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External sources (not reviewed)

During their visit, the Working Group found that the challenges faced by people of African descent in Portugal related mainly to their lack of recognition as a specific group in the national policy and legal framework; the lack of recognition of their positive contribution throughout history to the construction and development of the country; the lack of qualitative and quantitative disaggregated data by racial or ethnic origin; the existence of a circle of poverty, unequal access to education, public services, employment, as well as discrimination in the administration and functioning of the justice system; existence of racial profiling and police violence; underrepresentation in political and institutional decision-making processes, as well as the lack of special measures or affirmative action policies in Portugal for people of African descent or other minorities.

[...] [...] access to diversified delivery systems.

[...] [...] investment opportunities, capitalize on unexploited trade opportunities, and assure [...] [...]

[...] education for all children, embodied in its legal system.

[...] [...] and other opportunities to build experience; and supporting entities dedicated to the study of [...]

[...] [...] their specific needs and opportunities.

However, many people and nations, especially the poorest ones, do not have effective and equitable access to information, and therefore, to development opportunities.

The key factors that facilitated the smooth implementation by SIAP of all planned activities for 2009 were: (a) the strong support of the host Government, Japan, which continued to provide the bulk of cash contributions, administrative and infrastructure support, and fellowships for all four SIAP-Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Tokyo Metropolitan Area (TMA)-based training courses; (b) the strong support of many other member States: cash and in kind contributions from those member States increased in 2009 compared with their level in 2008; and (c) close collaboration with United Nations agencies and international organizations, which provided the opportunity to combine efforts and address effectively the diverse capability-building needs of developing member States in the region.

The initiative involves a number of UNEP and United Nations-wide initiatives that are aimed at providing convincing macroeconomic evidence for significantly increasing investments in the environment as a means of promoting sustainable economic growth, the creation of decent jobs and the reduction of poverty, while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions, extracting and using less natural resources and creating less waste.

Indeed, by adopting the Declaration on the midterm review of the Almaty Programme of Action, they had given renewed hope to the millions of people who dreamed of being able to transport their products as far as the sea and store them securely; to circulate their goods without restrictions; to exploit fully those sectors where they had a competitive advantage; to benefit from the opportunities offered by their full participation in global trade; and, lastly, to participate in, and enjoy all the benefits of, globalization, thereby escaping from the poverty imposed on them by the geographical situation of their country.

In addition, greater efforts must be made to generate a global strategy to prioritise and mainstream the development dimension into global processes, and in the relevant multilateral institutions in order to enable developing countries to benefit from the opportunities offered by globalisation and trade liberalisation, including through the creation of an enabling external economic environment for development which requires greater coherence between the international trading, monetary and financial systems that should be universal, open, equitable, non-coercive, rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory.

14.4 During the 2014-2015 period, the programme is expected to continue to concentrate its efforts on the following six focus areas: (a) increasing women’s leadership and participation in all areas that affect their lives, including in political and economic areas; (b) increasing women’s access to economic empowerment and opportunities, especially for those who are most excluded, particularly women living in poverty; (c) preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls and expanding access to survivor services; (d) increasing women’s leadership in peace, security and humanitarian response; (e) strengthening the responsiveness of plans and budgets in the area of gender equality at all levels; (f) supporting the development of global norms, policies and standards on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

He highlighted the unique opportunity that the Commission afforded members for debate on how to better protect the health of consumers worldwide and ensure fairer practices in food trade.

These included the social disparities between non-Maori and Maori; the status of the Treaty of Waitangi in domestic legislation; family violence; equality of opportunity; overrepresentation of Maori in the criminal justice system; and ratification of human rights treaties to which New Zealand was not party.

(d) Ensure that asylum-seekers have full access to free and qualified legal counselling, adequate medical services, occupational activities and the right to receive visits.

The panel presentation, followed by contributions from the floor, provided an opportunity for all stakeholders to share their best practices and lessons learned in promoting multi-stakeholder participation in institutions and mechanisms for food security and nutrition at the national and regional level.

[...] [...] would cover the whole country [...]

Rather than reciprocate the efforts and gestures made for peace — from the explicit commitment to peace and the two-State solution based on the pre-1967 borders made by the Palestinian leadership, beginning with the Palestinian Declaration of Independence over 20 years ago; to the Madrid, Oslo, Taba, Sharm el-Sheikh and Annapolis commitments; the Arab Peace Initiative over eight years ago; the road map to Mideast peace and the Quartet Statement; the diplomatic efforts of the United States of America and all other concerned nations — Israel continues to pay only lip-service to the pursuit of peace, while its actions are actually destroying any chance for the realization of peace.

Each of the 13 Occupational Group Managers would continue the responsibilities for reviewing applications, identifying candidates for further assessment by subject matter experts, that is, expert panels, serving as Secretary for the expert panel under his or her purview and consolidating findings and interview reports from the panel for presentation to the Field Central Review Bodies, monitoring incumbency rates in the field operations for positions in his or her occupational group, managing his or her assigned roster, developing shortlists for programme managers in the field operations and determining when outreach activities should be conducted to address gaps in the roster, especially in gender and geographic representation, and determining the mobility opportunities for staff members currently serving in the field so as to rotate staff among relevant duty stations.

Starting from the objective to ensure increase of welfare of the country through rationalisation of policies of social protection and increase of access to high quality services, cooperation will focus on activities of reform of the social assistance system, emphasis being made on an efficient system of social services, development and diversity of social service through promotion of the principle of non-institutionalisation, redirection of financial means from residential institutions to community and family service, as well as other types of services.

Among the recommendations were that UNRWA must: impress upon donors that its core budget was not an administrative black hole but the key to running its educational programmes and thus should be seen as an investment in the future of the Palestine refugees; exploit all funding opportunities; enlarge its donor base for the core budget, to which only a small number currently contributed — a point to which he had drawn attention in Cairo at a meeting of Arab League ministers whose countries gave welcome support to specific projects and emergency appeals but not to the core budget; expand its partnerships with non-State actors such as foundations and other institutions in the private sector; and continue to be cost-effective in conducting its programmes through better planning, implementation and oversight.

The Commission was informed that the 2012 SPECA Economic Forum, which was scheduled to be held in Bangkok on 27 and 28 November under the theme ―Strengthening regional economic cooperation and integration in Central Asia by sharing the Asian experience‖, would provide a good opportunity to learn about the best practices associated with regional economic cooperation in Asia and the Pacific in order to strengthen regional cooperation in SPECA countries against the backdrop of new global challenges.

[...] additional resources to maximize the environmental [...] [...]

(c) Providing legal aid, advice and court support services in all legal proceedings to female victims of violence in order to ensure access to justice and avoid secondary victimization and other such services, which may include the translation of legal documents where requested or required.

The principles on which the Organization of Education Act is based include: (a) the same quality of education for all pupils, regardless of their condition or circumstances; (b) equity, guaranteeing equality of opportunities, educational inclusion and non-discrimination and serving as an element compensating for personal, cultural, economic and social inequalities, with special emphasis on inequalities arising from disability.

[...] [...] providing equal opportunities for persons [...] [...]

Another example would concern the need to retain communities and rural economies, where it would be necessary to strike a balance between fuel subsidy, local food security, supply into wider markets, and opportunity costs associated with avoiding social breakdown.