Social Watch news
Published on Wed, 2013-11-13 22:59
Do you know how much your government collects in taxes? How much are wealth and incomes taxed, as opposed to wages or consumption? Does the government gather information on the share of taxes paid by different social groups (e.g. women/men, rural/urban, different ethnic groups)? Is the revenue collected enough to raise adequate resources for the realization of human rights?
Is your government party to investment or trade agreements that curtail its capacity to collect taxes?
Are human rights and gender equality impact assessments conducted in relation to budget planning and execution? Is the data collected disaggregated by sex, age, income, location, ethnicity, disability and other relevant criteria?
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Published on Wed, 2013-11-13 22:25
Consistent with the Millennium Declaration’s recognition that all States “have a collective responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level,” Millennium Development Goal 8 (“MDG 8” or “Goal 8”) contains a number of specific commitments on the sort of international cooperation required on areas such as aid, trade and debt.
But how much did MDG 8 respond to human rights imperatives and how far did its implementation go in promoting human rights? What historical and legal trends were the backdrop to MDG 8 and what hope can we bear for the future as the international community evaluates a potentially new generation of development goals?
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Published on Wed, 2013-11-13 20:14
As Egypt’s political crisis continues, its government will be asked to account to the United Nations for what has been done to address the social injustices which fuelled the revolution.
On November 14, Egypt will appear before the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Geneva, where it will be required to demonstrate how it has taken into account its human rights obligations as a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in navigating the country´s turbulent transition. This will mark the first time that Egypt has come before a UN human rights treaty body since the 2011 revolution.
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Published on Thu, 2013-11-07 14:25
Photo. EquityBD.
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Right based civil society networks in cooperation with different students’ cultural organizations of Dhaka University organize a seminar at the Nowab Ali Chowdhury Senate Building and a photo exhibition at the Teacher Student Centre (TSC) in Dhaka University. The vice chancellor of the university Mr. A A M S Arefin Siddique inaugurates the photo exhibition.
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Published on Thu, 2013-11-07 11:31
The latest report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Water and Sanitation (“the Rapporteur”), Ms. Catarina de Albuquerque, focuses on the theme Sustainability and non-retrogression in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation. The report offers useful and welcome guidance for those seeking to draw meaning from the human right to water on the areas of finance, investment and other related economic ones. Some of its developments will arguably be useful beyond the right to water, charting a path for how to draw such meaning in the case of other rights.
The Special Rapporteur devotes a portion of her report to develop the concept that sustainability is “non-dissociable” from human rights law.
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Published on Thu, 2013-11-07 11:06
The Palestinian Non-governmental Organizations Network PNGO raised concerns and warned of a dangerous deterioration in the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip due to severe drop-long power cuts caused by the fuel outage.
PNGO stated that power outage in the besieged Gaza Strip seriously affects basic life facilities in particular health , water, education and sanitation as well as vital sectors.
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Published on Thu, 2013-10-31 13:05
Social Watch Philippines (SWP), Silliman University in Negros Oriental and Mindanao State University (MSU) in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) launched the People’s Public Finance Institute (PPFI), which is the first-ever center on teaching citizens to learn and be actively involved in public finance in the Philippines.
“As part of Social Watch Philippines’ commitment to asserting social development for people’s rights and empowerment, we are setting up PPFI centers in various State Colleges and Universities (SUCs) all over the country,” said former national treasurer and SWP lead convenor Leonor Magtolis Briones.“Through the Institute, SWP and SUCs will educate the general public, civil society organizations (CSOs) and interested local government officials on national and local public finance working under the framework of citizens’ participation,” she added.
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Published on Mon, 2013-10-28 11:56
In the early morning of October 3 a tourist was enjoying the beautiful quiet beach of the Italian Mediterranean Island when three swimmers appeared. Three African young men frantically asked for help. They had left their mothers behind in a ship on sea that was on fire.
The ship had made the crossing that night and had reached the 800 perimeter of Lampedusa with over 500 passengers on board. While waiting to be able to offload the passengers, the ship was pushed away from the shore. When the captain tried to start the engine to bring his ship back into the perimeter, it didn’t work. He then decided to seek attention to get help by making a basket-fire. He burnt himself and threw the burning rod in the boat, rather than in the sea. The passengers on the boat panicked and rushed to one side. Inside the boat, in the cabins, women and children were asleep. Locked in the cabins, they would not survive the journey. Only six women made it alive.
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Published on Mon, 2013-10-28 10:51
(Asmara 25 October) Members of Project Arbi Harnet (Freedom Friday) inside Eritrea have, this afternoon disclosed that fearing public discontent the Eritrean regime has ordered all Obituary notices of Lampedusa victims be taken off street notice boards in Asmara.
Following the accident on the 3rd of October, off the cost of Lampdusa that claimed the lives of over 350 Eritreans, Asmara residents had put up customary notices with pictures of victims and many people were gathering to read those notices and expressing their anger at the political and economic predicament that is pushing young Eritreans to take extreme measures to leave their country.
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Published on Mon, 2013-10-28 10:08
The most important battles are generally the hardest fought. Such is the case of the financial transactions tax (FTT), a crucial element in the creation of a more just global financial system, which is facing renewed opposition from those who want to maintain the failed economic architecture of the past.
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