Demonstration in Athens convened by Syntagma movement on February 19. (Foto: odysseasgr/Flickr/CC)

The terms of the European 'bailouts' as the one approved this week for Greece – the severe public spending cuts, the onslaught on public ownership – all reflect the experience of the developing world in the 1980s and ’90s, according to Nick Dearden, director of the Jubilee Debt Campaign. “The precise purpose of these policies” was “to shift the burden of financial crisis from the financial system and onto developing nations,” he warned.

Yemenis protesting against the government in Sana’a. (Photo: UN News Centre)

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and its partners in Yemen – the Human Rights Information and Training Center (HRITC, national focal point of Social Watch) and the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedom (HOOD) — call on the United States government to uphold its international responsibilities and open an investigation into torture against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is in the North American country now.

The Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND, member of Social Watch), together with 42 civil society organizations from Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan and other Arab countries, sent a letter to European Union institutions, concerning the EU trade and investment strategy for the Southern Mediterranean.

Oikos–Cooperação e Desenvolvimento, Terre des Hommes and The World Future Council launched this week an online petition for signatures demanding world leaders to support the call for Rio+20 to establish Ombudspersons for Future Generations. The form is available in five languages at http://bit.ly/xw1BQW.  

Ahafo Mine at Kenyasi, in Asutifi District. (Photo: Ghana’s Mining Portal)

Three months after the announcement of an increase in corporate tax for mining companies from 25 to 35 percent in Ghana, the raise is yet to be implemented. The tax may not be collected until 2013, according to TV3 television channel. “The attitude of government gives reasons to believe that it will yield to pressures from the industry,” wrote Alhassan Atta-Quayson, expert of Third World Network-Africa (TWN-A).