The Amnesty International Report 2002, which evaluates the human rights in the world during 2001, says the world has undoubtedly changed since 11 September 2001. However, the report points out that many things remain the same: a disregard for human life and human dignity, as well as for economic, cultural and social rights; and an escalation of violence in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Colombia.

The report documents extra-judicial executions in 47 countries; judicial executions in 31 countries; “disappearances” in 35 countries; cases of torture and ill-treatment in 111 countries and prisoners of conscience in at least 56 countries. However, the organization says it believes that the true figures are much higher.

Amnesty International says that in the wake of the attacks of 11 September, a number of governments jumped on the “anti-terrorism” bandwagon and seized the moment to step up repression, undermine human rights protection and stifle political dissent by imposing measures such as indefinite detention without trial, special courts based on secret evidence, or cultural and religious restrictions. 

“The universality of human rights is facing the strongest challenge yet. Double-standards and selectivity are becoming the norm,” said Secretary-General of Amnesty International Irene Khan. She continued, “Security can not and must not take precedence over human rights. The biggest danger to human rights is when political and economic interests are allowed to drive the human rights agenda.” 

The report notes that despite worldwide celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the UN Refugee Convention, core principles of refugee protection continued to be challenged in 2001, as hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict and human rights abuses were refused entry into neighbouring countries. At the same time, the right of asylum-seekers to have their cases examined came under severe attack in 2001. 

In August 2001, Amnesty International expanded its agenda and is urging that respect for human rights encompass not only the universality, but also the indivisibility of all rights—economic, social and cultural as well as civil and political. The organization says that as globalization spreads, bringing greater wealth to some and destitution and despair to others, human rights activists must promote not just legal justice but also social justice. “An ethical approach to globalization can mean nothing less than a rights-based approach to development,” said Ms. Khan. “The challenge we face, and the responsibility we all shoulder, is to make human rights real for everyone, regardless of background or belief.”

Contact: Amnesty International, 99-119 Rosebery Avenue, London EC1R 4RE, United Kingdom, telephone +44-20/7814 6200, fax +44-20/7833 1510, e-mail <info@amnesty.org.uk>, website www.amnesty.org.)

The Pesticide Action Network (PAN), which works to eliminate hazardous pesticides and to promote safer alternatives, celebrates its 20th Anniversary this year. Formed in May 1982, PAN currently links almost 1,000 organizations in some 60 countries, coordinated by five regional centres.

Founding member and Programme Director at PAN North America, Monica Moore says PAN had a three-part vision from the start. First, to stop the poisoning and damage caused by the misuse of pesticides. Second, to work towards a world where food and fiber can be produced safely and plentifully, where agriculture is carried out in a way that doesn’t damage people or the planet. The third part of the vision was to create a mechanism giving individuals, groups or organizations access to information, knowledge and other resources that exist in different parts of the world.

Saying that the battleground is now even more complicated by the trends of economic globalization, rapid concentration of corporate power and the rewriting of intellectual property rights to include patents on life, Ms. Moore speaks of PAN’s role in the next two decades: “I will be very disappointed if we’re not able to leverage what we’ve accomplished in the first 20 years and really pick up the pace. I would like to see a lot of progress, rapid progress, in getting bad products and chemistries off the planet in the next ten years.

“[F]or starters, the term ‘sustainable development’ has just got to expand. Labor has to be in there, fair and just trade relations have to be integral or the term is a mockery. The challenge of scaling up from the individual success story or pilot project—the living proofs that it can be done—to mainstream is also a major challenge. It’s not clear to me at this point what institutional structures will help make that happen,” Ms. Moore said.

An estimated 27 million women, children and men are forced into slavery around the world, while poverty, vulnerability and lack of political will contribute to its continuation, according to a series of reports by Anti-Slavery International released to coincide with the 27th session of the United Nations Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, held in Geneva from 27-31 May 2002.

