LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The government of Malawi has pledged to ensure that individuals found guilty of committing sexual abuse against children face severe punishment.
This commitment was made in response to the recent case involving a 12-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by her father in Area 25, Lilongwe.
Officials emphasized that there should be no distinction between male and female offenders, underscoring the government’s stance on equality in justice.
Authorities expressed deep concern that such abusive behavior continues to affect the safety, wellbeing, and future prospects of vulnerable children across the country.
Memory Chisenga, head of the Child Advocacy Centre, spoke on the matter, affirming her agreement with the government’s position.
She highlighted that imposing long prison sentences on offenders is essential not only for justice but also as a deterrent to prevent others from engaging in similar crimes.
Chisenga stressed that ensuring perpetrators face significant consequences is a critical step in protecting children and promoting public confidence in the justice system.
The government and child protection agencies reiterated their commitment to safeguarding minors and preventing sexual abuse through strict enforcement of the law.
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BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost )-The Blantyre Central Magistrate Court on Wednesday, November 19,2025 adjourned to Friday the case in which videographer and social media personality VJ Ken, real name Kenneth Makina, is answering charges of child abduction and engaging in a relationship with a minor.
Makina appeared before the court for the first time this morning following his arrest by Ndirande Police.
He is accused of unlawfully keeping a 15-year-old girl at his home.
The talented videograher pleaded not guilty to all charges.
His lawyer, Humphreys Makhalika, applied for bail, arguing that the accused was prepared to comply with all bail conditions the court might impose.
However, the court denied the application.
Senior Resident Magistrate Mercy Bonongwe ruled that bail could not be granted at this stage, citing concerns over possible interference with witnesses, who reside in the same community as the accused.
She added that the right to bail is not absolute, especially in matters involving serious allegations.
Makina is being charged with child abduction contrary to Section 264 of the Penal Code and engaging in a relationship with a minor contrary to Section 138.
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Some of you might be shocked that even though fossil fuels are 86 percent of the cause of climate change, it took 28 years before the words ‘fossil fuels’ could even be mentioned in the COP document. It is as absurd as Alcoholics Anonymous holding 28 years of conferences before they get the backbone to mention alcohol in an outcome document. —Kumi Naidoo, President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Kumi Naidoo with Brazilian First Lady Janja Lula da Silva and Brazilian Cultural Minister Margareth Menezes and others at a panel called “Narratives and Storytelling to Face the Climate Crisis” during the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30). Credit: Aline Massuda/COP30
BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 18 2025 (IPS) – Decades ago, a little girl was born in a place called Cleveland, Ohio, in the heart of the United States of America. Born to a woman from the deep South, the place of Martin Luther King, her mother left her ancestral lands for the economic opportunities in the north.
“Off she went, making it all the way to the east side of Cleveland,” says Rev. Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith. “To the place where most people who look like me lived, and still live, and are subjected to policies of injustice, race and gender.”
Here, she found a more pressing issue.
“I couldn’t breathe, my mother couldn’t breathe, and we all couldn’t breathe,” she narrates.
This urbanization, driven by fossil fuels, occurred in Cleveland, Ohio, where her mother relocated and where her relatives still live today. During the Great Migration, over six million people of African descent traveled from the South, believing that economic opportunities would be better in the North.
Rev. Dr Angelique Walker-Smith, regional president of the World Council of Churches, speaks at an event titled ‘Faith for Fossil Free Future.’ Credit: IPS
“Upon our arrival, we discovered that we just couldn’t breathe.”
As one of eight regional presidents representing the World Council of Churches, Walker-Smith says for the World Council of Churches in over 105 countries, over 350 million adherents, and over 350 national churches all over the world, supporting the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty “is all about the issue of injustice, life and life more abundantly.”
“We are saying yes to the transition from fossil fuels to renewable life-giving energy.”
Kumi Naidoo, a prominent South African human rights and environmental justice activist and the President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, says if the goal is renewable life-giving energy, the world has been going the wrong way for the past 30 years.
“If you come home from work and see water coming from the bathroom, you pick up the mop. But then you realized you left the tap running and the sink stopper on. What will you do first? Of course! You’ll turn off the water and pull the stopper. You will not start mopping the floor first.”
“For 30 years since the time science told us we need to change our energy system and many of our other systems, what we’ve been doing is mopping up the floor. If fossil fuels—oil, coal, and gas—account for 86 percent of what drives climate change, then we must turn off the tap.”
