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Social Watch news
    
  
  
      
        
      
| Published on Thu, 2012-09-13 13:52 
|   Laura Dupuy.(Photo: Human Rights Council)
 |  While UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened this  week the 21st session of the Human Rights Council urging the 47 member states  to show they take their mandate of promotion and protection of human rights  seriously, civil society organizations are asking for measures to prevent reprisals  against activists attending the meeting in Geneve. |  
      
| Published on Tue, 2012-09-11 15:47 
|   Hassan Abdel Nati.(Photo: Sudan Vision)
 |  Since the student led protest movement emerged in  March 2011 in  Sudan, demonstrators have acted “peacefully and in line” with the Constitution,  but the government reaction has been “vicious”, “unprecedented” and illegal,  said Hassan Abdel Ati, Secretary General of Sudan’s National Civic Forum, focal  point of Social Watch in the African country. |  
      
| Published on Mon, 2012-09-10 08:38 
|   Leonor Magtolis Briones. (Photo:Philippine Rural Reconstruction
 Movement)
 |  Social Watch Philippines and Alternative Budget  Initiative are set to probe into President Benigno Aquino III’s proposed budget  items for 2013 that are still unclear or not visible. “We have to be more  vigilant as the 2.006 trillion pesos [47.74 billion US dollars] proposed 2013  appropriations is the first budget proposal to exceed the two-trillion pesos mark,”  explained former national treasurer and Social Watch Philippines lead convenor  Leonor Magtolis Briones. |  
      
| Published on Fri, 2012-09-07 10:09 
|   A Seoul Metro Line 9 station.(Photo: Ssangyong Engineening
 & Construction Co)
 |  Civic groups have charged the President of the  Republic of Korea Lee Myung-bak of saddling Seoul residents with losses while  he was mayor of the capital city, by signing an unfair contract with a leading private  sector infrastructure fund to build a metro line, reported journalist Park  Hyun-chul on The Hankyoreh daily newspaper. |  
      
| Published on Thu, 2012-09-06 09:07 
|   United NationsHuman Rights Council.
 |  The United Nations Human Rights Council will discuss  this month a series of “guiding principles” that would force countries to  adress the consequences of international economic treaties and fiscal policies  on poverty and human rights. If the proposal by Magdalena Sepúlveda, special rapporteur on human rights and extreme poverty, is approved “eradicating poverty shall not only be a  moral duty, but a legal obligation”, acccording to Roberto Bissio, director of  the Third World Institute (ITeM). |  
      
| Published on Thu, 2012-09-06 09:05 
|   Family ties are strong in ruralKenya. (Photo: Barry Lewis
 Corbis/Helsingin Sanomat)
 |  Finland has certain  problems: many people numb themselves with antidepressant drugs and alcohol,  people bully and harass each other at work, a young man will fire into a crowd  of people, a father kills his family. Finnish people should learn something  from developing countries, wrote Johana Pohjola in an article published by Helsingin  Sanomat daily newspaper. |  
      
| Published on Wed, 2012-09-05 14:57 
|   Gustave sharing ideas withcolleagues in a group. (Photo:
 West Africa Civil Society
 Institute)
 |  Assah Gustave, National Coordinator of Social Watch  Benin, is participating in a two week capacity development initiative in West  Africa. In 2012, he has attended over twelve trainings across the globe. This  last one reunited civil society organizations from Cote   d’Ivoire, Benin,  Niger and Guinea. “It is now up to us to apply the best  practices gathered from this training, to contextualise them and apply in  Social Watch,” he said |  
      
| Published on Tue, 2012-09-04 17:18 
|   Photo: Social Watch India |  Central and local authorities’ failures are responsible for the gloomy  performance of the health sector in Indian state of Chhattisgarh, according to  the most recent report produced by the local Social Watch coalition. The  governments must be held accountable for the fulfillment of this Constitutional  and basic right, but the citizens also have the responsibility to monitor its  implementation, activist said while they released the study. |  
      
| Published on Mon, 2012-09-03 13:10 
|   Aung Htoo. (Photo: The BestFriend International)
 |  The names of some 2,000 people removed from a  blacklist of foreign and Burmese nationals regarded as threats to the regime,  among them Aung Htoo, former secretary of the Burma Lawyers Council (BLC, national  focal point of Social Watch), was released by the office of President Thein  Sein last week. |  
      
| Published on Mon, 2012-09-03 12:50 
|   Leonor Briones. (Photo:Freedom from Debt Coalition)
 |  Social Watch Philippines is questioning some  items in the 2013 budget submitted by the government to the Congress. The  convenor of this national coalition of civil society groups, Leonor Briones, said  there are lump sum appropriations called “special purpose funds”, which did not  provide any breakdowns. |  
    
    
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