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Pour une fois, Belgrade n'appelle pas les Serbes du Kosovo à boycotter les législatives de dimanche. Alors que le monopole de la Lista Srpska semble ébranlé, avec pas moins de six listes en compétition, la participation pourrait battre des records. Dix sièges sur 120 sont réservés à la minorité au Parlement.

- Articles / Politique, Une - Diaporama, Kosovo, Courrier des Balkans, Tensions Nord Kosovo, Kosovo Vetëvendosje, Populations, minorités et migrations

Pour une fois, Belgrade n'appelle pas les Serbes du Kosovo à boycotter les législatives de dimanche. Alors que le monopole de la Lista Srpska semble ébranlé, avec pas moins de six listes en compétition, la participation pourrait battre des records. Dix sièges sur 120 sont réservés à la minorité au Parlement.

- Articles / Politique, Une - Diaporama, Kosovo, Courrier des Balkans, Tensions Nord Kosovo, Kosovo Vetëvendosje, Populations, minorités et migrations

Les principaux groupes agricoles tchèques, dont la Chambre agraire de la République tchèque et l’Association agricole tchèque, se sont joints à une initiative européenne pour une réglementation plus stricte en matière d’étiquetage sur l’origine des denrées alimentaires.

Les alliés d'extrême droite de M. Netanyahou applaudiront la proposition, mais les nations arabes y verront un nettoyage ethnique des Palestiniens.

Les alliés d'extrême droite de M. Netanyahou applaudiront la proposition, mais les nations arabes y verront un nettoyage ethnique des Palestiniens.

Mercredi, le Tribunal de l’Union européenne (UE) a confirmé l’amende de 320 millions d’euros infligée par la Commission à la Pologne, estimant que les astreintes journalières imposées par la Cour de justice de l’UE parce que la Pologne n’avait pas suspendu la chambre disciplinaire de sa Cour suprême étaient justifiées.

Credit: UNICEF

By Attiya Waris and Ben Phillips
NAIROBI / BANGKOK, Feb 6 2025 (IPS)

Why can’t there be education for every child? Why can’t there be healthcare for everyone who needs it? Why can’t everyone be freed from hunger and deprivation? Though these are promised to all as rights, people are repeatedly told that there is no money.

The wonderful news is that this is false: there is money, we know where it is going missing, we know how to get hold of it, and this year brings vital new opportunities for progress.

Across the world, US$492 billion is lost to tax abuse by the rich and powerful a year: two-thirds, US$347.6 billion, is lost to multinational corporations shifting profit offshore to underpay tax; one-third, US$144.8 billion, is lost to wealthy individuals hiding their wealth offshore.

This revelation, set out in the latest State of Tax Justice report, is shocking and appalling. But it can and should also be recognised as cause for hope: we have a world to win.

Taxation is technical and complex, and this technical complexity is often weaponised to claim that any policies to raise revenues from the wealthy won’t work. But expert economic analysis that the G20 has commissioned shows that wealth taxes would be effective in unlocking vital resources to tackle poverty and fulfil the Sustainable Development Goals.

Indeed, some countries are already taking action to do this. Spain has successfully introduced a wealth tax on the richest 0.5%. Calculations by the Tax Justice Network have demonstrated that the world could raise US $2.1 trillion by copying Spain’s example.

Likewise, the policy framework required to prevent profit shifting by multinational enterprises is known – a combination that needs to include them having to register who owns them, having to report on the tax they paid in each country they operate in, and having to pay tax in the places where they generate profit.

The major challenge then is ultimately less technical and more political. But even for this political challenge, a path through can be seen.

This year, countries finally begin negotiations on a United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, which will include “commitments on equitable taxation of multinational enterprises [and] addressing tax evasion and avoidance by high-net worth individuals and ensuring their effective taxation.”

This year, too, momentum will be further boosted by the International Conference on Financing for Development, hosted 30th June to 3rd July by Spain, the draft outcome document of which includes commitments to ensuring that “profit shifting” by multinational enterprises is tackled so that they “pay taxes to the countries where economic activity occurs and value is created”, and to “strengthening the taxation of high-net-worth Individuals.”

Taxing the wealthy has been shown to be hugely popular across countries. And civil society campaigning is picking up pace. Building on the wave of mobiisation for tax justice worldwide, over forty organisations from across the world have united a joint campaign to “tax the super-rich”.

