HUMAN RIGHTS: Scant Progress for People Living with HIV/AIDS, Says UN

Progress on human rights issues related to HIV/AIDS has been disappointing in the 20 years since the epidemic began, denounced the United Nations Wednesday.

DEVELOPMENT: Arduous Debate Persists on Aid Plan for Poorest Countries

The preparatory talks for the Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries concluded without agreement on what is to be the final document of the meeting next month in Brussels, but there is still hope for some of the individual points included in the text, said a UN official Tuesday.

HEALTH: Too Many Nations Lack Mental Health Policies, Says WHO

The outcome of international campaigns to reduce mental illness will depend on the policies and programmes governments and health organisations implement, but so far most of the world is unprepared to handle mental health problems, warned the World Health Organisation (WHO) Friday.

TRADE-HEALTH: WTO Concedes to African Request on Drug Patents

A group of African trade ambassadors achieved their objective of opening a debate within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on the impacts of intellectual property rights and pharmaceutical patents on poor countries' access to low- cost medications.

TRADE-HEALTH: Africa Presses WTO on Drug Patents

The group of African countries that belong to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is calling for a special session of the council on intellectual property rights to discuss medical patents and access to low-cost medications -- a bid to ensure treatment for populations suffering from HIV/AIDS and other epidemics.

LABOUR: Tourism Industry’s Wages Conspicuously Low

The tourism industry - hotels, catering, hospitality - employs three percent of the world's labour force, but pays wages that are 20 percent less than the average of the rest of the economy due to the high proportion of unskilled workers in the sector, reports the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

TRADE-AMERICAS: US Takes Hardline on Drug Patents

The United States-sponsored proposal on pharmaceutical patents for inclusion in the treaty to govern the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) contains demands that the world's highest international health authorities have advised against adopting.

HEALTH-TRADE: Low-Cost Medicine Debate Grips WTO, WHO

Poor countries and transnational pharmaceutical firms are wrangling over the question of access to inexpensive medications, a controversy that has entangled the two international bodies governing health and trade, the WHO and the WTO, respectively.

COMMODITIES-DEVELOPMENT: The Lifeblood of the Poorest Countries

Reducing poverty by half in the world's 49 least developed countries (LDCs) by 2015 requires the reinforcement of the commodities sector, concluded a United Nations-sponsored workshop of experts Friday.

RIGHTS-AFRICA: Pro-Development, Anti-Racist Action Needed, Say Ministers

Racism and development are the dominant issues African nations have brought to the debate underway at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in sessions that began this week and end in mid-April.

TRADE: NGOs Voice Objection to New Round of Global Talks

The international trade climate shows signs of agitation as representatives of civil society from around the world have launched their first formal opposition to the new round of multilateral negotiations sought by industrialised nations.

RIGHTS: UN High Commissioner Rejects Second Term

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, announced Monday that she will step down from her post in September and will not seek a second four- year mission.

COMMODITIES: UN Coordinates Public-Private Agreement on Jute

The lethargic global panorama for commodities received a jolt this month when two important agreements were secured, on jute and on cocoa, but the deeper problems of the raw materials sector persist, say international market experts.

ENVIRONMENT-KOSOVO: Depleted Uranium Risks Minimal, Says UN

Two United Nations agencies played down the environmental and health risks posed by the depleted uranium used in missiles during the conflict that spread to Kosovo in 1999, though they caution that water supplies remain at risk.

HUMAN RIGHTS-JAPAN: UN Calls for Anti-Racism Legislation

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination discussed reports of racist remarks by Japanese authorities like right-wing Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, who has made derogatory statements about "Third World people."

HUMAN RIGHTS-AZERBAIJAN: UN Rapporteur Finds that Torture is Widespread

The special United Nations rapporteur on torture concluded that such practices were "widespread" in detention centres in Azerbaijan.

DISARMAMENT: Women Demand Greater Political Will in Negotiations

An international women's seminar has reproached the Conference on Disarmament for the opportunities lost in the last few years toward achieving the goal of eliminating the international arms race.

COOPERATION-PALESTINE: UN Appeals to Donors to Help Create Jobs

The United Nations launched an appeal for assistance Tuesday, urging donors to help finance a programme aimed at generating jobs for Palestinians affected by the deepening of the conflict with Israel since September.

COMMODITIES: UN Approves New Accord on World Cocoa Co-operation

The United Nations Cocoa Conference adopted a new international agreement Friday that will regulate the market for this basic commodity, grown in countries of the developing South, though largely processed in the industrialised North.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Asia Preparatory Meeting Against Racism a Success

Six months before the World Conference Against Racism, the drafts of the final declaration and action plans approved by the four regions - Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe - indicate that "common ground" has been reached on perhaps 80 percent of the proposals.

RIGHTS-TOGO: UN and OAU Denounce Executions

The reports of hundreds of extrajudicial executions in Togo in 1998, especially targeting activists of the African country's political opposition, deserve a closer look, announced an international investigative commission Thursday.