//SOCIAL SUMMIT 2000//DEVELOPMENT: UN to Review Commitment to Slashing Poverty

The international community begins next Monday to assess compliance with targets to reduce poverty, adopted five years ago in Copenhagen. But a preliminary glance points to discouraging, even disastrous results, the chairman of the UN General Assembly, Theo-Ben Gurirab, said Friday.

TRADE: WTO Prescribes More Liberalisation to Reduce Poverty

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) affirms in a study released Monday that, in the long term, trade liberalisation contributes to alleviating poverty, though people may suffer temporary economic shocks because most of the benefits come from adjustments made in the production apparatus.

LABOUR: ILO Conference Approves Maternity Rights Treaty

The International Labour Conference approved a new treaty during its final session that calls for protecting pregnant women and mothers, opening the way for greater benefits for women workers around the world.

HEALTH: Religion, Education Play Vital Roles in AIDS Situation

Denying adolescents and even young children information that could save them from HIV/AIDS "is completely unacceptable," agreed reproductive health experts at a United Nations-sponsored debate.

HEALTH-HORN OF AFRICA: UN Calls for Catastrophe Prevention

A United Nations (UN) agency launched a special Action Plan on Friday in at attempt to prevent the nations of the Horn of Africa - and their 13.4 million people - from plunging into a severe health crisis.

DEVELOPMENT: New Offensive against WTO and Globalisation

The leaders of the often-tumultuous protests during the last two years against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and neoliberal economic policies in general are to gather in this Swiss city to assess the possibility of launching a new international protest campaign.

LABOUR: ILO Tackles Impacts of Globalisation

Globalisation, the inequitable distribution of its benefits and its impacts around the world have dominated debate at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conference, which opened this week in the Swiss capital.

TRADE: WTO Praises Peruvian Government’s Free-Market Policies

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) praised the liberalisation of trade and investment undertaken by the Peruvian government of Alberto Fujimori, but urged it to pay more attention to improving living standards.

POLITICS-PERU: Fujimori Under Fire from Canada, EU, Unions

A World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting to studying Peru's trade policies Tuesday turned into a forum for criticising the government of this South American country, the outcome of its electoral process and recent political incidents.

LABOUR: Employers Attempt to Undermine Maternity Protection

An initiative by employers threatens to severely weaken the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) Maternity Protection Convention.

TRADE: The Rich Finance and the Poor Subsidise, Says WTO

A dispute between Brazil and Canada about aircraft export subsidies has once again revealed the ambiguities of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) system and the differences in the standards used to evaluate the financial activities of poor and wealthy countries.

HEALTH: Polio Elimination Target Extended to 2005

International health officials acknowledged Monday that the goal to eradicate poliomyelitis must be extended beyond the original target - the end of this year -, but confirmed that the certification declaring the whole world polio free would still take place in 2005.

HUMAN RIGHTS: UN Committee against Torture Faults US Record

The United Nations (UN) Committee against Torture expressed its concern Monday for the failure of the United States to classify this human rights crime under federal jurisdiction in terms consistent with the standards set by the world Convention against Torture.

HUMAN RIGHTS: UN High Commissioner to Evaluate Brazil

The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, is about to launch a tour of Brazil, a visit that will likely give the South American nation a more visible presence on the world humanitarian agenda, just as Brazilian activists had hoped.

HUMAN RIGHTS: UN High Commissioner to Evaluate Brazil

The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, is about to launch a tour of Brazil, a visit that will likely give the South American nation a more visible presence on the world humanitarian agenda, just as Brazilian activists had hoped.

RIGHTS: Amnesty International Condemns US Abuses

The human rights organisation Amnesty International asked the United Nations (UN) Committee against Torture on Tuesday to condemn the United States for the continued increase in institutionalised cruelty there.

TRADE: Peruvian to Lead WTO’s Agricultural Negotiations

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) was finally able to overcome a difference of opinion that got in the way of the agricultural committee's normal operations: it named Peruvian negotiator Jorge Voto-Bernales president of this strategic negotiating arena.

HUMAN RIGHTS: UN Commission Wraps Up Fruitful Session

The United Nations (UN) Commission on Human Rights concluded one of its most productive sessions in half a century Friday, with the approval of resolutions long demanded by non-governmental organisations and by sectors defending economic and social rights.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Paramilitary Crimes on the Rise

The United Nations (UN) Commission on Human Rights released an unsettling statement about the worsening of international humanitarian law violations in Colombia and about the failure to secure a cease-fire in the decades-long conflict involving the government, guerrilla forces and paramilitary groups.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Paramilitary Crimes on the Rise

The United Nations (UN) Commission on Human Rights released an unsettling statement about the worsening of international humanitarian law violations in Colombia and about the failure to secure a cease-fire in the decades-long conflict involving the government, guerrilla forces and paramilitary groups.

HUMAN RIGHTS: UN Censures Cuba, Lets China Off the Hook

The United Nations Human Rights Commission expressed concern Tuesday over reports of rights abuses in Cuba, while declining to pronounce itself on China's human rights record.