Anti-Slavery International is calling on governments to end slavery and provides recommendations for action. The report focuses on:
—Bonded labour in Pakistan: many women, children and men are forced to work for no wages. Poverty and starvation in the Sindh Province force communities to accept landlords’ cash advances. Many work from dawn until dusk and receive no wages. A recent court ruling undermines existing protection.
—Child domestic work and its relationship to sexual exploitation: many of the millions of girls around the world who work as domestics are denied freedom and education. They suffer physical and verbal abuse, and for a large number, sexual abuse combined with working in conditions of servitude makes them vulnerable to entry into sex work.
—Child trafficking to the United Arab Emirates: it is estimated that hundreds of boys, aged between four and ten, are trafficked from South Asia to the UAE and other Gulf States each year to be camel jockeys. Camel racing is dangerous and can cause serious injury and even death. In the UAE it is illegal to employ a child under 15.
—Forced labour and slavery in Sudan: between 5,000 and 14,000 people have been abducted in Sudan since 1983. The Sudanese Government is failing to take adequate steps to end raiding and slavery.
—Forced labour in Brazil: more than 1,000 people were rescued from forced labour in 2001 by the Special Group for Mobile Inspection. However, many more remain enslaved on Amazonian estates and landlords are not being punished.
—Forced labour in Mauritania: slavery was abolished in 1981, but there has been little action to secure the slaves’ release or punish those who use slaves.

Discussion at the UN working group conference focused on the trafficking of Nigerian children, with several NGOs urging more efforts by the country’s authorities to combat the problem. Nigeria is believed to be the source of 70% of Africa’s 70,000 victims of sex-slave trafficking. 
The United Nations estimates the trafficking of women to be one of the world’s most lucrative illegal industries at US$7 billion annually.

In an effort to shore up greater public support for policies to tame “corporate-driven globalization,” and to protect national governments and the United Nations from a perceived “corporate takeover,” a group of NGOs, led by the Third World Network (TWN), is running a campaign rooted in the opening lines of the UN Charter entitled “We the Peoples Believe Another World is Possible.” The campaign was launched away from the site of negotiations at a seeds ceremony in Bali (Indonesia) during the Fourth Meeting of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). It aims to gather one million signatures in time for the WSSD, to be held in Johannesburg (South Africa) from 26 August-4 September 2002.

The petition states that citizens groups are alarmed at the “downgrading and weakening of the UN and the escalating influence of the international financial and trade organizations” which they say do not hold to the spirit and principles of the Charter. The petition also suggests that the corporate sector is being given more rights, privileges and access at a time when “powerful governments” are opposing and walking away from treaties that are dealing with life and death issues. The ten years between the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio in 1992 and the forthcoming WSSD, they say, have been a triumph for corporate-driven globalization, propelled by mercantile forces and economic liberalization. 

However, there are reasons to be hopeful as well, the petition says, including: the joining together of citizens from the North in mass protest against globalization; a body of innovative good practices from around the world; and the building of alliances amongst communities, NGOs, scientists, women, youth, some governments and parts of the UN. 

The petition explicitly calls for the following:
—To change the course of corporate-driven globalization and development paradigms that destroy peoples and nature; 
—To reject technologies and products that endanger nature, health and life such as genetically modified organisms, nuclear technology and toxic chemicals;
—To reject the patenting of nature;
—To reclaim nature and the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities; and
—To reclaim national governments and the United Nations from corporate takeover.

The initial group of NGOs that endorsed the campaign at the launch included TWN, Oilwatch, World Federalist Movement, KONPHALINDO (Indonesia), Amigransa (Venezuela), Acción Ecológica (Ecuador) and Tebtebba Foundation (Philippines).

The 40-year-old Organization of African Unity (OAU) opened its final summit on 8 July in Durban (South Africa), and was replaced on 9 July by the newly established 53-member African Union (AU). The AU is meant to advance the work of African leaders in reducing poverty and promoting good governance, and will have close relations with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). 

