APEC leaders `responsible' for labor rights violations
By Ati Nurbaiti
VANCOUVER (JP): Leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum should be held accountable for violations of labor rights in their countries, human rights and labor activists have said.
They reached this conclusion following an international tribunal on workers' rights held here last week to hear the testimonies of workers from different countries.
The event was part of a People's Summit held by non- governmental organizations ahead of the annual APEC summit.
A worker from China said she survived a fire in 1993 in a toy factory which claimed 87 lives; a Thai worker narrated the plight of fellow workers who were left unpaid and jobless when the garment plant where they worked closed down; and American workers in a California plant faced this threat because owners said they would move to Mexico if the workers continued their attempt to form a union.
The plight of Indonesia's labor leader Muchtar Pakpahan, who is serving a prison term, was also highlighted at the tribunal.
Irene Fernandez, one of the jurors and executive director of the Malaysian Tenaganita, a non-government organization focusing on women workers, said efforts to open up economies in Asia- Pacific was done "while workers are without protection mechanisms".
"At the same time, the deregulation that is taking place is tied very much to the fact that leaders are seen only as 'economic leaders', which leads to the sidestepping of political and social issues of trade," Irene said.
Other jurors were Pierre Sane of Amnesty International, Yayori Matsui, director of Asia-Japan Women's Resource Center and Francisco Sionel Jose, national secretary of the Philippine Center of PEN International, a literary organization.
They recommended that APEC should "ensure mechanisms through which member governments can be held responsible for violations of human rights, and ways in which they can ensure that transnational corporations respect workers' human rights."
They also urged APEC to ratify the human rights' treaties of the United Nations and International Labor Organization and incorporate them in national legislations.
Although officials have repeatedly said that APEC should focus only on trade, the activists said the condition of workers in the region was "deplorable and unacceptable", and "more painful stories" would follow without a commitment from governments to heed labor practices.
"The priority accorded to economic growth and rapid trade and investment liberalization run counter to any notion of people- centered sustainable development," it said, underscoring the fact that sustainable development is one of APEC's agendas.
"APEC's process establishes a privileged relationship between business and government to the exclusion of other social groups.
"The accountability of governments to their populations is further diminished by APEC's characterization of states as economies," the statement said.
Bob White, president of the Canadian Labor Congress, and Warren Allmand, president of the International Center for Human Rights and Development, whose organization sponsored the tribunal, said they had met Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Lloyd Axworthy in the morning to urge APEC governments to respect basic workers rights.