NGOs

Updated August 18, 2010 17:02:23 - The Pacific Islands Association of Non-government Organisations has welcomed comments by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General calling for more dialogue with civil society. In the lead-up to the Pacific Island leaders meeting in Port Vila civil society organisations were critical of the forum secretariat for failing to consult them. Earlier on Pacific Beat, Forum Secretary General, Tuiloma Neroni Slade, acknowledged the enormous grassroots skills, knowledge and staying power of civil society organisations and called on regional bodies to build a partnership with them.

When the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meet in Vanuatu in August, they would be expected to spend a fair amount of time discussing the region's progress towards a free trade agreement.

The High Court of Australia will this week hear a case about freedom of speech and the role of public watchdogs. It is a case, somewhat surprisingly, about tax law, but in a modern capitalist society, this means it is very much about our understanding of democracy. In fact, the outcome will affect Australians' understanding of freedom of speech, the role of government and the nature of political activism.

5 March 2010 - Environmentalists argue that what began as an initiative to clean up dirty palm oil production practices, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has become little more than an NGO-endorsed greenwashing tool. Rebecca Zhou, of Reportage/enviro reports.

January 1, 2010 - A senior United Nations AIDS official says the AIDS pandemic in Papua New Guinea is pushing the health system to near collapse and wants Australia to work closer with health authorities to combat the virus spread.

Carbon offset schemes like REDD have been a big part of the Copenhagen negotiations so far, but in practice they can go horribly wrong, reports Angela Dewan.

World leaders are using the financial crisis as an excuse to scale down foreign aid, relief organisation Caritas International says.

The Australian Government has refused calls from doctors working on the troubled Thai-Burma border to direct more aid to the region, writes Alex Lewis