1.Rights Group finds New Problems.
United Nations (AP)Globalization has brought opportunity, wealth and millions of jobs. But the opening of borders and markets has also created new human rights problems, according to a report released Thursday, beyond longtime concerns such as child labor and wages, the melding of markets worldwide raises new questions,
according to Human Rights Watch's 11th annual report on the condition of human rights worldwide.
What are a corporation's responsibilities in a foreign country when the government is going to protect its facilities with abusive security forces? What are the obligations of a company when it enters a joint venture with a government that will
use the revenue to fight an abusive war? In the report, the New York-based group calls for the creation of an international institution with the resources and the power to enforce global labor standards, It argues that the United Nations is underfunded and mistrusted particularly by the United States - and that the World Trade Organization doesn't have the mandate to enforce the rules. "The current system to regulate global commerce leaves little or no room for human rights and other social values, " the report says, arguing that the new interconnected world "is generating human rights problems of global dimension."
The report talked about how globalization had, for example, opened markets for Sierra Leone's diamonds, Sudan's oil and Central Asia's gas - while not improving and sometimes even harming human rights in those countries. But gary Hufbauer,
a trade expert at the Institute for International Economics in Washington, countered that globalization has lifted per capita income worldwide, a factor associated with increased freedom and quality of life. countries like Sierra Leone and Sudan aren't fair examples of globalization, he said, because they are not fully involved in the gloalized economy. Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said the report is "not an anti-globalization document," it simply recognizes the drawbacks of a world economy.
In its overview of 70 countries, the report also highlighted the international community's "refusal to put serious pressure on Russia to apply the rule of law to its troops" in its breakaway province of Chechnya. This was 2000's "most glaring failure," Human Rights Watch said. "Perhaps the greatest disappointment" of 2000, the report said, was the United States' refusal to back the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal. While Washington has supported such courts in other counties, it has argue that a global tribunal would leave U.S. troops and citizens vulnerable to politically motivated prosecutions.
The report called it "U.S exceptionalism."
United Nations (AP)Globalization has brought opportunity, wealth and millions of jobs. But the opening of borders and markets has also created new human rights problems, according to a report released Thursday, beyond longtime concerns such as child labor and wages, the melding of markets worldwide raises new questions,
according to Human Rights Watch's 11th annual report on the condition of human rights worldwide.
What are a corporation's responsibilities in a foreign country when the government is going to protect its facilities with abusive security forces? What are the obligations of a company when it enters a joint venture with a government that will
use the revenue to fight an abusive war? In the report, the New York-based group calls for the creation of an international institution with the resources and the power to enforce global labor standards, It argues that the United Nations is underfunded and mistrusted particularly by the United States - and that the World Trade Organization doesn't have the mandate to enforce the rules. "The current system to regulate global commerce leaves little or no room for human rights and other social values, " the report says, arguing that the new interconnected world "is generating human rights problems of global dimension."
The report talked about how globalization had, for example, opened markets for Sierra Leone's diamonds, Sudan's oil and Central Asia's gas - while not improving and sometimes even harming human rights in those countries. But gary Hufbauer,
a trade expert at the Institute for International Economics in Washington, countered that globalization has lifted per capita income worldwide, a factor associated with increased freedom and quality of life. countries like Sierra Leone and Sudan aren't fair examples of globalization, he said, because they are not fully involved in the gloalized economy. Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said the report is "not an anti-globalization document," it simply recognizes the drawbacks of a world economy.
In its overview of 70 countries, the report also highlighted the international community's "refusal to put serious pressure on Russia to apply the rule of law to its troops" in its breakaway province of Chechnya. This was 2000's "most glaring failure," Human Rights Watch said. "Perhaps the greatest disappointment" of 2000, the report said, was the United States' refusal to back the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal. While Washington has supported such courts in other counties, it has argue that a global tribunal would leave U.S. troops and citizens vulnerable to politically motivated prosecutions.
The report called it "U.S exceptionalism."
