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93 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2002
SG Announces
Plan to Further Strengthen UN
New Human Rights Commissioner Takes Office
ICC States Parties Launch Court’s Operation
Regular Funding of UN Projects Down Controversy Over Genetically
Modified Food Aid
WFP Launches Online Donation Feature
UNCTAD Says Importanceof TNCs on the Rise
WHO-WTO Joint Study on Public Health and Trade
UNIDO Says Rich-Poor Gap Widening
UNHCR Reports Number of Asylum Seekers Down
Conference on Disarmament Ends 2002 Session
Yearbook Says Military Spending on the Increase
UN Security Council Debates Women and War
Strong Support Shown to UNFPA
CEDAW Holds Exceptional Session
INSTRAW Launches New Website, Discussion Forum
International Literacy Day Observed 8 September
FAO Launches World Agriculture Study
Mary Robinson Leaves Office
OHCHR Adopts Principles and Guidelines
UNAIDS and OHCHR Revise Guideline
WHO Initiative Calls for Cleaner Environments
State of North America’s Environmen |
Oxfam
Launches Coffee Campaign
State of the World’s Mothers 2002
HelpAge International: A Generation in Transition
Other News
ICHRP Reports on Post 11 September Human Rights
Stockholm Water Symposium Calls for Action
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UN Holds
First Social Forum on Globalization— and Human Rights 22
Human Rights Sub-Commission Addresses WTO Issues
Human Development Report 2002
Opening 57th Session of the GA
SG Stresses Multilateralism
ECOSOC 2002 Substantive Session
Economic Survey of Latin America
55th Annual DPI/NGO Conference
Calendar |
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NGO NEWS |
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Oxfam Launches Coffee Campaign
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According to Oxfam International’s
recent report, Mugged: Poverty in your coffee cup, there is a crisis
destroying the livelihoods of 25 million coffee producers around
the world. The price of coffee has fallen by almost 50% in the past
three years to a 30-year low, and Oxfam says the long-term prospects
are grim.
Developing-country coffee farmers,
mostly poor smallholders, now sell their coffee beans for much less
than they cost to produce - only 60% of production costs in Viet
Nam’s Dak Lak Province, for example. Farmers sell at a heavy
loss while branded coffee sells at a high profit, and Oxfam’s
report indicates that the coffee crisis has become a development
disaster whose impacts will be felt for a long time.
Families dependent on the money generated
by coffee are pulling their children, especially girls, out of school.
They can no longer afford basic medicines, and are cutting back
on food. Beyond farming families, coffee traders are going out of
business. Oxfam warns that national economies are suffering and
some banks are collapsing. At the same time, government funds are
being squeezed dry, putting pressure on health and education and
forcing governments further into debt.
Oxfam says the coffee industry has
been transformed from a managed market, in which governments played
an active role both nationally and internationally, to a free-market
system, in which anyone can participate, and in which the market
itself sets the coffee price. Recently this has brought very cheap
raw material prices for the giant coffee companies. Oxfam warns
that the current practice of paying prices as low as they can go—whatever
the consequences for farmers—is a dangerous business strategy
in the long term, and even in the short term it does not help the
business interests of the producers of instant coffee. The report
suggests that the coffee-market failure is, in part, a result of
policy failure by international institutions.
Oxfam says that although existing
market-based solutions—such as Fair Trade and the development
of speciality coffees—are important and can help poverty reduction
and the environment, they apply only to some farmers. Oxfam says
a systemic and not a niche solution is necessary, and the scale
of the solution needs to be commensurate with the scale of the crisis.
Oxfam is calling for a Coffee Rescue Plan, bringing together all
the major players in the coffee trade, to make the coffee market
benefit the poor as well as the rich, and to make trade fair.
Under the auspices of the International
Coffee Organization (ICO), the proposed Rescue Plan would:
—Ensure companies pay farmers a decent price;
—Destroy some surplus coffee stocks to reduce supply and push
up prices;
—Commit to global trade in only quality coffee;
—Call for the management of commodity markets to better balance
supply and demand, and share benefits between producers and consumers;
—Target aid packages to farmers to alleviate immediate suffering
and to create alternative livelihoods; and
—Reduce commodity dependence by supporting producing countries
in developing the production and export of processed agricultural
goods.
Néstor Osorio, ICO Executive Director,
welcomed the Oxfam campaign on the plight of coffee farmers. “We
are seeing an exodus from rural communities in Latin America as
farmers abandon their farms in desperation, and migrate to the North;
in Asia there have been incidents of suicides by indebted coffee
growers, and the long-term development of producing countries is
eroded as the education and health of their people suffer. The huge
inequity between income received by producers and that received
by consuming countries must be resolved as a matter of urgency,”
Mr. Osorio said.
Contact: Oxfam International,
Suite 20, 266 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7DL, UK, telephone +44-1865/313939,
fax +44-1865/313770, e-mail <information@oxfaminternational.org>,
website (www.maketradefair.com).
