Agenda: To identify and popularize actions that support a transition to a global system of rules and institutions designed to act at the global level to ensure universal rights and protect the integrity of the biosphere and act at all levels to ensure that decisions are taken at the most local level feasible and that the rights of regions to pursue diverse paths are protected.

Norway, the land of Brundtland and sustainable development, has just released a white paper which sets a new standard for government guidance on corporate social responsibility, write Teresa Fogelberg and Paul Hohnen.

Though the proportion of women in national assemblies still barely scrapes 16% on average, the striking outliers-Rwanda with 49% of its assembly female, Argentina with 35%, Liberia and Chile with new women presidents this year-have raised expectations that there is an upward trend in women's representation from which we may expect big changes in the quality of governance. But getting into public office is just the first step in the challenge of creating governance and accountability systems that respond to women's needs and protect the rights.

An eminent law professor and legal theorist, Bakan contends that the corporation is created by law to function much like a psychopathic personality whose destructive behavior, if left unchecked, leads to scandal and ruin.

Responding to the invitation by the Human Rights Council for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises to submit his views and recommendations for its consideration, this report presents a conceptual and policy framework to anchor the business and human rights debate, and to help guide all relevant actors. The framework comprises three core principles: the State duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business; the corporate responsibility to respect human rights; and the need for more effective access to remedies. The three principles form a complementary whole in that each supports the others in achieving sustainable progress.

This is an accessible guide written for nonspecialists including local union officers and management representatives, stewards, rank-and-file activists and students of labor. 418 pages paperback

Our only chance to save the planet and take back control of our economy and political system lies in our ability to control our dollars. In a brilliant synthesis of thirty years of experience, John C. Harrington gives investors the strategies to thwart corporate domination of the earth's resources, decentralize our economy, restore democracy, tame corruption, and regain community control of our financial resources.

In this powerful book, eminent social scientist Riane Eisler, author of the mega-bestseller The Chalice and the Blade, shows that the great problems of our time — such as poverty, inequality, war, terrorism, and environmental degradation — are due largely to flawed economic systems that set the wrong priorities and misallocate resources. Conventional economic models fail to value and support the most essential human work — caring and caregiving — so basic human needs are increasingly neglected, despair and ecological destruction escalate, and the resulting social tensions fuel many of the conflicts we face today.