Social Watch E-Newsletter - Issue 137 - July 12, 2013

Issue 137 - July 12, 2013
Social Watch reports
 

Slovenia: You're finished!

High unemployment rate among youth.
(Photo: ILO)
Slovenia has had the sharpest decline in GDP since 2008 of any euro-zone member apart from Greece, although it has so far avoided having to ask for external aid owing to having entered the crisis with a far lower sovereign debt burden. The new Government has indicated that it will continue to avoid a bailout by driving through changes including bank restructuring, privatizations, and pension and labour reforms.

However, poverty has increased and many people are no longer able to meet basic needs; without state assistance, the poverty rate is estimated to rise to 24%. Those who can’t find work have dropped out of the labour force. As a result, Slovenia has joined countries where people have taken to the streets to call for a more just and balanced economy, more participatory democracy and the rule of law.

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People living in extreme poverty give their five proposals for a global development agenda

Grassroots activists in Peru
discussing proposals for a new 
Post-2015 Sustainable Development 
Agenda. (Photo: ATD)

Emerging from a sustainable development discourse saturated by “experts”, “eminent persons”, and professionals, the knowledge of people living in extreme poverty, based on lived reality, is crucial to the debate. The International Movement ATD Fourth World organized a two-day seminar, with participants who experience daily hardship, to demonstrate that those who have lived extreme poverty are best equipped to end it.

Present at the seminar were also Amina Mohammed, Special Advisor of the Secretary-General on Post-2015 Development Planning; Olav Kjorven, Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations Development Programme; as well as academics from Oxford University, UK, and practitioners in the field.

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We need more and better EDUCATION for the world we want

At a time when the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is very close to finalizing and publishing its report "Accelerating progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and advancing the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015" to the United Nations General Assembly (NY, September 24, 2013), it is necessary for all organizations working for the right to education to mobilize NOW!

It is URGENT that we submit our proposals. The report will be ready next week.

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UN Member States agree on the format of the High-level political forum on sustainable development

After five months of negotiations, UN Member States agreed on the resolution text that defines the format, functions and organizational aspects of the high-level political forum on sustainable development (HLPF or the forum). The resolution will now be formally adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. The HLPF will be the intergovernmental institution in the UN mandated to “provide political leadership, guidance and recommendations for sustainable development, follow-up and review progress in the implementation of sustainable development commitments, [and] enhance the integration of the three dimensions of sustainable development in a holistic and cross-sectoral manner at all levels.” Its establishment was decided by Member States during the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012.

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The Vienna+20 CSO Declaration

 

On June 25 and 26 June 2013, the Vienna+20 CSO Conference of more than 140 persons from various CSOs around the world gathered at Vienna on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights and its Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action issued on June 25, 1993. Social Watch was represented by Kinda Mohamadieh.

Before the Conference the civil society conference on Vienna +20: Strengthening the human rights movement was held two days before the conference. See the CSO final declaration.

 

 

 

 

Policy space needed for rights-based development

In July 2012 after the Rio+20 Conference was held, the UN Secretary General with the support of the UN agencies launched a process to discuss the Post-2015 development agenda. He commissioned to very specific stakeholders four reports that have just been delivered and will serve as an input to his report to the September 2013 General Assembly Special Event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
The four stakeholders that prepared and submitted reports to the UN Secretary-General are the High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (Post-2015 HLP), the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), the UN Global Compact (UNGC), and the UN Development Group (UNDG).

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SIGN THE PETITION: Malta should not push-back migrants illegally

The life of 102 individuals may be at risk unless we take action. Malta may be forcibly removing 102 individuals away from its shores after they sought entry into the island.

It is not known whether the 102 individuals have claimed asylum or protection, as is their right under international law. It is not known what will happen of the 102 individuals if they are sent away from Malta. 

Sign the petition

 
SOCIAL WATCH IS AN INTERNATIONAL NGO WATCHDOG NETWORK MONITORING POVERTY ERADICATION AND GENDER EQUALITY
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