ANNOUNCEMENT A Human Rights Teach-In on TRADING AWAY HUMAN RIGHTS? THE ROLE OF THE WTO 30 November, 1999 Methodist Church, Seattle 1998 marked fifty years of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) now incorporated into the five-year old World Trade Organization (WTO). The 50th anniversary celebrations of the global trading system were met by world-wide protest and fury from many quarters. But 1998 also marked fifty years of one of the greatest achievements of human civilization: the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the establishment of international human rights norms and standards. What do these two regimes on international trade and human rights have in common? Are they complementary or fundamentally incompatible? Is the WTO a friend or a foe of human rights? Can governments discharge their human rights commitments especially on economic, social and cultural rights - if they refuse to mainstream human rights at the WTO as required of all UN bodies? How can the WTO be reformed to respect, protect, promote and fulfill human rights? On the occasion of the Third Ministerial Conference of the WTO and at a time of great public concern about the nature and role of the organization, the People's Decade of Human Rights Education (PDHRE) and the International NGO Committee on Human Rights in Trade and Investment (INCHRITI) are organizing a Teach-In on human rights and the WTO to address these and related questions. This event will bring together activists, scholars and practitioners from a variety of movements, in the belief that all human rights are interrelated and indivisible, to discuss the issues and make common cause for a global trading system that furthers not frustrates human rights and sustainable development. For more information, please contact: pdhre@aol.com Registration forms and background papers will be available on the PDHRE web site (www.pdhre.org) from November 1st onwards. A Human Rights Teach-In on TRADING AWAY HUMAN RIGHTS? THE ROLE OF THE WTO 30 November, 1999 Methodist Church, Seattle PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME 9:00 9:10 Introduction Shulamith Koenig, Executive Director, People's Decade of Human Rights Education (PDHRE) MORNING PLENARY The WTO and Economic Globalisation: Trading Away Our Human Rights? Chair: Steven Marks, Harvard Centre for Public Health 9:10 9:30 The International Human Rights Framework in Theory and Practice. Using it to Promote, Protect and Fulfill Human Rights. Elsa Stamatapoulou Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (invited) 9:30 9:50 Beyond Rhetoric: The United States, Human Rights and the WTO Noam Chomsky, MIT (to be invited) 9:50 10:20 Challenging Corporate Power, Protecting Human Rights. The Struggle for Farmers Rights and the Environment at the WTO. Vandana Shiva, Director, Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, India. (invited) 10:20 10:30 Workers Rights Ensuring Fairplay in the Global Economy Zimbabwean Executive Member, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) (invited) 10:30:10:50 Human Rights and the Global Trading System: A Fundamental Conflict? Steve Charnovitz, Yale University, Faculty of Law 10:50 11:30 Audience Participation (Questions and comments from the audience will be collected throughout the morning session) 11:30 11:45 Tea/ Coffee Break MORNING WORKSHOPS* 11:45 12:00 Introduction to the Workshop Model and the Ideas Bazaar Malini Mehra, PDHRE/ INCHRITI 12:30 1:30 Parallel Workshops (A) The Right to Work and the WTO Facilitator, Hamish Jenkins, (NGLS); Speakers: Giampi Alhadeff (Solidar International) and Susanna Chiarotti (CLADEM-Peru) (B) The Right to Health and the WTO Facilitator: Steve Marks; Speakers: Genon Jansen, European Public Health Alliance, and South African Campaign on TRIPs (C) WTO Rules and the Right to a Clean Environment Facilitator: Malini Mehra (PDHRE); Speakers: Gidon Bromberg (Ecopeace/ FoE Middle East) and Nick Mabey (WWF-UK). (D) The Right to Development and the WTO: Using the Rights-Based Approach Facilitator: Miloon Kothari (HIC); Speakers: Penny Fowler/ Tawanda Musanda (Oxfam GB) and Walden Bello (Focus on the Global South) 1:30 2:30 LUNCH AFTERNOON SESSION The WTO and Economic Globalisation: Developing a Human Rights Approach 2:30 3:00 Report Back from Morning Workshops AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS* 3:00 4:30 Parallel Workshops (D) The Right to Food, Farmers Rights and the WTO Facilitator: Anuradha Mittal (FIAN); Speakers: Sophia Murphy (IATP) and … (E) Civil and Political Rights at the WTO Facilitator: Peter Prove; Speakers: Gina Amantangelo/ Dan Corie (Amnesty International) and Oronto Douglas, ERA/ FoE Nigeria (F) The Right to Culture and the WTO Facilitator: Minar Pimple (YUVA); Speakers: Susan George (Observatoire Mondiale d'Globalisation) and Maud Barlow, Council of Canadians 4:30 4:45 Tea/ Coffee Break 4:45 5:30 Report Back from Afternoon Workshops CLOSE 5:30 6:00 Chair's Summary and Opening of Ideas Bazaar 6:00 8:00 ** Ideas Bazaar ** Each workshop group gets its own stall to set out key ideas and potential joint action using the human rights framework. * Workshop speakers are tentative not all have confirmed or been invited yet. All workshops will cover key cross-cutting issues: gender, poverty and marginalisation. Organizers: The People's Decade of Human Rights Education (PDHRE) and the International NGO Committee on Human Rights in Trade and Investment (INCHRITI) For more information, please contact: pdhre@aol.com Registration forms and background papers will be available on the PDHRE web site (www.pdhre.org) from November 1st onwards. -- PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME HUMAN RIGHTS TEACH-IN -- ======== Global Human Rights Education listserv ======== Send mail intended for the list to <hr-education@hrea.org>. 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