'Unseen' News and Views
Healthy soils are the foundation for food, fuel, fibre and even medicine said the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 5 December 2014 as it kicked off 2015 the International Year of Soils on the first-ever World Soil Day.
Healthy soils are critical for global food production and provide a range of environmental services. Photo: FAO/Olivier Asselin
Geneva, 5 December 2014 (ILO)* — The latest ILO Global Wage Report warns of stalled wages in many countries and points to the labour market as a driver of inequality.
See how much wages have changed around the world year on year
Wage growth around the world slowed in 2013 to 2.0 per cent, compared to 2.2 per cent in 2012, and has yet to catch up to the pre-crisis rates of about 3.0 per cent, according to the ILO’s Global Wage Report 2014/15 *.
Even this modest growth in global wages was driven almost entirely by emerging G20 economies, where wages increased by 6.7 per cent in 2012 and 5.9 per cent in 2013.
By contrast, average wage growth in developed economies had fluctuated around 1 per cent per year since 2006 and then slowed further in 2012 and 2013 to only 0.1 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively.
Rome, 5 December 2014 – The fact that in a referendum Switzerland has taken a path that goes in the opposite direction from that of Europe is an unusual fact which calls for reflection, especially because Switzerland has taken a much more progressive path, while we all were accustomed to see it as a very conservative country.
Migrants have a duty to pay taxes… Many do not recognize the contributions all migrants – including women and men in irregular situations – make to the economy and to social security schemes where they live. Do you know that everyone – migrant or not – has a right to social security benefits? © OHCHR/ILO
On 30 November 2014, Swiss citizens were asked to vote on a proposal for reducing immigrants to a maximum of 17,000 per year, compared with 88.000 in 2013. This was rejected by 73 percent of the voters, after a unanimous campaign by the government, industrialists and trade unions that without immigrants there would be serious problems in keeping the economy expanding.
It is worth noting that foreigners account for 23.5 percent of the population in Switzerland, compared with an average of 4 percent in Europe as a whole.
RT*, December 2014 — With the US still intoxicated by its Cold War “triumph” and pushing everyone to take an anti-Russian position, Europe must become the locomotive of shaping the new world order, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said.
Mikhail Gorbachev (RIA Novosti / Alexander Vilf)
“We must to go back to the starting line, from which we began building a new world both in Europe and elsewhere,” Gorbachev said in an interview with the TASS news agency.
The former Soviet leader recalled his meeting with US President George Bush Sr. in Malta on December 23, 1989.
During the talks, which took place several weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the two leaders overcame their divisions and acknowledged the end of the Cold War.
“There are signs of Cold War” in the recent cooling down of relations between Moscow and Washington over Russia’s accession of the Crimea and the turmoil in Ukraine, Gorbachev said.
“We can and we must stop this whole process, like we did in the 1980s. We opted for de-escalation, for the unification [of Germany]. And back then it was a lot tougher than now. So why can’t we do it again?” he said.
According to Gorbachev, the “new world order” after the Cold War allowed major powers to quickly solve a lot of longtime conflicts around the globe.
Protestors in New York City demonstrate in the wake of the verdict in the case of the police shooting of Missouri teenager Michael Brown (24 November 2014). Photo: Jacques Baudrier | Source” UN News Centre
“We are obviously aware of what is going on here in our backyard,” said UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric responding to questions at the daily press briefing at UN Headquarters. He said the Secretary-General’s thoughts are with the families of Mr. Garner, a Staten Island resident, and the people of New York.
“I think the case is again focusing on the attention of accountability of law enforcement officials,” he added, welcoming the announcement by the US Justice Department of opening a civil rights investigation in the case.
More than half-way through an international campaign to end violence against women, a top United Nations expert on the issue is calling for a binding international legal standard that holds Member States accountable in fighting this widespread human rights violation.
Photo: UN/DPI
According to UN estimates, one in three women worldwide is a victim of violence.
“With global estimates reaching epidemic proportions, it is deplorable that combatting violence against women has not yet attracted the same level of focus, commitment and resources as non-gendered crimes,” Rashida Manjoo, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women said on 3 December 2014 in a statement.
Photo credit: Greenpeace
The aftereffects continue to haunt the Bhopalis even after the victims’ 3rd generation has been born. What’s even worse is the post tragedy scenario – the apathy that subsequent governments have shown in dealing with it. It’s a known fact that till today, the impacted people are awaiting justice and there are continuing health and environmental issues.
One can say that the Umbrella law (Environment Protection Act 1986) was enacted as a fallout of the disaster in order to protect the environment and people from such events in the future.
The United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on 3 December 2014 announced that 2014 is on track to becoming the hottest year ever recorded due to a combination of record-breaking global sea temperatures and record-high greenhouse gas emissions, amid wider warnings that the ravaging effects of climate change continue to impact the planet unabated.
Floods wreaked havoc in Abidjan, capital of Côte d’Ivoire, in June 2014. Photo: IRIN/Alexis Adele
Children belong in school, not in supply chains | Source: ILO
Today, 21 million women, men and children worldwide are trapped in slavery, denied the right to live and ultimately work in freedom, dignity and equality, the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) has spotlighted on this International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.
Children engaged in stone and sand collection in Jaflong, Sylhet (Bangladesh). UN/Regina Merkova
In his message on the Day, marked annually on 2 December, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on world leaders, businesses and civil society alike to “banish the barbaric practices” of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, the worst forms of child labour, forced marriage and the forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.*
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 