International Coffee Organization,
22 Berners Street, London W1T 3DD, England, telephone +44-2075/808591,
fax +44-2075/806129, e-mail <info@ico.org>, website (www.ico.org).
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State
of the World’s Mothers 2002
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Save the Children’s third annual
report, State of the World’s Mothers 2002: Mothers and Children
in War and Conflict, takes a comprehensive look at the status of
mothers and children in some of the most conflicted regions of the
world. It also examines mothers’ roles as protectors, caregivers,
income-earners and educators of the next generation, particularly
during times of conflict, and the life-saving roles mothers play
in post-conflict countries.
“This year’s report documents
the horrific consequences of the world’s failure to protect women
and children in war and conflict,” says Charles MacCormack, President
of Save the Children. “But, with increased investments in women
and mothers, we can provide a lifeline to these children and, at the
same time, help ensure a region’s successful transition from
war and disaster to peace and stability.” The report highlights
the fact that women and children account for 28 million of the world’s
35 million refugees.
Calling for changes in international
policies and humanitarian response efforts to prioritize the care
and protection of women and children, State of the World’s
Mothers 2002 says that these “critically needed reforms and
investments” will enable mothers to do more for themselves
and their children, and increase the likelihood that poverty and
the instability it fosters will not be repeated in the next generation.
Some of the principal findings include:
—The report says the nature of war has changed immensely in
recent decades, putting mothers and children at greater risk of
death, disease, displacement and exploitation. Women and girls face
an increased risk of being subjected to sexual assault and abuse,
and when parents lose the ability to protect and provide for their
children, boys and girls as young as eight or nine years old may
be pressed into military servitude. “Today, women and children
are the casualties of deliberate and systematic violence against
entire populations. Women and children are killed, maimed and exploited
as opposing forces—often acting on long-simmering ethnic and
religious grievances—seek to destroy each other’s cultures
and the very fabric of society.”
—The report stresses that during wartime, the world community
must recognize the inextricable link between mothers’ and children’s
wellbeing and do more to ensure the survival of both. “In poor
countries, when men go away to fight—perhaps never to return—women
become heads of households and assume even greater responsibility
for the security and wellbeing of the family….Livelihood protection
measures, expanded food distribution and emergency therapeutic feeding
programmes are critically needed during times of conflict to ward
off malnutrition and death.”
—The report says that investing in mothers is one of the most
effective ways to help post-conflict societies achieve reconciliation
and move forward. Suggestions for investment include small business
loan programmes; maternal health services; and adult literacy programmes.
“Often, after enduring years of destruction and chaos, women
step up to play highly constructive roles as peacemakers and rebuilders….
Evidence suggests that additional investments in mothers can be
a key ingredient in helping post-conflict societies achieve reconciliation,
development and a better future for children.”
The report also notes that while
warfare has changed dramatically, the humanitarian response has
not, and urges governments and international organizations to do
more to ensure the protection and care of women and children. It
also stresses the role that NGOs can play at the community level,
and calls for shifting more resources to NGOs closest to the ground
in emergency situations.
The report also offers a Mothers’
Index that ranks the wellbeing of mothers and children in 105 countries,
31 of which are either currently experiencing conflict or have recently
emerged from conflict. The Index uses six indicators measuring the
status of women in the areas of health, literacy, use of contraception
and political participation; and four indicators covering the wellbeing
of children, which are: infant mortality, nutritional status, primary
school enrollment and access to safe water. Switzerland, Canada
and Norway top the rankings this year, and Niger is the bottom-ranked
country.
Contact: Colleen Barton, Save
the Children USA, 54 Wilton Road, Westport, CT 06880, USA, telephone
+1-203/221 4187, website (www.savethechildren.org).
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HelpAge
International: A Generation in Transition
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Many older people in East and Central
Europe live on the edge of survival, according to a recent report
from HelpAge International entitled A Generation in Transition,
launched as the UN’s Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) met
in Berlin to discuss how the region will implement the Madrid Plan
of Action on Ageing adopted in April 2002 (see Go Between 91).
The report, which draws on consultations
with older people in late 2001, argues that the collapse of the
Soviet-dominated economic and political systems and the “shock
therapy” of the 1990s have hit older people hardest. “The
current generation of older people has lived through the deprivations
of World War II and, for many, the impact of mass deportations in
the 1950s. They saved and planned for a dignified and relatively
secure retirement. Now they have feelings of isolation and loss,
and their contribution to society is often not recognised,”
said Paul Hinchliff, ECE Regional Programme Manager. “Many
older people do not have access to adequate health services, a basic
income to cover essential bills and the cost of medicines. At the
same time, the value of pensions is shrinking with inflation.”
Families still form the backbone
of east and central European societies, but are changing. The report
notes that more young people are migrating in search of new opportunities.
