10 Health Questions about the Caucasus and Central Asia

Posts navigation

---

Free download. Book file PDF easily for everyone and every device. You can download and read online 10 Health Questions about the Caucasus and Central Asia file PDF Book only if you are registered here. And also you can download or read online all Book PDF file that related with 10 Health Questions about the Caucasus and Central Asia book. Happy reading 10 Health Questions about the Caucasus and Central Asia Bookeveryone. Download file Free Book PDF 10 Health Questions about the Caucasus and Central Asia at Complete PDF Library. This Book have some digital formats such us :paperbook, ebook, kindle, epub, fb2 and another formats. Here is The CompletePDF Book Library. It's free to register here to get Book file PDF 10 Health Questions about the Caucasus and Central Asia Pocket Guide.

The cases presented by countries has created the basis for a joint and supported international platform to prepare specific action programs to support the countries of EECCA. Dear members of EU Parliament, the European Commission and representatives of the international organizations!

Let me present to you a brief information on our role as a civil society organization in discovering and assessing the serious problem of the toxic burial ground in Armenia. And then I would like to ask you four questions.

Among the activities of our NGO the hazardous waste management is the most important one. Since we discovered the huge pesticides burial site in , we have been monitoring the situation, and informed the governmental bodies and interested stakeholders about the results of our investigations.

Abkhazia: The Long Road to Reconciliation

The problem of the burial ground has been in the centre of our attention for about for 10 years on end. During this period of time AWHHE did the sampling of soil, vegetations, water, breast milk and cow milk. The results have pointed to high and increasing concentrations of DDT and its metabolites as well as HCH in soil samples.

The analyses were done by a certificated laboratory in Yerevan. Most of these research results were alarming and were brought several times to the attention of the Armenian Government and the mass media. We did a lot of awareness rising. In , the Government undertook the temporary protective measures but they did not succeed to protect the local population and the environment from the high risks of the sliding toxic burial.

We are very happy that the European Parliament has put this emergency case on their agenda and we are grateful to Mr. John Vijgen for his strong initiative to discuss the possible action to be taken by EU and the international community support. I would like to give some more information from our last monitoring visit to the burial site a few days ago.

As you heard from Mr. The local population has limits on its free movement and other basic rights. Abkhaz leaders themselves speak of threats posed by the possible growth of Islamist radicalism. Concentrating on broader security threats, like stability in Gali and perceived terrorism risks, Georgia could also show good-will by suspending its annual efforts to secure resolutions at the UN General Assembly on the right of Georgian IDPs to return to their homes.

Georgian officials have shown a willingness to be more flexible on humanitarian issues, such as removing legal or bureaucratic hurdles for residents of Abkhazia to obtain visas, especially to study abroad.

Bestselling Series

The Abkhaz could respond by lifting barriers to mother tongue education for ethnic Georgians still living in the entity and increasing their presence in local administrative structures. All sides would benefit by seeking creative ways to facilitate trade and travel across the ABL for family visits, and trade, health or education purposes. The Abkhaz have over the past several months become more critical of the work of the EU, Western states and international NGOs, suspending some activities.

Sukhumi claims that this work is insignificant compared to Russian support and is disorganised, piecemeal and too focused on post-war emergency needs even though the situation has largely stabilised. However, this report concentrates on recent developments, and offers ways to establish some common ground that would benefit all sides. A subsequent separate report will deal with South Ossetia, which due to its much smaller size, idiosyncratic conflict history and extreme physical isolation deserves separate analysis. Informal trade is increasing between Georgia and the breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and between Abkhazia and countries outside the region.

But talks among them on mutually beneficial commerce could open lines of communication long cemented shut. Why did it happen? Abkhazia and South Ossetia use the Russian ruble. Its depreciation made imports more expensive. The breakaway regions want cheaper goods; de facto authorities want customs revenue. Why does it matter? Trade could improve livelihoods and build contacts between communities across conflict divides.

Creating a framework for formal trade — together with the increased informal commerce — could improve conditions in the breakaway regions and relations between them and Tbilisi, while opening opportunities for dialogue on areas of mutual benefit, even beyond trade. What should be done?

