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Civicus, UN and others, International
These items are from CIVICUS.
A civil society can emerge as the "other superpower" that could influence decisions made by any government in administrating their countries, consumerism activist Datuk Dr Anwar Fazal said on Tuesday, 29 August.
He said societies that were aware of their influence would be able to steer their countries away from mismanagement and curb the spread of corruption.
"Any government that does not recognise (people power) is doomed to failure, sooner or later," he said when presenting his paper on "Civil Society and the Culture of Integrity — Considering the Voices of NGOs in Government Decision-Making Processes".
The paper was presented at a special session for the 1st Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on Anti-Corruption and Enhancing Integrity Forum 2006. For more information, see www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=216819.
Despite the fragile truce in Lebanon, the risks of a widening war in the Middle East remain. Too many political leaders, including George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and the leaders of radical groups in the Middle East, prefer military solutions to peaceful compromise.
When Bush paints the Middle East as a struggle of good versus evil, or terror versus freedom, he abandons politics. When Israel attempts vainly to defeat Hizbullah, it tries to avoid painful but necessary political compromises over disputed territory.
The problems of the Middle East are much more about politics and culture than about terror versus freedom.
For more information, see www.dailystar.com.lb.
In response to a request by the web-magazine and portal, Capacity.org, Kumi Naidoo said about the statement leadership corrupts':
Like a dance, leadership is a delicate but simple relationship that depends on entangled, reciprocal movements shaped by expectation, timing, rhythm and perhaps most important, transparency. By definition, a leader in dance or governance cannot hide his steps or keep secret her choreography and still effectively lead. When leaders fashion success with positive achievements without acknowledgement or reflection of stumbles and failures, leadership corrupts.
When leaders perpetuate the false notion that "the answers" necessarily rest with themselves, leadership corrupts.
Courageous leadership is transparent; strong leadership is itself guided by the led; and wise leadership poses the right questions instead of propagating "the answer."
It is courage, strength and wisdom that empower successful leadership to tango, even in the dark.
— Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary-General.
The United Nations Democracy Fund has unveiled its first beneficiaries, awarding $36 million in grants to 125 projects around the world that range from promoting voter registration to encouraging judicial reform, supporting female parliamentarians and teaching human rights awareness in schools.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan approved the first batch of projects that had been whittled down by the UN Programme Consultative Group and then UNDEF's Advisory Board from the original pool of more than 1,300 applications.
The Fund defined six areas as funding priorities for the initial group of projects: strengthening democratic dialogue and support for constitutional processes; civil society empowerment; civic education, voter registration and strengthening of political parties; citizens' access to information; human rights and fundamental freedoms; and accountability, transparency and integrity.
For more information, see www.un.org/democracyfund.
Six years ago, leaders from every country agreed on a vision for the future — a world with less poverty, hunger and disease, greater survival prospects for mothers and their infants, better educated children, equal opportunities for women, and a healthier environment; a world in which developed and developing countries work in partnership for the betterment of all.
This report shows where we stand in 2006 toward achieving these goals. The challenges involved in reaching the MDGs are staggering, but there are clear signs of hope.
For more information, see mdgs.un.org.
The Millennium Development Goal for primary schooling completion has focused attention on a measurable output indicator to monitor increases in schooling in poor countries.
The authors of this report argue the next step — which moves towards the even more important Millennium Learning Goal — is to monitor outcomes of learning achievement.
"[E]ven in countries meeting the MDG of primary schooling completion, the majority of youth are not reaching even minimal competency levels, let alone the competencies demanded in a globalised environment. Even though Brazil is on track to the meet the MDG, the estimates are that 78 percent of Brazilian youth lack even minimally adequate competencies in mathematics and 96 percent do not reach reasonable global standard of adequacy."
For more information, see www.cgdev.org/content/general/detail/9815.
For 650 million people with disabilities — roughly 10 percent of the world's population — a new U.N. treaty which would extend international human rights to this traditionally marginalised sector of society is finally within reach.
After four years and eight sessions of negotiations, the United Nations Convention to Protect the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was finalised last Friday by the U.N. General Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee, comprised of government delegates and some 800 representatives from civil society.
The U.N. disability convention guarantees persons with disabilities non-discrimination and equal recognition before the law; security, mobility and accessibility; the right to health, work and education; and participation in political and cultural life.
For more information, see news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1195519.php (Note: article offline 10/10/2006).
The World Bank's 10-point action plan aims at improving the Bank's engagement with civil society organisations has been recently released.
Earlier drafts of the paper were reviewed by senior management and staff across the Bank over the course of 2003.
Board members underscored the importance of Bank-CSO engagement in improving development effectiveness, contributing to poverty reduction and attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
For more information, see topics.developmentgateway.org/civilsociety/rc/ItemDetail.do~1070901.
Civil Society Summit against European TNCs and Neoliberal Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean.
This report documents the outcomes of Linking Alternatives 2, an encounter of civil society organisations from the EU, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) that took place in Vienna, Austria in 2006.
The author focuses on the Permanent People's Tribunal session that presented case studies on human rights violations and environmental pollution caused by European transnational corporations.
He also assesses the panel discussions on neoliberal globalisation, militarization and human rights, alternative regional integration strategies, development cooperation and political dialogue.
For more information, see www.isn.ethz.ch/pubs/ph/details.cfm?id=20400.
The European Commission is undermining its legitimacy to promote good governance in the South.
While Southern civil society organisations request that governance reforms are home-grown and not imposed from outside, the EC has already defined governance standards unilaterally. This contradicts the EC's own definition and principles of governance.
On the occasion of the EC's launch of its Communication on "Governance in the European Consensus on Development Policy", CIDSE publishes a report about southern civil society's perspectives on governance. In this report, CIDSE urges the EC to reopen the process and to start a broad international debate on governance which includes civil society.
For more information, see www.civicus.org/new/media/ECGovernancePaperfinal.pdf (PDF, unknown size).
By Henri Valot, MDG Campaign Manager.
Civil society organisations that attended the "Strategy Session on the International Monetary Fund" drafted a Consensus Declaration and Strategy Paper titled "The IMF: Shrink It or Sink It". The Strategy Session was held at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, on the occasion of the IMF-World Bank 2006 Spring meeting. The paper has been circulated globally for endorsement in advance of the critical Fall meeting of the Bretton Woods institutions that will be held in Singapore on 13-20 September 2006.
The paper clearly states: Like old nuclear reactors, the IMF is dangerous and, many argue, must be retired. The optimum solution to the problems posed by such Jurassic institutions is to decommission them. But if this is not yet possible at this point in the case of the Fund, then its power to do harm and its reach must be drastically curtailed.
For more information, see www.civicus.org/new/content/deskofthesecretarygeneral38.htm.
This item comes, with our thanks, from the ANGOA newsletter. ANGOA works to strengthen the Community and Voluntary Sector in Aotearoa / New Zealand, and all information in their newsletter is gathered and included to assist that purpose. An effort is made within ANGOA's available resources to ensure accuracy but no guarantee is given or implied. If you have contributions, comments or suggestions, please forward them to dave.henderson@angoa.org.nz.