The clock’s ticking towards climate catastrophe

The clock’s ticking towards climate catastrophe but this week could buy us some urgently needed time, as the new US President hosts the world’s 17 largest economies to discuss a new desperately-needed binding global treaty on climate change. Worryingly however, the meeting follows a multi-million dollar lobbying and advertising blitz from the polluting industries. Its aim? To actively disarm, confuse and mislead climate negotiators, the media and the public. We’re countering it with our own rapid response climate television ad, spoofing the world’s largest oil company ExxonMobil. Even if you haven’t seen the original ads, every negotiator at this week’s meeting has. If we can raise just $100,000 in the next 48 hours CNN and other stations will run our ad on high rotation for the President’s entire climate meeting. With $200,000 we can buy even more airtime and continue this vital campaign at strategic moments. Watch the ad here:
A binding global climate treaty should be a no-brainer: The climate science is clear, and the economic and human rights implications of significant global warming are almost too horrifying to contemplate. But world leaders who want to take serious action face the world’s most determined and richest obstructionists – the fossil fuel lobby, who stand to lose billions of dollars in profits in the face of serious climate action. Oil and coal companies think they can scuttle our hopes for a strong binding treaty at Copenhagen through sheer force of advertising dollars. ExxonMobil in particular, which this month recorded the largest corporate profit in American history, has been blanketing the airwaves across several continents with claims that their fossil fuel profits are climate-friendly and environmentally sustainable. One ExxonMobil ad was taken off the air late last year in the UK for misleading advertising. We can’t match the polluting industry's spend, but we have two things going for us. First, we have the truth on our side, and second, we are an unstoppable global grassroots movement for climate action. Let's turn the polluting sector's hundreds of millions of dollars to our advantage. Watch our spoof of Exxon’s ad campaign and donate now to remind the world’s 17 largest economies whose interests the lobbyists really serve: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/climate_stop_corporate_spin We are running out of time to convince world leaders to save the planet. The renewable energy and environmental sector is outnumbered 8 to 1 in number of lobbyists. Together, we may not be able to match their propaganda, but with smart campaigning we can scuttle them and push the US and other major economy's ambition on the global climate negotiations. With hope, Ben, Taren, Iain, Brett, Pascal, Alice, Ricken, Graziela, Paul, Paula and the rest of the Avaaz team Sources:More about this week’s Major Economies Meeting in Washingtonhttp://uk.reuters.com/article/usPoliticsNews/idUKTRE53N12720090424?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0 A decade of lobbying against the science http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/science/earth/24deny.html Greenwash: Coal industry tries to hide dirty facts behind 'clean' claims http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/05/coal-fred-pearce-greenwash ExxonMobil’s 2008 lobbying expenditure http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?year=2008&lname=Exxon+Mobil

Secret memos from the Bush Administration

26 April, 2009,

Secret memos from the Bush Administration were released this week detailing the harsh interrogation methods used on detainees in the ‘War on Terror.'But while the White House says it wants to learn the lessons and move on, many Democrats and human rights activists are calling for the people responsible to be punished.'Torture memos' – that’s how the media is dubbing the documents describing the tactics used by CIA officers during the war on terror.Human rights activists say declassifying the information is important, but that’s not all that should be done.Read more“It’s very important that those who were involved in criminality should face justice, so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again, but also to send a message to the world that the U.S. is prepared to live by the rule of law,” says Tom Porteous, Director at Human Rights Watch, London.The Obama administration’s message is clear – look to the future.“The president believes. as both of us have said, that the release of the memos is not a time for retribution, but to reflect on what happened, and that we’re all best suited to looking forward,” explains the White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs.But key Democrats and Republicans are calling for the creation of an independent commission, where legal advisors, and possibly even George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice may be called to account.“I advocate full evaluation, investigation, to find out who's responsible for us breaking international law, and defying what America stands for,” insists Ron Paul, a Republican Congressman.The UK partLast year, the UK government admitted allowing the use of British territory in the extraordinary rendition program, and if the US has no appetite for legal action, another possible route may be through Europe. Activists in Spain and Germany are already agitating for the prosecution of Bush administration officials.Stephen Grey is a British journalist, and the author of the ‘Ghost plane: The true story of the CIA torture program’ book, who spent four years investigating the improper treatment of detainees by the US government.Grey welcomes the declassification of information, like the so-called torture memos, but is anxious it doesn’t end there.“President Obama would quite like to draw a line under all this, and I think you can’t end it until everything comes out. What I’m concerned about are the people, particularly those who turned out to be innocent. I don’t think secret detention by the CIA, and rendition to other countries where they carried out torture will be finished until we find out where all the individuals are who were sent out in this whole system,” Grey has said.Britain’s own recent rendition scandal still echoes within the Houses of Parliament. And it is unclear whether the latest revelations from the US will further embarrass the British government. But the Obama administration’s new policy of openness may yet come back to haunt both the US and the UK.

