Why human rights are important

At the launch of the “Empowering women for sustainable peace: preventing violence and promoting social cohesion in ASEAN” (Photo: asean.org) Jakarta (VNA) - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Canada and UN Women recently launched a five-year programme to expand and strengthen women’s leadership and participation in conflict prevention, resolution and recovery in Southeast Asia. The 8.5 million CAD (6.36 million USD) programme, “Empowering women for sustainable peace: preventing violence and promoting social cohesion in ASEAN”, is funded by Global Affairs Canada to support ASEAN and the implementation of the ASEAN-Canada Plan of Action 2021-2025, with the support of UN Women as a lead UN partner. “ Canada is proud to launch this flagship initiative that uses the women, peace and security approach to promote inclusive and sustainable peace and security in the region, while addressing the systemic gender inequality,” said Diedrah Kelly, Canada’s Ambassador to ASEAN . ASEAN has made important strides to advance women, peace and security agenda, including the adoption of the first ‘Joint Statement on Promoting Women, Peace and Security in ASEAN’ in 2017, the launch of the ASEAN Women’s Peace Registry in 2018, and convening the first ASEAN Symposium on Women, Peace and Security in 2019 and the ASEAN Ministerial Dialogue on Strengthening Women’s role for Sustainable Peace and Security in 2020. Secretary-General of ASEAN Dato Lim Jock Hoi said, “ASEAN is working concertedly to advance women, peace and security agenda across the three ASEAN Community Pillars as part of our commitment to promote gender equality and the roles of women in the implementation of the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework.” The COVID-19 impact has increased the risks for women and girls in fragile and conflict-affected contexts and this challenges us to re-examine threats to human security. “The pandemic highlights the important linkage between peace, …

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The Hanoitimes - Hanoi identifies the logistics sector essential to meet the demand of nearly 300,000 enterprises in the city and further support the its socio-economic development process. Hanoi plans to have a total of 10 logistics centers, and the city has approved investment plans for six, other three are under research and one is looking for investors, according to Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Van Suu. Overview of the dialouge. Photo: Thanh Hai. With nearly 300,000 operational enterprises, logistics services play a key role for Hanoi’s development, stated Mr. Suu at a high-level panel dialogue in the Vietnam Logistics Forum 2020 held on November 26. In Hanoi’s annual investment conferences, the city has always been calling for investments for logistics centers, he added. In addition to the development of inland container depot (ICD), one of Hanoi’s advantages is a network of major rivers, so that the city is planning to build a network of container ports to boost inland waterway transportation, Mr. Suu informed. Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said the ministry and Hanoi’s authorities would continue to cooperate to realize the goal of turning Hanoi into a logistics hub of not only Vietnam but also the region. As the city is pushing for the development of transport infrastructure, logistics services and innovative startups, Mr. Anh said Hanoi could become an example for other provinces and cities in taking logistics as a driving force for socio-economic development. Overview of the dialouge. Photo: Thanh Hai. Staying central in new regional supply chains To further support the development of logistics companies, Deputy Minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai said customs authorities are applying new technologies to save costs and time for the business community, including the recent deployment of GPS positioning seal system to track all import-export shipments transported …

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On behalf of the real estate enterprises, Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HOREA), said that compared to the previous year, there was an additional petition of Gamuda Land Joint Stock Company. The petition states that while waiting for the Prime Minister to decide on a VND514-billion deduction following the recommendations of the Government Inspectorate, over the past time, construction investment and business activities of the company have been stagnant, affecting the reputation and brand of this company in 10 years of operation in Vietnam. As for the matter of social housing, Mr. Le Huu Nghia, CEO of real estate developer Le Thanh, said that they were considering whether to develop social housing again. Because of too many difficult procedures, many people advised him to play safe by switching to develop commercial real estate. At the Le Thanh Tan Kien social housing project in Binh Chanh District, although the HCMC People's Committee had directly instructed to remove obstacles, after three years of implementing the project, now it backs to square one. Although the regulation for the processing time of the application by authorities is 215 days, in fact, the processing of the application can take a lot longer than that because the application must be transferred between departments and districts. Even a document from the urban management office to the district People's Committee takes several months. Moreover, although the social housing projects are invested by enterprises from start to finish, they are audited as projects using capital from the State budget. Meanwhile, the auditors are too strict. They slap them with high fines on petty mistakes, discouraging investors, Mr. Le Huu Nghia explained. Le Thanh Company is one of 20 enterprises that have petitioned the city through the summary of HOREA. This list shows that many petitions had been raised by investors at meetings with the city leaders in the past years, …

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