Publications by: Guest content
Who owns geosynchronous orbital pathways?
Blog / 21st October 2016Who owns outer space? Our most idealistic visions of the future require us to transcend our narrow personal or nationalistic interests, but increasingly, space seems likely to be divvied up among the powerful, as has so often happened with the Earth. Can space be managed to serve the common interest? A commentary by EarthSharing.
Think U.S. agriculture will end world hunger? Think again.
Report / 21st October 2016A new report by the Environmental Working Group confronts the myth that American farmers must double their food production to 'feed the world'. Instead, the key to ending world hunger while protecting the environment is to help small farmers in the developing world increase their productivity and income, and to promote “agro-ecology” everywhere.
The long march against monsanto: A letter from the Hague
Article / 21st October 2016Following the Monsanto People’s Assembly in The Hague, activists converged around the need to 'globalise the struggle' for a new model of food and farming led by the grassroots, writes Ronnie Cummins.
Climate change could drive 122m more people into extreme poverty by 2030
Article / 18th October 2016The UN's 2016 State of Food and Agriculture report warns that without measures to halt and reverse climate change, food production could become impossible in large areas of the world. Consequently, millions more people could be living in extreme poverty by 2030, despite new government pledges in the sustainable development goals. Reported by Claire Provost for the Guardian.
The privilege of being privileged
Article / 18th October 2016The route to reducing inequality is not through generating more philanthropic endeavour, but rather through transformative solutions that rely on sacrifice and sharing—hence altering the production and distribution of wealth and power in fundamental ways, argues Michael Edwards in openDemocracy.
The struggle for a UN Treaty: Towards global regulation on human rights and business
Article / 8th October 2016A global alliance of civil society organizations are demanding a binding treaty to regulate the activities of transnational corporations with respect to human rights. The Treaty process presents a unique opportunity for governments to prove that it is in their hands to put human rights above the interests of big business. Because profits can be shared—human rights cannot, write Jens Martens and Karolin Seitz.
Human rights beyond borders: The Maastricht Principles turn five
Blog / 8th October 2016Five years ago, the Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States was adopted in the area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and these Principles are increasingly being used by civil society organisations to hold States accountable for their extraterritorial conduct. Human rights obligations are now well recognized to extend beyond borders, as explained in the following news update published by the ETO Consortium.
‘Good news’ claiming ‘falling global poverty’ isn’t news at all
Blog / 7th October 2016Is poverty really on the decline across the world, as widely reported by the World Bank and United Nations? This ‘good news’ narrative is far from the whole truth, explains The Rules team.
Monsanto Tribunal and People’s Assembly
Article / 6th October 2016Civil society groups have organised a people’s assembly to hold Monsanto accountable for their crimes against humanity and the environment, and to spell out an alternative vision for the future of food and farming based on reclaiming the commons, earth democracy and agroecology.
Seeds of corporate power vs farmers’ rights
Article / 6th October 2016The expansion of corporate control in agriculture is reflected in three international treaties that establish the global rights of various stakeholders to seeds, germplasm, and plant varieties. But the balance of power needs to tilt back the other way, with farmers’ rights taking precedence over agribusiness profits, whether in these treaties or in trade deals, explains Karen Hansen-Kuhn.