Glossary: Glossary

ALUC

Association Luxembourgeoise des Universitaires Catholiques

Civil society

Refers generally to groups of people / organisations who aim to work together for the benefit of individual citizens or society as a whole (not including government). for examples of types of civil society groups, visit Wikipedia

CONGO

Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations www.ngocongo.org

Consultative Status

NGOs may be admitted into a mutually beneficial working relationship with the United Nations by attaining consultative status.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheet - A standard for specifying the appearance of text and other elements. CSS was developed for use with HTML in Web pages but is also used in other situations, notably in applications built using XPFE. CSS is typically used to provide a single "library" of styles that are used over and over throughout a large number of related documents, as in a web site. A CSS file might specify that all numbered lists are to appear in italics. By changing that single specification the look of a large number of documents can be easily changed.

DPI

The Department of Public Information of the United Nations

ECOSOC

The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations

EEUU

Estados Unidos de América

GCAP

Global Call for Action against Poverty

GDP

Gross Domestic Product - The total monetary value of goods and services produced within a country over a year. It may be used to determine the wealth of a country, but is less widely used than the Gross National Product (GNP)

GNP

Gross National Product - The most commonly used measurement of the wealth of a country. The GNP is the total value of goods and services produced within a country together with income received from other countries (notably interest and dividend payments, minus similar payments made to other countries). For many developing countries, interest and dividend payments to foreigners are normally more than similar receipts. In these circumstances, the national product is less than the domestic product. The concepts may be expressed either in gross or net terms. For the latter, a deduction is made for the capital assets used up in producing the goods and services sold. Net national product is often referred to as National Income, the sum of all income received in a given year. It is equal to GNP less depreciation. For comparative purposes GNP is frequently expressed as a per capita figure, the total GNP divided by the number of people in the population.

HDI

Human Development Index - An annual assessment of the progress of nations in improving living standards. The indices are produced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and follow the assumption that economic growth does not necessarily equate to human development and improved well-being. The reports assess the actual impact of development on people, rather than using the Gross National Product (GNP) which is based purely on financial information like income and savings, commodity production and the accumulation of capital. The HDI includes factors like life expectancy and access to education, in the belief that human development requires both economic growth and an equitable distribution of income and resources. The HDI is a basic aggregate of 3 indicators: life expectancy is used to determine longevity; adult literacy and years of schooling to estimate knowledge; and GDP per person as a means of gauging command over resources.

HR

Human Rights

Human Rights

Privileges claimed or enjoyed by every human being by virtue of being human. The concept developed from the Roman idea of 'natural law'. Early milestones in establishing human rights include the British Magna Carta (1215), Habeas Corpus Act (1679) and Bill of Rights (1689). None of these were as fundamentally comprehensive as the US Bill of Rights (1788) or France's Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789). During the nineteenth century, human rights began to be enshrined in international law, best illustrated by the Geneva Conventions, a series of treaties which governed the humane treatment of civilians, soldiers and prisoners during times of war. The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948. It stated that people have the right to life, liberty and education; to freedom of movement, religion, association and information; to a nationality and to equality before the law. Many nations still deny their citizens basic rights.

IBRD

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or World Bank

ICMICA

International Catholic Movement for Intellectual & Cultural Affaris

ICOs

International Catholic Organizations

ICT

Information and Communication Technology

ILO

International Labour Organisation

IMBISA

The Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa, known as IMBISA is an organ of Liaison and Pastoral Cooperation between Episcopal Conferences of Angola and São Tome & Principe (CEAST), Lesotho (LCBC), Mozambique (CEM), Namibia (NCBC), South Africa which is made up of Botswana, South Africa and Swaziland (SACBC) and Zimbabwe (ZCBC).

IMCS

International Movement of Catholic Students

IMF

International Monetary Fund

INGO

International Non-Government Organisations

IYCS

International Young Catholic Students

KIK

Klub Inteligencji Katolickiej

MDG

Millennium Development Goals

MIEC

Mouvement International des Etudiants Catholiques, Movimento Internacional de Estudantes Católicos

MIIC

Mouvement Catholique International Pour les Affaires Intellectuelles et Culturelles, Movimiento Internacional de Intelectuales Católicos

MIJARC

Movimiento Internacional de la Juventud Agraría y Rural Católica, International Movement of Catholic Agricultural and Rural Youth, Internationale Katholische Land- und Bauernjugendbewegung

MIJC

Mouvement International de Juristes Catholiques, Movimiento Internacional de Juristas Católicos

NGO

Non-Governmental Organizations - Organizations that do not belong to, and are not associated with, national or local governments.

OAU

Organization of African Unity

OECD

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

PA

Plenary Assembly - The highest decision making body in Pax Romana ICMICA.

SIAC

International Secretariat of Christian Artist

SIESC

International Secretariat of Catholic Secondaty School Teachers

SIIAEC

International Secretariat for Catholic Engineers, Agronomists and Industry Officials

SIJC

International Movement/Secretariat of Catholic Jurists

SIQS

International Secretariat for Scientific Questions

Sustainable Development

Ultimately, all economic development depends on the earth's natural resource base. It is the primary biological production generated by photosynthesis that sustains the human race and virtually every other life form. Maintaining this biological productivity is therefore the key to sustainability. It is also crucial that the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. That is why sustainable development implies limits. To be 'sustainable', development must meet human needs without depleting resources or irrevocably damaging the systems which produce those resources. Under present conditions, organic matter equivalent to 40%% of the primary production of the earth's ecosystems is being consumed by humans. If the world population doubles humans will devour as much biological material as is produced each year. At this level of exploitation the quality of the environment and, consequently, of human life will quickly decline. The World Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainable development as a 'process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations'.

TBC

To be confirmed

TNCs

Transnational Corporations

TRIPS

Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights

UBUNTU

World Forum of Civil Society Networks and the World Campaign for In-Depth Reform of the System of International Institutions

UN

United Nations

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNPO

Unrepresented Nations and People's Organization

URI

Uniform Resource Identifier - An address for s resource available on the Internet. The first part of a URI is called the "scheme". the most well known scheme is http, but there are many others. Each URI scheme has its own format for how a URI should appear.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator - The term URL is basically synonymous with URI. URI has replaced URL in technical specifications.

USA

United States of America

WCAR

World Conference Against Racism

WSIS

World Summit on the Information Society

WSSD

World Summit on Sustainable Development

WTO

World Trade Organisation

XML

eXtensible Markup Language - A widely used system for defining data formats. XML provides a very rich system to define complex documents and data structures such as invoices, molecular data, news feeds, glossaries, inventory descriptions, real estate properties, etc.