Though many older people still contribute to their families, an
increasing number, especially older women in rural areas, find themselves
living alone with neither family nor state support. In the conflict
torn areas of the Balkans, older people who have been forced to
move from one country to another frequently lose access to their
pensions.
The publication says that despite
the problems, older people are increasingly trying to change their
situation, and shows how a network of older people’s organizations
is developing in various parts of the region. These groups, often
consisting of older people working as volunteers, are giving older
people more confidence to advocate on their own behalf. “This
publication goes some way to documenting how older people are supporting
themselves and in many cases their families,” says Mr. Hinchliff.
“They are also working with the younger generation in non-governmental
organizations.”
Contact: Sarah Graham-Brown, Media
Officer, HelpAge International, 1st Floor, York House, 207-221 Pentonville
Road, London N1 9ZN, UK, telephone +44-20/7278 7778, e-mail <hai@helpage.org>,
website (www.helpage.org).
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OTHER
NEWS |
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ICHRP Reports on Post
11 September Human Rights |
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The International Council on Human
Rights Policy (ICHRP) has published a report, entitled Human Rights
after September 11, based on a two-day meeting convened by the International
Council in January 2002 to discuss the longer-term implications,
for those who work on human rights, of the suicide attacks against
the United States and their aftermath, particularly the formation
of an international campaign against terrorism.
The report aims to provide useful
guidance to human rights experts, both by analyzing the development
since the 11 September 2001 attacks and by identifying issues that
ICHRP says ought to be awarded priority in human rights work. Among
the issues covered are the problem of the definition of terrorism,
threats to the rule of law, the policy effects of unilateralism,
and the overall challenges for human rights organizations.
Chapter One examines major themes
and concerns that emerged during the two days of discussion. First,
there was concern that “multilateral and more diplomatic approaches
to solving international problems may surrender ground to unilateral
and more forceful approaches.” A second concern raised was
that “approaches to solving international problems based on
the rule of law will give way to approaches that are security-driven.”
Third, there was concern expressed about the “legal definition
of ‘terrorism’ and the definition and application of policies
to suppress it.” A further concern was that “recourse
to military solutions, as the first rather than the last response
to political violence, would create new risks of conflict in many
parts of the world and would not deal effectively with international
terrorism.” Discussion of related issues established, in broad
terms, that there is a “relationship between global inequity
(or perceptions of inequity) and political violence (or sympathy
for it).”
Chapter Two considers the issue of
terrorism and its definition. Chapter Three identifies and discusses
some specific threats to human rights. Chapter Four reflects on
issues of multilateralism and security, while Chapter Five examines
motives and the relevance of related causes, in particular economic
marginalization. Chapter Six identifies particular challenges facing
human rights organizations, and a final section sets out some general
recommendations.
Contact: International Council
on Human Rights Policy, 48, chemin du Grand-Montfleury, CH-1290
Versoix, Geneva, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/775 3300, fax +41-22/775
3303, e-mail <ichrp@international-council.org>, website (www.ichrp.org).
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Stockholm Water Symposium
Calls for Action |
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Speaking at the Stockholm Water Symposium,
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Klaus
Töpfer called on world leaders to move “from declarations to
action and implementation” in assisting the 1.1 billion people
who still lack access to safe drinking water and the 2.4 billion
who lack access to adequate sanitation.
Addressing the opening session of
the four-day meeting held in Stockholm (Sweden) from 12-15 August
2002, and which is also part of the annual World Water Week, Mr.
Töpfer stressed that the use of water is expected to jump by 40%
in the next 18 years, while 17% more water will be needed for food
production because of the world’s growing population.
“Without adequate clean water,
there can be no escape from poverty,” the Executive Director
said, calling for more funding to assist developing countries in
managing scarce water supplies. He said water pollution, poor sanitation
and shortages could lead to the deaths of millions of people this
year alone and leave millions more “in bad health and trapped
in poverty.”
The conference’s final declaration
was presented at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD),
held in Johannesburg (South Africa) from 26 August to 4 September.
It urges world leaders to put water high on their agenda and uphold
the integrated approach to freshwater management.
The declaration says immediate action
is needed to:
—improve governance of water resources and water services;
—establish participatory mechanisms;
—improve dramatically drinking water supply and sanitation;
—establish regimes for integrated management of river basins
and aquifers including where these are for trans-boundary waters;
—increase water productivity, get more benefit from each drop
of water, both in agricultural and other uses;
—prevent pollution of both ground and surface water; and
—protect and restore vulnerable ecosystems.
The 2003 Stockholm Water Symposium,
entitled Balancing Production, Trade and Water Use, will take place
from 11-14 August 2003 in Japan.
Contact: Stockholm International
Water Institute, SE-113 59 Stockholm, Sweden, telephone +46-85/221
3975, fax +46-85/221 3961, e-mail <sympos@siwi.org>, website
(www.siwi.org).
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