Social Watch news
Published on Thu, 2015-07-16 00:00
People around the world were impacted by the 2008 financial crisis which stemmed from the US´s financial policies. The key human rights lesson from the crisis is that the economic and social rights of people and nations everywhere are interconnected. In our inter-connected world, the US must make economic decisions that respect the human rights of all individuals who will be impacted by national, economic, financial and fiscal policy. At one level, economic policy in the United States should be guided by the principle of progressive realization and non-retrogression. |
Published on Tue, 2015-07-14 14:16
Manila, Philippines–Today, we witness state leaders, high-level officials, civil society groups, and business representatives convene for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to discuss and agree on an action plan for financing development, including the Sustainable Development Goals to be adopted by UN member states in the September 2015 Summit. “We started from an optimistic viewpoint on FfD3 and now ending with so much disappointment over what seems like retrogression from old agreements. There is no mention at all of peace dividends generated from the elimination of weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons, and the reduction in defense spending. Debt relief and condonation are treated marginally. The emerging document suggests business as usual. It doesn’t explain the fundamental reasons for why there is lack of financing sustainable development,” lamented Isagani Serrano, co-convener of Social Watch Philippines (SWP) and president of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM). |
Published on Wed, 2015-07-08 11:07
With pens still hovering over the Addis Ababa Action Plan, the outcome agreement for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3), there is already a sense that for all the recent talk at the UN about ambition and transformation, it is falling short. For a financing document, the Action Plan includes an impressive number of references to issues at the core of sustainable and inclusive development, like social protection, essential services, decent work for all and sustainable industrialization. There are multiple references to consumption and production, a rebalancing of which, among the rich and the poor, will determine the future of our world. |
Published on Tue, 2015-07-07 13:34
A graphic summary of the state of the negotiations around the post-2015 development agenda in the first days of July, showing where there is consensus and who is behind the different conflicting propositions. Green, Yellow, Red The issues highlighted are arranged in 4 groupings: - Preamble and declaration - Goals and targets - Means of implementation. - Follow-up ad review These groupings mirror the four main sections of the draft UN outcome document for the post-2015 development agenda currently being negotiated by governments at UN headquarters in New York. This summary was compiled by GPW based on national and negotiating group interventions in 3 main clusters. |
Published on Mon, 2015-07-06 00:00
The open-ended intergovernmental working group in charge of elaborating an international legally binding instrument on transnational corporations (TNCs) and other business enterprises with respect to human rights convened its first session in Geneva on Monday. The inaugural session of the Working Group (6-10 July) appointed Ambassador Maria Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador as its Chairperson-Rapporteur. The session opened with a video message from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mr Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein. It also heard some opening remarks by its keynote speaker, Ms Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, who told the delegates that an international legally binding instrument on business and human rights could contribute to redressing gaps and imbalances in the international legal order that undermine human rights, and could help victims of corporate human rights abuse access remedy. |
Published on Sun, 2015-07-05 00:00
The implementation of the Financial Services Law, passed in Bolivia in August 2013, has marked the political rhythm of the financial system in the country. The government set the pace for the private banks within its public policy of access to financial services, privileging specific actors, in particular the wage-earners and small and medium enterprises. The law marked the economic rhythm for the sector, too. The body of macroeconomic policies prioritizing price stability and an exchange rate that strengthened the position of the Bolivian peso compared to the US dollar and other currencies and an external environment of high prices for the commodities the country exports, generated a scenario of liquidity and growth for the financial sector in particular and the economy as a whole. |
Published on Fri, 2015-07-03 11:54
The need to prevent the damaging drainage from developing country economies represented by illicit financial flows has been gaining international attention. In a recent report (“the Report”) the UN Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and Human Rights, Mr. Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky (“the Expert”), added his voice by developing the implications human rights law and principles have for action on this front. |
Published on Wed, 2015-07-01 22:57
The June negotiations round on the outcome document for the post-2015 development agenda ended without resolution of the means of implementation issue. The 6th session of the Post-2015 intergovernmental negotiations was held on 22-25 June at the UN headquarters in New York. Means of implementation (MoI) have been the subject of many disagreements during the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) negotiations in 2013-2014 when many developing countries wanted to have MoI under each specific goal while developed countries wanted to keep MoI only under goal 17. Now the discussions are about how MoI should be integrated into the post-2015 agenda as well as how the outcome of the Financing for Development (FfD) track should be incorporated into the final outcome document. The current disagreements show a clear North-South divide. |
Published on Mon, 2015-06-29 00:00
While negotiations on Financing for Development and the means of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the UN are deadlocked, a new Global Financing Facility (GFF) in support of Every Woman Every Child is going to be established outside of the UN. The creation of the GFF was initiated by the World Bank and the governments of Canada, Norway, and the United States, and announced at the UN General Assembly in September 2014. It will be officially launched in July 2015, at the third Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The GFF is expected to play a key role in financing for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) and will serve as a major vehicle for financing the proposed SDG on healthy lives. It is being positioned as the most important new funding mechanism for the SDGs and the Post-2015 Agenda, similar to the Global Fund or GAVI. |
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