Human Rights Caucus Response to Pascal Lamy: Human Rights Cannot be Traded
HONG KONG - December 15, 2005 - We, the NGO Human Rights Caucus at the 6th WTO Ministerial Meeting, welcome the remarks made yesterday by Pascal Lamy in which he recognized the relevance of dealing with human rights in the context of trade negotiations at the WTO.
Mr. Lamy said that the WTO is heading for trouble if it continues to ignore the link between trade and human rights. He said a recognition of this relationship is “… worth preparing and pushing for because the citizens of this planet basically know that trade and human rights, trade and social issues, trade and development, trade and the environment are things which are linked, not because they have long studies to tell them this, but because that is what they see every day. These things are linked. We can’t keep going this way. We see these things are linked, but the international organization doesn’t recognize that they are linked so this leads to more and more discrepancy between what people see and what is said. This is a recipe for trouble.”
We call Mr. Lamy’s attention to a statement released here in Hong Kong on December 10, 2005 - International Human Rights Day – which was endorsed by more than 150 organizations from around the world. The statement emphasizes the primacy of human rights over trade and demands that governments take specific steps to ensure coherence between trade means and human rights ends.
As negotiations proceed here in Hong Kong this week, we urge WTO members to uphold their human rights obligations under international law in all aspects of the negotiations, acknowledging that there is no true development without human rights.
Contact: Elin Wrzoncki: (+852) 9748 6959
Steve Ouma: (+852) 9742 2142
Full text of the statement of the Human Rights Caucus, with endorsements, is available in English, French and Spanish.
For More Information
Please contact Steve Smith (ext 255) or Louis Moubarak (ext 261) at Rights & Democracy, 514-283-6073.
