NGOS ADDRESSING COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS DECRY EFFECTS OF GLOBALIZATION, TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS

Commission on Human Rights
57th session
4 April 2001
Morning





The Commission on Human Rights carried on this morning with its consideration of economic, social and cultural rights, hearing from a series of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which contended, among other things, that the forces of economic globalization were having negative impacts on poor people and nations and that transnational corporations should be more accountable for the effects of their activities on developing countries.

A Representative of the Lutheran World Federation said that in the global marketplace there was a widespread assumption of agreement that economic interests must come first, and that other important policy considerations were subordinate or even optional, but that such an assumption was not correct, as had been demonstrated by widespread international condemnation of the decision of the Government of the United States to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol process on global warming and by growing international reaction against legal proceedings instituted by transnational pharmaceutical companies to obstruct the measures being taken by South Africa to promote affordable access to life-saving drugs. The long-term sustainability of the environment upon which human life depended, and the protection of individuals and communities from life-threatening diseases, were clearly values that, ethically and logically, demanded priority, the Representative said.

The NGO Liberation charged that rapid globalization was leading to increased social and economic injustice and a further widening of the gap between rich and poor, and that developing countries were particularly vulnerable to international economic forces and free-market ideology.

Centre Europe - Tiers Monde pointed out that the draft optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights invoked State responsibility for the rights contained in the Covenant, but under the growing influence of globalization, responsibility for violations often lay with transnational corporations and other actors beyond the control of States.

Also speaking were Representatives of Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Organization; International Fellowship of Reconciliation; Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions; World Federation of Trade Unions; Robert F. Kennedy Memorial; Centro de Estudios Europeos; Netherlands Organization for International Development Cooperation; Pax Romana; International Movement of the Apostolate in the Independent Social Milieus; Colombian Commission of Jurists; Human Rights Advocates; International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples; International Movement for Fraternal Union among Races and Peoples; Islamic Federation of Student Organizations; Catholic Institute for International Relations; Right to Education and Freedom of Education; Society for Threatened Peoples; Association Tunisienne pour l'Auto-Développement et la Solidarité; Association of World Citizens; International Indian Treaty Council; Fraternité Notre Dame; International Confederation of Free Trade Unions; Centro de Estudios Sobre la Juventud; International Federation for the Protection of the Rights of Ethnic, Religious, Linguistic and Other Minorities; World Federation of Democratic Youth; and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

The Commission will reconvene at 3 p.m. and is expected to begin discussion of civil and political rights.


Statements

ANNE-MARIE LIZIN, Independent Expert on extreme poverty, said she wanted to stress the importance of what had been said in statements yesterday. For example, the statement by the World Bank had given the Commission additional information on the vision of the Bank on its role for combatting poverty. The world was far from being in a frozen situation on this issue. She wanted to encourage this evolution of thinking. The contribution by the World Bank on this issue was part of the perception that there was real development in responses to extreme poverty, and she hoped this would continue and that it would not be related only to one of the Bretton Woods institutions.

A number of non-governmental organizations had also raised a number of issues, namely the importance of the right to inheritance and to land rights, as well as the issue of landless peasants, accessibility of property, and the rights of women. She would like to tell them that these issues would be part of her report next year.

KALID MAHMOOD QURESHI, of Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization, drew attention to economic and social conditions prevailing in many developing countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and others which acted as major obstacles to the realization of the economic, social and cultural rights. Economic development was a key to social development.

The economies of those countries were in such bad health that it was difficult to believe that they could afford to devote adequate amounts of financial resources for social development. Due to the widening gap between rich and poor, in Pakistan diverse forms of economic, social and cultural inequalities persisted, giving the lie to the Government claim of fulfilling the human rights agenda as globally accepted.


TSERING YANGKEY, of International Fellowship of Reconciliation, said the organization welcomed China's recent ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It was concerned, though, about China’s reservation to article 8.

The result of China's political presence in Tibet could only be described as cultural genocide. From 1949 to 1976, at least 6,000 monasteries and nunneries had been destroyed. Agricultural policies had resulted in widespread famine during the ‘60s. The once pristine waterways of Tibet were now polluted by chemical, nuclear and industrial waste. Despite its crucial relationship to the world's environment, China's "development" of Tibet had thus far resulted in well-documented and widespread water pollution, nuclear waste dumping, degradation of grasslands, extinction of wildlife, desertification, soil erosion and landslides. A crucial component to China's "western development" plans was foreign investment and partnerships depending on exploitation of Tibet's untapped natural resources. The Tibetan people had never benefited from the projects of the ‘80s and more recent years.

