2005/03/31
March 2005 focused on women
Throughout March 2005 the United Nations, as well as social movements and organizations, centred their attention on women worldwide. In New York, the 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women carried out a revision of Beijing+10; in Geneva, the 61st session of the Commission on Human Rights adopted resolutions aimed at reducing the gender gap.

2005/03/31
United Nations: Homelessness and the right to adequate housing
Geneva, 30 Mar (Kanaga Raja) -- Homelessness is perhaps the most visible and most severe symptom of the lack of respect for the right to adequate housing, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing Miloon Kothari.

2005/03/15
British MPs Seek to End Poverty, but Make No Concrete Offers
LONDON, Mar 15 (IPS) - A majority of British MPs have signed up for a resolution to make poverty history -- but not voted to take action on it. Their support comes through a parliamentary resolution that does not arise from within the parliament chamber. It comes by way of signing up to what is known as an Early Day Motion (EDM). Copies of the motion are placed in the House of Commons for MPs to sign up to, in the knowledge that these are not likely to be debated within Parliament. No EDM this year has drawn as much support as EDM number 9 tabled by Labour MP Julia Drown.

2005/03/11
Social Watch Press Conference in Germany
Berlin/Osnabrück. On the occasion of the commemoration of the Tenth Anniversary of the Copenhagen World Summit (1995), German NGOs called for strengthening the fight against poverty and social exclusion. Last March 11, the Social Watch Germany representatives handed over to the Development Minister of that country, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (of the SPD), a catalogue of claims, which also included a protest for the insufficient actions undertaken regarding the resolutions adopted at the Copenhagen summit.

2005/03/07
Towards a just, equitable and poverty free world
Citizens from every continent will expect bold and decisive action from World leaders when they meet in September to review the implementation of the Millennium Summit held five years ago. “We live in a critical time” said Roberto Bissio, Coordinator of Social Watch “with very real threats to humanity and to the environment on which we all depend. Business as usual is no longer an option. We need an ambitious strategy to secure the future of the world for generations to come.” Bissio was launching the Social Watch “Benchmark for the 5-year Review of the Millennium Declaration” for the September meeting, containing a set of expectations established through a process of consultation with its active citizens’ coalitions from all parts of the world.

2005/03/03
Press Conference on Women's Global Monitoring Report
Governments worldwide had adopted a piecemeal and incremental approach to implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action that could not achieve the economic, social and political transformation underlying the Platform's promises and vision. As a result, many women in all regions of the world were actually worse off now than they were ten years ago, June Zeitlin, Executive Director, Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) told correspondents this morning during a Headquarters press conference.

2005/01/31
ESCR and public policies
Social Watch organized a workshop at WSF 2005

2005/01/27
Launch of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty
The launch of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) took place on January 27th 2005 at the Gigantinho Stadium of Porto Alegre, Brazil, within the framework of the 5th World Social Forum. The Brazilian President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva was present on the occasion, as well as an audience of over twelve thousand people.

2004/12/10
Imagine...how to turn the Human Rights Day into a celebration
On December 10th 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which were thus turned into the contemporary universal consensus on individual, collective and inalienable rights of all human beings.

2004/11/30
Poor black young people are victims of violence in Brazil
BRASILIA, Brazil - Poor and black young people are the main victims of violence in Brazil, with a rate of 27.8 killings per 100,000 inhabitants in 2001, which “places Brazil among the most violent countries in the world”, claims the NGO Social Watch.