News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International
AI Index: ACT 79/005/2003 27 January 2003
World Social Forum: All human rights for all, to make another world possible
Porto Alegre -- As international civil society is debating the challenges of an increasingly globalised economy at the
World Social Forum, Amnesty International stressed the need to truly globalise justice, human rights and accountability
to counter inequality and the poverty, insecurity and repression in which millions of people worldwide are forced to
live.
"Greater attention to human rights in processes of global integration would provide a much-needed ethical foundation,"
said Paul Hoffman, Chair of Amnesty International's International Executive Committee. "Above all else it would remind
us that every individual -- whatever their country -- deserves a life in dignity and freedom. Globalisation must be
judged a failure unless it brings benefits to the most vulnerable and poor on the planet."
Greater global economic integration, including through foreign investment and an increase in trade, is a powerful force
-- leading to migration, the loss of traditional livelihoods, and social and cultural upheaval as employment, patterns
of consumption, and cultural preferences change. For human rights, the negative effects of globalization are visible in
relation to all rights, but particularly for those people who are already marginalised.
To cite but a few examples, women who go to work in Mexican export assembly plants may do so to get better wages than
they could in their villages, but many cases show the move exposes them to new forms of gender-based violence and abuse;
street children in Africa, Asia and Latin America are exposed to a high risk of police abuse; the poor and marginalised
are over represented in criminal statistics and see their fundamental rights routinely violated. Land activists in
countries like Brazil are threatened and killed while indigenous people are expelled from their lands, often then sold
to multinational businesses; demands for adequate working rights and conditions are often violently stifled, as was the
case in Nigeria in August, when police and soldiers brutally repressed a peaceful demonstration of women at the gates of
Shell Petroleum Development and Chevron Nigeria.
"A key to combat these negative trends can be to match the removal of barriers to trade with an equal removal of the
barriers that prevent the vast majority of the world's population from fully enjoying the entirety of their rights, and
to actively promote all human rights for all," said PaulHoffman.
"All human rights for all means challenging the notion that some rights can be enjoyed in isolation, that the right to
life can be separated from the right to food, water, work and medical care, or the right to freedom of expression from
that to receive an education. It also means countering the argument that the rights of certain groups, individuals, or
states can be sacrificed in the name of the security, rights or interests of others."
At the same time, the growing power wielded by private economic actors - including multinational companies - requires
stronger legal mechanisms to ensure they can be held accountable for their direct or indirect participation in human
rights abuses.
"Existing international human rights standards place governments under an obligation to respect and protect human
rights. As economic actors can have an impact on human rights, they too must be under an obligation to respect these
rights," Paul Hoffman said, stressing that this was one of the main messages Amnesty International was taking to the
World Economic Forum.
For more information or to arrange an interview with a member of the Amnesty International delegation, please contact:
Simona Beltrami in Porto Alegre on + 55 51 81 14 72 84; Amnesty International delegates are available for interviews in
English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian.
For regular information updates and other media materials from the World Economic and Social Fora please visit:
http://click.topica.com/maaaNT0aaVDiBbb0hPub/
Further information about Amnesty International's programme at the World Economic and Social Fora and previous
attendance at the European and Asia Social Fora is available at: http://click.topica.com/maaaNT0aaVDiCbb0hPub/
********************
You may repost this message onto other sources provided the main text is not altered in any way and both the header
crediting Amnesty International and this footer remain intact.