Global Perspectives on the Middle East Imbroglio

First published on the Euforic Blog

The cover story of the August issue of Global Perspectives gives a rather skeptical prognosis for a new start of the Middle East Peace Process. Although the Obama Administration increased pressure on the Israeli Government, currently there seems to be little hope that it is going to negotiate the high threshold it built in order to accept a Palestinian State.

Also in this issue Thomas Hammarberg (Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe) writes about the value of budget analysis to assess government’s human rights commitment. In the European context budget analysis was so far successfully used to monitor gender mainstreaming. The key problem in all human rights work is a gap between the promises and the implementation. This gap can only be bridged when budgets themselves reflect the pledges made.

A summary of the UNDP Arab Development Report 2009 discusses a European Neighborhood Region which should be on the European foreign policy agenda. Citizens of the Arab region suffer under a lack of human security caused by regional conflicts, environmental problems, lacking rule of law, crime and health challenges. Further the region which faces rapid population growth has to deal with a high unemployment rate and permanent internal migration. Europe needs to assist the Arab countries in dealing with this enormous amount of problems in order to avoid negative effects like irregular migration and security risks.

Regarding the ongoing Climate Change Negotiations Ramesh Jaura describes the different positions during the latest informal talks from 10-14 August in Bonn. According to diplomat voices there still is too little progress to finally settle a global climate deal in Copenhagen this December.

With the UN Climate Change Summit on September 22 ahead Thalif Deen raises doubts on the usefulness of the UN summit culture. Since the Rio Summit in 1992 there have been dozens of summits and review summits on various themes, at best leading to political declarations which in the end often lacked funding for implementation. The journalist believes that the upcoming summit will also be nothing more than a talk-fest.

Global Perspectives is a bi-lingual (English/German) joint production by IPS Inter Press Service Europe and the Global Cooperation Council, published by Globalom Media. The monthly editions on various themes of international cooperation and development are downloadable for free.

See also the Euforic newsfeeds on IPS Europe and the Middle East.

by Martin Behrens

 

Global Perspectives on a Nuclear Free World, Human Rights and the Economic Crisis

First published on the Euforic Blog

In the light of the latest nuclear bomb test in North Korea the cover story of the latest issue of the magazine ‘Global Perspectives‘ sums up the latest initiatives and developments on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

Furthermore a report from the UN Human Rights Conference in Geneva and on the recent elections of the USA to the UN Human Rights Committee looks at the future role of the world power in this area. According to the author the US is committed to fight the dominance of human rights violators in the UN organ in the upcoming 3-years term.

Further a report of the Commission on Climate Change and Development, chaired by the Swedish Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson, urges donors to honor their commitment to climate change adaptation in developing countries and demands an additional 1.2 billion US-$ to support the most vulnerable that already suffer from the effects of climate change.

The recent report on the African Economic Outlook says that although the Financial Crisis has dramatic effects on Africa, the continent is better prepared than 10 years ago.

“…we should not despair.” says Kasekende (chief economist of the African
Development Bank), “The decade of reform has introduced efficiency in macroeconomic management and made African economies more competitive. Countries should therefore desist from implementing policies that restrain further integration of the continent into the global trading and financial environment.”

Global Perspectives is a bi-lingual (English/German) joint production by IPS Inter Press Service Europe and the Global Cooperation Council, published by Globalom Media. The monthly editions on various themes of international cooperation and development are downloadable for free.

See also the Euforic newsfeeds on IPS Europe, security, human rights, climate change, and the financial crisis

by Martin Behrens

 

Einigkeit in Vielfalt auch jenseits Europas Grenzen

Gestern luden die Grünen in Erfurt zu einer Diskussion zum Thema “20 Jahre Friedliche Revolution” ein. Es diskutierten der 68er und EU Parlamentarier Milan Horacek sowie der DDR Bürgerrechtler und Europawahlkandidat Werner Schulz.

Nach dem die Jahre 1968, 1989 sowie ihre Verbindungslinien umfassend geklärt wurden, widmeten sich die Diskutanten den kommenden Herausforderungen. Zurückblickend auf seine Mitarbeit im Menschenrechtsausschuss des Europäischen Parlaments, betonte Horacek die Unteilbarkeit von Menschenrechten. Deshalb werde er sich genauso für den Dissidenten im Unrechtsstaat einsetzen wie für den vor Gericht gestellten Wirtschaftsmilliadär in Russland.

Mit Blick auf die Situation in Afghanistan unterstrich Horacek die Notwendigkeit des internationalen Engagements. Die Alternative wäre nicht nur eine erneute Talibanherrschaft, sondern eine zusammenhängende Unruhrachse von Pakistan über Afghanistan in den Iran und Irak. Zwar gebe es auch das unteilbare Recht auf Frieden, jedoch wäre dieses ohne die militärische Präsenz der internationalen Gemeinschaft in Afghanistan nicht zu sichern.

Aus ihren Biografien leiteten beide Diskutanten den Auftrag ab sich auch über die Grenzen Europas hinweg für universelle Menschenrechte einzusetzen und dabei für friedliche Reformen in Staaten wie China und Russland einzutreten. Werner Schulz betonte, dass das Motto, das bei den Gründungsgrünen ‘Einigkeit in Vielfalt’ hieß, heute zum Motto der Europäischen Union geworden ist.

Es gälte sich dafür einzusetzen, dass dieser Leitspruch auch über Europas Grenzen hinweg Realität wird.

 

Human Rights Watch Report 2009: Taking back the initiative from human rights spoiler

First published on the Euforic Blog

In an introductory essay to the 2009 Human Rights Watch Report, Kenneth Roth (Executive Director of Human Rights Watch) argues that Governments’ respect for human rights should not only by measured by their standards regarding the protection of their own people but also by the way they defend human rights in relations with other countries.

He argues that the world faces a situation where countries with rather poor human rights records lead the inter-governmental human rights agenda resulting in the actual defection of standards hiding behind claims for sovereignty, non-interference or Southern solidarity. Their activities have deeply compromised the activity of the UN Human Rights Council and other institutions.

Governments which traditionally cared about human rights have largely abandoned the field or are sidelined in UN venues and the Security Council. For the US, this was a consequence of the fight against terrorism and the negative human rights record of the Bush administration.

The EU, says the aurthor, often fights alone, which was successful on few occasions like the Russia-Georgia conflict or Eastern Chad . However it misses opportunities to protect human rights more broadly in other places of the world.

“EU diplomats spend so much time negotiating a minutely detailed consensus among themselves […], that by the time they reach agreement among all 27 member states, they are exhausted, with no energy or flexibility to fashion a consensus among other potential allies. To avoid restarting the painstaking process of building a new EU consensus, European diplomats must avoid genuine give-and-take and instead try to convince others to accept the agreed-upon EU position without amendment.”

Furthermore, the EU’s weak stances towards human rights violations by the Bush administration lead to accusations that it applies double standards.

Nonetheless the EU and the US are not the only countries protecting human rights. They find strong support in some governments in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Roth calls on the human rights defending governments in the West to return to a practice where they do what they preach. He furthermore calls for them to reach out to Southern countries with progressive human rights positions and commit, with them, to fight violations abroad. Last but not least, he calls on progressive Southern nations to break with the ‘bloc’ mentality by which they vote with their own region although they hold different views.

The 19th Human Rights Watch Report is an annual review of human rights practices. It summarizes key human rights issues in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide.

Listen also the audio commentaries regarding the situation of some selected countries.

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