around the world. ICTs and social networking platforms have also changed the political and social order of societies in many countries. ICT is, therefore, a powerful tool that should be developed and harnessed carefully for the good of humanity in the post-2015 development agenda.
I believe that ICTs can be used to bring social and economic equilibrium in society and advance the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of national governments and the United Nations. As we look forward to a new era of sustainable development in the coming years, ICTs will continue to play a defining role in societal transformation and achievement of human prosperity.
The UPU has been, and still remains, an important stakeholder in the development of the information society since the first WSIS in 2003. Over the past 10 years, we have represented the sector in policy debates and participated in activities related to the development of e-business and co-facilitated the C 7 e-business action line along with UNCTAD and ITC.
We have not only played an advocacy role for an all-inclusive society, but have also made concrete efforts to achieve these objectives in our policy decisions and our work. The UPU is fully dedicated to this WSIS+10 multi-stakeholder review process. We have recently decided to prioritize our own activities in relation to e-commerce, financial inclusion and trade facilitation, all of which are closely related to information society development. We have dedicated enormous resources to developing a technological solution aimed at enhancing the quality of services provided to our customers and to the citizens of the world.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish to emphasize that Posts are important national infrastructures for social, economic and digital inclusion. The UPU represents an industry that employs over six million people around the world. With a network of some 650,000 post offices in urban, rural and remote communities; we provide, on a daily basis, access to physical, financial and digital communication services to billions of people around the world, who would otherwise be excluded from the world information society.
However, more needs to be done if we are to achieve the goals of the WSIS. Lack of internet connectivity is hampering the development of rural communities in many parts of the world. Although the UPU is taking necessary steps to advance the use of ICTs in many rural parts of the world, I call upon all governments represented here to provide the necessary support for postal transformation and modernization of the ICT infrastructure in their countries. This will, no doubt, assist in the realization of the inclusive development agendas in your countries.
The UPU, in collaboration with governments, other UN agencies, international organizations and the private sector, is doing everything possible to assist in the realization of the MDGs and the Sustainable Development Goals. The UPU is now developing its Vision 2020, which will promote all the comprehensive themes of innovation, integration and inclusion, where ICTs will be the driving force and game-changer for the future.
In conclusion, Ladies and Gentlemen, the UPU will remain engaged in the noble cause of the WSIS goals and objectives. Thank you for your attention.
WSIS+10 high level panel, front row, right to left: Lakhshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General for Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, UPU Director General Bishar A. Hussein, UNCTAD Secretary General Mukhisa Kituyi, ITU Secretary General Hamadoun I. Touré (Photo: ITU)
The WSIS+10 meeting is an annual gathering of stakeholders to further the work on information communication technologies or ICTs since the World Summit on Information Society, a UN event that tool place in 2003 and 2005.
A would-be kidnapper was trying to drag the mother of his three kids into her car and away, strangling her and beating her. She cried for help, but no one did a thing until a good man with a gun saved her life.
And what happens when a police officer sees a kid carrying a gun onto school grounds and shoots him dead on the spot?
Sounds like a Blue State Civil War Election Year Special went south over in the Animal Farm Barnyard out in the Greater Boston acreage )
Anyone who thinks that Los Angeles just wants to know who gives money to the NRA is fooling themselves. They just want you to "disclose" so they can find other reasons not to hire those who have ANY relationship with the gun rights group. While I am normally against government intervention, the federal government needs to step in to save the rights of those who will be banned from ever getting a contract as long as they also care about their 2nd Ammendment.
The Obama administration excelled at pushing its radical agenda through any means necessary. Since its gun-control agenda was not going anywhere, it decided to control ammunition, which would have had the same effect.
Here’s a fun fact: 44% of South Carolinians own guns, which is well above the (reported) national average of 30% to 35%. Given the prevailing gun culture in the Palmetto State, breaking into homes there is an exquisitely bad idea. The sheriff is right that Rowe is lucky to be in jail.
Ever since the landmark ruling on 3D-printed firearms, outrage and moral panic have surrounded so-called “ghost guns.” Whether you’re a proponent of Second Amendment freedoms or just doing opponent research, it’s important to have the facts about what a ghost gun is and what it is not.
It’s also important to know other related terms in the world of firearms – like how is a ghost gun different from a 3D-printed gun? And what is an 80-percent lower? This guide will answer all of your ghost gun questions, and will separate fact from fiction surrounding this polarizing topic.
How the 2018 election will go is still an open question. Those of us who value gun rights still have to remind our representatives that our support for them is contingent on their support for the basic principle of liberty that is at the heart of our national ideals.
More illegal aliens were arrested for homicide in the past 7 years in a single state than deaths by mass shooting in the other 49 states combined!
By now, you’ve probably heard of Andrew Cuomo’s latest attack on the National Rifle Association – the weaponization of bank regulations to silence this civil rights organization’s voice. That effort has drawn belated criticism from the ACLU. -- Let’s lay it out here – Cuomo’s had a long-running feud with supporters of the Second Amendment and your Right to Keep & Bear Arms.
The Democrat party has moved considerably to the left for the 2018 midterm elections. As part of that strategy, they have wholeheartedly embraced gun control as a winning issue.
A Walmart in St. Helens, Oregon could be facing a stiff financial penalty thanks to its new age-restrictions on gun sales. After the national chain implemented a new policy in the wake of the Parkland, FL school shooting restricting the sale of guns to those over the age of 21, an Oregon resident named Hannah Brumbles went to her local store in search of a rifle. The 18-year-old college student was denied her purchase, however, thanks to the new rules. She and her father, gun rights activist Chris Brumbles, filed an age-discrimination complaint with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries in April, claiming the store violated state law.
And yes, back when I was a kid, catalogs ran ads like this all the time. That was normal. Everyone got their first gun at age 12 AND THERE WERE NO MASS SHOOTINGS!
The only thing that gun control accomplishes is conditioning the public to accept ever more gun control under the false premise that we’re somehow just a few laws short of overcoming the problem of human evil.
Our mass media filled the air with the murderer’s face and the murderer’s name. That media coverage lasted for days. Unfortunately, that sensationalized coverage does more than making money for the networks. The media exposure rewards the murderer with fame. That fame sows the seeds of the next mass murder. Together, the murderers and the news media are a match made in hell, and their union is killing our kids.
In an amusing story, a government-funded media outlet notorious for its liberal slant found that the overwhelming majority of school shootings listed in a federal report never occurred.