Piracy in Somalia: "The international community should also stand to protect small scale fishers against the plundering of their livelihoods"
(Bonn, 09.12.2008) The EU resolution to send a navy mission in the region of the Horn of Africa to fight pirates ignores that one of the causes of piracy is poverty. EED and its partner organizations in Africa point out that small fishers in the region are becoming increasingly impoverished.more
The people of Zimbabwe need more humanitarian assistance
(Bonn/Gaborone, 24.11.2008) The people in Zimbabwe are starving. We cannot wait for a political solution before food aid is going to be provided to the Zimbabwean people. “The world community has to help the people in Zimbabwe,” says Mrs. Claudia Warning, Director International Programmes of the Church Development Service (EED) in Germany.more
The G20s first Global Financial Summit is unlikely to control the financial crisis
(Bonn, 21.11.2008) The G8 are history. This is the first result of the Global Financial Summit of the G20 on 15.11.2008 in Washington. Beyond that, the summit somehow gave all actors what they wanted, the Wall Street and the City of London got the scope for further expansion of their money trade, the Europeans got stronger regulation, the emerging market countries got the blame for the crisis unloaded on to the rich countries and a strong stake in further decision making, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund got their role strengthened. As usual the Low Income Countries got the receiving end; they received affirmative and sympathetic words.more
40 years of Churches' Development Service
(Berlin, 16.10.2008) The Protestant churches in Germany have celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Churches' Development Service in commemoration of the adoption of the resolution of the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) from October 1968 that led to the foundation of the Churches' Development Service.more
Making Development more Effective
(Bonn, 28.08.2008) Delegates from about 150 countries are expected to participate in the „Third High Level Forum" (HLF3) on aid effectiveness in Accra, Ghana, from 30.8.-3.9.2008 and to its Civil Society Forum. The HLF3 will elaborate on and release the "Accra Agenda for Action (AAA)". This will be another step in a global aid reform process started in 1999 and well know under the term "Paris Declaration". HLF4 is foreseen for Beijing in 2004. As part of Civil Society's response to this process, EED, the Church Development Service, an Association of the Protestant Churches in Germany in cooperation with the Institute Südwind produced the working paper "Making Development More Effective".more
Demonstration at the Federal Association of German Plant Breeders
(19.05.2008) La Via Campesina, the international movement of farmers demonstrated on the first day of the UN conference on biodiversity in Bonn in front of the House of Plant Breeding against bio-piracy and patents on life.
Team: U. Sprenger / S. Schrade
Video Clip: German / English / Spanish
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Rural community of South Africa stands up against pelargonium-patents and biopiracy
(07.05.2008) The Alice community, living in the Eastern Cape area of South Africa, in close collaboration with the African Center for Biosafety and supported by the Berne Declaration (Switzerland), the Church Development Service (EED) and “Kein Patent auf Leben” (Germany), has challenged two European patents granted to the German company Schwabe Pharmaceuticals. Both patents are based on two pelargonium species that occur in the wild in South Africa. The Patents are seen as an illegitimate and illegal monopolisation of a genetic resource from Southern Africa and the traditional knowledge of the communities in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.more
Churches in Zimbabwe warn against a genocide
(28.04.2008) In view of the aggravating crisis three churches in Zimbabwe warn against a threatening genocide in the crisis-ridden country. In a common appeal they applied to the international community with the urgent request for assistance. This would be the only way to stop the escalation of violence and of the violation of human rights.more
Call upon the government of Pakistan to withdraw all cases against lawyers and activists
(16.04.2008) The Pakistan NGO Support Group urges the new government of Pakistan to immediately withdraw all the cases against lawyers, human rights defenders and political workers, because they were targeted for peaceful protest. Especially after March 9, 2007 and again after November 3, 2007, large numbers of lawyers, judges, human rights activists, journalists and politicians of the opposition parties were illegally detained, put under house arrest, were banned or disappeared, because they took part in the movement for the restoration of democracy and against the emergency.more