LEILANI FARHA, of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, said the Commission had taken an important step towards the advancement of women's human rights when it adopted, for the first time, resolution 2000/13 entitled, "women's equal ownership of, access to and control over land and the equal rights to own property and to adequate housing". That was a landmark resolution for women and the Centre had returned to Geneva to be sure that the Commission would adopt that resolution again this year and to encourage the Commission to strengthen its provisions.

Rights to land, property, housing and inheritance were essential to women's economic livelihood and survival, and as such were vital to sustaining whole communities. How could a woman secure her physical and mental health and that of her children when her shack had been bulldozed, the water supply cut-off and the closest health clinic demolished?

MILAND WAIDANDEY OLIVER, of World Federation of Trade Unions, said economic, social and cultural rights defined the quality of human life and any erosion of these rights impoverished mankind as it prevented an individual from making an effective contribution to society. The term economic rights implied the ability to exploit the resources that nature had provided to the maximum potential and without hindrance. Freedom of choice was an important ingredient of the enjoyment of economic rights. Social rights implied not only the right to social acceptance but also the recognition of one's worth as a human being. There was not a single society in the world that permitted unfettered social rights to all its citizens. In India, the contemporary empowerment of Dalits such the speaker was a direct consequence of India's belief in democratic norms. The empowerment of the weaker sections of Indian society was not just a slogan but a reality.

As for cultural rights, it was imperative to ensure that the majority community was not provided sanction by any State to deprive minorities of their cultural heritage in the name of assimilation or in the name of uniformity. There were many examples of the denial of cultural heritage on grounds of colour, creed, religion and faith. The language of fundamentalists from all sides was becoming increasingly shrill with the aim of homogenizing society. The human rights community should ensure the rights of diverse groups.

STEPHEN RICKARD, of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, said that in Israel and the occupied territories, there was a range of human rights violations perpetrated by both sides of the conflict which should be addressed by the Commission. The continuing spiral of violence, the cycle of action and reaction had caused countless and untold tragedies. Few would deny that Israel had legitimate security concerns and a right under international law to take actions to ensure the security of its citizens.

But that right did not also grant the right to take any action regardless of consequences so long as it was related to security. Acts that denied Palestinian children access to education ran directly counter to the obligation accepted by the Israeli Government upon ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Likewise, as the Palestinian Authority sought to acquire the mantle of governance it should work to ensure that corruption did not interfere with the full realization of Palestinian children of the right to education.

LAZARO TOMAS MORA SECADE, of Centro de Estudios Europeos, said the World Trade Organization (WTO) was defined as the practical manifestation of globalization in its trade aspects. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank worked to overcome the obstacles of the work of transnational companies around the world. Human rights were used as a means of pressure to liberalize markets in developing countries while imposing barriers on them.

Concerning access to medication for HIV/AIDS, the Commission should adopt a resolution which stipulated that basic human rights and the right to life should enjoy absolute priority over intellectual property rights. There should be a demand that the United States Government and pharmaceutical companies suing South Africa withdraw their cases.

IKRAVANY HILMAN, of Netherlands Organization for International Development Cooperation, said that since the start of the economic crisis in Asia, Indonesia had been the slowest country in South East Asia in terms of economic recovery. The two interrelated factors that made the Indonesian economy so weak were the plunging of the rupiah exchange rate, and the lack of public confidence in the Government. The fact that the people did not have confidence in the Government was strengthened in their eyes when the Government neglected the central issue of social justice.

The Government had tried to recover from the economic crisis through additional World Bank and IMF loans and by restructuring and reforming the economy. Those efforts were aimed at strengthening the economy at large, but had failed to improve the situation of the common people.

JOSEPH RAJKUMAR, of Pax Romana, said macroeconomic policies had a different impact on men and women, with women bearing the brunt of the socio-economic costs associated with financial crises and of policy choices which increased inequality. Such policies and practices were pushing millions of men and women back into poverty. Desired social and human rights objectives such as equity and provision of needs had to be central to macroeconomic policy-making if there was to be any advance in people-centred development or rights-based approaches to development. Under globalization, accumulating evidence on the relationship between trade liberalization and food security and poverty suggested that there would be more losers than winners.

