The Doha Declaration’s twentieth anniversary in November 2021 has taken place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The experience of the past two years has demonstrated that the very factors that necessitated the Declaration—the problems of inequitable access to medicines and other health technologies for the world’s poor—continue to plague us.
 
Has the promise of the Doha Declaration been betrayed? In this contribution, we critically engage with this question, focusing our appraisal on whether the Doha Declaration has been successful in fulfilling its commitments to: (a) advancing access to health; (b) equity and fairness in the relations between WTO Members States; and (c) recognising perspectives from the developing world in formulating IP policy. Ultimately, we conclude that the promise of the Doha Declaration has failed to materialise.

Read the paper of South Center

Statistics on poverty and i equality: they are far from easy! We already know it from the Wortld Bank, now it seems Oxfam can be as careless as others …

Read about it: Oxfam serves up a lot of dodgy statistics – by Noah Smith (substack.com)

Domestic workers make an important contribution to society, providing vital care for families and households, but they remain undervalued. And domestic workers are … women.

Read ILO’s press brief

The Global Initiative on ESCR published its first Yearbook on all the initiatives of the UN Commission

Read the Report

This is now also a fundamental principle of the ILO, for all its member States. The landmark decision means that all ILO Member States commit to respect and promote the fundamental right to a safe and healthy working environment, whether or not they have ratified the relevant Conventions.

Read all about it

The World Trade Organization will be holding its 12th Ministerial Meeting in Geneva from June 12 to 15.  Yet little if anything is expected from the meeting except the usual exchanges of conflicting views between representatives of the global North and those of the global South.  There might be something like a “Ministerial Declaration” that tries to paper over differences with some conciliatory language, but anything resembling a consensus on any key issue is unlikely.  Consensus is the prime decision-making method in the WTO, and it’s been a long, long time since there was consensus achieved on anything related to global trade rules.

Read Walden Bello’s article

At the Stockholm+50 international conference in Sweden early June, UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed deep disappointment over the failure of rich nations to provide financing to mitigate the devastating consequences of climate change, including droughts, floods, heat waves, pollution and biodiversity loss worldwide.

The shortfall in funding has also derailed the implementation of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including poverty and hunger eradication, by 2030.

Read the article by Thalif Deen

OECD countries might discover it is in their self-interest to join developing countries in pursuing truly global, UN-led tax solutions.

Read the new publication by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung

Food crises, economic stagnation and price increases are worsening unevenly, almost everywhere, following the Ukraine war. Sanctions against Russia have especially hurt those relying on wheat and fertilizer imports.

Unilateral sanctions illegal
Unilateral sanctions – not approved by the UN Security Council – are illegal under international law. Besides contravening the UN Charter, unilateral sanctions inflict much human loss. Countless civilians – many far from target countries – are at risk, depriving them of much, even life itself.

Sanctions, embargos and blockades – ‘sold’ as non-violent alternatives to waging war by military means – economically isolate and punish targeted countries, supposedly to force them to acquiesce. But most sanctions hurt the innocent majority, much more than ruling elites.

Read the article by Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury