Social Watch launches its 2008 report in the European Parliament

Brussels, 09/01/09: Social Watch – an international network that monitors poverty eradication and gender equality – emphasised Human Rights as key to eradicating poverty in their most recent report launched yesterday at the European Parliament, in the presence of Luisa Morgantini, Vice-President of the European Parliament. As Roberto Bissio, the coordinator of Social Watch stated, ‘Human Rights have been violated as a direct consequence of the same global economic order that has created the financial crisis.’ Social Watch, that has developed a measure known as the "basic capabilities index" to assess the level of hardship throughout the world, finds that 80 countries -- home to half the world's population -- fare badly when measuring three very basic criteria: the number of children who die before their fifth birthday, the proportion of children who complete primary education, and the proportion of births that are attended by trained midwives or other medical professionals.

• Find more about Social Watch Report 2008: ‘Rights is the answer’: www.socialwatch.org
• Click here to read an IPS article about the launch
• Click here to read the press release from the launch
• Click here to see some more pictures in our photo library