Social Watch news

Protesters at Tahrir square

Sources: Counter Balance (in English), ANND (in Arabic)

 A group of 67 civil society organizations from across 12 Arab countries raised concerns about the European Union (EU) and United States backed financial aid packages for Tunisia and Egypt, on the grounds that it could damage the process of democratic transitions and divert their revolutions’ economic and social justice goals.

Source: Inequality.org

Milestone study carried out in the United States shows that if economic growth is not equally distributed, people will never grow happier.

Bachelet in Tunisia.
(Photo: TAP)

Sources: Agence Tunis Afrique PresseTunisiaLiveUNWomen.

“From Tunisia and Egypt to Syria, Yemen, Libya and Bahrain, women have been active participants, calling for democracy, dignity and equality,” said Michelle Bachelet, UN Women Executive Director, at an international conference organised by the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, national focal point of Social Watch in that country. 

Yao Graham, from TWN-A.
(Photo: Reflection Group)

Sources: Third World NetworkNewsdayZimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation

African governments should be wary of the mining contracts they sign, as those agreements might not help them to get rid of Occidental powers but facilitate the Chinese exploitation, experts said this week at a conference organised by Third World Network-Africa (TWN-A, focal point of Social Watch) and the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) in Harare.

Juan Somavia with
representatives of domestic
workers. (Photo: ILO)

Source: SUNS.

In what is viewed as a historical moment, the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted this month for the first time a landmark convention aimed at protecting between 53 and 100 millions of domestic workers worldwide, reported the South-North Development Monitor from Geneva.

Source: Agenda Global

In international negotiations on climate change, where “the sums at stake are huge and the ones who are cheated are the poor”, the countries of the industrial North are using resources that appear as a slavish imitation of picaresque literature “to fool negotiators of the South”, wrote Roberto Bissio, Social Watch coordinator, in his last article for Agenda Global.

(Photo: Decidamos)

Sources: Centro de Documentación y EstudiosDiario Al DíaDecidamos (Campaña por la Expresión Ciudadana).

One of the “huge mistakes” defended “as great truths” in Paraguay is that businesspeople “pay a lot” to the revenue service while in fact “direct taxation, which is the most unfair, is the largest” and “poor people end up paying more than the rich”, according to a report by economist José Carlos Rodríguez. The report was presented this month at the launching of the programme “Impuestos justos para inversión social” [Fair taxes for social investment] promoted by the 

View of the National Safety Court,
according to the governmental
Bahrain News Agency.

Sources: Bahrain Center for Human RightsInternational Federation for Human Rights.

The National Security Court of Bahrain sentenced this Wednesday to life imprisonment 8 of the 21 activists charged of being linked to supposed “terrorist activities”. The 13 others were sentenced to two to fifteen years’ imprisonment, reported several national, regional and international civil society organisations.

Hannah Stoddart, Policy
Coordinator of the Stakeholder
Forum. (Photo:IISD)

Source: Eurostep

Ahead of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNSCD, or Rio+20) to be held in Rio in June next year, civil society organisations have described the official preparatory processes as being too slow and weak in content. If the conference is to live up to its commitment to achieving sustainable development, a fundamental paradigm shift in the global economic structure is needed, stated Eurostep this week. 

Press conference at the last G8
Summit. (Photo:L. Blevennec/
Presidency of France)

Source: The New Indian Express

While the G20, that includes the rich countries and the emerging ones, is getting more and more relevance, the Arab unrest and the developments in Libya and Syria have given a new meaning and purpose to the Group of Eight (G8) most powerful nations, according to Himanshu Jha, National Coordinator of Social Watch India. In a column published by The New Indian Express newspaper, Jha said that the G20 seems to have "turned into a hotbed of global decision-making" in charge of "the traditional economic agenda". 

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