It was crucial that the Special Rapporteur on the right to food examine trade liberalization under the World Trade Organization's agreement on agriculture which was signed in 1994, as well as other agreements. There was a new form of discrimination which was coming into being, not necessarily because of race, class, gender or religion but essentially because a person was poor. Pax Romana associated itself with all the recommendations proposed by the various Special Rapporteurs and Independent Experts on economic, social and cultural rights.

DANIEL DEFAGO, of International Movement of Apostolate in the Independent Social Milieus, said that in speaking about the common good of human beings, one’s responsibility as a citizen did not mean that the political aspect prevailed over the economic aspect, and it did not mean that the States had complete economic and financial control.

So far, the process of globalization had had grave consequences and had met with dissatisfaction and failure. Globalization had started to create a number of reactions, including some more or less violent, and leading to suffering. The dynamism of the market had shown its effectiveness for the growth of the planet's wealth, but it had also created inequalities in the partition of wealth.

PETER N. PROVE, of Lutheran World Federation, said that in the global marketplace there was a widespread assumption of agreement that economic interests must come first, and that other important policy considerations were subordinate or even optional. This assumption was not correct as had been demonstrated by widespread international condemnation of the decision of the Government of the United States to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol process and growing international reaction against legal proceedings instituted by pharmaceutical companies to obstruct the measures being taken by South Africa to promote affordable access to life-saving drugs.

The long-term sustainability of the environment upon which human life depended, and the protection of individuals and communities from life-threatening disease, were clearly values that, ethically and logically, demanded priority. Although human rights, and especially the economic, social and cultural rights of vulnerable communities and people around the world, had all too frequently been over-ridden by the dictates of economic liberalization, there was an instinctive and deep-seated recognition of the injustice of the situation. Economic globalization was not an end in itself but a means to an end. Economic law and policy should be formulated so as to promote the realization of human rights objectives for all. The first tentative steps needed to be supported and encouraged by human-rights programmes.

MAGGIE BOWDEN, of Liberation, said the organization joined previous speakers who had highlighted the dangers of rapid globalization, which often led to increased social and economic injustice and further widening of the gap between the rich and the poor. That process could be seen around the world. Developing countries were particularly vulnerable to these economic forces, which continued to promote free market ideology, often at the expense of too many nations, and people who were left behind.

The exclusion and marginalization were evident in the unequal distribution of wealth and the growing poverty of many developing countries. Included in the problem was the burden of foreign debt carried by the least-developed countries. The resulting poverty was a violation of human rights. For example, in Peru over 50 per cent of the people earned less than a dollar a day. The unequal distribution of wealth affected marginalized sectors of Peruvian society, especially women, children and indigenous peoples.


NATALIA LOPEZ ORTIZ, of Colombian Commission of Jurists, said her organization wished to stress the great importance of ratification of the optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in order to ensure the full achievement of these rights everywhere. The optional protocol would make clear the nature and scope of obligations of member States and would lead to greater commitment and enforcement. It would give those whose rights were violated a mechanism for complaints and would lead States to adopt legislation to ensure enforcement and compliance.

Non-enforcement of obligations was obvious in many countries which did not even cater to these basic rights. In Colombia, non-compliance was a constant factor. It had led to rising unemployment which affected many low-income persons. Some 48 per cent of the school population was not in school; this affected especially poor students. There were inadequate hospital facilities. The optional protocol could be used to defend vulnerable groups such women, children and minorities. The Commission should set up an intercessional Working Group to discuss the issue.

ASHLE CROCKER, of Human Rights Advocates, said the use of highly toxic industrial pesticides was not covered by the current mandate of the Special Rapporteur on illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization, 30 per cent of the pesticides marketed in developing countries did not meet internationally accepted standards.

The United States Government had stated that the export of pesticides was beyond the mandate of the Special Rapporteur because it dealt with "goods in commerce", not with hazardous waste. That kind of narrow interpretation meant that many pesticides that were hazardous to human health and life and which were banned in the United States and elsewhere could be sold in developing countries. Exposure to some of those pesticides could retard the development of young children.

JULEN ARZUAGA, of International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples, said that in Paraguay, the city of Puerto Casado was in the middle of a dispute over a contract between two transnational companies. The people were suffering from exploitation in circumstances of slavery, marginalization and misery. There was a lack of services for health and education. There was no infrastructure. The people had to submit totally to the transnational companies because of their influence in politics. It was impossible to find solutions to their economic and social problems.

