• IPS – U.S. Congress Moves Toward Full Trade Embargo on Iran | Inter Press Service
    http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/05/u-s-congress-moves-toward-full-trade-embargo-on-iran

    In perhaps its most controversial section, the bill also eliminates President Obama’s ability to waive most sanctions for national-interest or national-security reasons.

    Such waiver authority, which has been routinely included in existing sanctions legislation, has been used by Obama to ensure that countries that have historically enjoyed important trade and financial relations with Tehran continue cooperating with Western-led international efforts to pressure Iran to curb its nuclear programme.

    The president’s waiver authority is also considered critical to prospects for a negotiated agreement between Iran and the P5+1 (U.S., Britain, France, China, Russia plus Germany) by which such curbs would be accepted by Tehran in return for easing sanctions.

    Both moves come as the Senate Republicans unveiled yet another bill even more far-reaching than that approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee by blacklisting companies that do any trade with Iran and deprive the president of all waiver authority. Under the draft legislation, which so far lacks any Democratic co-sponsors, sanctions could be eased or lifted only by an act of Congress.

    Approval of both the Senate resolution and the House bill were hailed by American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the premier group of the Israel lobby here.

  • IPS – Civil Society Under Attack Around the World | Inter Press Service
    http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/05/civil-society-under-attack-around-the-world

    Même dans les démocraties dites matures, une expression dissidente demeure une activité lourde de conséquences négatives. Une section du groupe environnemental Forest Ethics Canada a décidé de renoncer à son statut d’association de bienfaisance, y compris aux avantages fiscaux y attenant, afin de se protéger des inspections intrusives après avoir été blâmé par le gouvernement conservateur d’ « entrave » au développement économique du pays.

    Julian Assange, fondateur du site activiste WikiLeaks , continue d’être harcelé (...).

    Au Royaume-Uni, la pratique de policiers espions pénétrant le mouvement environnemental a provoqué une sévère réprimande de l’ONU, dont l’expert sur ​​la liberté de réunion et d’association, Maina Kiai, a exprimé « sa profonde préoccupation » en Janvier sur les policiers infiltrant des groupes non-violents qui n’étaient engagés dans aucune activité criminelle.

  • Despite Halt in Deportations, Refugees in Israel Live in Fear

    JERUSALEM, May 8 2013 (IPS) - Since Israel secretly deported over 1,000 Sudanese refugees several months ago, sending them back to Sudan and threatening to deport hundreds more Sub-Saharan African refugees, Israeli authorities have suspended this practise in the face of international outrage and condemnation by the United Nations.

    Yet refugees, even legal ones, nevertheless continue to leave in fear of deportation as well as abuse amid a climate of racism and frequent attacks against African refugees in Israel.

    http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/05/despite-halt-in-deportations-refugees-in-israel-live-in-fear

    #Israel #réfugiés #asile #migration #Soudan #déportation #renvoi

  • IPS – Rich Countries Drag Feet at Climate Talks | Inter Press Service
    http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/05/rich-countries-drag-feet-at-climate-talks

    World leaders are acting like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” — Union of Concerned Scientists’ Alden Meyer"

    UXBRIDGE, Canada, May 7 2013 (IPS) - Another week of international climate negotiations ended in Bonn, Germany last Friday, but there was little mid-level bureaucrats could do when world leaders remain in thrall to the fossil fuel industry, say environmentalists.

    “The main barrier to confronting the climate crisis isn’t lack of knowledge about the problem, nor is it the lack of cost-effective solutions,” said Alden Meyer, director of strategy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

    "
    “It’s the lack of political will by most world leaders to confront the special interests that have worked long and hard to block the path to a sustainable low-carbon future.

  • IPS – U.N. Accused of Playing Down Nuke Disarmament Conference | Inter Press Service
    http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/05/u-n-accused-of-playing-down-nuke-disarmament-conference

    ... the Group of 77, the largest single coalition of 132 developing countries, implicitly accuses the United Nations of falling short in its efforts to publicise a meeting on nuclear disarmament scheduled to take place Sep. 26.

