Social Watch news

Joseph Stiglitz.
(Photo: Stiglitz's site)

Sources: NGO Committee on Financing for Development, Social Justice in Global Development

Many civil society organisatiosn have been working on the establishment of an “Ad hoc panel of experts on the world financial and economic crisis and its impact on development”, which was a proposal first made by the Stiglitz Commission at the UN Conference on the financial crisis and later by the Group of 77, representative of the developing countries. They are calling on non-governmental organizations from all over the world to sign an open letter to reinforce the request, that is going to be discussed  at the upcoming deliberations of the UN Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc) in Geneva.

Nestle's factory in Bugalagrande,
Colombia. (Photo:
Michel Egger/Alliance Sud)

Source: Alliance Sud.

For five years, non governmental organisation Alliance Sud and swiss food multinational Nestlé have been engaged in a high-level dialogue which is innovative in more than one respect. Alliance Sud, focal point of Social Watch in Switzerland, has led two fact-finding missions into Nestlé’s operations in Colombia. These have produced concrete improvements, although the basic conflict between the multinational and trade unions remains.

"Dignity", a ship of the
Freedom Flotilla.
(Photo: Free Gaza Movement)

Sources: WAFAPetraPalestine Chronicle.

The Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO), which represents hundreds of civil society organizations and is a focal point of Social Watch, condemned in a statement issued this Saturday the Greek government decision of banning a ship travelling with the Freedom Flotilla II from sailing to Gaza, describing it as “unfortunate.”

Félix Díaz. (Photo: Agencia Walsh)

Source: CELS

On June 25, members of the Toba-Qom indigenous community “La Primavera” of Formosa held an unprecedented event: the election of its representative before the national government and provincial authorities. The Centre for Legal and Social Studies (Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales, CELS), focal point of Social Watch, participated as supervisor in this process, which resulted in the election of Félix Díaz. 

Source: Agenda Global.

Economic heterodoxy is reducing inequality in South American countries while the gap between rich and poor widens in the United States, with even psychological consequences. Recent studies have concluded that income does not contribute to people’s happiness, but equity indeed does, wrote Social Watch coordinator Roberto Bissio in his last article for Agenda Global.  

Sources: Tax Justice NetworkEurodad.

Some 50 civil society organisations from all over the world claimed this week for the creation of an Intergovernmental Commission on International Cooperation on Tax Matters to protect nations from abusive practices, including evasion and the race to the bottom in corporate taxation. The claim is headed by the international networks of development groups Eurodad, CIDSE, ActionAid, Christian Aid and the Tax Justice Network (TJN), and the Danish group Ibis.

Source: The Irrawaddy.

Through the state-run press, Burmese military regime has accused this week three Shan men of responsibility for a series of simultaneous bomb blasts in the cities of Naypyidaw, Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin, according to The Irrawaddy, a media group managed by Burmese journalists living in exile in Thailand. “They can’t use the word ‘culprit’ because they haven’t arrested anyone yet,” said Thein Oo, the chairman of the Burma Lawyers’ Council, national focal point of Social Watch.

Sources: Canadian Centre for Policy AlternativesWinnipeg Free Press.

Privatizing Manitoba Hydro, electric power and natural gas utility owned by the government of the Canadian province of Manitoba, would result in soaring power rates, job losses and the handover of an essential service to wealthy, out-of-province owners, union leaders warned this week quoting a report publisheb by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), a focal point of Social Watch.

(Photo: IRRI Images/
Creative Commons

Source: African Agenda (Third World Network-Africa).

Calls from the developing countries that suffer the worst impacts of climate change seem to fall on deaf ears in the negotiations on the road to the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) of the UNFCCC next November in Durban, no matter how strident they sound, warned this week Africa Agenda, Third World Network-Africa’s bimonthly magazine.

A doctor from the WHO attending
to three women in Jammu and
Kashmir, Pakistan.
(Garhi Habibullah/UN Photo)

Source: Associated Press of Pakistan

Empowering women and advancing their rights can lead to progress on a range of issues, including the fight against poverty, hunger and violence. This was stressed this week by the head of UN Women, the U.N. agency tasked with promoting women’s rights in Pakistan, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.

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