The WTO, Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Raymond Saner (2024) “The WTO, Climate Change and Sustainable Development” (accepted for publication to be published as IJSD 2024 V27 N3)

The author contributes to the trade & environment debate that so far excluded theoretical concepts such as the principle of mutual supportiveness of international agreements, the insights of public goods theory, and a positive trade & environment agenda.

Based on the inclusion of these new concepts, an enlarged frame of trade, environment, and development is proposed which forms the basis for a reinterpretation of standard WTO articles making a more inclusive approach possible to stop climate change. For instance, the Local Content Requirement is discussed as a means to support citizens of developing countries to generate their renewable energy sources combined with a reinterpretation of Intellectual Property Rights to make the transfer of technology possible of renewable energy in the less developed parts of the world.

WHO and Health & Environment: Need to Rethink Role of Civil Society IN A NUTSHELL

By putting governments and WHO under critical lens as for current positions to counteract climate change-tied health & environment deterioration, this article condemns the ongoing exclusion of civil society (CSOs e NGOs) from far-reaching relevant decisions. Under these circumstances, solutions to secure factual cohesion with civil society organisations are envisaged. As the Author maintains ‘…

The Health & Environment nexus requires a real multi-stakeholder approach, not some unnamed heads of government that claim to represent the peoples of the world. The only sustainable approach is that of separate constituencies/stakeholders who develop solutions within their stakeholder group, and once they have formulated their own position, then to reach out to the other stakeholders. It does not make sense to have Civil Society be amalgamated into a government position nor be controlled and absorbed by an International Organisation…

Negotiating independence. Switzerland in 1647–48: Johann Rudolf Wettstein, mayor of the state (canton) of Basel City and negotiator for the Swiss Confederation

Raymond Saner, (2020) “Negotiating independence. Switzerland in 1647–48: Johann Rudolf Wettstein, mayor of the state (canton) of Basel City and negotiator for the Swiss Confederation”; Négociations 2020/1 (n° 33), pages 7 à 23 Éditions , De Boeck Supérieur.

This article recounts a historical negotiation success during the Westphalia negotiations in the 17th Century. Mr. Rudolf Wettstein, the then Mayor of Basel City, was able to single-handedly obtain exemptions for the Swiss cantons from being accountable to courts of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations (HRGE), amounting to a declaration of independence. As a first step, the author describes the historical context of the negotiations and subsequently the nego- tiation process involving multi-actor international negotiations during the peace negotiations at Westphalia which consisted of multi-actor internal negotiations within the Swiss Confederation and external multi-party negotiations with the leading powers who participated in the Westphalia negotiation process.

Human security psychology: a linking construct for an eclectic discipline

Darrin Hodgetts, Veronica Hopner, Daniel Bar-Tal, Israel James H. Liu, Raymond Saner, Lichia Yiu, John Horgan, Rosalind Searle, Gustavo Massola, Moh Abdul Hakim, Leo Marai, Fathali Moghaddam
Review of General Psychology. University of Glasgow, UK (Early Online Publication) (doi: 10.1177/10892680221109124), 2022; http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/272626/ ;

Abstract Since its inception as a modern and evolving discipline, psychology has been concerned with issues of human security. This think piece offers an initial conceptualization of human security as a broad security concept that encompasses a range of interrelated dimensions that have been responded to by different sub-disciplinary domains within psychology. We advance an argument for a human security psychology as a connecting focal point for general psychology that enables us to bring knowledge from across our eclectic discipline into further dialogue.

NGO Diplomacy to monitor and influence Business and Government to tackle Work Precariousness

Raymond Saner and Lichia Yiu “NGO Diplomacy to monitor and influence Business and Government to tackle Work Precariousness”, 2023. This book chapter focuses on the roles that Transnational Nongovernment Organizations (TNGOs) can perform, alongside psychologists whose jobs focus on work, labor relations, poverty reduction, development, and wellbeing, to help to tackle precarious work in all of these multifaceted forms (Saner & Yiu, 2012, 2014a). The chapter is based on the experience of the Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development (CSEND), a United Nations (UN)-accredited non-government organization (NGO), and its work to promote social progress around the world.