Masahiro Yokoyama was speaking at an event titled Faith for a Fossil-Free Future co-sponsored by Soka Gakkai International. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
Naidoo was speaking at an event titled ‘Faith for Fossil Free Future’ co-sponsored by several organizations, including Soka Gakkai International (SGI), Laudato Si’ Movement, GreenFaith—a global interfaith environmental coalition and EcoJudaism, a Jewish charity leading the UK Jewish Community’s response to the climate and nature crisis.
He spoke about the contradiction of the climate talks at the doorsteps of the Amazon, while licensing for drilling is still ongoing in the Amazon even as the people in the Amazon protest, calling for a fossil-free Amazon.
Continuing with the thread of contradictions, Naidoo said, “Some of you might be shocked that even though fossil fuels are 86 percent of the cause of climate change, it took 28 years before the words ‘fossil fuels’ could even be mentioned in the COP document. It is as absurd as Alcoholics Anonymous holding 28 years of conferences before they get the backbone to mention alcohol in an outcome document.
If we continue on this path, we’ll warm up the planet to the point where we destroy our soil and water, and it becomes so hot we can’t plant food. The end result is that we’ll be gone. The planet will still be here. And the good news is, once we become extinct as a species, the forests will grow back, and the oceans will recover.
“And actually, staying with that analogy, can you imagine how absurd it is that the largest delegation to this COP this year, last year, and every year is not even the host country?
“It’s not even Brazil—for every 25 delegates that are attending the COP, one of them is from the fossil fuel industry. That’s the equivalent of Alcoholics Anonymous having the largest delegation to its conference annually from the alcohol industry.”
People, groups and movements of different faiths and consciousness are increasingly raising their voices in robust support of a rapid fossil fuel phase-out, a massive and equitable upsurge in renewable energy, and the resources to make it happen—in the form of a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Naidoo says the treaty is “a critical success ingredient for us not (only) to save the planet, but to secure our children and their children’s future, reminding ourselves that the planet does not need any saving.
“If we continue on this path, we warm up the planet to the point where we destroy our soil and water, and it becomes so hot we can’t plant food. The end result is that we’ll be gone. The planet will still be here. And the good news is, once we become extinct as a species, the forests will grow back, and the oceans will recover.”
This treaty is a proposed global agreement to halt the expansion of new fossil fuel exploration and production and to phase out existing sources like coal, oil, and gas in a just and equitable manner.
The initiative seeks to provide a legal framework to complement the Paris Agreement by directly addressing the supply side of fossil fuels.
Its ultimate goal is to support a global transition to renewable energy and is supported by a growing coalition of countries, cities, organizations, scientists, and activists. More importantly, it has multi-faith support.
Masahiro Yokoyama of the SGI, which is a diverse global community of individuals in 192 countries and territories who practice Nichiren Buddhism, spoke about the intersection between faith and energy transition and why the fossil fuel phase-out cannot wait.
“The just transition is also about how young people in faith can be the driving force to transformations.”
“So, a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, in my view, is not only about phasing out other fossil fuels but it also represents an ethical framework.”
“It’s a way to move forward while protecting people’s livelihoods and dignity within the context of the environment and also the local business and economies. So, a just transition is not merely a technical issue but a question of ethics, inclusion and solidarity,” Masahiro Yokoyama said.
The most pressing issue at hand is how to implement the treaty in the current environmental context.
“The pathway that we are following is a pathway that has been followed before. We are not going to negotiate this treaty within the COP or within the United Nations system. We’re going to do what the Landmine Treaty did.
“The landmine treaty was negotiated by 44 countries outside of the UN system and then brought to the UN General Assembly for ratification. The second question that people ask, justifiably, is, what about the powerful exporting countries, for example?” Naidoo asked.
“They’re not going to sign it. And to that we find answers in the landmine treaty. Up to today, the United States, Russia and China have not signed the Landmine treaty. But once the treaty was signed, the social license to continue as business as usual was taken away. And you saw a drastic change.”
Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.
Some of you might be shocked that even though fossil fuels are 86 percent of the cause of climate change, it took 28 years before the words ‘fossil fuels’ could even be mentioned in the COP document. It is as absurd as Alcoholics Anonymous holding 28 years of conferences before they get the backbone to mention alcohol in an outcome document. —Kumi Naidoo, President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Kumi Naidoo with Brazilian First Lady Janja Lula da Silva and Brazilian Cultural Minister Margareth Menezes and others at a panel called “Narratives and Storytelling to Face the Climate Crisis” during the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30). Credit: Aline Massuda/COP30
BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 18 2025 (IPS) – Decades ago, a little girl was born in a place called Cleveland, Ohio, in the heart of the United States of America. Born to a woman from the deep South, the place of Martin Luther King, her mother left her ancestral lands for the economic opportunities in the north.
