Global Notebook

UN Report Challenges WTO Agenda 

GENEVA — Calling the World Trade Organization (WTO) a "nightmare" for developing countries, a UN study team suggested in August that the trade group be brought under UN purview. In a report to the UN Sub-commission on Protection of Human Rights, the team also charged that the WTO’s rules are based "on grossly unfair and even prejudiced" assumptions.

Although the report echoes criticisms by anti-globalization groups, it rejects the idea of linking trade rules to human rights, labor, and environmental standards. Civil society groups in developing countries also oppose such linkages, arguing they would provide Western countries with an excuse to erect more trade barriers. If approved, the study, which examined the effects of globalization on human rights, will be presented to the UN Human Rights Commission during its annual session in Geneva next March. read more

Indigenous Promised a Stronger Voice 

NEW YORK — In less than a year, a new UN Forum on Indigenous Issues will begin providing a platform for the world’s indigenous peoples to air grievances on both old and pressing problems. Representing over 300 million people in more than 70 countries, the Forum will have 16 members, all appointed by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

According to the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations, the Forum will enable such groups to "convey their positions on a broader spectrum of issues than is presently possible under the auspices of the Human Rights Commission." The issues to be addressed include human rights, social and sustainable development, health, the environment, education, culture, children, and gender. Currently, no UN body deals with indigenous issues in a comprehensive way. read more

UN Rethinks Failed Sanctions Policies
NEW YORK — UN attitudes concerning the use of comprehensive sanctions as a "big stick" diplomatic tool are beginning to change. "The humanitarian situation in Iraq poses a serious moral dilemma for this organization," UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told the Security Council in March. "The UN has always been on the side of the weak and vulnerable, and has sought to relieve suffering. Yet, here we are accused of causing suffering to an entire population."  read more

Did NATO Fabricate Ethnic Cleansing?
BERLIN — A retired German general claims that 1999 reports purporting to show that Belgrade planned the systematic ethnic cleansing of Kosovo’s entire Albanian population were faked. The plan, known as Operation Horseshoe, was originally revealed by Joschka Fischer, Germany’s foreign minister, two weeks after NATO started bombing. German public opinion about the Luftwaffe’s participation was divided at the time.  read more

Prison Conditions Worsen for Women
WASHINGTON, DC — The female inmate population in US prisons doubled in the 1990s, growing far faster than the male population, according to a study by the General Accounting Office (GAO). The GAO also found that most female inmates are mothers, jailed for nonviolent crimes, and incarcerated at great distances from their children. They’re also more likely than men to suffer from HIV infection and mental illness. 

"In placing women in carbon copies of male institutions, the US and the states are not [providing] some important gender-specific health and other services," concludes Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Democratic delegate from the District of Columbia who commissioned the study. "As a result, prison systems have failed to respond effectively to rates of HIV infection and mental illness among female inmates that are greater than among males, and have actually reduced drug treatment — even though nonviolent drug crimes are the major cause for female incarceration." read more

China and India Take Aim at the WTO
NEW DELHI — In the wake of protests at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle last December, India and China are rallying developing nations to take a stronger role in future trade talks. "The WTO cannot be allowed to become another world government," India warns, while China charges that it doesn’t "reflect the interests and demands of developing countries enough and clearly has defects."

Speaking in January at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s annual Partnership Summit, Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran called on developing countries to counter the influence of major players. The same day, China’s vice-Minister of the Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Ministry Zhang Xiang directly criticized the WTO, suggesting that China’s entry would strengthen the negotiating hand of developing nations. read more