Suchergebnisse

This memorandum is a summary of a 32 page study prepared by O'Connor and Company which sets forth the major legal issues in connection with the WTO legality of the EC's sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) legislation as well as the traceability rules to come into force on 1 January 2005. The legislation concerned consists mainly of traceability requirements, conditions for equivalency of the SPS standards of third countries and mutual recognition agreements. In conclusion, the study suggest that the EC legislation can be assumed to hinder trade, but it is not clear that all aspects of the rules are inconsistent with WTO rules. The study concludes that in order to challenge the traceability rules and those aspects of the SPS rules which are inconsistent with the WTO agreements the ACP group should take advantage of the opportunities offered by the current WTO rules and of a favourable negotiating context (the EPA and Doha negotiations), rather than pursuing WTO dispute settlement.

The co-operation framework adopted in 2000 between the European Union and 77 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) identifies political dialogue and governance conditionality as the core strategies for promoting democracy and anchoring the rule of law in developing countries. However, the mechanisms for suspending aid on political grounds, originally introduced in 1995, remain largely understudied and unevaluated. This article sets out to review the policies and strategies of the European Community aimed at responding to the crisis of governance and preventing conflict. It explores the difficult combination of democracy assistance and governance conditionality to prevent democratic regression in politically fragile countries by reviewing the European Community's response to crises of governance in Niger, Haiti, Côte d'Ivoire and Fiji. It argues that, although offering appropriate responses to abrupt interruptions in democratization processes, traditional forms of political conditionality have proved largely inadequate for responding to the gradual corrosion of governance and the decay of democracy. Furthermore, conducting structured political dialogue puts further demands on the management of aid, as it converts foreign aid into a highly political endeavour. This article concludes with a set of proposals for enhancing the political coherence of EC political dialogue and governance conditionality. (Democratization - www.frankcass.com/DÜI)

Since the first identification of HIV/Aids in Uganda in 1981, at Kasensero and Rukunyi locations of Rakai District on the shores of Lake Victoria, the government of Uganda has demonstrated an open and supportive response to the epidemic. The Uganda Aids Control Programme (ACP) was established in 1986 with a mandate to control the spread of HIV and to assist people and families infected and affected by HIV/Aids. In 1991 the Ugandan government adopted a multi-sectoral approach to fighting HIV/Aids by establishing the Uganda Aids Commission (UAC). Despite these efforts HIV/Aids has continued to seriously affect Uganda. At the beginning of 1998 an estimated 800,000 people out of a population of 17 million were HIV-positive. This included at least 25,000 children. By 2002 approximately two million out of a population of twenty-two million were thought to be infected. Most are between 15 and 35 years old, Thus the epidemic affects the most productive age group and greatly hinders development. Uganda has a mainly young population with a tremendous dependency burden. The economy is based on labour-intensive agriculture with the agrarian sector contributing 54 percent of GDP and accounting for 90 percent of exports (MFPED 1998). The terrible irony of Aids is that HIV infection is concentrated in the countries that are least able to cope with the sickness, death and loss of productivity it brings. Close to 90 percent of all people with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries. Yet these countries account for a mere eight percent of global economic production. Moreover the gap between rich and poor countries with regard to HIV/Aids is increasing. Investment in HIV prevention and access to expensive life-prolonging drugs are cutting new infection rates and progression to Aids in industrialised countries, but in the developing world infection rates are still on the rise, and drugs to slow the progression from HIV to Aids are largely unavailable. In Uganda the rural labour force is expected to fall by two million by the year 2010 due to Aids (Stover 1990). The loss of so much of the economically most active population, along with their skills and experience, further increases the de ple left behind are unable to contribute meaningfully to economic activity.