Source: RT

A major United Nations anti-racism conference was thrown into further disarray

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A major United Nations anti-racism conference was thrown into further disarray Sunday when more countries joined a U.S. boycott amid concerns it was developing into a platform for attacking Israel.

The Congressional Black Caucus criticized the boycott, saying President Obama's decision "set the cause back."

Australia and the Netherlands were the latest to pull out of next week's meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, as a dispute gathered pace over a document said to single out Israel for racism.
Canada, Israel, Italy and Sweden have also announced they are boycotting the conference aimed at creating a global blueprint for tackling discrimination. Britain says it will attend.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said she was "shocked and deeply disappointed" at the boycott.
"A handful of states have permitted one or two issues to dominate their approach to this issue, allowing them to outweigh the concerns of numerous groups of people that suffer racism and similar forms of intolerance to a pernicious and life-damaging degree on a daily basis all across the world, in both developed and developing countries," she said in a statement. "These are truly global issues, and it is essential that they are discussed at a global level, however sensitive and difficult they may be."
Washington says despite numerous redrafts of the controversial document, due to be adopted at the conference, it remains unhappy, and says it violates American principles of free speech.
The document will reaffirm anti-discrimination commitments agreed at a 2001 meeting in Durban, South Africa. The United States objected to the 2001 agreement -- joining Israel in walking out of the Durban meeting.
The U.S. State Department said the current document "prejudges key issues that can only be resolved in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians."
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Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith echoed the concerns on Sunday, saying that Israel was being unfairly targeted.
"Regrettably, we cannot be confident that the Review Conference will not again be used as a platform to air offensive views, including anti-Semitic views," he said.
"Israel regrets that the conference ... has once again become hostage to one-sided, non-constructive politicization and biased rhetoric," Israel's ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor, said in a statement Sunday.
President Obama said Sunday the 2001 conference became "a session through which folks expressed antagonism towards Israel in ways that were often times completely hypocritical and counterproductive."
He said the United States had warned it would not attend this year's conference if the document was not sufficiently altered in advance.
Obama said the United States is hoping to partner with other countries "to actually reduce discrimination around the globe, but this [conference] wasn't an opportunity to do it."
The boycott has caused concern among anti-racism campaigners in the United States.
The Congressional Black Caucus said it was "deeply dismayed" by the decision made by the nation's first African-American president, saying it was inconsistent with administration policies.
"Had the United States sent a high-level delegation reflecting the richness and diversity of our country, it would have sent a powerful message to the world that we're ready to lead by example," a statement from the group said.
"Instead, the administration opted to boycott the conference, a decision that does not advance the cause of combating racism and intolerance, but rather sets the cause back."
Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, whose past comments on the Holocaust and Israel are likely to overshadow his contributions to the anti-racism conference, has reportedly confirmed his attendance

