<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2180" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Human Rights Reader
134<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
/><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE CORRIDORS OF
POWER.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">1. With their unchallenged
dominance of fundamentalist market ideology, transnational corporations have
time and again violated human rights (HR), disregarded core labor standards,
disregarded on-the-job safety standards affecting the health of blue collar
workers, destroyed the environment and fostered corruption. (F. Bliss)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">2. Throughout history, the
face(s) of power had always been visible. With Capitalism was born the faceless
society, one that has prevailed through its latest stage, namely Globalization.
It was through corporations, for the first time, that men exercised power with
impunity through the faceless front of national and transnational corporations
and the faceless men who run them. (M. Scorza, La Danza Inmovil, Plaza y Janes
Literaria, Barcelona, 1983)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">3. Globalization further
denies developing countries the very basis by which rich countries themselves
succeeded in developing, namely, state intervention to keep the vicissitudes of
the market under control. And we know that ultimately, markets react to
purchasing power, and not to needs in health, nutrition or education or, for
that matter, human rights. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">4. On this issue, it is
rather fascinating to note that the World Development Report 2006 (WB, 2006)
makes a remarkable statement. It says that <B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">economic inequality results from unfair
power structures and political influence and an absence of corrective measures
of market failures</B>.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>BUT it
fails to take-on the issue of proposing any accompanying policy
recommendation(s) that will address this state of affairs.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It basically fails to say that the
‘further-faster-more’ mentality of the powerful driving the global market
economy cannot go on indefinitely.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>This prompts me to ask: Can we thus speak of the World Bank here (again)
being a pessimist-with-vested-interests? <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This shows to me that the WB is most
eloquent where it is silent by being delightfully vague on what to do about
their often good analytical documents.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">5. The WTO is not much
better. It is one more instrument in the toolbox of rich countries together with
bilateral and regional trade agreements which do as much to tilt the balance of
trade in favor of the rich. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">6. To consolidate this
tilt, rich nations’ elites are actually cozying-up with those of poor and middle
income countries. That is a win-win situation for all concerned: For
all-that-‘matter’, that is!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">7. This comes as a
corollary to the fact that poor and middle income countries have typically
strived to catch up economically with rich nations rather than focusing on
reaching the MDGs (with its poverty reduction and public health goals) and on
fulfilling their obligations towards people’s rights --in most cases, in spite
of persistent poverty problems in those countries. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">8. As this Reader has said
many times before, achieving the MDGs will require rather massive
transformations in the political economy of those countries --a change that no
external power is in position to bring about. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Claudio Schuftan,
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
/><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Ho Chi Minh
City</st1:City></st1:place><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><A
href="mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn</FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<DIV
style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1pt; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1.5pt solid; mso-element: para-border-div">
<P class=MsoNormal
style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Mostly adapted from D+C,
Vol.32, No. 10, October 2005,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>D+C,
Vol.32, No.11, November 2005,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">D+C, Vol.32, No.12,
December 2005,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>D+C, Vol.33, No.3,
March 2006, Development in Practice, Vol.16, No.1, February 2006, and <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>‘Health Rights of Women Assessment
Instrument’ (HeRWAI), HOM, Utrecht, 2006 (</FONT><A
href="http://www.hom.nl/"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">www.hom.nl</FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman">).<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>