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Another World is Possible : Rights & Democracy at the Americas Social Forum, July 25-30, 2004

News Release

Montreal, July 20, 2004 - Next Monday, Rights & Democracy joins more than 700 civil society organizations from across North, Central and South America in Quito, Ecuador, for the first Americas Social Forum (ASF).

Rights & Democracy's contribution to this week-long series of events examining the social ramifications of liberalized trade in the Americas will be a workshop called Human Rights in the Context of Economic Integration.

This day-long workshop will examine potential conflicts between State trade obligations under NAFTA-modeled free trade agreements and State obligations under existing human rights instruments. The discussion will focus specifically on the Inter-American Human Rights System (the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights) and the various strategic ways these tools can be used to counteract the actual and expected negative social effects of liberalized trade.

Rights & Democracy presents Human Rights in the Context of Economic Integration in collaboration with Mexico's Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Augustin Pro Juarez, Venezuala's Programa Venezolano de Educacion y Proteccion de los Derechos Humanos, the Alianza Chilena por un Comercio Justo y Responsible from Chile, the Centro de Asesoria Laboral del Peru and the Centro de Derechos Economicos y Sociales in Ecuador.

The ASF was created as a regional dimension of the World Social Forum process, inaugurated in 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The ASF aims to provide a space where concerned citizens can discuss the implications and challenges presented by the globalization trend across the Americas. The forum will also provide an opportunity to share knowledge, strategies and expertise acquired by the various social movements that have emerged in response to the dual processes of trade liberalization and militarization across the Americas.