SOCIAL WATCH E-NEWSLETTER - Issue 37 - May 20, 2011

Issue 37 - May 20, 2011

Campaigners demand fair selection process on Strauss-Kahn resignation

MF Executive Board in session.
(Photo: IMF)
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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Egyptian women "against poverty, injustice and corruption"
"The gains women achieved over the last decades were not granted, rather the result of the hard work and struggle of women's rights movement and its supporters in Egypt and the Arab region", warned the Network of Women's Rights Organizations in Egypt (NWRO) in a statement launched this month.
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Palestinian civil society calls for international protection
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.
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Civil society urges the Arab League not to abandon Syria
A hundred civil society organisations from 17 arab countries condemned this Sunday, in an open letter to the Arab League and to the heads of government of the region, the killing of over 800 peaceful demonstrators and the arrest of 9,000 in 16 Syrian cities since the 15th. March. The also urged the League "to show consistent [...] leadership in dealing with the situation in Syria".
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Spain: Plataforma 2015 y Más calls for responsible vote
Plataforma 2015 y Más [Platform 2015 and Beyond], one of the focal points of Social Watch in Spain, urged citizens to exert their right to vote with responsibility in the upcoming autonomic and municipal elections on Sunday 22. Thus, citizens were urged to vote for the options that include the defence of public policies in their programmes so as to ensure the State’s commitment to the eradication of poverty and inequalities.
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A strong structure to help the LDCs
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.
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EEUU and Russia united against destruction of remaining smallpox viruses
The Sixty-fourth World Health Assembly is discussing this week in Geneva, for the fifth time, the destruction of the remaining smallpox virus samples that U.S. and Russia keep alive. Both countries are resisting the motion, on the grounds that those stockpiled viruses will be necessary in case of a breakout or a "bioterrorist attack". The Third World Network, focal point of Social Watch, is lobbying for the destruction, while Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that "the chance of an outbreak is reasonably low, but not zero".
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