There was a lack of sovereignty exercised by the Government of Paraguay on its own territory because of the pressure exercised by the transnational corporations. There was a need to defend the national sovereignty of Paraguay.

PAUL BEERSMANS, of International Movement for Fraternal Union among Races and Peoples, said that the economic, social and cultural rights of people of Jammu and Kashmir had not been respected. Their country was divided in three parts, and they had not found peaceful solution to their problem. Jammu and Kashmir was a multi-religious society where Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and other religious groups had lived in perfect harmony for centuries. They had established a composite culture called "Kashmiriyat", a liberal, tolerant and secular tradition of Sufism.

But more than ten years of bloodshed and violence had proved that the gun only brought destruction, not freedom. India and Pakistan should respect their mutual commitments and resume the bilateral and meaningful negotiations over Jammu and Kashmir that had been given a new start in Lahore in February 1999.

GHULAM MOHAMMAD SAFI, of International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations, said that if economic rights, either of an individual or of a society, were not secured, all other rights became almost became meaningless. All ideal talk of democracy, accountability and transparency were mere slogans and of little use to one who along with his dear ones would go hungry at the end of the day. Under globalization, which benefited some, most developing countries were either reeling or actually going under. The prices of their exports were plunging while the prices of their imports were soaring. Illiteracy, lack of basic health care, and even lack of food and water were on the rise.

Of particular concern was the situation of economic, social and cultural rights of the occupied people of Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir, whose rights had been systematically usurped, exploited and abused. The people of Indian occupied Kashmir looked for help to the impartial but influential observers of the United Nations.

JEAN ZIEGLER, Special Rapporteur on the right to food, thanked all who had spoken and offered criticisms and suggestions. The Representative of the World Bank had circulated a substantive document to the delegations yesterday which included attacks on the report of the Special Rapporteur. Among other things, the World Bank had accused the report of having a "lack of analytical rigour". He could not, as a university professor and a Special Rapporteur, accept this criticism. It was normal to have different views, but what the World Bank had said was not acceptable. There were two contradictions that the report of the Special Rapporteur had pointed out. The first was the World Food Programme, which did a magnificent job in feeding needy people, was contradicted by the work of the International Monetary Fund which imposed rules and abolished subsidies. The second contradiction was between the excellent work of the Food and Agriculture Organization and that of the World Trade Organization, which countered the FAO’s work. These were structural contradictions that had to be addressed.

Cooperation between Special Rapporteurs and the Bretton Woods institutions was essential and he hoped that it would be able to continue and develop, Mr. Ziegler said. The human-rights world was based on rules, and within the debate at the Commission it had been clear that there was very strong support among the international community for ensuring the right to food. The Bretton Woods institutions, which were the only ones in position to set conditions on negotiations with various countries which addressed them for needed capital or on the subject of foreign debt, had to make the right to food an essential element of conditionality.

MALIK OZDEN of Centre Europe - Tiers Monde, said the draft optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights invoked State responsibility concerning the complaints of individuals claiming to be victims of violations the rights contained in the Covenant. However, with the growing influence of globalization, responsibility for violations often lay with transnational corporations and other external actors. The economic, social and cultural policies of one State could have repercussions on other States.


Thus the claim of an individual that his rights had been violated could go beyond the jurisdiction of his or her own State. Concerning the right to health, transnational pharmaceutical companies were demanding high prices for medicines used against AIDS, prices which the Third World was unable to afford.

KHIN OHMAR, of Catholic Institute for International Relations, said the Commission should pay special attention to the escalating use of forced labour in Burma. Military authorities there had informed an ILO technical mission before its Governing Body meeting in November 2000 that a directive had been issued to all administrative and military units stating that the practice of forced labour was illegal and that those who conscripted forced labourers would be prosecuted. However, this directive had never been announced by the State-run media. It was estimated that at least 80,000 individuals from 60 villages had been forced to perform hard labour from November 2000 to January 2001.

The Institute was also gravely concerned about ongoing Burmese military operations in the Shan, Karen and Karenni States. In the course of the civil war, various forms of human-rights violations continued unabated. Until and unless the civil war ended, it was obvious that the practice of forced labour by the Burmese army could not be expected to end.

ALFRED FERNANDEZ, of International Organization for Development of Education, said the report presented by the Special Rapporteur on education had dealt with important points concerning legal aspect of the right to education. His group was concerned about the status of constitutional and superior courts in Germany, France and Spain related to international law and the right to education.

