August 20th 2001

PRESS RELEASE

INTERNATIONAL NGO COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN
RIGHTS IN TRADE AND INVESTMENT (INCHRITI),
INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS (ICJ),
LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION (LWF), WORLD
ORGANIZATION AGAINST TORTURE (OMCT)

Protecting human rights in the era of globalization

UN BODY WARNS AGAINST CONFLICTS BETWEEN
TRADE-RELATED AGREEMENTS AND HUMAN
RIGHTS
AND SUPPORTS NEW MECHANISM TO REVIEW
VIOLATIONS
OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS

Reacting to claims made by the IMF during the discussion that it
is not bound by international human rights standards, the Sub-
Commission, in a resolution on Globalization and its Impact
on the Full Enjoyment of All Human Rights:
reaffirmedthe importance and relevance of human rights in
international trade, investment and finance;
urgedall governments and international economic policy
forums, including the Doha WTO meeting to be held in
November, to take human rights fully into account.

The Sub-Commission also expressed concern about the human
rights implications of liberalization of international trade in
agricultural products, especially on the right to food for members
of vulnerable communities. Furthermore, it highlighted the
importance of incorporating human rights in national Poverty
Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs).

In a second resolution applying, for the first time, a human rights
perspective to the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in
Services (GATS), the Sub-Commission called for a report on
this matter from the High Commissioner for Human Rights; it
also recommended that the WTO include consideration of the
human rights implications of the GATS on the provision of basic
services, such as affordable and accessible health and education
services.

Reiterating a concern voiced for the first time last year, the Sub-
Commission also addressed the negative impact of the WTO’s
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPS) on human rights. It signalled continuing concern
that the scope and meaning of several provisions of the TRIPS
Agreement need to be clarified in order to ensure that States’
obligations under this agreement do not contradict their binding
human rights obligations. The protection of indigenous peoples’
traditional knowledge, food security, access to medicine,
technology transfer and development and preventing 'bio-piracy'
are but some of the crucial human rights issues raised by the
implementation of the WTO TRIPS Agreement.

Peter Prove of the Lutheran World Federation stated: "With
these three resolutions, the Sub-Commission on the Promotion
and Protection of Human Rights sends an important signal and
clear message to all governments as well as international
economic policy forums to take international human rights
obligations and principles fully into account in international
economic policy formulation."

Nathalie Mivelaz of the World Organisation Against Torture
(OMCT) pointed out that "these initiatives of the Sub-
Commission are very timely coming as they do shortly prior to
the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF in
September and the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the WTO,
to be held in Doha in November, and signal an intensification in
the scrutiny of further developments in these forums by the
human rights community".

And Miloon Kothari of Habitat International Coalition added
that, "in the build-up to Doha, these resolutions from an
important UN human rights body bolster the case for a
comprehensive human rights review of the Uruguay round
agreements and point convincingly to the folly of embarking on a
new round prior to fully coming to grips with the conflicts
between agreements such as TRIPS, AoA and GATS and the
existing legal obligations of States under the international human
rights instruments".

In another important resolution, the Sub-Commission supported
efforts towards a legal mechanism for the review of individual
and group complaints of violations of economic, social and
cultural rights. As stressed by Nathalie Prouvez of the
International Commission of Jurists, "there are no rights without
adequate remedies and the adoption of a universal complaint
mechanism for violations of economic social and cultural rights
will fill a huge gap in the international human rights protection
system".

Contacts:
Nathalie Mivelaz (OMCT), Tel: 00 41 22 809 49 39; Email:
[email protected]

Nathalie Prouvez (ICJ), Tel: 00 33 6 07 08 62 99; Email:
[email protected]

Peter Prove (LWF and INCHRITI), Tel: 00 41 78 757 6749;
Email: [email protected]

Miloon Kothari, (INCHRITI), Tel: 00 41 22 738 81 67

Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture (OMCT)
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
Organización Mundial Contra la Tortura (OMCT)
8 rue du Vieux-Billard
Case postale 21
CH-1211 Geneve 8
Suisse/Switzerland
Tel. : 0041 22 809 49 39
Fax : 0041 22 809 49 29
E-mail : [email protected]
http://www.omct.org