Social Watch news
Published on Fri, 2013-10-25 08:51
More than 300 Eritrean refugees lost their lives last October 3 off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa. The survivors say that the Italian Navy could have prevented the deaths. The tragedy exposed the failings of the EU’s migration policies, and its failure to protect refugees - a legal obligation under International law.
This week there was a commemorative ceremony in Italy for those who died. The catholic priest Father Mussie Zerai and the journalist Meron Estefanos, founder of the International Commission on Eritrean Refugees witness the ceremony, and denounce it as a charade - a gimmick arranged for the convenience of politicians and an offense to the families of the victims.
Read the full statement of Father Zerai and Estefanos
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Published on Wed, 2013-10-23 11:25
Radio Liberty discussed Azerbaijan’s place in the Open Budget Index (OBI) last week, as part of the “Joint Advocacy Platform” project, just on the eve of 2014 budget discussions in Parliament.
Kenan Aslanli, National Budget Group (NBG) member (and Social Watch member in Azerbaijan) and social and youth activist Bakhtiyar Hajiyev participated in the program.
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Published on Mon, 2013-10-21 08:47
Twenty years after the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights and its Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action were adopted, more than 140 civil society representatives from around the world gathered at Vienna to commemorate the occasion. The 2013 conference, convened under the theme “Strengthening the Human Rights Movement Globally: Vienna +20,” was held in Vienna on June 26-27, and agreed on an Outcome Document that was presented by civil society at a High Level Conference on Vienna +20 hosted in the same city by the Austrian government.
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Published on Thu, 2013-10-17 14:44
Prof. Leonor Briones
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In the Philippines, Social Watch Philippines monitors the MDG programs as implemented by the government. Its main advocacy is more government spending for health, education, agriculture, the environment, and for social protection for all. It has organized the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI) which proposes alternative budgets for these MDG-related expenditures.
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Published on Wed, 2013-10-16 18:00
Huduma is an initiative of INFONET previously incubated at SODNET (Social Watch in Kenya), the United Nations Millennium Campaign and the African Institute for Health and Development (AIHD) that seeks to improve public service delivery through the strategic use of Technology.
The strategy is coined within a logic of improving the capability of the state and that of an informed citizen to collectively improve service. While the state remains the largest provider or guarantor of services, the citizenry have a right and responsibility to engage in the improvement of such services. Huduma places in the hands of citizens, simple technology and media based tools and platforms to amplify their voices, while at the same time, improves the capacity for better responsiveness.
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Published on Wed, 2013-10-16 10:01
The decade-long economic expansion in Africa has not translated into improved conditions of living for ordinary Africans. Indeed, many Africans remained trapped in the circle of joblessness, material deprivation, poverty, insecurity, loss of livelihood and mining related environmental disasters. African governments challenged to reinforce ongoing fiscal reforms and mining contract renegotiations with other measures to improve the equity between state and investor in the booming extractive sector and also to finance the AMV in full.
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Published on Thu, 2013-10-10 14:29
Photo: UNHCR/S. Malkawi
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One cannot discuss policy priorities and challenges in Lebanon without first addressing the dangerous developments the region is currently experiencing. Oppression, backwardness and the shortcomings of democracy in the region as a whole are serious hindrances that could turn the tide and reverse the more positive trends. Despite the challenges they raise, the current developments clearly demonstrate the potential for change in the region: people are no longer willing to stand idle in the face of tyranny, poverty, unemployment and marginalization.
Lebanon is still facing the systemic challenges of the political confessional system. The state must be an institutional and constitutional expression of democracy and people’s rights. Genuine citizenship cannot be achieved without the rule of law, without a system that gives citizens their rights and duties towards both society and the state, which are also preconditions for an effective civil society. Thus the main obstacle to true citizenship in the country is still the partition of state offices and institutions among the different religious confessions.
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Published on Wed, 2013-10-09 23:00
While the debate around increasing corporate influence at the United Nations is growing, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sticks with his plan to establish a new United Nations Partnership Facility within the UN Secretariat. The new facility is intended to "scale up UN capacity to engage in transformative multi-stakeholder partnerships with the private sector, civil society, philanthropists and academia across a broader range of issue areas". But as financing for the new institution will come from donors rather than from regular UN budget, questions to its accountability and oversight arise. Roberto Bissio, director of the Third World Institute in Montevideo, raises such questions in context of the current discussions of a post-2015 development agenda.
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Published on Wed, 2013-10-09 16:09
The application of Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (GPs) in the financial sector came under focus at hearings held in the United States (Washington DC and New York).
The hearings were part of activities by the Working Group on Business and Human Rights, a United Nations body established in 2011 to promote dissemination and implementation of the Guiding Principles. One of the ways in which the Working Group does this is by carrying out visits to particular countries to look at implementation by companies therein.
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Published on Mon, 2013-10-07 23:00
Sub-Saharan African
migrant workers
arrives in Lampedusa.
(Photo: Kate Thomas - IRIN)
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The tragic loss of some 300 refugees off Lampedusa on October 3 gives public focus to the harsh and cruel reality facing thousands fleeing insecurity and oppression in the countries of their birth. A boat which traveled from Libya caught fire in close reach of the Italian coast. There were some 500 Eritreans on board, but only 147 were rescued according to media reports.
The large loss of life taking place in sight of the Italian beaches has shocked Italy, Europe and the world. It emphasizes the failure of Europe and Africa to protect the rights of refugees who embark on their perilous voyages believing that they have little choice. According to the UN, 30,100 migrants reached Italy by sea so far this year and some 7,500 Eritreans have been registered amongst them. October 5 is being observed as a day of mourning and Pope Frances has called for ‘a day of tears’.
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