'Unseen' News and Views
A recent ILO flagship report looks at the employment impact of labour reforms.
Source: ILO
The 70th anniversary of the United Nations’ founding provides the perfect opportunity to reflect on the life and work of Nelson Mandela with a call to action for helping others, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 18 July 2015 affirmed as he joined the world gathers in marking Nelson Mandela International Day.
Nelson Mandela, then Deputy President of the African National Congress of South Africa, raises his fist in the air while addressing the Special Committee Against Apartheid in the General Assembly Hall. UN Photo/P. Sudhakaran
By John Scales Avery*
Greed, in particular the greed of corporations and billionaire oligarchs, is driving human civilization and the biosphere towards disaster.
**1909 painting The Worship of Mammon, the New Testament deity of material greed, by Evelyn De Morgan. | Author: Evelyn De Morgan (1855–1919) Link back to Creator infobox template wikidata:Q235903| Wikimedia Commons
The greed of giant fossil fuel corporations is driving us towards a tipping point after which human efforts to control climate change will be futile because feedback loops will have taken over.
The greed of the military industrial complex is driving us towards a Third World War that might develop into a catastrophic thermonuclear war. The greed of our financial institutions is driving us towards economic collapse, as we see in the case of Greece.
NIAMEY, 15 July 2015 (IRIN)* – When 26-year-old Koné Kabiné left his home in Cote d’Ivoire’s capital Abidjan six months ago, he never thought he would end up at a migrant centre in Niger with serious injuries, about to return to the very place he so badly wanted to escape.
**Photo: Boureima Balima/IRIN | Stuck in Niamey
Kabiné had long dreamed of making his way to Europe and earning his fortune, as he heard so many of his friends and neighbours had done before him.
“Once I lost my job, I couldn’t keep living without work, with nothing to do there,” he told IRIN.
The implementation of new austerity measures in Greece amid the country’s deteriorating economic crisis must not come at a cost to human rights, a United Nations expert warned today as he urged international institutions and the Greek Government to make “fully informed decisions” before adopting additional reforms.
Greece’s severe financial crisis has bred social unrest and intolerance of the nearly one million irregular migrants living in the country (October 2012). Photo: IRIN/Kristy Siegfried
“I am seriously concerned about voices saying that Greece is in a humanitarian crisis with shortages in medicines and food,” Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, the UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, on 15 July 2015 stressed in a press statement.
14 July 2015 – Offering deep condolences to the victims’ families and a speedy recovery for those injured in the latest attack in Afghanistan targeting civilians, the top United Nations official in the country, Nicholas Haysom, condemned the attack, which targeted people gathered for Iftar at the Grand Mosque in Pul-e-Khomri, in the northern Baghlan province.
A mosque in Afghanistan. Photo: UNAMA/Penelope Faschingeder (file)
According to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which Haysom heads, an improvised explosive device planted at the mosque detonated during a Government-planned dinner for 500 people – arranged to distribute oil and rice to the poorest families of the city – wounding more than 40 civilians, many critically.
By Dmitry Babich*
13 July 2015 (RT)* – The P5+1 has yet to clinch a deal with Iran on its nuclear program, but US arms suppliers are already using the talks as an excuse for massive rearmament of some of the most belligerent states in the Middle East.
**Clockwise from top: Delta Force of Task Force 20 alongside troops of 3rd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, at Uday Hussain and Qusay Hussein’s hideout.; Iraqi insurgents in northern Iraq; an Iraqi insurgent firing a MANPADS; the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Firdos Square. | Author: Futuretrillionaire | Wikimedia Commons
Saudi Arabia, which, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, spent $80 billion on weapons last year (more than the nuclear powers France or Britain), will most likely get 10 Sikorsky MH-60R helicopters from the United Technologies Corp. (USA).
As Iran negotiates a historic deal that could see a thaw in relations with the West, experts discuss the implications for key Middle Eastern states.
**Map of the main sites of Iran’s nuclear program | 21 June 2012 | Author: Yagasi, translation of the original work by Sémhur | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. | Wikimedia Commons
13 July 2015 – How might a US-Iran nuclear deal transform the balance of power in the Middle East? We asked eight anlaysts how a deal to rein in Iran’s nuclear programme could impact the region’s complex internal politics:
SAUDI ARABIA
Undoubtedly Iran’s biggest foe in the region, Saudi Arabia has led the Gulf States in expressing concern about an impending deal. With fears remaining that a deal will not specify a short enough breakout time (the period required to produce material for one nuclear weapon),
By Maung Zarni*
13 July 2015 – TRANSCEND Media Service – World is busy commemorating yet another anniversary of a genocide.
**Image: Srebrenica Genocide Memorial Stone at Potočari | The original uploader was The Dragon of Bosnia at English Wikipedia | Wikimedia Commons
Indifference, business-as-usual, denial, and complicity are hallmarks of international stance towards any genocide, past and present, over the last 100 years. World is busy commemorating yet another anniversary of a genocide.
Rohingyas don’t really have much prospect of survival as an ethnic group in the face of the determined genocidal groups, both Myanmar regime and the Rakhine Nazis.
**Over 2,000 nuclear explosions have been conducted, in over a dozen different sites around the world. | Red: Russia/Soviet Union; blue: France; light blue: United States; purple: Britain. Black Israel, orange China, yellow India, brown Pakistan, green North Korea and light green (territories exposed to nuclear bombs) | Author: Palli3000 | Wikimedia Commons
Antonov slammed the US nuclear bomb test as “irresponsible” and “openly provocative.”
“It turns out that under the disguise of a notorious and invented threat coming from the Russian side, the United States was not only increasing the military potential and activity of NATO member states, but was upgrading its nuclear potential as well,” he said.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 