Social Watch News


St. Mary's Home for maternal
services in Ottawa
(Photo: Nancy MacNider)

Source: Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA)

Women in Boznia and Herzegovia now have a greater chance of surviving childbirth than women in Canada, according to the Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA), focal point of Social Watch in that North American country.

Source: Intermon Oxfam

In a letter to the G-20 economy ministers assembled in Washington, a thousand economists have expressed their support for the Robin Hood tax on speculative financial transactions. Those who signed the letter include leading figures from universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Berkeley and the Sorbonne.

by Martin Khor*

In the last round of negotiations about climate change, which was held at the start of the month in Bangkok, the developing countries of the South asked the countries of the industrialized North to definitively clarify once and for all whether they wish to remain within the limits of Kyoto Protocol or renounce the convention, writes Martin Khor, executive director of South Centre.

by Roberto Bissio*

The negotiations of the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations, also known as the “development round” because they ought to include subjects of interest to countries on the periphery, began in 1991 and have now bogged down. To get the press interested, some pro-free trade negotiators are making an effort to find intelligible metaphors to save journalists the time and effort involved in actually analyzing the figures and documents, wrote Roberto Bissio, executive coordinator of Social Watch. Some of these metaphors are extremely feeble, like comparing trade liberalization to bicycles (as the United States did) or to mules (an idea from the Director General of the WTO, Pascal Lamy).


Lim Li Lin, TWN (Photo: IISD)

Source: Xinhua, The Irish Times, Global Post, dpa

Developing countries and civil society organisations, such as the Third World Network (TWN), accused the rich nations to avoid a compromise in the most recent UN climate talks, that took place in Bangkok.

A group of NGOs condemned on Friday 8 developed countries for selecting in a UN conference in Bangkok some agendas that would benefit only their interests, ignoring what should actually be done to save the planet from climate change.

Source: Eurostep

Eurostep’s director, Simon Stocker, said his organisation “hopes” that the inclusion of the “women factor” in all of the European Union’s programmes and projects “will be fully reflected in the European Commission’s proposals to modernize EU development policy”. Stocker made this statement after a meeting between EU officials and the executive director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet.

Source: CCPA

 Last November, Prime Minister Stephen Harper extended Canada’s mission in Afghanistan by three years without a debate in Parliament. His explanation: “When we’re talking simply about technical or training missions, I think that is something the executive can do on its own.” But the first four Canadian deaths in Afghanistan occurred in 2002, when a training exercise attracted “friendly fire” from an American F-16 fighter jet, warned Michael Byers and Stewart Webb in a new report published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, focal point of Social Watch in the North American country, and the Rideau Institute.

Sources: HRITC and AP.

The clashes between security forces and participant in the protests that has been wracked Yemen since Feb. 11 took a toll of at least 120 people so far. The Human Rights Information and Training Center (HRTC), Social Watch’s focal point in that country, has claimed for an end of this situation since it began, and warned of gross abuses by the police and the military.

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