“Off she went, making it all the way to the east side of Cleveland,” says Rev. Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith. “To the place where most people who look like me lived, and still live, and are subjected to policies of injustice, race and gender.”
Here, she found a more pressing issue.
“I couldn’t breathe, my mother couldn’t breathe, and we all couldn’t breathe,” she narrates.
This urbanization, driven by fossil fuels, occurred in Cleveland, Ohio, where her mother relocated and where her relatives still live today. During the Great Migration, over six million people of African descent traveled from the South, believing that economic opportunities would be better in the North.
Rev. Dr Angelique Walker-Smith, regional president of the World Council of Churches, speaks at an event titled ‘Faith for Fossil Free Future.’ Credit: IPS
“Upon our arrival, we discovered that we just couldn’t breathe.”
As one of eight regional presidents representing the World Council of Churches, Walker-Smith says for the World Council of Churches in over 105 countries, over 350 million adherents, and over 350 national churches all over the world, supporting the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty “is all about the issue of injustice, life and life more abundantly.”
“We are saying yes to the transition from fossil fuels to renewable life-giving energy.”
Kumi Naidoo, a prominent South African human rights and environmental justice activist and the President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, says if the goal is renewable life-giving energy, the world has been going the wrong way for the past 30 years.
“If you come home from work and see water coming from the bathroom, you pick up the mop. But then you realized you left the tap running and the sink stopper on. What will you do first? Of course! You’ll turn off the water and pull the stopper. You will not start mopping the floor first.”
“For 30 years since the time science told us we need to change our energy system and many of our other systems, what we’ve been doing is mopping up the floor. If fossil fuels—oil, coal, and gas—account for 86 percent of what drives climate change, then we must turn off the tap.”
Masahiro Yokoyama was speaking at an event titled Faith for a Fossil-Free Future co-sponsored by Soka Gakkai International. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
Naidoo was speaking at an event titled ‘Faith for Fossil Free Future’ co-sponsored by several organizations, including Soka Gakkai International (SGI), Laudato Si’ Movement, GreenFaith—a global interfaith environmental coalition and EcoJudaism, a Jewish charity leading the UK Jewish Community’s response to the climate and nature crisis.
He spoke about the contradiction of the climate talks at the doorsteps of the Amazon, while licensing for drilling is still ongoing in the Amazon even as the people in the Amazon protest, calling for a fossil-free Amazon.
Continuing with the thread of contradictions, Naidoo said, “Some of you might be shocked that even though fossil fuels are 86 percent of the cause of climate change, it took 28 years before the words ‘fossil fuels’ could even be mentioned in the COP document. It is as absurd as Alcoholics Anonymous holding 28 years of conferences before they get the backbone to mention alcohol in an outcome document.
If we continue on this path, we’ll warm up the planet to the point where we destroy our soil and water, and it becomes so hot we can’t plant food. The end result is that we’ll be gone. The planet will still be here. And the good news is, once we become extinct as a species, the forests will grow back, and the oceans will recover.
“And actually, staying with that analogy, can you imagine how absurd it is that the largest delegation to this COP this year, last year, and every year is not even the host country?
“It’s not even Brazil—for every 25 delegates that are attending the COP, one of them is from the fossil fuel industry. That’s the equivalent of Alcoholics Anonymous having the largest delegation to its conference annually from the alcohol industry.”
People, groups and movements of different faiths and consciousness are increasingly raising their voices in robust support of a rapid fossil fuel phase-out, a massive and equitable upsurge in renewable energy, and the resources to make it happen—in the form of a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Naidoo says the treaty is “a critical success ingredient for us not (only) to save the planet, but to secure our children and their children’s future, reminding ourselves that the planet does not need any saving.
“If we continue on this path, we warm up the planet to the point where we destroy our soil and water, and it becomes so hot we can’t plant food. The end result is that we’ll be gone. The planet will still be here. And the good news is, once we become extinct as a species, the forests will grow back, and the oceans will recover.”
This treaty is a proposed global agreement to halt the expansion of new fossil fuel exploration and production and to phase out existing sources like coal, oil, and gas in a just and equitable manner.
The initiative seeks to provide a legal framework to complement the Paris Agreement by directly addressing the supply side of fossil fuels.
Its ultimate goal is to support a global transition to renewable energy and is supported by a growing coalition of countries, cities, organizations, scientists, and activists. More importantly, it has multi-faith support.
Masahiro Yokoyama of the SGI, which is a diverse global community of individuals in 192 countries and territories who practice Nichiren Buddhism, spoke about the intersection between faith and energy transition and why the fossil fuel phase-out cannot wait.
“The just transition is also about how young people in faith can be the driving force to transformations.”
