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Monday, March 15, 2010 05:00 GMT

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MIDEAST: Israel Lands in Public Relations Nightmare
By Mel Frykberg
JERSUSALEM - Israeli riot police and soldiers have, since Friday, sealed off the Al Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine, restricting entry to women and Palestinian men over 50.
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RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: 'Our Lives Are Cut Short at a Stroke'
By Danilo Valladares
GUATEMALA CITY - "This is a time of great tension because we know that at any moment, when we least expect it, our lives can be cut short at a stroke," Tito Gálvez, a leader in the Resistance Front for the Defence of Natural Resources and Rights of the Guatemalan Peoples (FRENA), told IPS.
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MEXICO: Consumers on the Offensive
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY - Mexican consumers are currently facing a combination of price rises, economic recession and lack of legal protection in the face of abuses committed by providers of goods and services.
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RIGHTS: Guatemala, El Salvador Ordered to Heed Rulings
By Edgardo Ayala
SAN SALVADOR - Guatemala and El Salvador have a terrible record in terms of compliance with the recommendations and sentences handed down by the inter-American human rights bodies on cases involving appalling abuses like forced disappearance, torture and massacres committed during the armed conflicts in the two Central American countries.
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RIGHTS: U.S. Concerned Over Curbs on NGOs, Press, Internet
By Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - Releasing its annual report on the state of human rights around the world, the U.S. State Department Thursday said it was increasingly concerned about curbs imposed by foreign governments on civil society groups, the press, and Internet use.
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ECUADOR: Avatar Downfall a Blow for Indigenous Communities
By Gonzalo Ortiz
QUITO - Science fiction blockbuster Avatar was the big loser in the Oscar awards ceremony - not only a blow for director James Cameron but also seen as a symbolic reverse in the struggle to recover Amazon rainforest areas in Ecuador from the effects of oil pollution.
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MIDEAST: Israeli Left Emerges From Coma Amid Atrocities
By Mel Frykberg
SHEIKH JARRAH, Occupied East Jerusalem - Amid the wave of violence that swept through the occupied Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem, over the last few days, there are signs that the Israeli left may be emerging from its collective coma.
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Q&A: 'Israeli Siege Causing De-development of Gaza'
David Cronin interviews MAHMOUD ABU RAHMA, Gazan human rights worker
BRUSSELS - For the first time since September 2006, Mahmoud Abu Rahma, a leading figure in the Palestinian human rights group Al Mezan, has been granted permission to travel outside Gaza.
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INDIA: No Stopping Reserved Seats for Women in Parliament
By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI - With assured backing from India's main opposition groups, the ruling Congress party hopes to see voted through in the upper house of Parliament Monday a bill reserving 33 percent of seats in national and provincial legislatures for women.
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HAITI: Experts Urge Sea Change in "Culture of Aid"
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - A delegation of human rights experts is preparing to visit Haiti to assess the human rights and aid situation in the earthquake-crippled nation and to urge the international community to follow a series of guidelines they have prepared to help donors' to "overcome the mistakes of the past."
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LATIN AMERICA: Canada Moves to Oversee Mining Firms
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY - Amidst allegations that Canadian mining companies operating in Latin America have been complicit in the murders and harassment of activists, several positive developments in Canada are seen as a source of hope that firms may begin to be held accountable on human rights and environmental questions.
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U.S.: Grassroots Groups Get More Bang for Donors' Bucks
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - While "community organising" has become a punch line for late- night comedians since the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president, the activity "delivers enormous benefits to communities," according to a new study conducted by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP).
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DR-CONGO: EU Urged to Ban 'Conflict Minerals'
By Ida Karlsson
STOCKHOLM - After the United States senate’s move to stem the flow of money from mineral mines fuelling the brutal civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the watchdog group Global Witness (GW) is calling on Europe to follow suit.
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MIDEAST: Occupation Turns Palestinian Women Into Breadwinners
By Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH - Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, with its ubiquitous closures, checkpoints, military raids and arrests, has decimated the Palestinian economy in the West Bank and Gaza.
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RIGHTS: U.N. Women's Agency Remains Politically Paralysed
By Thalif Deen*
UNITED NATIONS - A longstanding proposal for the creation of a special U.N. agency for women - officially called a "gender entity" - is apparently moving at the sluggish pace of a paralytic snail.
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ENVIRONMENT: Wanted - An Effective Multilateral System
By Marcela Valente*
NUSA DUA, Indonesia - The echoes of failure still sounding from the Copenhagen summit on climate change in December are spurring efforts to reform the international legal framework. Civil society groups are demanding a new, more agile system that is both influential and effective.
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NGOs participation
social movements trade unions grassroots advocacy charity faith-based MOBILISATION groups COLLECTIVE ACTION social capital democratic expression dissent INNOVATION

A WIN-WIN PLAN FOR ICELAND, BRITAIN AND THE NETHERLANDS
By Hazel Henderson

MOSCOW AND HAVANA: FRIENDS FOREVER?
By Leonardo Padura

THE DECLINE OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
By Ignacio Ramonet

TURKEY: DEEPENING DEMOCRACY OR NEW AUTHORITARIANISM?
By Ilter Turan

CHINA'S NEOCOLONIALISM
By Walden Bello

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World Social Forum

Int'l NGO Accountability Charter

Choike.org - Portal on Southern Civil Societies

CIVICUS - World Alliance for Citizen Participation

CONGO - Conf. of NGOs at UN

Ubuntu - World Forum of Civil Society Networks

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