The AU, loosely modelled on the European Union, will work to set up its own central bank and court of justice, and will establish a single currency. It is equipped with a standby peacekeeping force drawn from African armies and intended to intervene in any African conflict involving crimes against humanity. 

South African President Thabo Mbeki is serving as the Union’s first chairman, which will inherit US$42 million in debt from the OAU, and only 16 of the 53 OAU Member States have settled their dues. “It is regrettable to note that at this juncture, the OAU is bequeathing to the commission (secretariat) of the African Union a heritage which is far from positive,” said OAU Secretary General Amara Essy. “We have to end the war and get the economy off the ground, take care of the basic welfare of our people, before we can get the time to look at our regional and international debt obligations and plan a payment schedule.” 

During the opening of the 38th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU, President Mbeki spoke on the AU’s role: “Our experience of the last forty years says that we have a duty radically to change the structure and content of our political, economic and social relations with the rest of the world. Among other things, we have to cease being merely an exporter of raw materials and an exporter of capital to the developed world because of an unsustainable debt burden. We have to end the situation according to which our continent seems condemned to the increasing impoverishment of its people, continuing underdevelopment and global marginalization.”

UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Executive Secretary K.Y. Amoako pledged UNECA’s full backing. “We at ECA are invested in the African Union and will do all we can to help make it a major success,” he said. “Just as we are coming to the end of a series of international meetings creating added solidarity with Africa, we are also entering a new era of internal solidarity.” 

South African Foreign Minister Dlamini Zuma, in his closing address at the OAU Council of Ministers, said, “We have come to the last meeting of the Organization of African Unity. In actual fact this period does not represent the death of our OAU but its rebirth as the African Union. The Organization of African Unity has achieved its principal mandate of the liquidation of the systems of colonialism and apartheid crime against humanity in the continent. We have wrapped and wound up the affairs of our Organization in readiness to address new challenges. However, the most important challenge facing us is to ensure that the new AU works for the betterment of Africa. Indeed the dawn of the new day is upon us. Let those who have ‘eyes to see, see’ and recognize that Africa is on the move to a better tomorrow. A brighter day has finally arrived.”

According to a report published by the United States Committee for Refugees (USCR), refugees worldwide suffered the repercussions of the events of 11 September 2001. The US, preoccupied by security concerns in the wake of the attacks on New York and Washington, temporarily shut down its refugee resettlement programme on 1 October 2001 and, as a result, admitted fewer refugees in 2001 than in any year since 1987. 

The World Refugee Survey 2002 states that thousands of refugees in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and elsewhere who expected to go to the US became stuck where they were, often in places where they were at risk. The report also calls attention to the fact that a number of countries— concerned about security but also responding to growing anti-immigrant sentiment—tightened admissions procedures and criteria for asylum-seekers and immigrants. For example, the United Kingdom and Germany passed anti-terrorism laws in late 2001 that curtailed the rights of immigrants and refugees inside their borders, while Denmark, traditionally welcoming to asylum-seekers and refugees, drafted some of Europe’s toughest asylum regulations in January 2002.

The World Refugee Survey 2002 notes that worldwide, conflict and human rights abuse brought the total number of refugees to 14.9 million, the largest number in six years. More than 22 million people were internally displaced with Afghanistan producing the largest number of uprooted people in 2001. Some 4.5 million Afghans were refugees in other countries, mostly Pakistan and Iran, and another one million Afghans were displaced within Afghanistan. However, the report notes that midway through 2002 more than half a million Afghan refugees had returned, and hundreds of thousands more appeared willing to return, but international donors were not keeping pace with the repatriation and reintegration costs. 

Among the newly uprooted were some 1.8 million Africans driven from their homes by war, armed insurgencies, or violent civil unrest, where massive population displacement occurred in 19 of the 48 countries in Africa last year. According to the report, poor funding by donor nations has resulted in harsh living conditions for millions of uprooted Africans. 

