The agreement reached by 11 of the 17 governments of the Eurozone to create a financial transactions tax (FTT) was received with mixed feelings. Members of European and global civil society organizations deemed it as a needed step in the right direction, but insufficient, as they fear that the incomes would be used to redress the fiscal imbalances, not to deal with global poverty and climate change. Experts forecast flights of capitals to countries reluctant to impose the FTT, notably the United Kingdom. In the meantime, 58 relevant groups called on the president of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim to advocate for the tax at the global level.

Photo: ATD Fourth World

On occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, October 17th, the International Movement ATD Fourth World called on public authorities and non-state actors to use the recently approved UN Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights as a mean “to end the violence of extreme poverty”.

Tea plantation workers in the protest. (Photo: UCANews)

More than 300 homeless Sri Lankan tea estate workers marched to demand land and housing rights in the city of Kandy on Sunday 14th. They have been angered by a clause in the national budget which proposes leasing unused plantation land to businesses.

Working in Ontario. (Photo: amber dawn pullin/Flickr/CC)

The ability of Canada’s young workers to find stable, well-paid, and meaningful work is increasingly under threat, warns a report released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). They are more likely to be unemployed or precariously employed in non-permanent jobs, and regardless of whether they have post-secondary qualifications, these young workers will likely endure the negative effects of un- and underemployment for years to come.

Manifestation in memory of victims in violence, (Photo: S. Rougeaux/ASF)

Eight Tunisian human rights associations, headed by Avocats Sans Frontières, have categorized 7,454 cases of human rights violations and filed them into databases. A better knowledge of that information will contribute to the transitional justice process currently underway in the country that is the beacon of hope for the Arab Spring.