HEALTH: Drug Patent Debate Divides World Health Assembly

Brazil and more than 60 developing countries confronted the United States Thursday at the World Health Assembly in the debate on pharmaceutical research on the most common diseases in poor nations.

HEALTH: Breath of Tobacco-Free Air as World Assembly Begins

The World Health Assembly got underway in an unexpectedly optimistic climate due to the decision of the United States to withdraw its objections to the first global treaty on tobacco control, paving the way for its approval Wednesday.

LABOUR: ILO Denounces Race, Gender, Age, HIV/AIDS Discrimination

Every minute, around the world, there are incidents of flagrant discrimination in the workplace against women, persons with HIV/AIDS, members of ethnic groups, the elderly and others, says the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in a new report.

RIGHTS: UN Commission Leaves Gays, Lesbians Waiting another Year

Homosexual men and women will have to wait at least one more year for the first-ever formal recognition of their human rights in official United Nations documents.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Cuba on Tenterhooks in UN Commission

The outcome of the vote on the Cuban situtation by the United Nations' maximum human rights body was postponed Wednesday, though it is evident that it will take place amidst high diplomatic tensions. Cuban issidents say that regardless of the vote results, little will change on the island.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Dangers Multiply for Defenders

In more than 80 countries citizens face grave danger if they try to create an association or trade union, investigate forced disappearances or arbitrary arrests, denounce torture or document human rights violations, say activists.

RIGHTS: Lucrative Market for Illegal Adoptions Fuels Abuse

A growing industry dedicated to finding infant children to fill the demand for adoptions within a country or abroad generates millions of dollars of profits each year, representing the accumulation of the exorbitant sums paid by adoptive parents.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Rape a Horrific Weapon of War – Activists

The worst and most horrific cases of violence against women occur in times of war, when existing discrimination is exacerbated, agreed United Nations experts and humanitarian activists gathered in this Swiss city.

HEALTH: Children Fall Ill in World Degraded by Prior Generations – WHO

The world has failed to understand some of the worst threats to children's health: environmental factors, especially in developing countries, but this ignorance can be remedied by simple strategies says the World Health Organisation (WHO).

RIGHTS: Cuba Takes US to Task on UN Commission

The Cuban government has taken the offensive this year in the debate that pits Havana against Washington in the United Nations Commission on Human Rights during its annual sessions held in this Swiss city.

RIGHTS: War on Iraq Diverts Attention from Colombia – Prize-winner

The U.S.-led war on Iraq is diverting attention from other conflicts, says Alirio Uribe Muñoz, a Colombian activist who received the leading international human rights prize, the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, Monday.

RIGHTS: War on Iraq Diverts Attention from Colombia – Prize-winner

The war on Iraq is drawing attention away from other conflicts, such as those of Palestine or Colombia, said a Colombian activist who was awarded the most prestigious international human rights prize Monday.

HEALTH: WHO Expresses Concern over New Form of Pneumonia

World Health Organisation (WHO) authorities expressed concern Tuesday over the continued spread of what has been dubbed ''Asian pneumonia'', an apparently new disease whose cause has not yet been determined, in Hong Kong and China.

HUMAN RIGHTS: UN Commission Divided Over Iraq

A proposal to open a debate on the Iraq question in the United Nations Commission on Human Rights highlighted profound differences between - and within - regional blocs.

IRAQ: Forecasts of Massive Refugee Flows Miss the Mark, So Far

Calm prevailed along Iraq’s borders through the second day of hostilities, with the exception of the southern frontier with Kuwait, where U.S. and British forces penetrated Iraqi territory Friday.

IRAQ: Humanitarian Workers Defy Bombs

International aid agencies jumped into action in Iraq as soon as the first bombs and missiles fell in that country, launched by the U.S. military early Thursday.

IRAQ: Humanitarian Agencies Prepare Relief Efforts

International humanitarian agencies are preparing a major emergency deployment for assisting refugees, in the countries neighbouring Iraq.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Iraq to Overshadow Debates in UN Commission

The prevailing uncertainty over Iraq will cast a heavy shadow over the 59th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which convenes next Monday and will run through Apr. 25 in this Swiss city.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Iraq to Overshadow Debates in UN Commission

The prevailing uncertainty over Iraq will cast a heavy shadow over the 59th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which convenes next Monday and will run through Apr. 25 in this Swiss city.

POLITICS: Unilateralism, Multilateralism in Tug-of-War

The options for a response to the Iraq crisis - unilateral or multilateral - reflect a tension that has been at the forefront of international politics since U.S. President George W. Bush took office in 2001, and is manifest in two international bodies headquartered in Geneva, the Conference on Disarmament and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

DEVELOPMENT: Water Privatisation Stirs Up Access Problem

Privatisation of water services has had negative consequences in many countries, says the environmental network Friends of the Earth International, which urges global resistance to the commercialisation and commodification of this essential resource.