SOCIAL WATCH E-NEWSLETTER - Issue 120 - March 1, 2013

Issue 120 - March 1, 2013

Equality or poverty?

For over a decade the debate, research and practice focused on extreme poverty. However, the key to the new development agenda could be somewhere else, much less illuminated by the political debate: inequality. This is what emerges from several months of consultations with academics and civil society organizations performed by the specialized agencies of the United Nations on women and children, UN Women and UNICEF.
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Honduras: Feminist organizations lobby for the typification of femicide at the Congress

Feminists at the Congress.
(Photo: CEM-H)

The Center for Women's Studies-Honduras (CEMH), the Center for Women's Rights, the Women's Network of Colonia Ramón Amaya Amador, the Women's Network of Manzanal, the Women's Network of the Red Cross Col were present on February 22 before Congress in order to lobby and monitor that the proposal for a typification of femicide coordinated with the Ministry of Human Rights and Justice is in line with the work performed for more than ten years by feminist organizations for the construction of an offense that punishes men who kill women because they are women.
The typification of femicide means to improve the registration systems of the judiciary, as well as to review and elaborate necessary, relevant and timely legislation for the recognition and punishment of other forms of violence against women.
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Taxes and human rights
"Fiscal policy – and hence also tax policy – is one of the most important steering instruments of governments. The true priorities of policies are often revealed more clearly by budgets and tax legislation than they are by declarations and action programmes. Also, a government’s fiscal policy reflects the political influence of certain interest groups. Are defence budgets or social welfare budgets being raised? Who enjoys tax reliefs, and how are they compensated for? Answers to these questions are crucial to whether governments are fulfilling their international and national commitments or whether they may not be meeting them under the pretext of budget policy constraints.
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Civil Society letter to members of the World Trade Organization
Civil Society letter to members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) concerning a further extension of the transition period for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) under Article 66.1 of the TRIPS agreement.
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Santiago Summit spreads new consensus on human rights obligations of investors
Public documents resulting from the presidential summits are usually boring and predictable, but the Santiago Declaration, issued on Sunday, January 27 following the EU-Latin American summit stunned diplomatic circles with a new consensus on the state’s role and responsibilities of transnational corporations.
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Austerity protests rock Bulgaria, could spread through European Union
While many analysts believe the worse of the EU’s financial crisis is over, however as protests rock have rocked Bulgaria and forced the government to resign one might wonder if the worst road lies ahead. Bulgaria is generally considered the poorest member of the European Union and while the country demonstrated wiser financial sense that its Southern European counterparts its finances have been in poor shape since the 2009 financial crisis.
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SOCIAL WATCH IS AN INTERNATIONAL NGO WATCHDOG NETWORK MONITORING POVERTY ERADICATION AND GENDER EQUALITY
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