|
Arab civil society brings its message to Washington
|
Palestinian people also take the
streets. (Photo:
Issam Rimawi/APA)
|
A large group of Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) members and partners is visiting Washington this week to express the positions and perspectives of civil society organizations from Middle East and North Africa on the United States foreign policy towards the region. Twelve activists and experts representing ten countries (Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Bahrain, Yemen, Sudan, and Iraq) are also seizing the opportunity to enhance spaces for the dialogue between Arab groups and US civic stakeholders and policy makers.
Read more
|
Global financial transaction tax is “a human rights imperative”, say UN experts
A group of United Nations independent experts urged the European Union (EU) to take the lead in promoting the adoption of a global financial transaction tax to offset the costs of the enduring economic, financial, fuel, climate and food crises, and to protect basic human rights.
Read more
More than 160 organizations urge EU institutions not to detain asylum seekers
More than 160 human rights organizations, among them Terre des Hommes, Caritas Europa, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, has signed the appeal “Not crossing red lines-A negotiators’ checklist on minimum detention safeguards”, insisting that EU institutions ensure respect for asylum seekers’ right to liberty in recast Reception Conditions Directive and Dublin Regulation.
Read more
Canadian native women urge to address global inequalities
Based on the Canadian experience, the Native Women's Association (NWAC), the Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA, member of the Social Watch national coalition) and other organizations stated this month at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues that all governments should “immediately develop and implement a national strategy to address the disadvantaged social and economic conditions of Aboriginal women and girls, including poverty, inadequate housing, low educational attainment, inadequate child welfare policies, and over-criminalization”.
Read more
Spain: Human rights, casualties of socializing the costs of the crisis
The danger of policy measures designed to socialize the costs of the crisis have become painfully apparent in Spain, where the impacts of successive austerity budgets have resulted in deteriorating outcomes across a broad spectrum of human rights indicators, warned the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) in a parallel report coordinated with 18 civil society groups for the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ 48th session, held earlier this month in Geneva.
Read more
Liberty, equality and fraternity must prevail in the Internet
“The Internet should be governed on the principles of human liberty, equality and fraternity,” remarked six relevant civil society organizations on a statement addressed to the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development. The UN body will hold this Friday in Geneva a meeting on Enhanced Cooperation on Public Policy Issues Pertaining to the Internet.
Read more