In its judgements, the European Court of Human Rights had mentioned the interdependence of the right of education and civil and political rights, including economic, social and cultural rights. The evolution of the rights of minorities had changed the course of the right to education during the 1980s.

MATEO TAIBON, of Society for Threatened Peoples, said that in European States, members of small linguistic communities were being discriminated against and had little hope for survival. None of the former linguistic groups, including Occitans, Corses, Basques, Flamands and Catalans, were legally recognized in France. In 1992, France had added a new article to its Constitution which made French the only administrative language in public life. The intellectual Bernard Henry Levy had called this an act of racist totalitarianism. The Basques, Bretons, Corsens, Flamands and Occitans would probably not survive if the present situation in France continued.

At present, France was destroying its linguistic heritage and committing cultural genocide. The Commission, among other steps, should support the teaching of minority languages in France, call for cancellation of article 2 of the Constitution, and urge the training of teaching staff in minority languages. It should also support the creation of administrative cantons which would take into account the areas where linguistic minorities lived and give them resources to culturally support minority languages.

MONCEF BALTI, of Atlas - Association Tunisienne pour l'Auto-Développement et la Solidarité, said his Association had realized programmes which had contributed to the improvement of the living conditions of the population in rural and remote areas of northern Tunisia. It had made available drinking water, built roads, and constructed schools and health centres. These activities had been carried out in parallel with other actions designed to generate income for people through the implementation of projects and provision of financial assistance on individual and group levels.

The activities of the Association were coordinated on local and regional levels with the main objective being to fighting poverty. The Association believed that human rights were indivisible and inter-dependent. The realization of economic, social and cultural rights could not be concretized without sustained and durable development. Human rights should be at the centre of all development.

PIERRE PORRET, of Association of World Citizens, said that so far globalization had proven most beneficial to transnational corporations and the richest countries. Mike Moore, the Director of the World Trade Organization, had said that globalization should benefit developing countries. This issue, and the issue of opening markets, should be raised at the inter-ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar, in November. In Karnataka in India, opening the market had meant that prices were lowered and peasants were unable to repay their debts Many had committed suicide. Transnational companies wished to dominate everything and to have only their own products accepted.

The mad cow disease which was worrying and threatening the world had started after cows were turned into carnivorous animals. The destruction of many animals rather than vaccinating them had decreased their market value and many animal-raisers were in a very difficult situation. The policy of putting profit before all had put tens of thousands into unemployment -- an example of that was the automobile industry. And finally, in Afghanistan, women no longer had the right to education and were forced to live in seclusion. Rich families who gave their daughters private classes risked having them beaten by the mullahs if they were found out. The Taliban was destroying the culture of Afghanistan and the world.

ANTONIO GONZALES, of International Indian Treaty Council, said indigenous peoples' cultural and spiritual relationships with the natural world were maintained through the daily practice of subsistence hunting, fishing, gathering and agriculture. Indigenous peoples were estimated to constitute only about 5 per cent of the world’s population. However, they represented 90 per cent of the world's cultural diversity. It was not a coincidence that 80 per cent of the world's remaining biodiversity was also found within indigenous peoples' territories.

The traditional native American farmers’ association in the United States estimated that indigenous peoples cultivated 65 per cent of the crop varieties consumed around the world. But that Millennial knowledge and the seeds that had been developed over generations were in danger of being lost to the unsustainable practices of agri-business and bio-technology as well as to so-called intellectual property rights regimes.

MARIE SABINE LEGRAND, of Fraternité Notre Dame, said the organization served the poorest in the world wherever they were found. Generally the poorest of the poor were minorities who were the targets of racism and oppression. Religious and ethnic minorities were oppressed by majorities which claimed they were ensuring freedom but did the opposite. France said that its Constitution protected the rights of minorities. But the absence of freedom of expression was a sign of an authoritarian regime. In France, the social and humanitarian activities of minorities were trampled on. Minorities were chased openly.

The Fraternité saw so much misery around the world. Tolerance was needed. It hoped that in Europe due respect would be given to human rights.

MARIE-THERESE BELLAMY, of International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, said States should establish and respect decent working conditions in order to respect the rights of working people. States should also create favourable conditions for equality between men and women and should be responsible for guaranteeing employment security and healthy working conditions. Each year, precarious and ancient modes of production were the cause of the death of more than 1 million workers, while 160 million were injured or affected by diseases in their working places.

