Social Watch E-Newsletter - Issue 233 - September 25, 2015

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) negotiated painstakingly over two years by all UN Member States  with thousands of public interest organizations providing their commitment and expertise have been copyrighted. And by whom? The UN you would think? But no. They have been re-branded as Global Goals (GGs) and the copyrighted by Project Everyone, a private company incorporated and registered in London.
On its own website (www.globalgoals.org), Project Everyone claims ownership of the 17 icons that it is popularizing, with active help from celebrities and the UN Secretariat itself, representing each of the 17 Goals that the heads of State and Government are endorsing this week as common objectives of humanity from here to the year 2030. Read more

More than a hundred Heads of State and Government will gather in New York this week to adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This agenda is intended to make the UN ‘fit for purpose’, but it is important to ask, ‘whose purpose will it be fit for’?
A new study from Global Policy Forum warns that the United Nations is embarking on a new era of selective multilateralism, shaped by intergovernmental policy impasses and a growing reliance on corporate-led solutions to global problems. The changing funding patterns of the UN and its funds, programmes and specialized agencies reflect these alarming trends. Key features are the growing gap between the scale of global problems and the (financial) capacity of the UN to solve them; the growing share of non-core contributions and earmarked trust funds in UN finance; increased reliance on the corporate sector; and the outsourcing of funding and decision-making to exclusive global partnerships. Read more

LDC Watch has released a statement addressing the Post-2015 Summit on 25-27 September 2015 in New York, which will adopt the post-2015 development agenda comprising a set of 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) with a timeline until 2030.
We have expressed grave concerns over the outcome document “Transforming Our World – the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” especially about Means of Implementation and Global Partnership which is key to achieving the post-2015 development agenda. We have reiterated our campaign call 'NO SDGs without LDCs'! Read more

Leaders of United Nation Member States are set to endorse the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Framework (now to be called the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development) at the General Assembly on 25-27 September 2015. Following what has been a long and at times arduous process to develop and agree this framework, throughout which the Trade Union movement has been actively engaged, the Post-2015 Summit in September will no doubt go down as an historic event. There are definitely grounds for celebration, not least simply because an agreement was actually reached, signalling a win for multilateralism on the whole, but also because it represents the culmination of one of the most inclusive efforts by governments to include the voices of civil societies and other non-state, non-executive actors in an international agreement. It would be fair to say that this is reflected in the level of ambition achieved in key parts of the outcome. Nevertheless, some reservations and concerns remain. Read more

Indigenous women and girls experience complex, multi-dimensional and mutually reinforcing human rights violations, with abuses of their collective, economic, social and cultural, as well as civil and political rights being varied and severe.
This is one of the main findings of the report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Ms Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, to the Human Rights Council, which is currently holding its regular thirtieth session.
According to the report, which was presented by the rights expert to the Council on Tuesday, those violations are alarming infractions on their own, but constitute a form of structural violence against indigenous women whereby they are victimized by the realities of the circumstances of their everyday life and routinely excluded from enjoying the rights and resources otherwise guaranteed to citizens. Read more

Are you interested in actionable information to promote social change? Are you an advocate for gender equality or women’s economic empowerment? Join us in an interactive webinar.
The WORLD Policy Analysis Center (WORLD) is offering an opportunity to learn about its unique set of tools – interactive maps, data, and easy-to-understand factsheets on rights, laws, and policies affecting women’s equal opportunities and empowerment in 193 countries. Read more