Social Watch news

Strategy Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun
(Photo: University of Wisconsin)

Sources: Yonhap report,The Korea Times report

More than half of the senior advisers at six major South Korean law firms are former bureaucrats with expertise in finance, warned this month the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ, national focal point of Social Watch).

Prime Minister Béji Caïd Essebsi.
(Photo: Government of Tunisia)

Source: World Organisation Against Torture

The Tunisian transitional government will deposit this week the ratification documents for the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture at the United Nations in New York. A mission of experts of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), an international coalition of NGOs, made the announcement public this Monday, after visiting this North African country and meeting with representatives of the new authorities. 

General Than Shwe. (Photo: Peerapat
Wimolrungkarat/Government of Thailand)

Source: FIDH

The announcement on 16 May by Burmese dictator Thein Sein that all prisoners will receive a one-year sentence reduction is so woefully inadequate that it should be regarded as nothing but another attempt to present a façade of change while the regime continues to restrict fundamental freedoms and commit serious crimes against civilians, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (Altsean-Burma) and the Burma Lawyers’ Council (BLC, national focal point of Social Watch) said this Monday.

Abdullah al-Durazi, head of BHRS.
(Photo: Habib Toumi's blog)

Sources: Financial Times, Human Rights Watch, Bahrain News Agency, UPI, Gulf News, Tehran Times.

Bahraini government questioned Abdullah al-Durazi, who was heading the Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS), the oldest body tracking human rights abuses, when its board was disbanded last year. The authorities accused Al-Durazi of taking part in protests and disseminating false information, though no formal charges have been filed yet, reported the Financial Times on Thuesday.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan
heads the Assembly. (Photo: WHO)

Sources: Third World Network, LiveScience, The Wall Street Journal

The World Health Assembly decided on Tuesday in Geneva to keep, for now, the world's remaining smallpox virus samples, kept alive by U.S. and Russia, with the opposition of developing countries and civil society organisations headed by the Third World Network (TWN). 

Nuclear reactor in Doel, Belgium
(Photo: Leonardo-Energy.org)

Source: CNCD-11.11.11

Twenty-five years after the Chernobyl disaster, and when another tragedy is going on in Japan, the Belgian chapter of Greenpeace International, WWF, the Walloon Inter-Environmental Federation and Bond Beter Leefmilieu (BBL) launched the national platform "Stop & Go" that calls for the end of nuclear energy generation and claims for promoting renewable sources.

Taíno native Roberto Múcaro Borrero
leads the session in New York.
(Evan Schneider/UN Photo)

Sources: IPS, The Financial

The first global UN inter-agency initiative to promote and protect the rights of indigenous peoples was launched on May 23 on the occasion of the 10th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The United Nations-Indigenous Peoples’ Partnership (UNIPP) initiative is a commitment to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and calls for its full realization through the mobilization of financial cooperation and technical assistance.

Source: Agenda Global, The Star

The Fourth United Nations Conferences onthe Least Developed Countries (LDCs) ended last Friday in Istanbul with new pledges to supporth those 47 nations. However, the success of this meeting is determined on whether a strong follow-up structure is built to monitor and fulfill the pledges, wrote Martin Khor, executive director of South Centre, in his last column for the newspaper The Star, of Malaysia, and Agenda Global. The LDCs are even more vulnerable than before to the fluctuations of the world economy and the prospects are anything but bright.

Source: PNGO

The Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO, focal point of Social Watch in Gaza and the West Bank) denounced the brutal repression suffered last Sunday by peaceful demonstrators at the hands of Israeli forces. The protests were convened to commemorate the sixty-third anniversary of the Nakba, the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian when the State of Israel was created. Israeli soldiers used live bullets against the demonstrators.  

IMF Executive Board in session.
(Photo: IMF)

Sources: Press release from the Bretton Woods Project.

Dozens of civil society organizations launched a campaign calling for an open and merit-based process to elect the next International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director, after the resignation this Wednesday of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, accused of sexual abuse.


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