By becoming a party to the various conventions of the International Labour Organization, a State committed itself to create favourable working conditions. Government authorities should also recognize the changing climate of the working world and the factors which aggravated poverty.

JAVIER LABRADA ROSABAL, of Centro de Estudios Sobre la Juventud, asked how Central and South American indigenous peoples could defend their human rights if they were illiterate. In the Third World, there were 1.3 billion poor persons and more than 1 billion illiterate persons. The Commission was requested to find a sustainable solution to this problem.

Despite the blockade on Cuba, it was updating its libraries, ensuring one teacher for every 20 students in order to improve education, and opening art schools around the country. Yet Cuba stood accused in the Commission under a draft resolution which was being pushed by countries which could not ensure that they were providing the same services as Cuba did under socialism. Despite all this, Cuba stood accused.

FRIEDA SOUHUWAT, of International Federation for the Protection of the Rights of Ethnic, Religious, Linguistic and Other Minorities, said that for two years now, war and fighting had destroyed the economic, social and cultural stability of the South Moluccan people in Indonesia. Indonesian soldiers, backed by foreign mercenaries, were waging a full-scale war against the people of the South Moluccans, both Christian and Muslim. In effect, the Indonesian Government was manufacturing instability in the region, using divide-and-conquer tactics to achieve political ambitions.

The manipulation and continuation of the conflict was devastating the economic, social and cultural web of the South Moluccan community. Both Christian and Muslim villages were being completely destroyed.

ABDELBAGI GEBRIEL, of World Federation of Democratic Youth, said it had been emphasized that all sets of human rights were interrelated and interdependent and that no distinction could be made between them. But economic and trade sanctions, embargoes and blockades, whether imposed unilaterally or bilaterally, violated core UN principles.

An example was the impossible living conditions, human and material destruction, insecurity, fear and want in which millions of people found themselves in Iraq because of the unlawful sanctions imposed on them by the Security Council at the whim of the United States and the United Kingdom. The comprehensive trade blockade imposed by the United States Government against Cuba was one of the world's longest trade and economic wars launched by a superpower against a poor developing country. The unjustifiable blockade violated all principles of civilized life, including the principles contained in the United States Constitution. The United States should revisit its position against Cuba and lift its genocidal blockade.

NEERU SHRESTHA, of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, said that a human rights approach to economic development was a clear obligation of States which were party to international human rights instruments. The prior legal obligation under human rights conventions required that States examine all policy decisions for their potential impact on human rights in advance of their adoption.

The group fully concurred with the Independent Expert on structural and foreign debt that poverty reduction strategy papers perpetuated the failed policy of focusing on macroeconomic concerns to the detriment of social development and progress in the progressive realization of all human rights.


CORRIGENDA


In press release HR/CN/01/27 of 2 April 2001, the right of reply of the Representative of Azerbaijan, on page 13 should read as following:

A Representative of Azerbaijan, speaking in the right of reply, said that Armenia demonstrated yet another that it was not in the position to respect the generally accepted principles and norms of international law. Azerbaijan was committed to the peaceful settlement of the conflict with Armenia on the basis of relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and decisions of other international organizations. Armenia had to come to understand that security of this country would benefit from her good-neighbourly relations, respect for territorial integrity of the States of the region, as well as human rights and fundamental freedoms.


In press release HR/CN/01/30 of 3 April 2001, the summary of the statement by the representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, on page 8 should read as following :

HAN SUNG IL (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) said the dignified life of a human being was inconceivable without such political rights as the right to elect or to be elected, as well as economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to food and shelter. The economic, social and cultural rights, as one of the two pillars of human rights, constituted an indispensable element in promoting the enjoyment of human rights. Now more than one billion people were threatened by extreme poverty. Forty-thousand children died of hunger and curable diseases every day, and 1.5 billion illiterate persons and 15 million refugees still existed in the world.

There were some groundless accusations against individual countries of using economic, social and cultural rights to cover political rights abuses, with a view to justifying their position that absolute value and priority should be given to civil and political rights. All these attempts caused negative effects upon worldwide efforts for the promotion and protection of human rights since they were motivated by political interests. The Commission should contribute to the realization of economic, social and cultural rights of the people in developing countries by discussing and adopting practical means and methods for establishing a just and equitable international economic order.



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