Archive for March 5th, 2015

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05/03/2015

Cybercrime 'One of Fastest Growing Transnational Organized Crimes'

Human Wrongs Watch

Cybercrime is one of the fastest growing transnational organized crimes and already affects millions of victims worldwide. It takes the form of identity-related offences, infringement of copyright and intellectual property rights, and child pornography and abuse. It is one of the greatest threats to the two billion users of cyber space today who knowingly – or not – store personal information online.*

Photo: UNODC

Source: UNODC

In the run up to the 13th United Nations Crime Congress this April, we are highlighting different crimes, showing their impact on development and how vital it is to tackle them to achieve sustainable development.

The focus is now on cybercrime, outlining the scale of the problem and telling its transnational story.

Cybercrime has become increasingly easy to commit and harder for law enforcement to stop as technology advances.

Developing countries, in particular, lack the capacity to combat cyber-attacks and therefore record higher victimization rates. The need to protect citizens around the world from cybercrime is greater than ever.

Cybercrime is one of the many transnational crimes that will be discussed at the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Doha, Qatar.

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Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | 1 Comment »

05/03/2015

Ever Wanted to Be an Illegal Logger? It's a Lot Easier than You Think

By Greenpeace* – The European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR) came into force two years ago with the aim of stopping illegal timber and associated products being placed on the EU market.
Source: Greenpeace

Source: Greenpeace

The competent authorities in many European member states, however, have shown little desire for the law to be properly enforced.

Despite the existence of the EUTR for the last two years Greenpeace has consistently exposed shipments of illegally felled timber from the Congo Basin and the Amazon arriving at European ports and then placed on the European market.

The longer such inaction continues the longer local communities and the forests they rely on suffer.

The EUTR is not being taken seriously by European ministers who should be enforcing it. Add your name and we’ll let the authorities know you want to see what it takes to get their attention.

If enough of us want to become illegal loggers maybe the EUTR will actually start getting enforced.

Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

05/03/2015

Complicity in Illegal Logging Goes Far Beyond the Loggers

Human Wrongs Watch

By Greg Norman*

4 March 2015 – There’s an old adage that “rules are made to be broken”. Whatever your take on that logic, the idea of “rules are made to be enforced” is less open to debate.

Credit: Pierre Baelen/Greenpeace

Credit: Pierre Baelen/Greenpeace

A welcome addition when it was introduced on March 3rd 2013, the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR) prohibits the placement of any illegal timber or timber products on the European market.

Yet two years on and Greenpeace continues to expose shipments of wood from companies involved with criminal and illegal activities in the Amazon and the Congo Basin finding their way to Europe.

In November last year we forced Belgian authorities to impound six containers of Amazon wood from Rainbow Trading, a company known to be involved in a criminal timber laundering racket in Brazil, as it arrived in the port of Antwerp.

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Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | 1 Comment »

05/03/2015

WHO Insists: 'Don't Take So Much Sugar!'

Human Wrongs Watch

New guidelines released by the United Nations health agency on 4 March 2015 recommended that adults and children worldwide reduce their daily sugar intake to boost health and stave off non-communicable diseases.

Assorted candies. Photo: WHO/Christopher Black

The World Health Organization (WHO) says intake of ‘free’ sugars – monosaccharides (such as glucose, fructose) and disaccharides (such as sucrose or table sugar) – should make up less than 10 per cent of daily energy intake, while a reduction below five per cent of energy intake per day would provide additional benefits.*

“We have solid evidence that keeping intake of free sugars to less than 10 per cent of total energy intake reduces the risk of overweight, obesity and tooth decay,” said, Dr. Francesco Branca, Director of WHO’s Department of Nutrition for Health and Development.

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05/03/2015

'Direct correlation between poverty, access to justice, and sexual violence'

Human Wrongs Watch

In eradicating sexual violence related to Colombia’s internal armed conflict, the main challenge now is translating resolve into tangible solutions in communities where the crime continues to occur, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Sexual Violence said at the conclusion of her trip to the Latin American country on 4 March 2015.

Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Hawa Bangura briefs the press in Bogotá, Colombia. Photo: UNDP Colombia/Andrés Bernal

“There is a direct correlation between poverty, access to justice, and sexual violence,” Zainab Hawa Bangura said in a statement issued yesterday, emphasizing the need to protect poor and uneducated women and girls who are especially vulnerable.*

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05/03/2015

Libya Crisis ‘Festering’

Human Wrongs Watch

The overall situation in Libya is “deteriorating rapidly” amid a growing terrorist threat and continuing violence, the United Nations envoy to the country on 4 March 2015 warned the Security Council, as he urged national stakeholders to move firmly in defining the country’s future.

A wide view of the Security Council Chamber as Special Representative Bernardino Léon (shown on screen), briefs the Security Council via video conference on the situation in Libya. UN Photo/Mark Garten

“Libya can no longer afford to allow the political crisis and armed conflict that has gripped the country for much of the past year to fester,” Bernardino León, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said in a briefing to the Council.

“Unless Libya’s leaders act quickly and decisively, the risk to their country’s national unity and territorial integrity are real and imminent,” he added.

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Posted in Africa, Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | 1 Comment »

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