Their common platform calls for:

• Implementing ambitious tax rates on the richest people that are high enough to reduce inequality
• Using revenues raised to invest ending poverty, reducing inequality, and tackling the world’s most pressing social and environmental issues
• Ensuring global cooperation to curb illicit financial flows that allow the super-rich to evade tax responsibility
• Shifting decision-making on taxation to a fair and globally inclusive forum, ensuring that all countries – particularly poorer ones – have an equal voice

For too long it has been normalised that whilst international law and national constitutions promise people inalienable rights, the resourcing needed to realise those rights is denied. But what does it mean for a child to be promised a notional right to an education if there is no school nearby, if fees prevent her attending, if there are not enough teachers, or if the conditions of the school make learning impossible?

What does it mean for a person to be promised a notional right to health if health centres are not staffed with enough nurses and doctors – and medicines? Fiscal policy is the instrument that makes the promise of rights a lived reality.

The extent of resources that can be deployed, and the measures that can secure those resources, are not mysteries, they are political choices.

Securing the resources needed to deliver on rights will not be easy. The concentration of wealth has also brought a concentration of power. But that is another reason why taxing the super-rich in each country across the world is vital: it won’t only raise essential revenue to provide essential services and prevent the most vulnerable from slipping deeper into poverty; it will also help restore democracy.

Attiya Waris is Professor of Fiscal Law at the University of Nairobi and UN Independent Expert on foreign debt, other international financial obligations, and human rights.

Ben Phillips is the author of “How to Fight Inequality”.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Am Mittwoch bestätigte der Europäische Gerichtshof die Rechtmäßigkeit der gegen Polen verhängten Geldstrafen im Zusammenhang mit den von der ehemaligen PiS-Regierung eingeführten Justizreformen. Polen wollte, dass das Gericht Entscheidungen für einen bestimmten Zeitraum zurücknimmt - und ist nun gescheitert.  

Le gouvernement italien a présenté sa version des faits au sujet de l’expulsion d’Osama Almasri Najim, le criminel de guerre libyen présumé que l’Italie a expulsé malgré un mandat d’arrêt de la Cour pénale internationale (CPI) délivré à son encontre. L’absence de la Première ministre Giorgia Meloni n’est pas passée inaperçue.

Un rapport externe pointe le manque d’effectifs et le poids des manifestations pour les forces de l’ordre.

Tschechische Landwirtschaftsverbände fordern strengere Regeln zur Herkunftskennzeichnung von Lebensmitteln. Sie haben sich einer europaweiten Initiative angeschlossen, um irreführende Etiketten zu verhindern.

La guerre commerciale entre les États-Unis et leurs principaux partenaires, la Chine, le Mexique et le Canada, a semé l'incertitude dans l'économie mondiale, le président Trump ayant introduit des droits de douane et ces pays ayant pris des mesures de rétorsion. Les guerres commerciales constituent une menace pour les économies africaines, mais présentent également des opportunités.

In today's edition of the Capitals, read about the two year review that exposes Germany’s climate policy fog, how France’s Bayrou won the budget battle, not the war, and so much more.

Coly Seck (at microphone), Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Senegal to the United Nations, briefs reporters with Members of the newly-elected Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP Bureau). At fourth from right is Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations. Credit: UN Photo: Manuel Elías

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 6 2025 (IPS)

A new executive order from the United States White House calls for withdrawing support from major UN entities and a review of all international intergovernmental organizations which the United States is a member of. The U.S.’s orders against the UN Palestine Refugee Agency also do not bode well for ongoing ceasefire negotiations in Gaza.

President Donald Trumps comments that the “US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it,” have also been widely criticized.

On Tuesday, the White House issued an executive order, where they announced that they will pull out from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) effective immediately and called for a review of its membership in UN and other intergovernmental organizations. The executive order singles out other UN entities that needed “further scrutiny”—the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA); and the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The executive order suspended all funding to these organizations.

The executive order also cites that UNESCO has failed to address “mounting arrears” and reform, also noting that it has demonstrated anti-Israeli sentiments over the last decade. A review of the U.S.’s membership in UNESCO would assess whether it supports the country’s interests, and would include an analysis of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli sentiment within the organization.

The United States announced that no funds or grants would go towards the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), citing corruption within the organization and the infiltration of terrorist groups such as Hamas.

