Protest against the IMF in Dhaka

Equity and Justice Working Group (EquityBD), a Bangladeshi alliance of rights-based civil society organizations, urges the government in Dhaka to open public and parliamentary debates in case of receive foreign loans in the name of assistance and development. The statement issued by the coalition in its regard refers to a 987 million dollars loan approved last week by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"The human rights movement faces an unprecedented opportunity for revisiting and revitalizing the struggle for economic and social rights by demanding accountability for failures to protect human rights through economic policy. The establishment of a Financial Transaction Tax would be an important step in that human rights direction," argues in its third publication the initiative “A bottom up approach to righting financial regulation”, a consortium of civil society networks and organizations, including Social Watch and some of its members.

Session of the Human Rights Council, Palais des Nations, Geneva. (UN Photo/JeanMarc Ferre)

Twenty-two independent experts and special rapporteurs of the United Nations Human Rights Council called on the states to incorporate universally agreed international human rights norms and standards with strong accountability mechanisms into the goals to be agreed at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio2012) to be held in June. The appeal coincides with long-standing proposals made by civil society organizations.

The petition includes the setting of “indicators and measures to evaluate implementation of the commitments” to be agreed in Rio de Janeiro “through an inclusive, transparent and participatory process with all relevant stakeholders, including civil society”, wrote the experts in an open letter.

Nabil el-Araby, secretary general of the Arab League. (UN Photo/Mark Garten)

The development and reform of the Arab League requires the adoption of serious steps, on top of which a new vision for its relationship with civil society, in line with the traditions and experiences established by similar regional groupings as well as the United Nations, suggested 37 organizations, some of them members of Social Watch, of nine Arab countries.

Roberto Bissio, Leymah Gbowee, Justin Kilcullen, Graça Machel and Kumi Naidoo

Beyond 2015, a global civil society campaign pushing for a strong and legitimate successor framework to the Millennium Development Goals, recommended to the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, five civil society representatives onto the UN High Level Panel on a post-2015 development framework when it is established.