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UNHCR on Refugee Situation in Yemen

The UNHCR has renewed its appeal to Yemeni authorities to keep the country’s doors open to people fleeing from their own countries out of fear of persecution.  The UN reports that in this year alone, tens of thousands of refugees from Ethiopia and Somalia have entered Yemen through people smuggling operations.  Yemen has been receptive to such migrants in the past, but recently has begun to detain and deport non-Somalis.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20996&Cr=yemen&Cr1=

Digest

UN Resolution on Human Rights Abuses

On Tuesday, December 19, the United Nations adopted resolutions expressing serious concern over the human rights situation in Iran, North Korea, and Belarus.

More information on the resolutions is available here.

Press coverage of the resolution on Iran is here.

Digest

European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance Issues Statement on Treatment of Georgians in Russian Federation

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance has issued a statement expressing “deep concern” over the Russian Federation’s treatment of ethnic Georgians, which has included repeated, discrimnatory detentions and deportations. The Commission called on Russia to maintain the rule of law in dealing with minority groups.

For the full text of the statement, see here.

Digest

Mercosur Establishes Parliament

Mercosur inaugurated its new parliamentary body on Thursday in Brazil, fulfilling a plan set forth at a December 2004 presidential summit among the member-nations. The first official session of the Mercosur Parliament will be held on March 2007 in Montevideo, where it will be seated. A transitional phase, during which each member-nation will have 18 representatives elected by their national legislatures in the Parliament, will last until 2010. The goal of this phase is to draft an operational agenda toward the long-term goal of integrative legislation for Mercosur nations.

http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/vernoticia.do?id=9444&formato=HTML

Digest

New WTO Transparency Mechanism on Regional Trade Agreements

The WTO General Council agreed on December 14 to implement a provisional transparency mechanism with regard to regional trade agreements (RTA). Under the new regime, members will make both early announcements of RTA negotiations and early notifications of concluded RTAs. The WTO Secretariat will then make a factual presentation of the RTA to WTO members for their consideration consideration.  To examine the mechanism in its entirety, see http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news06_e/rta_15dec06_e.htm.

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