Trade: North-South battle at WTO over "level playing field" issues (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
The facilitator overseeing the World Trade Organization reform track on "level playing field (LPF) issues" has scheduled a meeting for 24 September, in what appears to be a move aimed at creating new disciplines on transparency, notifications, industrial subsidies, and state-owned enterprises that are seemingly based on the "trilateral agenda" of the United States, the European Union, and Japan, among others.

UN: Unilateral sanctions expand amid eroding multilateralism (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Penang)
Use of unilateral coercive measures has expanded amid weakening confidence in collective multilateral mechanisms, according to Zaina Jallad, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights.

UN: "Deafening silence" as Afghans face deepening oppression (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Penang)
Denouncing the Taliban's raft of oppressive restrictions imposed on women and girls in Afghanistan, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, urged renewed international pressure on the de facto authorities to meet their obligations under international law.