Global Eye on Social and Gender Rights

por Roberto Bissio

La transnacional tabacalera Philip Morris, propietaria de la marca Marlboro que identifica a los cigarrillos más vendidos en el mundo, está en franca retirada en el país de los cowboys y caballos, pero crece aceleradamente en el resto del mundo.

En Estados Unidos más de la mitad de la población adulta fumaba habitualmente en los años cincuenta, pero ahora apenas veintiuno por ciento lo hace. En cambio, según el último informe anual de la companía, las ganancias en el resto del hemisferio occidental aumentaron veintitrés por ciento entre 2008 y 2009, y el crecimiento fue de diecisiete por ciento en los “mercaos emergentes” del Tercer Mundo, que ya superan en ganancias a la Unión Europea.

Para evitar que el resto del mundo siga el ejemplo éxitoso de Estados Unidos al lograr un cambio masivo en los hábitos de la gente, Philip Morris parece haber lanzado una campaña mundial de litigios contra los gobiernos que están innovando en la guerra contra el tabaquismo en las últimas semanas. A mediados de febrero la compañía anunció una demanda contra el gobierno uruguayo, el 9 de marzo demandó a Noruega y se anuncian medidas similares contra Australia si se aprueba la política “preventiva” que está estudiando el gobierno laborista. Read more…

News "roberto bissio" "bissio" "marlboro" "uruguay" "Philip Morris" "demanda" "CIADI"

Después de un mes de la  tragedia que ha golpeado al pueblo de  Haití y de que miles de personas, entidades sociales e instituciones de todo el mundo estén trabajando para apoyar la ayuda de emergencia y de reconstrucción del país. Las entidades abajo firmantes queremos expresar una vez más nuestra solidaridad y apoyo con el pueblo de Haití pero también nos vemos en la obligación de expresar nuestra profunda preocupación por algunas cuestiones relacionadas con el despliegue de la ayuda de emergencia y las tareas de reconstrucción.

En primer lugar, queremos expresar nuestro rechazo a la militarización del país a través de la ayuda humanitaria. Se trata de una  falsa respuesta al desastre en la que están implicados el Ejército de Estados Unidos (qué tiene planeado desplegar un total de 16.000 militares en la zona), la Unión Europea (6.000 efectivos) y otros cuerpos militares (Naciones Unidas ha anunciado que 3.500 cascos azules se sumarán a los 9.000 que ya forman parte de la Misión para la Estabilización de Haití, la MINUSTAH, que ocupa el país desde 2005), a los que además debemos añadir otros contingentes como los 2.000 soldados de Canadá o los cerca de 2.000 de Brasil. Read more…

News, Statements

New York, 25 February 2010

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Cheick Sidi Diarra, High Representative for LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for inviting me to this meeting as the International Coordinator of LDC Watch. It is my regret that I could not be with you at the meeting in person today; however, I would like to share with you a few words, specifically on the preparatory process towards the LDC IV that is underway. I am immensely pleased to share with you that LDC Watch is leading the civil society process, having been officially mandated by the UN-OHRLLS, and we are indeed honoured to assume this historically important responsibility. As the only LDC civil society network engaged in policy advocacy and campaigns in the interest of the LDCs since 2001, we are taking this leadership role both as strength and as a challenge, on behalf of the entire LDC civil society constituency. Read more…

News, Statements arjun karki, LDC, LDC Watch, LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Call on the eve of BDF meeting

Dhaka, 15th February 2010. Twenty one civil society organizations (CSO), in a rally and human chain in front of national press club, called upon the developed country representatives and donors, who are participating in Bangladesh Development Forum BDF, to pay their carbon debt as compensation. Speakers from the Human Chain said that Bangladesh is facing most catastrophic caused by climate change, which is the result of high carbon emissions historically by the developed countries. They also claimed that developed countries are indebted to the people of Bangladesh and they should pay their carbon debt. The rally blamed that, Read more…

News Bangladesh Development Forum, BDF, carbon debt, Human Chain, World Bank

January 29, 2010

Noam Chomsky, Anthony Arnove, Naomi Klein, and Alice Walker interviewed by Amy Goodman

Source: DN!

Guests:

Noam Chomsky, author and Institute Professor Emeritus at MIT, where he taught for over half a century. He is author of dozens of books. His most recent is Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy.

Naomi Klein, journalist and author. Her latest book is The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, poet and activist. She was a student of Howard Zinn’s at Spelman College in the early 1960s.

Anthony Arnove, co-author, with Howard Zinn, of Voices of A People’s History of the United States and co-director, with Zinn, of Let the People Speak

AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting from Park City, Utah, from the Sundance Film Festival, the home of the largest independent film festival in the country.

