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UN
Joint Agency
with WTO Works
on Trans
Pacific
Partnership,
for
Censorship?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
6 -- The UN
has a joint
agency with
the World
Trade
Organization,
and on March 6
at the UN the
director of
the joint
agency the
International
Trade Centre
Arancha
Gonzalez,
formerly of
the WTO, spoke
at the UN and
praised the
pending Trans
Pacific
Partnership.
Inner
City Press
when able
asked Gonzalez
to explain
working on the
TPP as
a UN project,
given the
range of
groups opposed
to the TPP,
including
for example
the Electronic
Frontier
Foundation. Click
here.
As
the Free UN
Coalition for
Access is
pursuing, TPP
would
essentially
globalize the
US Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act,
which can be
used
for censorship
-- not only
has used by
Reuters UN
bureau chief
to ban
from Google's
Search an
anti-Press
complaint he
filed with the
UN,
but more
recently to
take-down
videos of
protests. Click here.
Gonzalez
gave
a lengthy
answer, that
trade deals
are up to
member state,
but
added that the
ICT works so
that rules are
consistent and
not
fragmented.
To some this
sounds like
"race to the
bottom."
Since
the press
conference was
billed as
concerning the
Commission on
the
Status of
Women, Inner
City Press
asked Gonzalez
which
countries ban
women from
having bank
accounts.
Saudi Arabia
came to mind,
but
Gonzalez cited
Asia and
sub-Saharan
Africa. We
hope to have
more on
this issue.
Back on March
4 another UN
agency UN
HABITAT
unveiled "The
City We Need"
booklet on
Tuesday at the
UN, in advance
of an event at
the nearby
Ford
Foundation.
Inner City
Press, when
able,
asked about
the corporate
sponsors
listed in the
booklet,
including GDF
Suez
(protested for
example about
a
hydro-electric
dam in Brazil),
Siemens
(Western
Sahara) and Veolia,
a French firm
recently
contracted on
Syria chemical
weapons which
does business
in the
Occupied
Palestinian
Territories.
After
thanking
the panel
including
HABITAT's Joan
Clos on behalf
of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, Inner
City Press
asked: how
were these
corporate
sponsored
vetted?
The
answer, from
Nick Yu of the
World Urban
Campaign, was
as is so often
the case at
the UN that
the private
sector is
important, is
a stakeholder.
Yes, but what
about these
particular
companies?
What is the
process? And
what is their
involvement,
beyond paying
to be listed
in promotional
materials?
A goal
of the
campaign seems
to be to try
to get a
holistic
"Cities"
Sustainable
Development
Goal. Inner
City Press has
reported on a
similar move,
involving
Palau, to get
an Oceans SDG.
The list is
growing.
A
panelist who
was also a New
Yorker,
Eugenie Birch,
answered Inner
City Press
question about
the last and
the current
New York City
mayors. Bill
de Blasio,
Birch said, is
a corrective
on issues of
affordable
housing and
free
kindergarten
(what about
pre-K?). Michael
Bloomberg,
whose meeting
with US
Secretary of
State John
Kerry has yet
to be
summarized by
the UN as
Inner City
Press has
requested, will
be at the Ford
Foundation.
Watch this
site.
* * *
These
reports
are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City
Press at UN
Click
for
BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN
Corruption
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