Tous les articles et traductions

International courts and tribunals need to become real instruments of justice – and not simply tools for the strong – if the promise of Immanuel Kant’s universal community is to become a reality
A new institutional actor has started to be a recurrent character in world politics: the (…)

Interviewed by Frank Barat, Coordinator of the Russel Tribunal on Palestine, Noam Chomsky answers a series of six questions regarding the major current international issues such as the role of intellectuals in challenging the established order, the Arab Revolutions or corporate power. He ends up (…)

In a campaign almost as frenzied as the effort to get Barack Obama into the White House, liberal groups are now mobilizing against the White House and reported deals that would cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits. They accuse President Obama of being weak and willing to “cave” (…)

The media will always be a contested space. Some insist there should be no controls over the amorphous beast that is the media; others insist we cannot have a free-for-all. In South Africa we presently walk an uneasy middle road between a free press, a powerful public broadcaster as well as (…)

International Rivers, a non-profit organization founded in 1985 and working for the protection of rivers and the life they support, specially in Latin America, Asia and Africa, made a clear slideshow that brings to the light all the negative impacts of hydropower, a source of energy most of the (…)

Everywhere in the world people care for and try to preserve the things they value.
What is considered valuable is relative to the socio-cultural context, and often things that are of great significance and deeply precious for some individuals and groups are not for others. There are things and (…)

What can a humble loaf of bread tell us about the world?
The answer is: far more than you might imagine. For one thing, that loaf can be “read” as if it were a core sample extracted from the heart of a grim global economy. Looked at another way, it reveals some of the crucial fault lines of (…)

As the U.S. suffers through catastrophic tornadoes, heat waves, and other climate extremes - no doubt just a small taste of what the climate crisis will bring in the future - polluting industries and the politicians that serve them want to convince you that excess carbon dioxide in the (…)

There are important lessons for India in the murderous violence in Norway: lessons it can ignore only at risk to its own survival.
In 2008, Hindutva leader B.L. Sharma ‘Prem’ held a secret meeting with key members of a terrorist group responsible for a nationwide bombing campaign targeting (…)

The European Patent Office awarded Syngenta a patent on melons „with a pleasant taste“, after an opposition filed by another seed company to revoke the patent had been rejected. According to a poll among Swiss consumers a majority of respondents reject such patents as well as the food products (…)

Worries about contagion; Brazil now a U.S. creditor
After three decades spent battling their own debt crises and getting constantly lectured about them by Uncle Sam, many Latin Americans are watching the countdown to a possible default in Washington with a mix of schadenfraude and fear of what (…)

Increasing oil prices, rising energy demands, climate change and Kyoto Protocol commitments are the causes of an emerging worldwide renewable energy boom. These renewables include agrofuels, such as agrodiesel made from rapeseed, palm oil, soybean oil or other types of vegetable oil, as well as (…)

Insights from the ProCana case, Mozambique
The Procana Bioethanol project in Mozambique is a clear example of how agrofuel investments contribute rather than mitigate climate change, and are often accompanied by dispossession and impoverishment caused by landgrabbing.
This paper examines the (…)

International Joint Statement Organized by Taiwan Rural Front (TRF)
Taipei, Taiwan—July 6th, 2011
Taiwan Rural Front (TRF) holds an international press conference today, requesting the authority to stop land grabbing in Taiwan. It also announces its “return” to the Ketagalan Boulevard on (…)

Since cross-LoC trade began between Muzaffarabad-Uri and Poonch-Rawalakot, traders have found a way of insulating the process from outside influences with a fair amount of success.
“Both sides agreed to convene a meeting of the Working Group on cross-Line of Control (LoC) Confidence Building (…)

The carefully constructed decision to disband the untrained force of young Special Police Officers in Chhattisgarh holds important lessons for the exercise of executive power.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Nandini Sundar and Ors. v. State of Chhattisgarh is no ordinary one and, (…)

Mathematical errors in the classroom or on tests usually don’t carry a whole lot of consequences besides a blot on your grade and maybe a deflated sense of self-esteem.
But what happens when the mathematical error occurs in a major government energy agency? The ramifications could be huge, (…)

Alliance Sud and Nestlé have been engaged in a high-level dialogue on Colombia between 2006 and 2011. Alliance Sud examined the behaviour of the multinational and the accusations being levelled at it by local trade unions. Two years later it evaluated the implementation of its recommendations. (…)

Despite renewed crackdowns on the independent media in Belarus, there are signs that the tide is turning in the battle for free speech in the country. However, victory for the democratic forces will require politicizing Belarus’ young Internet audience, writes Iryna Vidanava.
Since the flawed (…)

Notwithstanding the indifference of most Russians, the Orthodox Church, with active support from the state, has effectively established itself as state religion.
[...]
After the collapse of the atheist Soviet Union, state persecution of religion came to an end in Russia. The new law on (…)