Speaking at the forum People's Resistance against Globalization and WTO: People's Speak-out on Trade and Human Rights,APRN Chairperson Antonio Tujan points out that trade liberalization should not be an end in itself but should lead to increased human well-being through economic development.

"Human rights and economic policy are interconnected to a point that demands consistency in national and international law, policy and practice," says Tujan.

Yet the WTO continues to reject any meeting point between its mandate to liberalize trade and human rights, something that is morally indefensible since most of the organization's members have ratified at least one of the major United Nations (UN) rights treaties, Tujan adds.

Increased trade does result in increased wealth, but this has not improved the well-being of millions of people worldwide. It has instead resulted in greater income inequalities-- perpetuating poverty and impeding the progressive realization of human rights. Increased trade and liberalization have become ends in themselves, and trade negotiations pit governments against each other in a competitive process driven by corporate interests rather than human development.

Member countries have yet to make any sufficient attempt to ensure that its policy positions in international economic bodies are consistent with its domestic human rights obligations and with the human rights obligations of its trading partners. But international human rights law places obligations upon States requiring them to refrain from action (including the negotiation and implementation of international trade agreements) that could interfere with the enjoyment of human rights in other countries, as well as their own.

One basic human right that is often ignored is the right to food. The number of people who suffer from hunger and malnutrition is increasing. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), more than 850 million people lack adequate food. Every five seconds a child under the age of five dies of hunger or hunger-related disease.

Hence, agricultural trade in international food products must be part of the solution, rather than the problem. However, under the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), developing countries have been pushed to open their domestic markets to foreign imports that are often sold at less than production cost. Unfair trade rules, coupled with inequitable loan conditions of international financial institutions, have limited the policy space for developing country governments to meet their human rights obligations.

Access to essential services such as clean water and health is also a basic human right. States are required to equitably provide such services to all their citizens under their human rights treaty commitments. Yet, current negotiations on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) threaten to erode the ability of national governments to meet this requirement.

The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has also posed formidable obstacles to the progressive realization of the human right to health and life, particularly in terms of access to medicines. By protecting, or indeed mandating, monopoly rights for at least 20 years, and stifling competition from lower-cost producers, the TRIPS Agreement enables drug prices to be set high and to stay high.

The APRN thus calls on WTO member-states to undertake human rights impact assessments before concluding new trade agreements or revisions of existing agreements, as well as taking their human rights obligations into account in the course of implementing existing agreements. It also calls on information on human rights impacts to be included in trade policy reviews, including information provided by civil society sources.

To further deepen people's awareness on the impact of the WTO and trade liberalization on human rights, the APRN's People's Speakout gathers together grassroots leaders to share their experiences and views on the human rights situation under the multilateral trade regime through speeches, interpretive dances, songs and other media.

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