---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 17:02:24 -0700
From: Charlotte Utting <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [WASAN] FW: [adnalist] UPDATE: Africa: Human Rights Watch letter
to Sec. of State Colin Powell
----------
From: nunu kidane <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 08:42:08 -0700
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [adnalist] UPDATE: Africa: Human Rights Watch letter to Sec. of
State Colin Powell
ADNA Update: 011025
Message from: Human Rights Watch
For contact information see also:
http://www.africapolicy.org/adna
Dear friends:
The need to diligently follow up on the human rights records of AGOA
partner countries is stressed in the letter below. To send this letter to
a friend or get the 2001 human rights report form Human Rights Watch, go
to:http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/10/powellafrlet.htm
Nunu
Africa: Use Trade Law for Human Rights
HRW Letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell
October 25, 2001
Colin Powell
Secretary of State
US Department of State
Washington DC 20520
Dear Secretary Powell:
Human Rights Watch is writing to urge you to ensure that the United States
uses the human rights eligibility criteria of the African Growth and
Opportunity Act (AGOA) as leverage to press for human rights improvements
in Africa. As the law states, eligibility for AGOA includes labor rights
and human rights criteria: beneficiaries must not "engage in gross
violations of internationally recognized human rights." This language
requires that the annual review of AGOA eligibility include a careful and
detailed examination of the human rights record of AGOA partners, in
addition to their political and economic reforms.
The conclusions of this review should in turn be used by the U.S.
government as an essential tool to press for human rights improvements in
recipient countries.
Although the law clearly links human rights to AGOA benefits, the U.S.
government has not used human rights criteria effectively to improve human
rights performance in the beneficiary countries. The U.S. Trade
Representative's (USTR) report, the 2001 Comprehensive Report of the
President of the United States on U.S. Trade and Investment Policy Toward
Sub-Saharan Africa and Implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity
Act, lists numerous abusive practices by recipient countries. But it gives
no indication of how the U.S. intends to monitor progress in addressing
these abuses in order to determine AGOA eligibility. In some sections, the
report simply fails to acknowledge human rights problems that are
documented in the State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices. These shortcomings in the AGOA review process risk undermining
the importance and integrity of the human rights criteria.
To cite a few examples:
· In the chapters on Cameroon and on Guinea, the USTR's report acknowledges
serious human rights abuses and links AGOA eligibility to progress in these
areas. The USTR's chapter on Cameroon notes "serious concerns regarding
human rights," and "credible reports" that security forces were responsible
for numerous extrajudicial killings. It goes on to state that Cameroon was
considered eligible for AGOA "based on assurances from the government that
it would undertake an investigation of these abuses and punish those
responsible." Similarly, the chapter on Guinea reports that the "security
forces frequently committed human rights abuses and the justice system was
perceived as providing inadequate guarantees of fairness and safety to
prisoners," and then notes that the government "agreed to initiate reforms
in the justice and penal systems." Is there any evidence that these
countries have fulfilled their assurances? If so, what have the State
Department and USTR done to verify their claims? If not, how will the
administration preserve the credibility of this process?
· The USTR's evaluation of Eritrea makes no mention of the serious concerns
laid out in the State Department's Country Reports, which classified the
government's human rights record as "poor" and noted concerns regarding the
independence of the judiciary, torture by police, restrictions of press
freedom and religious freedom, violence and discrimination against women,
and restrictions on worker rights. In recent weeks, the Eritrean government
intensified a major crackdown on its opponents.
· The USTR report on Kenya notes that corruption is "widespread," and that
human rights protections are "not consistently respected in practice." In
fact, constitutional reform remains critical to solving Kenya's political
crisis and promises to grow in urgency with the approach of the 2002
national election. Yet the government of President Daniel arap Moi
continues to undermine efforts to allow a genuinely democratic process.
Similarly, the government has made little or no progress in addressing
corruption so extensive that it has resulted in suspension of funding by
the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
· The report acknowledges serious abuses committed by neighboring states in
the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but fails to make progress in
addressing such serious abuses a condition for AGOA. For example the USTR
notes "reports" that Rwandan security forces were responsible for
extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest and detention and beatings of
detainees in Rwanda, and "credible reports" that the Rwandan military has
committed massacres and other abuses in eastern Congo. On Uganda, the
report states that "abuse of civilians continued in DRC areas under Ugandan
control." Yet neither Rwandan nor Uganda is required to end these abuses or
bring perpetrators to justice in order to qualify for privileges under AGOA.
In listing these examples, we are not taking a position on whether these
states should or should not be eligible for benefits under AGOA. Rather, we
are using these cases to illustrate how the U.S. government could use AGOA
to press for an end to abuses and for the improvement of human rights in
recipient countries. To fail to do so betrays the intentions of those who
established AGOA and risks squandering a potentially useful tool in the
promotion of human rights in Africa.
Thank you for your attention to these important matters.
Sincerely,
Janet Fleischman
Washington Director for Africa
Tom Malinowski
U.S. Advocacy Director
Cc: Amb. Robert B. Zoellick, United States Trade Representative
--------------------
This message from Human Rights Watch is distributed through the
Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA) via IDEX
Nunu Kidane
Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA)
Communications Facilitator for IDEX
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