Social Watch news
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Published on Fri, 2011-05-27 08:24
By Roberto Bissio Lending money to the sovereign can be a risky business. In 1307 the King of France was in debt to the Knights of the Temple, warrior monks who did not just fought the Crusades but also funded them and in the process invented a system of traveler's checks collectable between Europe and the Holy Places. So big was the debt of Philip IV, that to get rid of it the king accused the Templars of heresy and sodomy, burned them at the stake by the thousands and confiscated their property. |
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Published on Fri, 2011-05-27 08:09
Source: Eurostep The EU’s aid commitments are becoming increasingly determined by domestic political agendas as well as security, immigration and commercial interests, says a new report, launched on 19 May by AidWatch. According to the study, entitled “Challenging self-interests: Getting EU aid fit for the fight against poverty”, the member states inflated official aid spending by more than 5 billion of euros and only nine countries met their committed aid targets. |
Published on Fri, 2011-05-27 07:55
Sources: Yonhap report,The Korea Times report More than half of the senior advisers at six major South Korean law firms are former bureaucrats with expertise in finance, warned this month the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ, national focal point of Social Watch). |
Published on Thu, 2011-05-26 07:19
Source: World Organisation Against Torture The Tunisian transitional government will deposit this week the ratification documents for the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture at the United Nations in New York. A mission of experts of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), an international coalition of NGOs, made the announcement public this Monday, after visiting this North African country and meeting with representatives of the new authorities. |
Published on Thu, 2011-05-26 07:15
Source: FIDH The announcement on 16 May by Burmese dictator Thein Sein that all prisoners will receive a one-year sentence reduction is so woefully inadequate that it should be regarded as nothing but another attempt to present a façade of change while the regime continues to restrict fundamental freedoms and commit serious crimes against civilians, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (Altsean-Burma) and the Burma Lawyers’ Council (BLC, national focal point of Social Watch) said this Monday. |
Published on Wed, 2011-05-25 06:07
Sources: Financial Times, Human Rights Watch, Bahrain News Agency, UPI, Gulf News, Tehran Times. Bahraini government questioned Abdullah al-Durazi, who was heading the Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS), the oldest body tracking human rights abuses, when its board was disbanded last year. The authorities accused Al-Durazi of taking part in protests and disseminating false information, though no formal charges have been filed yet, reported the Financial Times on Thuesday. |
Published on Wed, 2011-05-25 06:01
Sources: Third World Network, LiveScience, The Wall Street Journal The World Health Assembly decided on Tuesday in Geneva to keep, for now, the world's remaining smallpox virus samples, kept alive by U.S. and Russia, with the opposition of developing countries and civil society organisations headed by the Third World Network (TWN). |
Published on Tue, 2011-05-24 07:23
Source: CNCD-11.11.11 Twenty-five years after the Chernobyl disaster, and when another tragedy is going on in Japan, the Belgian chapter of Greenpeace International, WWF, the Walloon Inter-Environmental Federation and Bond Beter Leefmilieu (BBL) launched the national platform "Stop & Go" that calls for the end of nuclear energy generation and claims for promoting renewable sources. |
Published on Mon, 2011-05-23 13:08
Sources: IPS, The Financial The first global UN inter-agency initiative to promote and protect the rights of indigenous peoples was launched on May 23 on the occasion of the 10th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The United Nations-Indigenous Peoples’ Partnership (UNIPP) initiative is a commitment to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and calls for its full realization through the mobilization of financial cooperation and technical assistance. |
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Published on Fri, 2011-05-20 08:36
Source: Agenda Global, The Star The Fourth United Nations Conferences onthe Least Developed Countries (LDCs) ended last Friday in Istanbul with new pledges to supporth those 47 nations. However, the success of this meeting is determined on whether a strong follow-up structure is built to monitor and fulfill the pledges, wrote Martin Khor, executive director of South Centre, in his last column for the newspaper The Star, of Malaysia, and Agenda Global. The LDCs are even more vulnerable than before to the fluctuations of the world economy and the prospects are anything but bright. |
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