Although the lives of women have greatly changed due to demographic, technological and educational factors, the traditional discriminatory ideas about employing women outside the home have hardly evolved at all.

Whereas within the advanced economies the trend has been towards greater economic and social equality, in the developing world development is tending to create new economic and social inequalities. In a general way, the developed countries are more egalitarian than the undeveloped because all classes of the population are better integrated into economic and social life, whereas in the less developed countries the obstacles to equality in education and the many forms of discrimination prevent certain groups from competing equitably with the others.

Chemical agents of warfare include all gaseous, liquid or solid chemical substances which might be employed because of their direct toxic effects on man and animals. (This excludes substances whose effect is primarily physical, such as incendiary weapons, high explosives and smoke). Chemical weapons also include the chemical's precursors, the munitions and devices designed to deliver them, and any equipment specifically designed for their use in warfare.

Nerve agents (chemicals of the same family as organophosphorus insecticides) are the most lethal of the classical chemical warfare agents, killing by poisoning the nervous system and disrupting bodily functions. Blister agents (such as mustard gas) burn and blister the skin (causing more casualties than any other agent in the first world war). Vesicants are blistering and tissue-injuring agents which produce injuries similar to burns, although the mechanism behind the injury is different. Choking agents (such as phosgene) are highly volatile liquids. Toxins (such as mycotoxins and botulin toxin) are biological substances chemical substances produced biologically (although many of them have also been synthesized) which are very highly toxic. Tear gas and harassing agents are sensory irritants causing pain in the eyes, tear flow, and severe irritation of the upper respiratory tract (and have been widely used as riot control weapons); they can also cause skin irritation, nausea and vomiting. Psycho-chemicals are drug-like chemicals intended to cause temporary mental derangement, including psychosis. Cyanides (blood agents) cause headaches, weakness, disorientation and nausea in low doses; higher doses are acutely lethal causing circulatory effects, seizures and respiratory and cardiac failure. Incapacitating agents produce physiologic or mental effects, or both. They render individuals incapable of performing normal activities. DZ (3-quinuclidinyl benzilate) is the most commonly used. It is pharmacologically related to anticholinergic drugs and is present within some over-the-counter sleeping medications. Tear gases are used primarily for riot control and cause irritation to the eyes, respiratory tract, and skin. Herbicides may also be used to poison or defoliate plants.

The word "corruption" means the abuse of public trust for private purposes. It is a moral phenomenon, even though money is involved in the vast majority of cases. A public office is used for the benefit of one or more individuals, rather than in the national interest. Corruption may exist independently of any financial benefit; it is universal and multiform, and exists within non-governmental organizations. There are several definitions of corruption in existence but it can be said simply that corruption means the abuse of an office for personal ends. This office may be public or private but corruption is usually regarded as a public phenomenon. An individual abuses the public confidence placed in him to serve his own interests or those of the group to which he belongs. To understand the many forms of corruption, it is first necessary to consider the nature of the situations and persons concerned: civil servants, businessmen, private individuals or companies using the same processes. The external factor intervening in the decision-making process influences the unwarranted benefit to the decision maker or executive in the form of a gratuity or the promise of a gratuity.

Corruption affects all sectors of both public and private economic life. The existence of a public sphere and a private sphere is a prerequisite for corruption, but certain differences can be observed in the interests pursued. A businessman, working within the law, who slips an inducement across the table is generally pursuing an end corresponding to the interests of his company. The act - though reprehensible - thus comes within the framework of the normal operation of the enterprise. This is also the case of the politician who, in his own interest or in that of his party, tries to cover up a financial scandal but cannot do so without the help of other persons whose action or inaction he purchases. Another area very propitious to corruption is nepotism. This is a phenomenon extremely difficult to pin down but, since the criterion of competence has been replaced by that of favouritism, it creates between the decision maker and the beneficiary of the decision a link of dependency which may well influence future decisions.

The corrupted and the corrupter are not accomplices: each is the perpetrator of a distinct offence, subject to its own procedures and punishments. Moreover, corruption must be distinguished from the traffic of influence that one individual exercises over others to persuade them to refrain from carrying out one of their duties so as to give him an undue advantage. Both the corrupter and the corrupted can be civil servants, State agents, private individuals or elected officials. Corruption thus creates a dual responsibility: the corrupted (the passive subject) is just as responsible as the corrupter (the active subject). This dual responsibility gives rise to the fact that both parties are liable to punishment. Corruption can also engage the responsibility of the State if the latter is organizing it through the operation of its organs or when, by a permissive attitude, it accepts the fact that private entities or private individuals are practising it.

The internal corruption described above can have several connections in other countries: it then becomes transboundary and is carried out by private companies or individuals on a large scale and involving several States. Corruption, whatever its perpetrator and its extent, constitutes economically speaking a serious obstacle to the economic and social development of the countries affected. Thus, poisoning as it does the economy and the social fabric, corruption violates the economic, social and cultural rights as well as the right to development and to a healthy environment of the peoples and population sectors concerned.

The rise in cost of municipal services in some communities means that, despite high taxes, local funds are insufficient to cover basics. People on fixed income in these communities fear rising taxes and inflation and find themselves unable to pay for essentials like home repairs. Their houses fall into disrepair, and they themselves sink into a hidden subsistence lifestyle of marginal diet, restricted cashflow, and increasing dependency.

Although many rural families are moving towards a standard of living in which more than their simplest needs are provided for, the basis for such a development is precarious. Average family income is barely adequate for survival: garden produce is limited to what the family can use; the jobs which support most families are seasonal; since work depends heavily on fish, agriculture, hunting or trapping, income is neither steady nor predictable; if a resident leaves the community looking for work, there is no interim income for his family until his first pay cheque arrives; in comparison with nearby towns, local prices are high and goods are limited; general health is seriously hampered by the fact that families cannot afford medical or ambulance expenses; most families cannot afford telephones. The constant struggle to sustain the family is reflected in immediate purchasing and spending patterns. Short-term cash purchasing is virtually the only mode of procurement. Consumer spending is sporadic and bills tend to be paid late. Until the economic basis for the family is placed on a more solid footing, there will be little energy or income available for common development efforts.