September 2003 Conference on Global Trade and the implications for Human Rights

The recently formed Human Rights for Change organisation will hold a one-day conference in the Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway, on Saturday October 4th, 2003. The conference, entitled 'Global Trade and the Implications for Human Rights,' aims to provide an academic platform at which the various aspects of trade liberalisation as pursued by the international community, may be critically examined and discussed in the light of their implications for human rights.

While the most serious impact of globalisation has been on the economic, social and cultural rights of people and peoples in the Third World, both academia and civil society in western countries have consistently focused on the enforcement of civil and political rights. This imbalance in study, research and lobbying has resulted in either an incomplete or incorrect understanding of the nature of economic, social and cultural rights throughout the First World.

Some of the main issues that will be discussed at the conference include Accountability and Responsibility of Multi-National Corporations; Human Rights Implications of Development policy; the Impact of International Trade on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Global Arms Trade; Trade and the Environment; Women's Rights and Children's Rights.

Speakers at the conference will include Professor William Schabas, Director, Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway; Jim Loughran, Amnesty International; Angela Hegarty, University of Ulster and Dr. Eleanor Doyle, University College Cork.

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