Making plurilateral negotiations support the multilateral trading system

WTO Public Forum 2021, Organizer Raymond Saner, CSEND-DD, Geneva

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BACKGROUND

This session focuses on the sub-theme of PF21, “Strengthening the Multilateral Trading System”. The panelists will assess how plurilateral
agreements and plurilateral initiatives could be fully mulilateralized or conclude that plurilaterals will remain outside the WTO context.

Speakers and the audience will be invited to ponder the following questions:

1.      To what extent is it possible to “multilateralize” plurilateralism today (20 years into the Doha  Round Negotiations with no agreement in sight
and increasing numbers of FTAs/RTAs)?

2.      What are the different “options” to negotiate plurilateral agreements   (with or without MFN)?

3.      What are the implications of plurilateral agreements for the multilateral trading system    (Leading to more integration or fragmentation of the trading system)?

4.      Besides Services, Environmental Goods, Investment, could other trade areas be negotiated  through plurilateral approaches? If so, which areas?

5.      What are the strategies and tactics available to developing and least developed countries in the negotiation of plurilateral agreements?

Private Military and Security Companies in Public Arenas

Private Military and Security Companies in Public Arenas, 12/11/2019
Raymond Saner, Amaka Uchegbu & Lichia Yiu

Over the last 20 years, proliferation can be observed of non-state actors in important areas of international relations, including trade, communication, finance, and security (Saner and Yiu, 2003). This blurring of public-private boundaries has made it harder to ensure that international humanitarian conventions and laws, such as the Geneva conventions, the conventions on the protection of refugees, and human rights laws, are respected and implemented by the signatory governments (Saner, 2015).

Nelson Mandela Human Rights Lecture

On the occasion of Nelson Mandela International Day, Albie Sachs, Former Judge of the South African Constitutional Court, and Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, reflect on today’s challenges to human rights and how to move the human rights agenda forward based on their personal experiences.

Source: The Graduate Institute Geneva

 

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UN Library Talk Event: “Discussion on the Evolution of Warfare”, UN Geneva, 5th December 2018

Armed conflicts, terrorism, and wars are increasing and international tensions are growing in many parts of the world. Governments are increasingly using Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) to do the war making and International Organisations and Transnational Companies employ them to secure their ships and staff from pirates, rebels and terrorist groups of all sorts. Violations of Human Rights by PMSC staff have been reported during the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Congo and other conflict zones of the world including through the use of armed drones and AI computer systems.