RIGHTS: Calling Racism By Its Name

Non-governmental organisations representing African descendants are demanding that United Nations documents referring to discrimination make explicit reference to anti-Black racism.

TRADE: G20 Gearing Up for Continued WTO Talks

The Group of 20 (G20), a voice for the developing South in multilateral trade negotiations, plans to expand its focus beyond the agricultural sector and seek closer ties to similar groups, according to the bloc's coordinator and spokesman, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim.

HEALTH: Sick of Racism

U.S. doctors, including prestigious physicians, in the mid-19th century gave the name "drapetomia" to a supposed "mental illness" that they believed drove certain black slaves to try to escape the plantations where they worked.

BHUTAN: 13 Years On, No Solution in Sight for Refugees in Nepali Camps

More than 100,000 refugees from Bhutan continue to languish in camps in Nepal, while neither talks between the governments of the two South Asian kingdoms nor the international community have come up with a plan to put an end to their 13-year forced exile.

BHUTAN: 13 Years On, No Solution in Sight for Refugees in Nepali Camps

More than 100,000 refugees from the small Himalayan nation of Bhutan continue to languish in camps in Nepal, while neither talks between the governments of the two South Asian kingdoms nor the international community have come up with any plan to put an end to their forced exile, which has dragged on for 13 years.

/CORRECTION*/DEVELOPMENT: South Gains Ground in Intellectual Property Debate

Countries of the developing South successfully lobbied the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to incorporate development goals and consumer rights, to counterbalance the interests of powerful nations and corporations, in a resolution adopted Tuesday, Oct. 5.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Society’s Debt to the Disappeared

Although forced and involuntary "disappearances" continue to occur around the world, as evidenced by the 40,000 cases currently under review by a specialised United Nations committee, the international community is dragging its heels in adopting a treaty to combat this heinous crime.

DEVELOPMENT: South Gains Ground in Intellectual Property Debate

Countries of the developing South successfully lobbied the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to incorporate development goals and consumer rights, to counterbalance the interests of powerful nations and corporations, in a resolution adopted Tuesday.

TRADE: No Extension for Textile Quota Elimination Deadline

The Jan. 1, 2005 deadline for the liberalisation of the textile and garment trade will not be modified, because a proposal to extend it failed to win the necessary consensus in the WTO.

ENVIRONMENT-HAITI: An Example Not To Be Followed

Haiti, devastated this week by the torrential rains of Tropical Storm Jeanne, has shown itself to be exceptionally vulnerable to natural disasters in comparison to the other countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a U.N. specialised agency.

ECONOMY: Investment Down but Set to Rally

Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows continued to decline in 2003 for the third year in a row, in "a very major fall" that UNCTAD blames on troubles facing the global economy last year, and especially industrialised nations.

HEALTH: R&D that Addresses the Needs of the Poor

Clinical trials of a new anti-malaria drug will begin before the end of the year in Thailand, representing faster than expected progress in one of several scientific research efforts aimed at combating a deadly disease that affects 500 million people and claims up to two million lives a year.

SUDAN: Death Rate Among Internally Displaced Soars in Darfur

The high mortality rates documented by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the past few weeks in camps of internally displaced people in the Darfur region of western Sudan are comparable to those seen in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, said an expert from the United Nations agency.

SUDAN: Death Rate Among Internally Displaced Soars in Darfur

The high mortality rates documented by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the past few weeks in camps of internally displaced people in the region of Darfur in western Sudan are comparable to those seen in Rwanda during the genocide of 1994, said an expert from the United Nations agency.

DISARMAMENT: Eight-Year Stalemate Continues

The stalemate continues in the Conference on Disarmament (CD), which for the eighth year in a row ended its annual sessions this week without reaching an agreement on a working programme among its 66 member states.

IRAQ: ‘Wrenching Questions’ for UN Still Unanswered, a Year On

The bomb attack on the United Nations offices in Baghdad a year ago Thursday posed "wrenching, fundamental questions" for the world body with respect to security, to which answers have not yet been found.

RIGHTS-AFRICA: Revived Spectre of Genocide in Great Lakes Region

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour may suggest the urgent creation of an international commission to investigate the recent massacre of around 160 Tutsi refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Burundi, a U.N. spokeswoman said Tuesday.

RIGHTS: Women Suffer Double, Triple, Quadruple Discrimination

Abuses against indigenous or other minority women, referred to merely as ''double discrimination'' by experts and activists, has not yet been understood in its full dimension.

HEALTH: The End of Polio Is Near

The spread of poliomyelitis could be totally curbed this year worldwide and the disease could be eradicated by 2005, thanks to the removal of the last obstacles in Africa, David Heymann, World Health Organisation (WHO) special representative on polio eradication, said Tuesday.

TRADE: Doha Round Enters Stage of Convalescence

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreed on a series of guidelines to breathe new life into the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks that could put an end to agricultural export subsidies, a form of trade protectionism that mainly hurts the developing world.

TRADE: Doha Round Enters Stage of Convalescence

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreed on a series of guidelines to breathe new life into the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks that could put an end to agricultural export subsidies, a form of trade protectionism that mainly hurts the developing world.