We, the NGO Human Rights Caucus at the 6th
WTO Ministerial Meeting, welcome the remarks made yesterday by Pascal Lamy
in which he recognized the relevance of dealing with human rights in the
context of trade negotiations at the WTO.
Mr. Lamy said that the WTO is heading for trouble if it continues to ignore
the link between trade and human rights. He said a recognition of this
relationship is “... worth preparing and pushing for because the citizens of
this planet basically know that trade and human rights, trade and social
issues, trade and development, trade and the environment are things which
are linked, not because they have long studies to tell them this, but
because that is what they see every day. These things are linked. We
can’t keep going this way. We see these things are linked, but the
international organization doesn’t recognize that they are linked so this
leads to more and more discrepancy between what people see and what is
said. This is a recipe for trouble.”
We call Mr. Lamy’s attention to a statement released here in Hong Kong on
December 10, 2005 - International Human Rights Day - which was endorsed by
more than 150 organizations from around the world. The statement
emphasizes the primacy of human rights over trade and demands that
governments take specific steps to ensure coherence between trade means and
human rights ends.
As negotiations proceed here in Hong Kong this week, we urge WTO members to
uphold their human rights obligations under international law in all
aspects of the negotiations, acknowledging that there is no true
development without human rights.