“So, a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, in my view, is not only about phasing out other fossil fuels but it also represents an ethical framework.”
“It’s a way to move forward while protecting people’s livelihoods and dignity within the context of the environment and also the local business and economies. So, a just transition is not merely a technical issue but a question of ethics, inclusion and solidarity,” Masahiro Yokoyama said.
The most pressing issue at hand is how to implement the treaty in the current environmental context.
“The pathway that we are following is a pathway that has been followed before. We are not going to negotiate this treaty within the COP or within the United Nations system. We’re going to do what the Landmine Treaty did.
“The landmine treaty was negotiated by 44 countries outside of the UN system and then brought to the UN General Assembly for ratification. The second question that people ask, justifiably, is, what about the powerful exporting countries, for example?” Naidoo asked.
“They’re not going to sign it. And to that we find answers in the landmine treaty. Up to today, the United States, Russia and China have not signed the Landmine treaty. But once the treaty was signed, the social license to continue as business as usual was taken away. And you saw a drastic change.”
Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.
…..Human rights activist demands removal of wooden airport fencing poles and applauds Mutharika’s commitment to equitable national development…
MZUZU-(MaraviPost)-Human Rights Activist Steven Simusokwe has strongly condemned former President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera for what he describes as turning the Northern Region into a “dumping unit.”
Simusokwe made the remarks in reaction to the use of wooden poles instead of metal fencing around Mzuzu and Karonga International Airports.
He argued that such decisions reflect a pattern of neglect and disrespect toward the North.
He has since asked the Second Vice President, Enock Kanzingeni Chihana, to immediately reverse the decision made under the former administration.
Simusokwe insists that all wooden poles must be removed without any negotiations.
He emphasized that infrastructure projects should reflect equal standards across all regions of the country.
Simusokwe has therefore called for inclusive and nationwide development that ensures no region or citizen is left behind.
He further stated that Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika is a man of impeccable character capable of delivering equitable development for all Malawians.
According to him, Mutharika’s leadership offers hope for a more united and prosperous nation.
Joining the call for unity and shared development projects was political figure Frank Tumpale Mwenefumbo.
Mwenefumbo echoed Simusokwe’s sentiments on the need for balanced development in the Northern Region.
He also thanked President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika for appointing Chihana as Second Vice President.
Mwenefumbo pledged his commitment to work with Chihana to advance development in the Northern Region.
He said the region deserves infrastructure and services that match national standards.
The calls from both Simusokwe and Mwenefumbo underscore renewed expectations for fairness in resource allocation and project implementation across the country.
Their statements come at a time when citizens are increasingly demanding accountability and regionally balanced development from national leadership.
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….A single mother’s decades-long struggle exposes the devastating human cost of wrongful convictions in the American justice system….
Mary Virginia Jones spent more than three decades in prison for crimes she did not commit.
She was a single mother living in Los Angeles when her life took a tragic turn in 1981.
Her then-abusive boyfriend implicated her in a robbery and first-degree murder, using her as a scapegoat in a desperate attempt to avoid a death sentence.
Despite her unwavering claims of innocence, she was sentenced to 25 years to life and sent to the Central California Women’s Facility.
Her conviction relied heavily on false testimony and manipulation, leaving her trapped in a system that failed to protect her.
For 32 painful years, she remained incarcerated, separated from her loved ones and forced to endure the consequences of a crime orchestrated by the man who abused her.
Throughout her imprisonment, Mary continued to insist that she had no role in the crime and had been coerced into compliance by fear and intimidation.
Her case remained largely unnoticed until it reached the attention of the Loyola Project for the Innocent, a legal team dedicated to correcting miscarriages of justice.
Attorneys at LPI launched a thorough investigation into her conviction, uncovering the lies, coercion, and prosecutorial oversights that had contributed to her wrongful imprisonment.
They argued passionately that her conviction represented a deep failure of the justice system.
Their findings eventually reached the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, prompting a reconsideration of her case.
In 2013, the DA acknowledged the overwhelming evidence of her innocence and supported the request to overturn her conviction.
On the day of her release, Mary Virginia Jones walked out of prison at 74 years old, having spent 32 years, 7 months, and 23 days behind bars.
Her first steps into the outside world were emotional, overwhelming, and filled with disbelief.
She emerged into a society transformed by decades of technological and cultural change, a world far removed from the one she had known.
Her story quickly became a powerful example for advocates fighting against wrongful convictions and the deep-rooted flaws within the criminal justice system.
Mary’s case stands as a reminder of the necessity for continuous reform, compassion, and vigilance in protecting the vulnerable.
Her life, though scarred by injustice, continues to inspire movements demanding accountability and fairness.
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