Gustavo Capdevila

RIGHTS: Lawyers Denounce Racism in US Justice System

A Washington-based organisation of human rights lawyers denounced the United States justice system before the United Nations Human Rights Commission of acting in a discriminatory and racist manner.

EDUCATION: A New Kind of Teacher Needed for Lifelong Learning

By Gustavo Capdevila

"Lifelong learning", the new educational model taking root worldwide, entails changes in the roles, responsibilities and salaries of educational staff, according to a new study by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

RIGHTS: Lawyers Denounce Racism in US Justice System

By Gustavo Capdevila

A Washington-based organisation of human rights lawyers denounced the United States justice system before the United Nations Human Rights Commission of acting in a discriminatory and racist manner.

EDUCATION: A New Kind of Teacher Needed for Lifelong Learning

By Gustavo Capdevila

"Lifelong learning", the new educational model taking root worldwide, entails changes in the roles, responsibilities and salaries of educational staff, according to a new study by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

TRADE-LATAM: Nicaraguan Policy Prompts 3-Nation Dispute at WTO

By Gustavo Capdevila

Nicaragua wielded national security reasons Friday before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in defending the tariffs it imposed on goods and services imported from Colombia and Honduras and the cancellation of fishing permits for boats originating from those two countries.

RIGHTS-CHECHNYA: Human Rights Watch Questions UN Proposal

By Gustavo Capdevila

Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the United Nations (UN) Commission on Human Rights Wednesday to entrust international experts with investigating violations in Chechnya that the UN attributes to Russian troops and to rebels from the breakaway republic.

DISARMAMENT: Political Interests Block Talks on Biological Arms

By Gustavo Capdevila

Multilateral talks on a protocol aimed at strengthening the biological weapons convention have run aground on the same reluctance to take political decisions that is holding up the rest of the inter-governmental debates on disarmament.

RIGHTS-PUERTO RICO: Lawyers Ask UN to Condemn US Manoeuvres

By Gustavo Capdevila

The Puerto Rico Bar Association has asked the United Nations (UN) to condemn instensive US military exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques as a "crime against humanity."

HEALTH: US, Britain and Japan Block Anti-Tobacco Convention

By Gustavo Capdevila

The world tobacco industry's three principal homes - the United States, Britain and Japan - are obstructing progress on a framework convention for controlling smoking, charge international organisations.

AGRICULTURE: Talks in WTO Committee Get Off to Stumbling Start

By Gustavo Capdevila

World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations on the liberalisation of trade in agriculture got underway this week in a climate of consensus on procedural aspects, but with no solution in sight to the stand-off on the underlying questions at hand.

ENVIRONMENT: World Temps to Reach Highest Average in 10,000 Years

By Gustavo Capdevila

Scientists' predictions for climate change imply Earth temperatures will soon average the highest in 10,000 years, warned Godwin O.P. Obasi, secretary general of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), as the United Nations (UN) agency celebrated its 50th anniversary Thursday.

RIGHTS-EUROPE: Advance of Racist Right-wing Worries UN

By Gustavo Capdevila

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, declared her concern Tuesday about the return in Europe of an extremist right-wing that feeds nostalgia for the Nazi past and she condemned attacks against immigrant Moroccans in southern Spain.

RIGHTS: Amnesty International Calls for Protection for Activists

By Gustavo Capdevila

During this year's United Nations Human Rights Commission sessions, Amnesty International's efforts will focus on the need for stepping up protection for activists who risk their lives fighting for the rights and welfare of the most vulnerable sectors of society.

LABOUR: Int’l Union Central to Denounce Violations before UN

By Gustavo Capdevila

The world's largest labour union will demand before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights that a social dimension be included in reconstruction programmes for war- torn countries such as Kosovo and East Timor.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Modern-Day Mercenaries

By Gustavo Capdevila

Mercenaries around the globe continue responding to traditional methods of recruitment, and new techniques as well, such as contracts with private military security companies, said United Nations special rapporteur on mercenaries, Enrique Bernales.

RIGHTS: Chechnya Crisis Stands Out in UN Debate

By Gustavo Capdevila

Charges of human rights abuses in Chechnya and the creation of a protective regimen for rights activists are the hottest issues awaiting discussion by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Commission.

LABOUR: Immigrants Face Major Obstacles Finding Jobs, Says ILO

By Gustavo Capdevila

Foreign workers and their families face "significant and disturbing levels of discrimination in access to employment" in western Europe and other parts of the industrialised world, according to research by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

HEALTH: Male Behaviour is Key in Fight against AIDS, Says UN

By Gustavo Capdevila

The year 2000 World AIDS Campaign will concentrate on involving men in efforts to prevent the spread of a disease that has claimed 16.3 million lives since it began, announced the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) at the campaign's launch Monday in New Delhi.