RIGHTS: NGOs Back UN Call for Globalisation Impact Study

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Aug 20 2001 (IPS) - Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) applaud the decision of a United Nations body to urge a detailed study of the effects of globalisation and certain trade agreements on human rights.

The three resolutions adopted by the UN Subcommission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights that merited highest praise from the humanitarian activists involve the current economic globalisation process and the related trade agreements on services and intellectual property.

The Subcommission has sent an important signal to all governments and international economic policy forums to take human rights obligations and principles into account when formulating their policies, said Peter Prove, of the Lutheran World Federation.

The resolutions the Subcommission approved during its annual three-week sessions, which concluded Friday, represent strong support for the civil society movement that has been waging a campaign on these matters, according to Miloon Kothari, of the South Africa-based Habitat International Coalition.

The Subcommission, comprising 26 independent experts, serves as an advisory body to the Commission on Human Rights, the maximum authority on the issue within the UN.

The NGO representatives also celebrated the fact that the Subcommission had objected to the assertion by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it is not bound by international human rights rules.

In its resolution on economic globalisation, the UN body asserts that respect for human rights must be a priority in all international policy forums, including the IMF and “the forthcoming Fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)” in Doha, Qatar, Nov 9-13.

Nathalie Mivelaz, of the World Organisation against Torture, pointed out that the commission’s initiatives have arrived on time for the annual meetings of the Boards of Governors of the World Bank and of the IMF, scheduled for next month, and for the WTO conference in Doha.

The measures also reflect an intensification of the human rights community’s watch over the events produced by those meetings, Mivelaz said.

The rights activists especially commended the Subcommission’s resolution calling for a study of how the liberalisation of trade involving agricultural products can affect the world population’s basic right to food.

The group of NGOs observing the Subcommission’s sessions also praised the decision to request that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights examine the social consequences of the liberalisation of trade related to services.

Asbjorn Eide, Norwegian expert serving on the commission, expressed the main human rights concerns about the deregulation of international services.

The rise of trade liberalisation, which now also includes services, has direct and potentially profound effects on the full realisation of economic and social rights, Eide said.

As a human rights forum, the Subcommission has the responsibility to carefully and critically study what is occurring in that realm in order to bring the dangers to light, said the expert.

There are serious risks that, once privatised, international services will opt for the solutions that are most profitable and forget about the most vulnerable sectors of the population, given that privately-run services are not subject to the same democratic controls as public services, he commented.

Eide cited the examples of health, education, potable water and sewerage services, warning about the serious dangers involved if the states transfer their responsibilities to transnational service providers that lack a social conscience about the local communities.

The NGOs present for the commission’s sessions in Geneva applauded the decision taken with respect to the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Developing countries have been demanding a reform of TRIPS in order to protect the traditional knowledge of their indigenous peoples, and to ensure food security, access to medications and technology transfer – and to prevent the practice known as “biopiracy.”

The Subcommission has requested that the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights take part in the TRIPS debate to be held in Geneva Sep 19-21, and which will continue at the WTO meeting in Qatar.