Erstellt am: 2. 12. 2011 - 14:04 Uhr

Civil war in Syria, despite sanctions and strong talk

Reality Check: Syria, Climate change conference, FIFA scandal, Russia elections, "End Exclusion".

Syria has descended into civil war, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. Now that the army has split, and troops are fighting each other, it has moved on from the situation of government repression of civilians into something even more volatile.

The UN Human Rights Committee is having an emergency meeting to discuss Syria, but it is unclear what can be done from the outside. Sanctions have already been imposed, and have had little effect, and there is no organised opposition to the regime for the International Community to support. In Libya, there was the Transitional Council which acted as a negotiating partner and a focus for the opposition, but there is no such organisation in Syria.

Regional expert, Rosemary Hollis says the one country that might be able to negotiate with President Assad's regime is Russia, but they are unlikely to want to get involved. She told Steve Crilley that from the Russian point of view there is a contradiction between delivering dictators to The Hague for trial, while using military intervention to try to stabilise the countries in question.

Climate Change needs local approach

As usual, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa, looks unlikely to come up with any results. There will continue to be lots of talk and very little action. US negotiator Todd Stern put it "the most effective thing that we can do to address climate change is for all relevant countries to act vigorously at home". One country that is already taking that principle on board is Australia. Chris Cummins met WWF's Jonathon Larkin in Sydney who explained why Australia is seen as a front-line in the battle against climate change.

Transparency International drops FIFA

Transparency International, which was overseeing its anti-corruption campaign, has severed ties with the football organisation.

It says the investigation would be compromised by the employment of Swiss anti-corruption expert Mark Peith to head the investigation.

However, Jens Andersen of Play the Game, says the move by TI is symptomatic of much deeper problems at FIFA, and that Sepp Blatter should stand down to give the enquiry and hope of credibility with the public. He also says that governments could bring pressure to bear on FIFA by withholding sponsorships to football until the corruption allegations have been resolved.

Russia votes on Sunday

Russians go to the polls on Sunday in parliamentary elections that are likely to return Vladimir Putin's United Russia party to power, albeit with a reduced majority. Our Moscow correspondent, Karen Percy, looks at the mood of the opposition and the way people are responding to the likely Putin win.

End Exclusion

Today is the International Day of People with Disabilities, and Gennie Johnson has been finding out about the project by Licht für die Welt called "End Exclusion - Let's enable the Millennium Development Goals", that highlights the relationship between disabilities and poverty.

FM4 Reality Check

Monday to Friday from 12.00 to 14.00, and after the show via Podcast or fm4.orf.at/realitycheck.