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HR fully compatible with globalisation

Amnesty chief tells The Daily Star on the sidelines of WSF

ZAFAR SOBHAN, from Mumbai
There is no inherent contradiction between globalisation and human rights, Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan told The Daily Star yesterday in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the World Social Forum (WSF) here Monday.
Khan's observation came at the end of a conference on human rights issues linked to globalisation, trade and development that she chaired on the fourth day of the World Social Forum. The heavyweight conference, which attracted an audience of several hundred delegates, also featured, among others, Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi as opening speaker, Indian social activist Aruna Roy and Senegalese President of the International Federation for Human Rights Sidiki Kaba.
The speakers focused on the impact of globalisation on human rights in the developing world.
"Globalisation has meant an improvement in the lives of only a small minority, but for the vast majority [it] has meant further cultural, social and economic marginalisa-tion," said Sidiki Kaba.
Aruna Roy pointed out that economic rights are human rights and that a sufficiently adverse impact on one's economic situation constitutes a denial of human rights.
The speakers said the new economic order must be assessed by how well it protects human rights and economic development for the few would not justify globalisation if it came at the expense of the human rights of the poor and marginalised.
Khan expanded on these ideas in her interview with The Daily Star immediately after the conference, but advocated for a more nuanced position than that of the rest of the panel.
"Amnesty considers globalisation a political system and we do not take positions on the rights and the wrongs of political systems," she said. "We are interested in critiquing the human rights situation within the system, not the system itself."
There is nothing intrinsic to globalisation that renders it a danger to human rights, she said. Rather, it is the rules that govern the globalisation of the world's economy and how globalisation is implemented by governments around the world that could be considered a threat to human rights.
"Human rights, after all, is a concept of globalisation," Khan said, "If we're going to talk about globalisation we should also talk about the globalisation of human rights."
Khan did not see any inherent contradiction between human rights and economic development, either.
"I believe that economic development can be achieved in a way in which human rights can be protected."
Commenting on the human rights situation in her native Bangladesh, Khan said, "As a country we face enormous challenges, some socio-economic, but also challenges related to governance."
Khan mentioned the culture of impunity, breakdown in accountability, failure of the government to protect the people, especially women and minorities, lack of law and order and abuse of the law as evidence of Bangladesh's failure from a human rights perspective.
She noted that these failures have been in evidence since independence and that she has seen little change in the past 30 years, regardless of the government in power or the political system in place.
Khan concluded by commenting on the success of the WSF. She said people had come to the WSF to learn, to meet new people, to network, and to publicise their own causes and issues. And from that perspective, with over 100,000 delegates and hundreds of workshops, seminars and conferences held, it must be counted as a great success.
She also said she thought that Mumbai had been the ideal venue. "On the one hand it seems like a contradiction because Mumbai is the heart of commercialism and globalisation in South Asia, but at the same time if you're going to hold a conference about globalisation, this is the place to do it."