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UN Financing for Development news- Regulatory framework fails to match hope placed on private companies, new studies

Aldo Caliari ⋅ June 10, 2015 ⋅ Comments Off on Regulatory framework fails to match hope placed on private companies, new studies say

Negotiations towards the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, to be held in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) on July 13-16, are in full gear. In line with ongoing trends in the landscape of development assistance, deliberations thus far have shown a strong promotion, especially by Northern countries, of increased reliance on private sector sources for development funding. Two new studies set out to interrogate what does this mean for the language on human rights accountability of the private sector that we should expect to see negotiated in the conference, and whether expectations are being met by reality.

As put by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “As businesses assume an ever-expanding role in the development and economic spheres their adherence to the human rights responsibilities outlined

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Former Brazelian President on Freedom of Association and Strike by workers.

An article by the former President of the Federal Republic of Brazil, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (“Lula”), on ‘Freedom of Association and the Right to Strike’. In the context of the International Labour Conference .

He takes issue with attempts at limiting the right to strike by suggesting it is not covered by Convention 87 of the ILO on freedom of association, as well as with pressures to reduce the ILO’s character from an international (tripartite) organisation to a UN agency. As Lula puts it, rather than a fair reflection of ‘new realities’, this push reflects “an attempt to weaken a fundamental ILO standard, namely freedom of association, and hence the other ones too”.
Recalling how international solidarity using this Convention helped him
and other unionists when they were imprisoned for leading a
metalworkers’ strike in 1980, he reminds us that “throughout history,
higher, more justly distributed incomes and …

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A Conversation with Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez

The Imperative of Hope: Recovering the Prophetic in Christian Life Today – A Conversation with Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez

One evening I had the privilege of listening to the founder of liberation Theology Fr.Gustavo Gutierrez OP at a jam packed Fordham University hall in New York. Theologian Michael E. Lee started the conversation by way of asking questions: Among various theologies, why Liberation theology is standing out? Fr. Gutierrez responded “Liberation theology is a tool, its central point is the place of the least and the last person in Christianity. If we take the Bible, the poor is always important”.
According to Gutiérrez true “liberation” has three main dimensions: First, it involves political and social liberation, the elimination of the immediate causes of poverty and injustice. Second, liberation involves the emancipation of the poor, the marginalised, the downtrodden and the oppressed from all “those things that limit their capacity to develop …

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MMS & the UN May 2015

Dear Readers,

The highlights of the meetings in May were: Inter governmental negotiations for the post 2015 Agenda with SDGs at its core and second the preparatory process for the third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3).

For decades, development policy was shaped by the notion that the poor countries of the Global South needed money from the wealthy North in order to advance in their development. At the latest since the 2008/09 financial crisis this view of things has begun to change. Unlike previous years the global civil society is trying to unify their efforts to speak in one voice the concerns for example the CSO statement on global tax standards and norms:

CSO statement on global tax standards and norms

The NGO Committee on FFD organized a side event with the title “Do we have the courage to put people and planet at the center? – …

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MMS & the UN News April

Dear Readers,
Nepal is remembered in most of the sessions at the UN and our prayers and hearts are with those affected and still in need.

April 7: World Health Day celebrated on 7 April, with WHO highlighting the challenges and opportunities associated with food safety under the slogan “From farm to plate, make food safe.” Some of the negative effect of globalization is reflected in food too. “Food production has been industrialized and its trade and distribution have been globalized,” says WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan. “A local food safety problem can rapidly become an international emergency. Investigation of an outbreak of food borne disease is vastly more complicated when a single plate or package of food contains ingredients from multiple countries.” Some important results of a study show: there were an estimated 582 million cases of 22 different food borne enteric diseases and 351 000 associated deaths; over …