WOMEN FACING MULTIPLE FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION

Racism and related intolerance do not affect all members of victim groups in the same way. The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) focused attention on the issue of multiple, or aggravated, forms of discrimination, which are most significantly experienced by female members of discriminated groups, but which are also suffered by persons with disabilities, persons affected by HIV/AIDS, children and the elderly, among others. These are often among the most vulnerable members of society, and are at greater risk of economic hardship, exclusion and violence; discrimination against them is often compounded.
The intersection of discrimination based on race and gender has the most widespread effects. Although this intersection had long been ignored, the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, recognized that “Many women face additional barriers to the enjoyment of their human rights because of such factors as their race, language, ethnicity, culture, religion, disability or socio-economic class or because they are indigenous people, migrants, including women migrant workers, displaced women or refugees.”
In the DDPA, states declare they “Are convinced that racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance reveal themselves in a differentiated manner for women and girls, and can be among the factors leading to a deterioration in their living conditions, poverty, violence, multiple forms of discrimination, and the limitation or denial of their human rights.” States further recognized “the need to integrate a gender perspective into relevant policies, strategies and programmes of action against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in order to address multiple forms of discrimination.”
Equality and non-discrimination
The principles of equality and non-discrimination form the basis of all human rights instruments. It is therefore clear that as a matter of human rights law, all women must be entitled to the full enjoyment of their human rights. Women are not a homogenous group of rights holders and discrimination against them can be expressed in many different forms and contexts. In order to protect, promote and advance women’s human rights, advocates and policy makers must take into account differences among women with respect to age, socio-economic status, racial/ethnic background, religion, national origin, citizenship, status, health, particularly HIV/AIDS, and disability among others. Among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable are women from minority communities, whose problems are compounded by their uniquely disadvantaged positions in society.
The majority of the world’s poorest people are women, who are further affected by discrimination if they belong to minority groups. Women suffer disproportionately from discriminatory labour practices and are frequently forced into underground or informal sectors. Members of racially discriminated groups do not enjoy equal access to health, education or justice, and such access is further limited for women.

Action taken by Secretary-General of Durban Review Conference regarding disruptive behaviour of three NGOs

Press Release
Action taken by Secretary-General of Durban Review Conference regarding disruptive behaviour of three NGOs
23 April 2009
GENEVA -- The High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, in her capacity as Secretary-General of the Durban Review conference, has today taken the following action as a result of unacceptable disruptive behaviour by three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) inside the UN premises here in Geneva during the course of the conference, in clear violation of the rules laid down regarding the conduct of NGOs during the conference. These rules have been made available to all NGOs and can be viewed on the Durban Review Conference website.
Earlier in the week UN security staff, acting in accordance with those regulations, removed the badges of a total of 44 NGO participants in this conference. The breakdown is as follows.
20 participants from the Union des Etudiants Juifs de France
15 from COEXIST
4 from the European Union of Jewish students
2 from the Neda Institute for Political and Scientific Research
2 from the Women’s Association of Followers of Ahlul Baitii
1 from B’nai Brith
After examining the types of conduct, and patterns of conduct, as well as the risk of possible disruptive behaviour during the remainder of the conference, the High Commissioner has issued an instruction that the badges of all the participants of three NGOs be removed, thereby effectively preventing their further participation in the Durban Review Conference.
The three NGOs whose participants will no longer be permitted to take part in this Conference are:
The Union des Etudiants Juifs de France. UEJF participants were extremely prominent during disruption of the conference on the opening day, in the assembly hall and in other locations in the building. UEJF delegates were intercepted while preparing for a similar disturbance in the Assembly Hall on Tuesday, and while carrying out one in another part of the building. There has, in the view of the organizers of the Conference, been a clearly orchestrated effort by members of this NGO, possibly in league with others, to disrupt the conference. UEJF had registered 194 participants for this conference. Of these 31 had actually picked up their badges as of Thursday morning.
The Neda Institute for Political and Scientific Research. Two of the delegates of this NGO were intercepted with inciting materials, possibly in coordination with other organizations. Distributing any materials outside designated areas is clearly prohibited, let alone offensive ones. (13 registered, 12 took their badges).
COEXIST – for similar reasons to those mentioned for UEJF, and during several of the same incidents. 22 participants of COEXIST were registered, 21 of whom have picked up badges.
In all these three NGOs had registered a total of 229 participants (UEJF: 194; Neda 13; COEXIST: 22). Actual badges picked up by their delegates as of Thursday morning totalled 64 (UEJF: 31; Neda 12; COEXIST: 21).
The High Commissioner does not exclude the possibility of taking similar actions against any other NGO found to behave in a manner clearly violating the rules and regulations relating to behaviour inside UN premises during the remainder of this conference.