Tbilisi should offer to speak directly to the breakaway regions, which should develop their own proposals for trade. Use of confidential back channels could help.

Course contents

Nor have relations across dividing lines improved. In recent years, however, informal trade has grown between Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Russia recognized as independent in , and Georgian-controlled territory; so, too, has trade between Abkhazia and countries outside the region. In a departure from the past, stakeholders are quietly considering options for formalising aspects of trade.

In , Georgia and Russia intensified discussions on a trade corridor through South Ossetia, while the European Union began testing options for opening to Abkhaz businesses the free trade agreement it has with Georgia. Prospects of either initiative coming to fruition appear slim, but trade talks are worth pursuing.

Together with the present volume of informal commerce, such initiatives can help improve relations across dividing lines and conditions in the breakaway regions. Informal trade between those regions and Georgia proper is developing apace. Abkhaz and South Ossetian authorities seek to raise duties on trade across the conflict divides, despite nominally prohibiting it, as a means of tapping revenue streams independent of Russia. This trade is one of the few ways for people on either side of the conflict lines to forge links unburdened by politics.

Over , discussions of two initiatives for formalising trade also appeared to gather pace. The first initiative involves linking Russia and Georgia via a trade corridor through South Ossetia, a faster, wider and, in winter, safer route than the Kazbegi-Upper Lars mountain pass over which most cargo between the two countries travels today.

The idea originates in a agreement between Georgia and Russia, but Swiss-mediated talks on the corridor went nowhere until a landslide in late closed the Kazbegi-Upper Lars pass and trucking companies lobbied for an alternative. For South Ossetia, Russian business and Armenia — which relies on traversing Georgia for most of its foreign trade — the corridor would likely pay big economic dividends.

European officials have engaged over the past year with the Abkhaz leadership to discuss how that might work. Abkhaz businesses primarily seek cheap foreign imports and investment, which the DCFTA process might stimulate. That in turn would help the Abkhaz increase the quantity of their produce and ensure it meets European standards, thus also facilitating exports.

If the ultimate economic benefits of both initiatives are clear, so, too, are the political obstacles they confront.

Doing so would risk fierce domestic backlash, especially for Georgian and de facto authorities in the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi and the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali. Conversely, Moscow resists any alternative that might undercut either. For business and political elites in Sukhumi, who complain of being isolated beyond contacts with Russia, the core interest is in opening up the region to links beyond both Russia and Georgia.

Despite these obstacles, some recent signs are positive. In December , Tbilisi signed a contract with a Swiss company, known by its acronym, SGS, to monitor the South Ossetia trade corridor, one provision of the deal. In late May Moscow followed suit. In themselves these contracts do not open the corridor; Moscow and Tbilisi still need to resolve the customs and passport control issues, among others.

But were a landslide to again block the regular route — landslides are frequent in the mountains — this step might pave the way for an emergency fix through South Ossetia. Meanwhile, the Georgian parliament has started debating a new government proposal that, among other things, seeks to facilitate local trade across the conflict divides.

The initiative seeks to entice businesses from the breakaway regions to trade with Georgia proper. While it may also allow for some trade with the outside world, Abkhaz political and business leaders fear this will be done via Tbilisi, something they find unacceptable.

Having thus far rejected the initiative, Abkhaz leaders should come up with their own proposals. Tbilisi appears likely to be ready to engage in a discussion, though it does not want to lose all of its control over this conflict region. Status-neutral ideas that would help open up the region could form part of discrete discussions between Georgian and Abkhaz officials. All sides have cause to keep the door open.

• The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage
• Poetic Injustice
• Universal Exception
• Wave Propagation in Infinite Domains: With Applications to Structure Interaction (Lecture Notes in Applied and Computational Mechanics)
• Imperfect Unions: Security Institutions Over Time and Space
• Knowledge works : the handbook of practical ways to identify and solve common organizational problems for better performance
• Efficiency in Reaching the Millennium Development Goals (World Bank Working Papers)