We spend the rest of the hour paying tribute to Howard Zinn, the late historian, writer and activist. He died suddenly Wednesday of a heart attack at the age of eighty-seven. Read more…

News Alice Walker, Amy Goodman, Anthony Arnove, howard zinn, Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky

Source: IFIs Latin American Monitor / Mon Jan 25 2010

By the end of 2009, it seemed necessary to take stock of the political and economic situation and of the different processes in which civil society has been actively involved, in order to provide input for debate and coordinate efforts for the construction of a new economic and financial model. For this purpose, a seminar-workshop was carried out on December 10 and 11 2009, within the framework of the MERCOSUR Summit of Presidents held in Montevideo, Uruguay, on December 8.

Representatives of over 40 Latin American social organisations gathered in Montevideo in order to discuss and propose alternatives to the current financial system. Following the outburst of the economic and financial crisis in 2008, discussions and proposals started to proliferate in governmental and inter-governmental spaces and social organisations at international level, thus becoming necessary to bring them to this regional space, in order to build and strengthen political advocacy strategies in the face of alternatives, taking into account the current political and economic situation and the different sub-regions. Read more…

Eventos, News Alma Espino, Álvaro Padrón, Andean Coordinator of Indigenous Organisations, BNDES, CEDHA, Central Trade Union Coordinator of the Southern Cone, Confederation of Argentine Workers, Fernando Gambera, FESUR, Financial crisis, Graciela Rodríguez, Héctor Moncayo, Héctor Mondragón, Hemispheric Social Alliance, ILSA, International Gender and Trade Network, Jana Silverman, Javier Gómez of CEDLA, Juan González, Karen Lang, Latindadd, Luis Sirumbal, MERCOSUR, Norma Aguilar, OWINFS, Pedro Páez, PIT-CNT, Raúl Zibechi, Rebrip, Redes-Amigos de la Tierra, Ricardo Jacques, Roberto Bissio, Rómulo Torres, Sebastián Valdomir, social watch, Technical Commission of the Bank of the South, Víctor Ricco

Ajamu Baraka is the executive director of the U.S. Human Rights Network, a coalition of more than 250 human rights and social justice organizations working to hold the United States accountable to international human rights standards. YES! Magazine board member Tanya Dawkins talked to him about housing, direct action, and why human rights are relevant during the recession.

by Tanya Dawkins / published by YES! Magazine

Tanya Dawkins: How are you feeling about the domestic human rights movement right now?

Ajamu Baraka: I’m feeling pretty good, even though we have some very real challenges as a movement. The election of Barack Obama provides opportunities as well as some very interesting political challenges. Under the Bush Administration, the targets of our advocacy, organizing, and education work were pretty clear. With Obama’s election and Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, we find ourselves struggling against the tendency some might have to believe that we can relax and just engage in quiet, behind-the-scenes diplomacy. Read more…

News Human Rights, Obama, Tanya Dawkins, YES! Magazine

Roberto Bissio’s speech at the Development Debates Controversy Panel, activity hold by Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN). The panel also counted witht the participation of Rosalind Petchesky, on Gender Identity, Sexuality and Feminism, and Rodelyn Marte, on HIV/AIDS and Women. This activity took place on January 19th 2010 at Mauritius, Africa.

To listen Roberto Bissio’s speech.

Development Debates Controversy Panel

News DAWN, development, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, Roberto Bissio

After many years of indiscriminate mortar shelling and endless human rights abuses, the poor people of Somalia are left with little hope or expectations of peace and stability. The destruction that has been inflicted on the Somali people is unprecedented in the recent history of Africa as the perpetrators are rarely called to account for their crimes.

At the beginning of 2009 with Ethiopian troops leaving the country, many residents of Mogadishu had high hopes for a better future and the country as a whole expected at least some changes for the better. Read more…

News 10th December, Human Rights Day, social watch, Somalia

By Robin Hahnel, Source: Z Net

Because misconceptions are commonplace a basic tutorial on the logic and implications of regulation, carbon taxes, and tradable carbon emission permits is useful. Hopefully this will correct some common misunderstandings about what different policies do, and do not do, and help leftists and environmentalists who are not professional economists avoid being brow beaten when debating environmental policy with mainstream economists who often do not share their values and priorities.

Suppose the US government decides to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 10% next year. The concept of equivalent pollution policies is very useful. “Equivalent” means that the policies result in the same overall reduction in emissions. What this “tutorial” explores are possible equivalent policies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions: A regulation approach mandating a 10% reduction in emissions from every source, a carbon tax set at a level that achieves a 10% overall reduction in emissions, and a cap and trade program where the number of permits printed allows for only 90% of last year’s total emissions are equivalent policies - they all achieve the same 10% overall reduction in emissions. However, while these three policies all achieve the same overall emission reduction, we will discover that  they differ in other important respects.

Read more…

News Carbon Taxes, Climate Change, environmental policy, Robin Hahnel, Tradable Carbon Emission Permits