Social Watch news
Published on Wed, 2015-01-28 19:15
"The sovereign debt of today, particularly in developed countries that are highly indebted, is the results of the irresponsible indebtedness of the private sector that was bailed out with public monies" said Roberto Bissio, Social Watch Coordinator, at the first preparatory session of the Addis Ababa Conference on Financing for Development on January 28, 2015. Bissio therefore suggested that the conference should return to the analysis of EXTERNAL DEBT (including public and private debt) as more appropriate to identify vulnerabilities than the current reduction of the agenda to "sovereign debt". Further, the Social Watch representative called for the conference to address the link of finances with inequalities and with the transformation of unsustainable consumption and production patterns. Read his complete intervention below or see the video here or download here the pdf version. |
Published on Tue, 2015-01-27 10:40
An overwhelming majority of citizens in the 28-member European Union (EU) – which has been hamstrung by a spreading economic recession, a fall in oil prices and a decline of its common currency, the Euro – has expressed strong support for development cooperation and increased aid to developing nations. A new Eurobarometer survey to mark the beginning of the ‘European Year for Development,’released Monday, shows a significant increase in the number of people in favour of increasing international development aid. The survey reveals that most Europeans continue to “feel very positively about development and cooperation”. Additionally, the survey also indicates that 67 percent of respondents across Europe think development aid should be increased – a higher percentage than in recent years, despite the current economic situation in Europe. |
Published on Mon, 2015-01-26 08:08
The Third UN Conference on Financing for Development will take place in Addis Ababa in July 2015. The key question will be how to finance the Sustainable Development Goals. In September 2015 the UN will finalize the new global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The political negotiations within the Open Working Group (OWG) have produced an ambitious catalogue of 17 main goals and numerous sub-goals, all of which focus equally on economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainable development. It is yet to be seen whether the goals put forward by the OWG will be watered down by the time the negotiations are over. Several countries have already announced their opposition to specific proposals. |
Published on Thu, 2015-01-15 23:00
Human rights experts warned that World Bank plans to delegate responsibilities for environmental and social monitoring to private banking institutions sub-lending on its behalf will effectively weaken both the level of protection currently offered by environmental and social safeguards and the Bank’s accountability for their implementation. The analysis was part of a letter to the World Bank President Mr. Jim Kim by 28 UN human rights thematic mandate-holders – an unprecedented number acting together on a single issue – conveying several concerns regarding the World Bank’s latest draft of its Social and Environmental Safeguards (“draft ESF”). |
Published on Fri, 2014-12-26 08:56
Even after four UN Conferences and four specific Programmes of Action for addressing special development challenges of LDCs, the number of LDCs has doubled from 24 in 1971 to 48 now. Only four countries have graduated out of the LDC category so far. Hence, it is critical that LDCs and development partners act with greater political will to materialise their commitments defending LDCs’ developmental interests and priorities. Above all, it’s the accountability to LDC peoples that is key and of utmost priority. There are many issues that the people of LDCs and the governments face, that stand as roadblocks to graduation. The dominant development paradigm and the current international aid architecture, which overwhelmingly prioritizes profits and markets have failed in addressing the development challenges faced by LDCs. |
Published on Tue, 2014-12-23 09:28
For the fourth successive year, a delegation of human rights and development civil society organizations from the Arab region will be visiting the European institutions in Brussels between the 8th and the 12th of December 2014. The Arab delegation includes civil society representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Lebanon. This visit seeks to provide a platform for dialogue and exchange between civil society organizations from the Arab region and European policy makers at the Parliament and Commission around the EU’s support and involvement in the region. |
Published on Sat, 2014-12-20 23:00
In a letter to the World Bank President Mr Jim Kim, 28 UN human rights thematic mandate-holders conveyed several concerns regarding the World Bank’s latest draft of its Social and Environmental Safeguards. The Bank is embarked in a process to reform and streamline its Safeguard policies, process which Mr Kim had earlier promised will not lead to their dilution. Referring to the draft Bank document, however, the letter stated that “by contemporary standards, the document seems to go out of its way to avoid any meaningful references to human rights and international human rights law.” |
Published on Fri, 2014-12-19 10:46
The most important and most fought over outcome of the UN Climate Conference in Lima was a decision adopted by the Conference of the Parties (COP) which the Peruvian Minister in charge of the conference termed ‘The Lima call for climate action’. This COP decision relates to the work of the Durban Platform, which is the track in the UN climate negotiations that leads to an expected new climate change agreement in Paris at the end of 2015. |
Published on Thu, 2014-12-18 19:05
An unapologetic Dutch blogpost by the chair of the Dutch YPFDJ, Meseret Bahlbi, gives an indication of the urgent need for a sober and realistic benchmarking of a process of change in Eritrea, which is heralded in some quarters. The YPFDJ is the youth wing of Eritrea’s only allowed political party. It has an active membership that actively sends out the messages of the party. Unashamedly Bahlbi is expressing the position of Eritrea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Osman Saleh who called for an urgent review of European migration policies towards Eritreans. According to Minister Saleh these are “to say the least, based on incorrect information”. Bahlbi makes similar claims, suggesting further that his views are vindicated by a recent Danish report. Offering contradictory arguments, this report by the Danish Migration Service suggests returning Eritrean migrants home because of current changes in Eritrea.Human Rights Watch has criticised the report as deeply flawed. Meanwhile the Danish Migration Service has publicly expressed doubts on the content of its report. |
Published on Thu, 2014-12-18 17:41
In 2011, Olivier de Schutter, then UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food cautioned, “The commodification of land, which the global phenomenon of land-grabbing is accelerating, entails risks that go far beyond what the current proposals for regulating it seem willing to recognize.” The risks he alluded to stem from treating land, labour and money as mere tradable commodities and allowing market mechanisms to be the sole arbiter of society, culture and nature. Adequately addressing them would require subordinating markets to the interests of society and the natural environment, recognizing non commoditized valuations of land and nature in ‘official’ governance discourse and practice, and putting in place national and international regulations that stop rather than encourage land grabbing. |
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