30th January,
2004
UN Secretary General: “Migrants are part of the solution,
not part of the problem”
UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan, awarded the European Parliament’s Sakharov
Prize for Freedom of Thought, used his acceptance speech to
criticise in damning terms the EU's racist approach to migration
and asylum. Accusing the EU authorities of making asylum seekers
and migrants "scapegoats for a vast array of social ills",
he said that the media, which fed the public
“images of a flood of unwelcome entrants, and of
threats to their societies and identities" also shared
the blame for the way in which “immigrants have sometimes
been stigmatised, vilified, even dehumanised". Urging the
the EU to open up its borders, he argued that "Your asylum
systems are overburdened precisely because many people who feel
they must leave see no other channel through which to migrate.
Many others try more desperate and clandestine measures, and
are sometimes injured or even killed – suffocating in trucks,
drowning at sea, or perishing in the undercarriage of aircraft."
This
was a policy which did nothing to address the “human tragedy”
which accompanied such attempts to escape intolerable circumstances,
but was also short-sighted: "A closed Europe would be a
meaner, poorer, weaker, older Europe. Migrants are part of the
solution, not part of the problem".
Spectre will publish the whole text of this speech next
week.
Davos gathering of Great and Good, secretive gatherings
in the mountains
Just before
the end of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF)
in Davos, Switzerland earlier this week, which brought together
more than 2,000 representatives from the top 1000 global companies
along with state leaders, Friends of the Earth International
revealed that the Forum had hosted a secret meeting of the Trans-Atlantic
Business Dialogue TABD is a business-led process that has huge
influence on government decision-makers in the European Union
and the United States.
Friends of the Earth formally asked several times for any information
on the agenda and the participants list for this meeting but
nothing was disclosed by the office of Niall FitzGerald, Chief
Executive of Unilever PLC who since December has held one of
the two TABD chairs (the other is held by the Coca-Cola Company).
According to Corporate Europe Observatory, conferences are attended
by high-level delegations from the European Commission and the
US government. Due to the far-reaching, high-level political
support it enjoys, TABD routinely succeeds in weakening or postponing
new consumer and environment protection measures on both sides
of the Atlantic. It also maintains significant influence over
EU and US policies within the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Despite the fact that the TABD is a private sector group with
no official status in the EU treaties, the Commission refers
to its involvement in the TABD events as "negotiations".
Trade ministers of 18 select members of the WTO also met behind
closed doors and in parallel to the WEF on January 23 to try
to renew international trade negotiations. The so-called 'informal
meeting' was intended to revive trade talks collapsed in Cancun
(Mexico) in September 2003.
At the "Public Eye on Davos", the alternative conference
to the World Economic Forum annual meeting, environmental and
development organisations explained the dangers of such meetings.
reiterating their warning that no WTO agreement is still
better than a wrong agreement, especially an agreement of the
kind the richest trading blocs and the business lobbies behind
them hope to reach.
On January
19th Friends of the Earth International Vice Chair Tony Juniper
requested a list of WEF participants and the detailed agenda
they would address. The office of the WEF's senior managing
director, Jose Maria Figueres, said that the detailed agenda
and people attending was
confidential.
Craig Bennett of Friends of the Earth said:
"The World Economic Forum is hiding behind a screen of
philanthropy, but in reality it is operating behind closed doors
to make it even easier for big business to make massive profits
at the expense of people and the environment."
In an effort to diffuse criticism about its secrecy, the WEF
started in 2003 its own 'Open Forum' that runs in parallel to
its traditional closed-door meetings. Because the WEF and the
'Open Forum' are both called 'Forum', media reports and the
public may confuse them.
A report from Friends of the Earth International released ahead
of the WTO Cancun meeting showed that big business, rather than
helping achieve the ideals set out in the Millennium goals,
is damaging the environment and local communities. Friends of
the Earth is demanding international rules to make big business
accountable for its behaviour.
WEF’s
website: www.weforum.org Real information on WEF can, however, be found here
and here
FoEI’s
report can be downloaded from here
A new EU critical party in Sweden could get as much as 25 percent of the votes in the
June 2004 European Elections, a new poll has revealed. Read
all about it here
Lord Hutton: Anyone inclined to take the Hutton Report with less than hypertension-provoking
quantities of sodium chloride should know the following: Lord
Hutton of Bresagh was formerly Sir Brian Hutton, a High Court
Judge from 1979 to 1988. He then became the Lord Chief Justice
of the Six Counties and the legal adviser to the Ministry of
Home Affairs under the former Stormont
Government. He acted in that role for the British Government
when it was called before the European Court of Human Rights
when the government was accused of the inhuman and degrading
treatment of internees. In 1986 he acquitted the RUC police
officer who killed Sean Downes with a plastic bullet fired at
point blank range., In 1999, then a law lord, was involved in
a case brought by two lawyers , Seamus Treacey and Barry MacDonald
(both of whom
are currently representing the families at the Saville :Bloody
Sunday inquiry.) When Treacey and MacDonald mounted a legal
objection to the requirement that all newly appointed QCs make
an oath of loyalty to the British monarch, Hutton wrote to the
Attorney General warning against any decision to remove the
requirement for such a declaration , saying ".it will
appear that you
are being influenced by political pressure to alter the procedure
relating to an office which links Northern Ireland with the
Crown."
Justice Kerr
then dismissed the plea to remove the requirement, citing Hutton's
comments in his judgement. In 1999 Hutton was one of the law
lords who ruled that the former Chilean dictator; Pinochet should
receive immunity from arrest and extradition for crimes against
humanity. During the case Hutton criticised one of his fellow
Judges in the case (Lord Hoffman) for not
having declared his links with Amnesty International. Hutton
was also involved in the David Shayler case (the former MI5
agent). He and his colleagues ruled against Shayler's argument
that he was acting in the public interest when he exposed the
illegal activities of British Intelligence forces.
Shayler was later jailed.
Rising tide: Schnews reports that
“Delegates at the 'Risks & Opportunities in Caspian
and Central Asian Oil & Gas' got a bit of a surprise on
Tuesday when people from London Rising Tide bike-locked themselves
to furniture during the meeting and let everyone know about
the environmental and climatic effects of running pipelines
through the Caspian oil fields” To read more about the
campaign go to http://www.risingtide.org.uk
Political prisoner would like to hear from you: Sue Brackenbury would welcome letters and CDs as she
awaits trial in HMP Eastwood Park, Falfield, Wotton-under-edge,
Glos, GL12 8DB, England. She is one of three people accused
of attempting to disarm a Trident Sub at Devonport Docks last
year. Their trial is set for the 25th of Feb in Plymouth.
Gorilla warfare: Congratulations to the activists who have forced the cancellation of
a planned new primate vivisection centre. Britain’s reaction
to the banning of invasive experiments on primates of other
countries such as the Netherlands is, naturally enough, to see
the chance of picking up a few quid. To read about the campaign that stopped the
centre and why experiments on apes and monkeys are cruel and
pointless, go to www.primateprison.org
EU Observer,
the invaluable on-line news service, now has an online bookshop
where you can order books on EU affairs. Go to http://www.eubookshop.com