    Ambassador Peter Thomson of Fiji, the G77 chair, last week described the upcoming talks as “the first-ever high level meeting of the General Assembly on nuclear disarmament.”

    He said the meeting is of importance to developing nations, and therefore, all efforts should be made to give it timely and wide publicity.

    A G77 delegate told IPS the conference is not getting the advance publicity it should, probably because three of the big powers, the United States, UK and France, are not supportive of the meeting.

    “We have not seen anything on the high level meeting so far,” he added.

    The lack of coverage stands in contrast to the strong public stand taken by the secretary-general, who has consistently called for the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

    Asked about the significance of the upcoming meeting, Dr. John Burroughs, executive director of the New York-based Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, told IPS the meeting is a chance for world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and others, to give direction to the nuclear disarmament enterprise, “which is now drifting aimlessly despite much rhetoric over the past five years.”

  • IPS – U.N. Finds “Little Appreciation” for Human Rights among U.S. Businesses | Inter Press Service
    http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/05/u-n-finds-little-appreciation-for-human-rights-among-u-s-businesses

    Speaking with reporters and civil society on Wednesday, the Working Group voiced particular concerns regarding low-wage agricultural workers, lack of free and prior informed consent for Native American communities engaging with big business, and harmful practices by the domestic extractives industry.

    Indeed, Selvanathan and Addo reserved some of their strongest language for these issues. For instance, they reported having heard “allegations of labour practices in low-wage industries with migrant workers, particularly within the services sector, that would be illegal under both U.S. laws and international standards.”

    Such violations reportedly include violations of minimum wage requirements, wage theft and “chronic disregard for minimum health and safety measures”.

    The two also singled out the extractives industry, travelling to the state of West Virginia, in the Appalachian Mountains, to talk to communities living near strip mines and so-called “mountaintop removal” mining operations.

    There, they were told of “significant adverse human rights impacts, most notably related to the enjoyment of the rights to health and water”, and also heard allegations of intimidation and harassment by those opposed to surface mining.

    “I am hopeful that our visit from the United Nations is a sign that they’re starting to take notice of the human rights atrocities being committed in Appalachia today,” Junior Walk, a campaigner with Coal River Mountain Watch, a local advocacy group, said in a statement.

  • Which? poll says many ’borrowing money for food’- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22417334

    One in five UK households borrowed money or used savings to cover food costs in April, a Which? survey says.

    It suggests the equivalent of five million households used credit cards, overdrafts or savings to buy food.

    The consumer group runs a monthly insight tracker survey focused on spending and behaviour - 2,000 people took part in its poll.

    Which? executive director Richard Lloyd described the findings as “simply shocking”.

    The figures come despite official statistics last week showing that personal insolvencies have dropped to their lowest levels in five years.

    • IPS – Hunger Rises in Great Britain | Inter Press Service
      http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/05/hunger-rises-in-great-britain

      The social consequences of austerity economics have been most visible in Europe’s southern periphery. In the UK, the coalition government has brought in sharp cutbacks in welfare state provision in the name of dealing with the financial crisis. Their impact is becoming increasingly visible.

      A survey by the Netmums website found that one in five mothers in the UK regularly goes without meals to feed their children. Thousands now rely on charities and emergency food banks to feed themselves and their families.

      In the last 12 months the Trussell Trust, the largest operator of food banks in the UK, says it has fed 350,000 people – 100,000 more than anticipated and an increase of 170 percent over the previous year.

      ...

      British Prime Minister David Cameron has praised the Trussell Trust’s work, but food banks are a direct consequence of government policies that are designed to force people off benefits, regardless of consequences. Labour MP Peter Hain recently accused the government of “terrorising” the unemployed in his constituency by forcing them to choose between starvation and low-paid work.

      The 19th century Poor Law system once had a similarly punitive and deterrent attitude towards the industrial poor. Today, hunger is a consequence of manufactured poverty in the seventh largest economy in the world, and the poor are once again being victimised and punished.

      In these circumstances, food banks may become a convenient substitute for statutory assistance, enabling the political heirs of the late Margaret Thatcher to strip still further at the welfare safety net, in the knowledge that people may be hungry, but at least they won’t be starving.