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Wednesday, November 4, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
RIGHTS: Novel UN Initiative in Favour of Indigenous Groups
An unprecedented initiative to create an advisory forum in the United Nations system, in which representatives of States and indigenous peoples would participate on an equal footing, could resolve a long ignored demand.RIGHTS: Remedies Against Racism Available, But Not Applied
A group of experts convoked by the United Nations concluded in this Swiss city that international instruments and conventions provided procedures for protecting vulnerable groups from racial discrimination, but that they frequently were not applied at a local level.HUMAN RIGHTS: Racist Speech Finds Course Clear on Internet
The international community is preparing for the first world conference against racism, without yet having come up with formulas to deal with hate messages on the Internet without compromising freedom of speech.SCIENCE: New Finding Grazes Universe’s Mystery
Experiments conducted at various research centres in Europe have led scientists to recreate the state of matter as it was some millionths of a second after the Big Bang, the cosmic explosion which is thought to have created the universe.TRADE: WTO Starts Down Rocky Road of Agricultural Trade Talks /REPEATING to some points/
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has established the general foundations on which it will base multilateral negotiations for expanding trade liberalisation in the agricultural and service sectors.TRADE: WTO Starts Down Rocky Road of Agricultural Trade Talks
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has established the general foundations on which it will base multilateral negotiations for expanding trade liberalisation in the agricultural and service sectors.ENVIRONMENT: Wetland Degradation Deepens World Water Crisis
The forecasts for human access to potable water in the coming years are alarming, but experts assert that solutions do exist - but they are not simple and require everyone's effort.HUMAN RIGHTS: UN Condemns Child Porn, Prostitution, Trafficking
A United Nations working group finished drafting Friday a document aimed at cracking down on the sale of children and on child pornography and prostitution worldwide.TRADE: WTO Regains Initiative in Stalled Talks
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) regained the initiative it lost two months ago at its ministerial conference in Seattle, which ended in "fiasco", with the announcement Wednesday of the possible start of talks on agriculture and services in the near future.POLITICS-CYPRUS: UN’s Annan Oversees Progress in Talks
United Nations (UN) secretary-general Kofi Annan expressed his approval of the advances made during the first session of renewed negotiations on the issue of Cyprus, a Mediterranean island divided in two for 26 years.ECONOMY: Citizen Groups to Protest Davos Forum Elitism
The anti-globalisation movement, which intensified last December in the US city of Seattle, climbs this week to an altitude of more than 1,500 metres, reaching the Davos winter resort in the Swiss Alps, where the authors of the economic liberalisation process meet once again.DEVELOPMENT: UNCTAD Prioritises Civil Society and Trade
The secretary general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Rubens Ricupero, maintains hope that the agency's next meeting will unblock international trade negotiations and bring civil society into the globalisation debate.DISARMAMENT: Discrepancies Paralyse UN Conference
The United Nations (UN) Conference on Disarmament opened its annual period of sessions in the same climate of discord that has paralysed its operations for the last three years.RIGHTS: Poor, Rural Children More Likely to Be Used as Soldiers
Most of the nearly 300,000 child soldiers around the world come from poor families in rural areas, and many lack birth certificates, said Olara Otunno, Special Representative of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.RIGHTS: Int’l Law to Ban Use of Child Soldiers
Pressure tactics by the United Nations (UN) and human rights organisations appear to be on the verge of winning approval of an international law against using children as soldiers.DEVELOPMENT: UNCTAD Takes Advantage of WTO’s Seattle Fiasco
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is set to reclaim its leadership role among international trade organisations, after being relegated to the back seat for two decades, as it takes advantage of the confusion prevailing in the global arena.DISARMAMENT: Conference Faces Adverse Climate
Wars and international disputes have generated an unfavourable climate for the annual sessions of the Conference on Disarmament (CD), to get underway in this Swiss city on Jan 17.HUMAN RIGHTS: Internally Displaced – the Forgotten Ones
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) marks its 50th anniversary in December this year. But it has already indicated that it sees no cause for celebration.TRADE: WTO Uncertainty Jeopardises Agricultural Talks
International negotiations for reducing or eliminating agricultural protectionism, set to begin in early 2000, will be put off until the World Trade Organisation (WTO) clears up its current climate of uncertainty.TRADE: WTO Strives to Boost Image after Seattle Bust
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is zeroing in on Thailand's success in applying neo-liberal policies as the international organisation attempts to rebuild its image after the serious damage inflicted by the failure of its ministerial conference in Seattle earlier this month.TRADE: WTO Postpones Evaluation of Seattle Fiasco
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has put off, at least until January, any process of introspection on the causes of the disaster suffered earlier this month at its Third Ministerial Conference in the U.S. city of Seattle, Washington.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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