[bestbits] Argentina bars NGOs, civil society from attending WTO conference

[Norbert Bollow]

On Sun, 3 Dec 2017 16:44:18 -0300
Renata Aquino Ribeiro <raquino at gmail.com> wrote:

> It's really incredible
> 
> Civil Society is "disruptive and violent" according to Argentina
> government
> 
> http://www.mrecic.gov.ar/sobre-la-acreditacion-de-ongs-la-conferencia-ministerial-de-la-omc-en-buenos-aires

Ouch! By any reasonable standard, that kind of libel is outright
criminal.

I'm happy to note that OWINFS has sent a strongly-worded followup
letter to the WTO Secretary-General.

http://ourworldisnotforsale.net/owinfs-disaccreditation-followup

Greetings,
Norbert


> On Sun, Dec 3, 2017 at 3:11 PM, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:
> > Further to this topic of civil society disaccreditation for the WTO
> > Ministerial... here's a TV interview which puts these developments
> > into context, with an IMO quite brilliant explanation (by Deborah
> > James) of what is going on at the WTO and why this issue of
> > disaccreditation matters so much.
> >
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR5solRTa8A
> >
> > (Also see the Our World Is Not For Sale website
> > http://ourworldisnotforsale.net )
> >
> > Nota bene, this disaccreditation issue in not about civil society
> > being blocked from formal participation in the substantive
> > discourse (that was never possible at WTO in the first place, see
> > the Call for Openness and Transparency in Rulemaking for the
> > Internet in regard to that: wto-ic.justnetcoalition.org ), but
> > about civil society being even denied the opportunity to meet with
> > the decision-makers.
> >
> > This is as if citizens and civil society organizations were suddenly
> > denied all opportunities for meeting with members of parliament, for
> > reasons that citizens and civil society organizations have interests
> > and concerns which are at odds with those of multinational
> > corporations!
> >
> > Greetings,
> > Norbert
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, 1 Dec 2017 14:41:57 +0100
> > Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:
> >  
> >> On Thu, 30 Nov 2017 15:28:49 -0300
> >> Renata Aquino Ribeiro <raquino at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>  
> >> > A list of a few of the 31 denied accreditation is here
> >> >
> >> > http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/in-a-bizarre-move-argentina-bars-ngos-civil-society-from-attending-wto-conference-59254
> >> >
> >> > Apparently the number keeps going up and could have doubled
> >> > already  
> >>
> >> Indeed. The “Our World is not for Sale” (OWINFS) network is
> >> reporting that they know of 63 civil society folks who had already
> >> been accredited by WTO, but who are now rejected by Argentia.
> >>
> >> http://ourworldisnotforsale.net/
> >>
> >> Greetings,
> >> Norbert