Social Watch news
Published on Mon, 2013-10-07 23:00
The Italian government has published the names of the occupants of the boat that drowned near Lampedusa on October 3. All those on the list appear to be Eritreans. At the weekend hundreds of bodies were recovered, washed ashore on the Italian island of Lampedusa. The European Union is soul-searching and identifying the problems of its increasingly repressive refugee and asylum policy.
A meeting of Ministers of Home Affairs has been called in Luxemburg to consider a package of measures, in a first response to the Lampedusa tragedy. Observers are pointing out that the effect of the European policy to effectively control the ‘safe routes’, forces the most desperate refugees to take ever bigger risks in their attempt to reach safety.
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Published on Thu, 2013-10-03 18:55
The event "From aspiration to action: A Human Rights Framework for the post-2015 Agenda" took place on September 25, 2013 at the United Nations in New York, with participation from the Tunisian Minister for Social Development, Mr Khalil Zaouia; Ms. Patrizianna Sparacino, French Ambassador for Human Rights; Mr. Ivan Šimonović, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, OHCHR; Ms. Saraswathi Menon, Director of Policy Division, UN Women and Roberto Bissio, from Social Watch.
Social Watch coordinator, Roberto Bissio, "Humans have rights and they are inalienable, corporations have privileges and those are revocable." To see his participation on the debate click here.
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Published on Thu, 2013-10-03 14:55
Speaking at the UN General Assembly articulating the Indian civil society aspirations on actions to make the new development agenda work in developing nations that are home to 85 percent of the world's poor, Amitabh Behar representing National Social Watch (India) and Wada Na Todo Abhiyan emphasized that, “for the new development agenda to succeed, we need to move away from a poverty lens to a more holistic justice frame.” The new development frame will succeed the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that expire in 2015.
Mr. Amitabh Behar, a representative of a coalition of 4,000 Indian civil society organisations under the umbrella National Social Watch and Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, voiced the civil society concerns related to the new development agenda at the UN Special Event on MDGs at the 68th General Assembly in New York on September 25.
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Published on Wed, 2013-10-02 18:42
Photo: NGLS.
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Over 1,000 representatives from civil society, governments and the United Nations gathered on 22 September at UN Headquarters in New York for an open dialogue on critical regional issues and policy recommendations looking forward to the next global development agenda. “Advancing Regional Recommendations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda,” organized by the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) in partnership with the Post-2015 Development Planning Team of the Executive Office of the Secretary-General (EOSG), launched the report of the UN-NGLS regional civil society consultations carried out from May through August 2013. The event convened the largest single gathering of civil society in the post-2015 process to date.
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Published on Wed, 2013-10-02 14:34
UN-NGLS launched the publication of its report "Advancing Regional Recommendations for the Post-2015 Development Agenda," the synthesis of a four-month consultation conducted in writing and via teleconferences with 120 regional civil society networks. The report can be downloaded here [pdf].
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Published on Tue, 2013-10-01 17:50
Civil society organizations warn of potential negative effects on development, human rights, and the future of productive sectors as a result of the negotiations between Morocco and the European Union (EU) about a deep and comprehensive free trade agreement, and demand full transparency in the negotiations course.
The first round of negotiations between Morocco and the EU about a deep and comprehensive free trade agreement started in Rabat on April 12, 2013. The second round of the negotiations was held in June 2013.
The negotiations will include an expansion of the trade agreement already existing between the EU and Morocco to include, in addition to tariff reduction, regulations on services trade, investment and investor protection, government procurement liberalization, competition policy and intellectual property protection. These negotiations will address areas that are at the heart of the structure of national economic sectors and may directly affect the state’s ability and sovereignty in terms of regulating the economy in line with national development goals.
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Published on Mon, 2013-09-30 20:22
Human rights organizations are deeply concerned about the unfair sentences which are likely to be given to 50 Bahraini political and rights activists who have been on trial since July 11 in what is known as the case of the February 14 youth. The activists have been charged with forming an illegal coalition, which the authorities hold responsible for the violence seen in the country during the crackdown on the popular democratic uprising in February 2011. The court has already adjourned for sentencing, even though the trial did not meet minimum standards of fairness and impartiality. Seeing the process as a show trial for the issuance of predetermined sentences, the defendants and their lawyers decided to boycott the trial session scheduled for today, September 29.
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Published on Mon, 2013-09-30 20:08
Ontario CCPA Director
Trish Hennessy
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There are many ways to tell a story. For Trish Hennessy, Ontario director at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, one way is to look at the most searched word annually for the on-line Mirriam-Webster dictionary.
Speaking at the Whitby Courthouse Theatre to a group of Durham-region New Democrats, Hennessy noted that in 2010 the most searched word was “austerity.” A year later it was “pragmatism.” In 2012 there was a tie between “socialism” and “capitalism. Clearly something is shifting,” she said.
Many young people are being left out of the post-recession recovery and are now questioning the economic and political system that is denying them their place in society.
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Published on Mon, 2013-09-30 20:00
The Outcome document approved at the UN Special Event on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on 25 September 2013 in New York raises the right questions but answers too few of them. The document is meant to take stock of progress in implementing the goals and set parameters for the process to define a new generation of development goals by 2015.
The failure to put accountability at its centre is widely recognised to be one of the deficiencies of the MDGs. Yet beyond a vague sentence reaffirming the importance of “promoting human rights, good governance, the rule of law, transparency and accountability at all levels,” the outcome document does not give accountability the priority attention it is due in the post-2015 development framework.
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Published on Mon, 2013-09-30 19:19
Tetteh Hormeku
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Third World Network-Africa (TWN Africa) has punched holes into the revised Ghana Investments Promotion Centre (GIPC) Bill, noting that there has been little change to the provisions.
According to the non-governmental organization, the changes in the provisions did not offer any relief for domestic producers.
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