Hassan Abdel Nati.
(Photo: Sudan Vision)

Since the student led protest movement emerged in March 2011 in Sudan, demonstrators have acted “peacefully and in line” with the Constitution, but the government reaction has been “vicious”, “unprecedented” and illegal, said Hassan Abdel Ati, Secretary General of Sudan’s National Civic Forum, focal point of Social Watch in the African country.

Leonor Magtolis Briones. (Photo:
Philippine Rural Reconstruction
Movement)

Social Watch Philippines and Alternative Budget Initiative are set to probe into President Benigno Aquino III’s proposed budget items for 2013 that are still unclear or not visible. “We have to be more vigilant as the 2.006 trillion pesos [47.74 billion US dollars] proposed 2013 appropriations is the first budget proposal to exceed the two-trillion pesos mark,” explained former national treasurer and Social Watch Philippines lead convenor Leonor Magtolis Briones.

A Seoul Metro Line 9 station.
(Photo: Ssangyong Engineening
& Construction Co)

Civic groups have charged the President of the Republic of Korea Lee Myung-bak of saddling Seoul residents with losses while he was mayor of the capital city, by signing an unfair contract with a leading private sector infrastructure fund to build a metro line, reported journalist Park Hyun-chul on The Hankyoreh daily newspaper.

United Nations
Human Rights Council.

The United Nations Human Rights Council will discuss this month a series of “guiding principles” that would force countries to adress the consequences of international economic treaties and fiscal policies on poverty and human rights. If the proposal by Magdalena Sepúlveda, special rapporteur on human rights and extreme poverty, is approved “eradicating poverty shall not only be a moral duty, but a legal obligation”, acccording to Roberto Bissio, director of the Third World Institute (ITeM).

Family ties are strong in rural
Kenya. (Photo: Barry Lewis
Corbis/Helsingin Sanomat)

Finland has certain problems: many people numb themselves with antidepressant drugs and alcohol, people bully and harass each other at work, a young man will fire into a crowd of people, a father kills his family. Finnish people should learn something from developing countries, wrote Johana Pohjola in an article published by Helsingin Sanomat daily newspaper.

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