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Is Trade Trumping Human Rights ?

Canadian Human Rights Groups Criticize Lost Opportunity to Defend Human Rights in Mexico.

Santiago, April 17, 1998 At a meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy and International Trade Minister Sergio Marchi at 4 p.m. today, Canadian human rights advocates will ask why the Canadian government has failed to use existing multilateral human rights mechanisms to sanction Mexico for a pattern of continued and gross human rights violations.

The Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America (ICCHRLA) and the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (ICHRDD), along with more than a dozen other labour and social organizations participating at the People's Summit of the Americas, are to meet with the Canadian Ministers to present their concerns on the eve of the Second Summit of the Americas.

Yesterday, at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Canada failed to include Mexico in its Item 10 speech identifying countries where serious human rights violations are taking place. ICCHRLA and ICCHRD have repeatedly called for such a mention as a first step to addressing an escalating human rights crisis in Mexico. That crisis took on even more ominous overtones on April 11 with the expulstion from Mexico of two Quebec women who were working as international human rights observers with the respected Mexican human rights group Fray Bartolome de las Casas, in the conflict-riddent and increasingly militarized state of Chiapas.

"We want to know whether and in what terms Prime Minister Chr?tien has raised the violation of the basic human rights of indigenous peoples in Chiapas and the disturbing expulsion of Canadian human rights observers in his private bilateral discussions with Mexican President Zedillo today in Santiago," said Joe Gunn, chair of the Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America, an ecumenical coalition of more than 20 Canadian churches and religious communities that is participating in the People's Summit. "It is of great concern to us that yet again Canada has failed to respond to our calls to use the United Nations to address a situation which has deteriorated into a low intensity and dirty war against the indigenous population of Chiapas. Private-bilateral conversations to date have produced no real effect. If being a member of NAFTA means we are no longer able or willing to speak out publicly and unequivocally in defence of human rights or peace in Mexico, then we have grave concerns about what will happen under the proposed FTAA."

On April 11, two Quebec women joined some 200 foreigners who have been expelled from Mexico since 1997. Canadian and Mexican human rights groups maintain that the presence of international observers in Chiapas has protected the safety of indigenous people in isolated villages surrounded by hostile military and paramilitary forces.

Warren Allmand, President of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, who was a featured speaker at the Human Rights Forum of the People's Summit said: "Two weeks ago at the United Nations, both Canada and Mexico supported a resolution to protect human rights workers. Yet these women, who were acting as human rights workers have certainly not received the protection they deserve. This isn't the only case of a failure to live up to commitments made in UN resolutions. That's why human rights guarantees must be embedded in any future economic integration for the Americas. We can draw on the experience of the European Union's democracy clause in their trade agreement with Mexico."

"Canada speaks so softly neither we, nor those Mexicans whose lives are in danger, can hear them," states John Foster, Ariel Sallows Professor of International Human Rights at the College of Law, University of Saskatchewan, also in Santiago for the People's Summit. "Canada should be working energetically with other countries to encourage Mexico to implement the San Andres Accords and bring peace to the region. Given the war that is taking place, international observers can contribute to the reduction of tension and the observance of human rights."