Geneva, 22 August 2000
Some Progress Despite New Restrictions
Despite restrictions introduced by the last session of the UN Commission on Human Rights on the mandate of the Sub-Commission, including the shortening of the session from 4 to 3 weeks and the prohibition against making country specific resolutions, some progress was made during the 52nd session of the Sub-Commission, especially in the field of economic, social and cultural rights.
Pax Romana welcomes in particular two resolutions, on the "Promotion of the realization of the right to drinking water and sanitation" and on "Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)" approved by the Sub-Commission. These two resolutions, together with the reports on the impact of globalization on human rights and the Working Group on Transnational Corporations (TNCs) and the creation of a "social forum" were most timely and constitute the most important outcomes of this Session.
In interventions made during Inter-Sessional Working Group on Transnational Corporations (TNCs), Pax Romana stressed the need to draft legally binding instruments to regulate TNCs in addition to the Code of Conduct for TNCs tabled at the Sub-Commission to curb the negative impact of their activities.
In the context of the forthcoming World Conference Against Racism 2001 (WCAR), Pax Romana raised the question of affirmative action policy in Malaysia, migration and related xenophobia in Spain and Dalits in India. Pax Romana welcomes the resolution on "discrimination based on work and descent", which will give greater exposure to discrimination against groups in South Asia, Senegal and Japan.
The docuements below give the full text of the interventions made by Pax Romana