UN Secretary-General Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday that in light of the United States’ decision, this would not change the UN’s “commitment to supporting UNRWA in its work”, or the HRC’s importance as a part of the “overall human rights architecture within the United Nations”.

“It has been clear for us that U.S. support for the United Nations has saved countless lives and global security,” said Dujarric. “The Secretary-General is looking forward to speaking with President (Donald) Trump, he looks forward to continuing what was a very, I think, frank and productive relationship during the first term. He looks to strengthening the relationship in the turbulent times that we live in.”

On Wednesday the newly-elected chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Ambassador Coly Seck, Permanent Representative of Senegal, told a told a press conference that it condemned the ban by Israel on UNWRA .

“We strongly condemn Israel’s ban UNWRA which obstructs vital humanitarian cooperation in direct violation of the UN mandate and General Assembly resolutions in stabilizing the ceasefire and supporting Gaza’s recovery. This ban imposed immediately after the ceasefire, deal will deepen Gaza suffering.”

The suspension of aid funding from the United States is already impacting humanitarian operations across different agencies. Dujarric said that the U.S. had committed 15 million USD to the trust fund, of which 1.7 million has already been spent. This leaves 13.3 million frozen and unusable at this time.

Pio Smith, Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) told reporters in Geneva that they had to suspend the programs funded by US grants, which included funds that were already committed to the agency. Smith warned that the lack of funding would impact programs in places such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Worldwide, more than half of UNFPA’s facilities, 596 out of 982, would be impacted by this funding pause.

Vivian van de Perre, the Deputy Head of its UN Mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, told reporters in New York on Wednesday that the recent pause in funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has forced humanitarian partners on the ground to suspend their work. “…Many of the partners, including IOM (the International Organization for Migration), which is a key partner for us, need to stop their work due to the USAID stop-work order,” she said.

The executive order, along with Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would move into and claim Gaza cast a shadow of doubt over ongoing ceasefire negotiations.

UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk said that the priority now must be to move to the next phase of the ceasefire, which calls for the release of all hostages and arbitrarily detained prisoners, an end to the war, and the reconstruction of Gaza.

“The suffering of people in the [occupied Palestinian territories] and Israel has been unbearable. Palestinians and Israelis need peace and security, on the basis of full dignity and equality,” Türk said in a statement. “International law is very clear. The right to self-determination is a fundamental principle of international law and must be protected by all States, as the International Court of Justice recently underlined afresh. Any forcible transfer in or deportation of people from occupied territory is strictly prohibited.”

The forcible removal of 2.2 million Palestinians from Gaza that Trump is calling for has been decried and been called a violation of international humanitarian law.

“Any forced displacement of people is tantamount to ethnic cleansing,” said Dujarric when asked about Trump’s remarks. “…In our search for solutions, we must not make the problem worse. Whatever solutions we find need to be rooted in the bedrock of international law.”

Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, briefing reporters after the opening session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, added his condemnation of Trump’s plan.

Mansour said with regard to the idea of “kicking the Palestinian people out from the Gaza Strip, I just want to tell you that during the last 24 hours, statements from heads of states, of Egypt, of Jordan, of the State of Palestine, of Saudi Arabia and many countries, including countries who spoke in the debate in the room behind us during the meeting of the committee, condemn these efforts.”

He said Trump’s plan has been met with a “global consensus on not allowing forced transfer to take place, ethnic cleansing to take place. We Palestinians love every part of the State of Palestine. We love the Gaza Strip. It is part of our DNA.”

The march of Palestinians from the south to the north of the Gaza Strip following the ceasefire was proof of the people’s committment to rebuild their own homes, Mansour said.

“More than 400,000 of them to go to the rubbles in the northern Gaza in order to start cleaning around their destroyed homes.”

At the White House, Trump’s aids attempted a row back on his comments. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly told journalists that it Trump was proposing to rebuil Gaza, and his press secretary Karoline Leavitt, said “the president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Bucharest has pledged to cut budget spending and increase revenues.

Allegations that several witnesses have been fired because they cooperated with the European prosecutor.

Peu discutée, la question de la parité de genre a toutefois tout son poids. Car ce sont les ministres femmes qui ont porté les principales avancées égalitaires.

The e-commerce surprise of the day came not from the Commission strategy but from American flip-flopping over Chinese packages.

According to researchers, only 4% of Poles and 7% of Czechs shared this sentiment.

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