“Failure of the rich countries of the north to bear their fair share of the human and financial cost in assisting and protecting refugees is shortsighted and likely to multiply future costs,” said Bill Frelick, editor of the report. “Whether contributing financially to maintain refugees in safety and dignity in their places of initial asylum, providing rescue through resettlement for those still in danger in the regions of initial flight, or funding sustainable return and reintegration in places like Bosnia, Sierra Leone, and Afghanistan, donor countries can do more than simply provide charity—they can invest in a more stable and secure future for all.”

“At a time when freedom is under attack, the world is turning its back on people fleeing war, persecution, and terror in search of freedom,” said USCR Executive Director Lavinia Limón. “This indifference towards refugees undermines our stated values.” 

On 27 May 2002, Zimbabwe became the first State to declare a national HIV/AIDS emergency, thereby freeing itself from its obligations to respect relevant HIV/AIDS drug patents under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). The six-month emergency declaration lifts all legal restrictions that block access to generic medicines.

“The government has decided to override patent protection on antiretrovirals and use generics—this means that the price of the first-line AIDS cocktails recommended by the World Health Organization will plummet from US$1,168 to US$412,” said Carmen Pérez Casas, pharmacist coordinator at the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Access Campaign. “Although prices are just one barrier to overcome to increase access to antiretrovirals, this measure will allow available resources to treat more than twice as many patients.”

MSF says Zimbabwe’s announcement marks the first time that a government has gone beyond using the threat of compulsory licensing as a negotiating tool, and actually declared that it will override patents to increase access to needed medicines when the prices are too high as a result of patent protection.

“Zimbabwe doesn’t manufacture antiretrovirals, so it will need to import them from other countries which produce cheaper generics,” said Ellen ‘T Hoen from MSF. “Exporting generics is still permissible for these countries under international trade regulations—but this will change as the TRIPs Agreement is fully implemented in all WTO members. Unless the TRIPs Council finds a swift and workable solution to this question of production for export, measures such as those taken by Zimbabwe to deal with health care needs may become impossible.”

Over 2,000 people die of AIDS every week in Zimbabwe and life expectancy has dropped to less than 41 years, compared to 70 years before the epidemic. 

A recent study by the Cancer Registry of California (US) analyzed cancer incidence among California Latino farmworkers who had been members of the United Farmworkers of America (UFW) union. Out of more than 140,000 farmworkers, the study found that 1,001 had been diagnosed with cancer between 1973 and 1997. Compared with the general Latino population, farmworkers were more likely to develop certain types of leukemia by 59%, stomach cancer by 69%, cervical cancer by 63% and uterine cancer by 68%.

The report says farmworkers are regularly exposed to pesticides in the following ways:
—while mixing or applying them; 
—during planting, weeding, thinning, irrigating, pruning, and harvesting crops; 
—living in or near treated fields; or 
—eating pesticide contaminated food.

As a result, farmworkers face greater risk of exposure to hazardous pesticides than any other sector of society. 

Pesticide exposure results in both short-term acute poisonings—including rash, headache, blurred vision, chest pain, excessive sweating, nausea and vomiting—as well as long-term or chronic illness, such as cancer, birth defects and other reproductive and developmental problems. 

According to the study’s co-author Paul Mills, farmworkers were diagnosed at a later stage than most of California’s Latinos, which reveals the lack of health care and education available to most farmworkers—a finding confirmed by a recent study of California farmworker health conducted by the California Institute for Rural Studies. Many cancers, such as uterine cancer, are more treatable with early detection.

Although the study doesn’t directly link pesticide use to the higher rates of cancer, the UFW believes there is a direct relationship between the chemicals and cancer. The Cancer Registry of California data may actually underestimate the true incidence among farmworkers since some may have worked in California but moved away, been diagnosed and treated in Mexico or never sought medical attention.