Social Watch E-Newsletter - Issue 157 - December 13, 2013

The event “Realizing a vision for transformative development” was held in commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development.

Roberto Bissio, Social Watch Coordinator, who participated in the event, highlighted that removing the obstacles for development cooperation is essential.

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The roles and responsibilities of unions in Canada have come under renewed scrutiny. According to CCPA, Social Watch member in Canada, provincial and federal government hostility towards organized resistance to current policies is intensifying through heated rhetoric and legislative trial balloons. 

Much of this is facilitated by the current economic insecurity which reinforces individualistic attitudes and often results in resentment directed at those who have it less bad; a general lack of awareness of how much, exactly, society owes to the victories that labour unions have won for all workers and their families—not to mention a lack of understanding of the rules by which unions operate; and those in positions of power growing evermore eager to use the tools at their disposal (corporate or legislative) to challenge the rights of unions to freely engage in the collective bargaining process to improve the lot of the workers they represent.

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In a report to the UN General Assembly, a UN rights expert has emphasised that poverty is closely associated with racism and contributes to the persistence of racist attitudes and practices which in turn generate more poverty.

Racial or ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected by poverty; and the lack of education, adequate housing and health care transmits poverty from generation to generation, a United Nations rights expert has said.

According to Ruteere, poverty does not result only from an unequal sharing of resources. 'Discrimination against groups and persons based on their ethnicity, race, religion or other characteristics or factors has been known to encourage exclusion and impoverish certain groups of the population who suffer from unequal access to basic needs and services.'

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The Global Information Society Watch 2013 shows that gains in women’s rights made online are not always certain or stable. While access to the internet for women has increased their participation in the social, economic and governance spheres, there is there is another side to these opportunities: online harassment, cyberstalking, and violence against women online all of which are on the increase globally.
This GISWatch is a call to action, to the increased participation of women in all forms of technological governance and development, and to a reaffirmation and strengthening of their rights online.
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