International Events

Any event that involves two or more nations.

Cadbury Goes Fair Trade

- Fono 3 Comments

If you’ll excuse for a moment while I pander to corporate interests, I think it’s worth noting that Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate bar will now be made from certified fair trade cocoa. This is great to hear, because this is a huge product from a huge company, and it’s another big step towards a world in which consumers have no excuse not to know about fair trade.

Cadbury and the Fairtrade Foundation today announced plans to achieve Fairtrade certification for Cadbury Dairy Milk, the nation’s top selling chocolate bar, by end of Summer 2009. This groundbreaking move will result in the tripling of sales of cocoa under Fairtrade terms for cocoa farmers in Ghana, both increasing Fairtrade cocoa sales for existing certified farming groups, as well as opening up new opportunities for thousands more farmers to benefit from the Fairtrade system.

The press release doesn’t indicate which countries the change will take effect in, but the UK and Canada are definitely included.

Read the press release on the Fairtrade Foundation website.

Vaginal Gel Cuts HIV Infections by Half

- Adam Clare

The International Aids Conference is currently underway in Vienna right now and some exciting news has been announced there. A new vaginal gel containing an AIDs drug is excellent at curtailing HIV infections.

The gel was found to be both safe and acceptable when used once in the 12 hours before sex and once in the 12 hours after sex by women aged 18 to 40 years.

Salim Abdool Karim, one of the two leading co-researchers, told reporters in Vienna that the 889 women involved in the trial, conducted in the coastal city of Durban and a remote rural village, had largely used the gel as directed.

They were also given condoms and advice about sexually transmitted diseases, and tested for HIV once a month.

After 30 months, 98 women became infected with HIV – 38 in the group that got tenofovir in the gel and 60 in the group that got placebos.

G(irls)20

- Adam Clare

Teh G(irls)20 has started in Toronto, the first of many G20 related events for people by the people. The best news of all? These summits don’t $1 billion in security preparations. We’ve looked at the G(irls)20 before, but here’s more info on it:

The event, organized by the Belinda Stronach Foundation, has brought together young women from the 20 countries represented at the G20, plus one representative from the African Union. Travel and accommodation for the delegates is being covered by sponsors.

Held in downtown Toronto as the city girds itself for the large international G20 summit, the event aims to brainstorm solutions, from a young female perspective, to the world’s problems. Their ideas will then be made public, with hopes of influencing the world leaders before they begin official talks at both the G8 and G20.

Read more at the CBC

A Summit for People About People

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

The G20 are coming to Toronto and it’s costing Canadian’s more than $1 billion in security costs, plus even more in lost productivity and wages. As a contrast to that, there are a series of events happening during the G20 conference that cost a heck of a lot less that brings together leaders of the world.

These leaders are getting together to ensure that at least on some level, people’s concerns are put ahead of corporate concerns.

Take, for example, the Council of Canadians (COC) public Shout-out for Global Justice on June 25.

Relocated to Massey Hall from the University of Toronto because the latter will be shut down for security reasons, it gathers prominent international speakers such as COC chair Maude Barlow, author-activist Naomi Klein and Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman who will call for climate, water, economic and social justice.

“These really are world leaders coming together — and we’re doing it for less than a billion dollars,” says Mark Calzavara, COC’s regional organizer for Ontario and Quebec.

Keep reading at the Star.

As a bonus, these alternative summits don’t need fences!

The 2010 People’s Summit

- Adam Clare

The G8 and the G20 are coming to Toronto this month and they are effectively shutting down the city (yes, that’s bad news). For a good spin on things, The People’s Summit will be happening as a “counter summit” to the G20’s and bring people from many walks of life together to make the world a better place.

The 2010 People’s Summit is civil society’s alternative “counter Summit” to the G8 and G20 Summits happening in Huntsville and Toronto this June 25th – 27th. Together we will create a space where diverse local and international movements can democratically organize to advocate and educate for global justice.

Community organizers, activists, non-governmental organizations, independent media, workers, impacted communities, artists – the people – converge this June to work together to educate, empower and ignite the positive change we would like to see in our world.

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