News

Fishing port in Gaza.
(Image: Press TV)

Israeli keeps on putting pressure on fishermen in the Gaza Strip at the height of the fishing season. Nearly a dozen Palestinian fishermen were arrested by Israeli forces off the coast since mid-April. The Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO, focal point of Social Watch in the occupied territories) warns that those Israeli policies are worsening the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

“Speak Up, Speak Out: A Toolkit for Reporting on Human Rights Issues” seeks to help journalists and other content creators learn the basics of reporting on women’s and other human rights issues. This handbook was produced by Internews, an international non-profit organization devoted to “empower local media worldwide to give people the news and information they need, the ability to connect and the means to make their voices heard”.

In the eve of Rio2012, civil society organizations all over the world are warning against the “growing influence of major corporations and business lobby groups within the UN”. Those concerns became also apparent in the thirteenth session of the UNCTAD in Doha, where the rich countries were trying to minimize the role of that agency, whose reports have consistently criticized the politics of deregulation, liberalization and privatization that benefit the private sector.

UNCTAD XVIII closing
ceremony. (Photo: UNCTAD)

In the thirteenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII), civil society representatives “witnessed outrageous attempts by developed countries to change the policy basis and mandate” of that UN agency, that reflected their corporations and investors’ interests “rather than maintaining historical policy commitments to assist developing countries”, according the statement issued by the organizations on Thursday.

Kate McInturff.
(Photo: Feminist Legal Studies)

The uncertain fate of women’s rights in the Middle East and North Africa region was one of the most relevant concerns at the 12th International Forum of the Association for Women’s Rights In Development (AWID), held last week in Istanbul. After the Forum, Canadian activist Kate McInturff called on feminists “working at the international level” and those “working at the community level” to break the isolation between both groups, and to engage themselves “in a meaningful dialogue”.

(Photo: World Bank Out of
Climate Finance)

Some 115 non-governmental organizations have urged governments to “sunset” the World Bank’s Climate Investment Funds and instead, redirect their reserves to the new Green Climate Fund established within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, to make it fully functional as soon as possible, reported journalist Kanaga Raja, of the South-North Development Monitor (SUNS).

Gyekye Tanoh, of the
Third World Network-Africa.

Civil society groups taking part in UNCTAD XIII that is been held in Doha called on the UN and its member countries to pursue a "fundamental shift" in economic and development paradigms in order to address the multiple global crises, reported the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

Ziad Abdel-Samad (ANND).

The “Arab Uprisings” and the civil society in the Arab region have a relevant role on campaigning and advocating to end the Israeli occupation and on support for building an independent Palestinian state, said Ziad Abdel-Samad, director of the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND, a member organization of Social Watch), participating in a discussion on ‘Sustaining the Palestinian Economy Under Occupation: the Role of Arab Cooperation,’ organized last week by Unctad’s Assistance to the Palestinian People Unit in Doha.

Inspector-general of Police
Stella Libongani.
(Photo: Government of Zambia)

Sex workers who parade the streets of Zambia at night will suffer harsh jail terms or fines in a crackdown that shall commence soon, according to the inspector-general of Police Stella Libongani. The Non-Governmental Organization Coordinating Council said the arrests will not solve the problem, reported the Daily Maill.

The side event organized by the UN-NGLS
and Social Watch in the UN Headquarters.
(Photo: IISD)

About a thousand people, most of them on behalf of civil society organizations from all over the world, have signed so far a petition to warn the United Nations and its member states about the possibility that the outcome of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio2012), to be held in June, “severely threatens the rights of all people”.

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