| Announcement |
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| Written by Secretariat, APRN |
| Wednesday, 01 October 2003 18:43 |
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Rationale The process of corporate globalization has been both economically and politically aggressive to the rights of citizens, especially in developing countries. Monopolizing decision making in the WTO, developed countries that are hosts to headquarters of TNCs compel developing countries to liberalize and deregulate national trade and investment policies to allow global corporations unrestricted access and exploitation of human and natural resources in these countries. The impacts of this process have been oppressive to the peoples of developing countries, particularly in the Asia-Pacific and Africa-Arab regions. The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) has been destroying not only the livelihood of marginal and self-subsistent rural population but also taking their resource bases that are necessary for them to achieve food security and sovereignty. The General Agreements on Trade in Services (GATS) has been depriving people not only of access to basic social services but also job security and opportunity. These and other WTO rules and agreements, in effect, exclude peoples and communities from the benefits in the corporative development process. Faced with a groundswell of protests and resistance from social movements that challenge WTO and globalization in developing countries and throughout the continents, national and global elite tend more and more in employing coercive mechanism to push the globalization process against the backdrop of massive opposition. Since 9/11, this trend heightens and dominates the global and national socio-political affairs. Riding on the 9/11 tragedy, the US-led war on terror took an aggressive position in global politics. Its war in Afghanistan and in Iraq have radically changed the political context of the world, including the WTO. The war has made it relatively easier to pressure as well as entice countries to toe the line of the G8, especially the US and EU, in WTO negotiations. Since 9/11, the people's resistance to further liberalization and G8 positions is easily attacked as being terrorist or pro-terrorist. APRN sees the "global war on terror" that reinforces state repression in many developing countries as collateral expansion of the threat and destruction WTO and globalization impose upon the people and the social movements. Peoples and social movements need to understand and articulate the collaborative agenda of corporate globalization and the global war on terror to comprehensively address current social problems and chart lasting alternative strategies towards global justice, peace, and development. Also, for social movements how to proceed with advocacy in this context. Thus, the Asia-Pacific Research Network 5th Annual Conference on "War and Terror: People's Rights and the Militarization of Globalization". The APRN is a network of leading research NGOs in the region with the main objective of exchanging information on international issues, as well as experiences, technologies, and methods in research. At present, the APRN has 32 member organizations from 16 countries. The conference will be held for three days in Beirut, Lebanon hosted by the Arab NGO Network for Development based in Beirut. It expects to gather about a hundred participants from the NGOs, people's organizations, academe, and other sectors. Registration fee is US$300 which covers meals and accommodation from September 1-3. For further information, contact the APRN Secretariat via secretariat@aprnet.org To fill-up online registration form, click here To view proposed program, click here Like it? Share it!
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| Last Updated on Thursday, 27 November 2008 14:36 |
