Date: Wednesday 15 July, 4.30-6.30pm

Venue: Committee Room 12, Palace of Westminster, London SW1A 0AA

Please use Cromwell Green Visitors' Entrance which is marked no. 6 on this map:

http://www.parliament.uk/documentsuploadcolmap.pdf

Speakers include:

• Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP, Olympics Minister
• Tim Yeo MP, Chair, Environmental Audit Committee
• Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent, The Financial Times
• Kulveer Ranger, Director of Transport Policy, Mayor of London
• Jo Willacy, Director, Shuttle Services, Eurotunnel
• Stephen Twigg, Director, Foreign Policy Centre

In an increasingly interconnected world, universal and inclusive sustainable development is no longer just an option, it is an imperative. Can major international sporting events such as the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the London 2012 Olympics champion the development of environmental sustainability and promote universal access and inclusion?

At this Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) Westminster seminar, the question of how major international sporting championships can move beyond the iconic infrastructure which so often symbolises such events, towards successfully promoting a practical agenda for action and change with sustainability, access and inclusion as achievable outcomes. This seminar will provide a platform for the promotion and discussion of ideas which will help inform the development of a Sustainability Charter.

If you would like to attend, please email: events@fpc.org.uk

On 30 June, the Foreign Policy Centre, in partnership with Stop Child Executions, launched a major new report entitled, 'From Cradle to Coffin: A Report on Child Executions in Iran', at an event with speakers including the FCO Minister Ivan Lewis MP and Alistair Carmichael MP, Chair of the APPG for the Abolition of the Death Penalty.

Written by Nazanin Afshin-Jam, President of Stop Child Executions, her team and Tahirih Danesh, an FPC Senior Research Associate, the report aims to provide a comprehensive documentation and analysis of Iran's executions of minors since the 1979 Revolution. It highlights inconsistencies in the Iranian legal system, as well as contradictions between Iran's record of executing minors and its international human rights commitments. The report also puts forward clear recommendations for action by the international community and human rights campaigners.

• Click here to download a copy of the report in English
• Click here to download the executive summary in Persian
• Click here to download the recommendations in Persian

The Foreign Policy Centre, with the support of Abbott UK, hosted a series of three expert roundtable discussions during 2008, to discuss and identify concrete and practical ways in which the lives of African women and girls affected by HIV/AIDS could be transformed. The areas of discussion and analysis included: building sustainable healthcare systems, the prevention of mother-to-child transmission and child survival, and overcoming stigma and discrimination.

On Tuesday 5 May, a new FPC report which brings together the discussions and conclusions from all three roundtables was launched in Westminster. The report also makes some concrete recommendations for action. The launch event featured a keynote speech from Ivan Lewis MP, the DFID Minister, as well as contributions from some of the roundtable participants.

• Read the report

by Chris Phillips

Foreign Policy Centre Associate Chris Philips argues, in an article for www.majalla.com, that Syria's link to Iran gives it regional status and leverage that it is unlikely to be willing to fully relinquish in order to regain the Golan or improve relations with the West.

• Syria-Iran Bridge

by Alexander Jackson

As part of our continuing series of Fresh Insights papers that give younger writers the opportunity to publish, FPC Associate Alexander Jackson gives us his take on the ongoing challenges facing Moldova and Transdniestra.

• Finding the way forward for Moldova and Transdniestra