CUTS CITEE LInkages Update No.16

No.16, 2003

The CUTS-CITEE Linkages Update is a quarterly e-newsletter, which apprises readers on news, information and analysis related to the issue of linkages between trade and labour standards, and trade and environment. If you are receiving this e-newsletter inadvertently, we apologise for the same. Please do let us know to make the necessary changes.

Contents

Editor’s Note
EU’s Measures for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions are Welcome

News Roundup
FIFA and ILO team up on worldwide campaign to fight child labour
Children harvest chocolates consumed in the America in large part
Bush administration weakens wetlands protection
US prevented UNEP from adopting a binding protocol on mercury use

Studies & Reports
Fundamental rights at work and international labour standards, 2003
State of the World, 2003: Progress Local Not Global

Events
Linkages: How do we bridge the gap?
South Asian Civil Society Agenda for the Cancun Ministerial

Editor’s Note

EU’s Measures for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions are Welcome

Greenhouse gas emissions from the European Union (EU) have increased for the second consecutive year. Thus, moving the EU further away from meeting its commitment to achieve substantial emissions cut by 2008-12.

The European Environment Agency’s latest assessment states that the state of the environment across the region has improved in several respects over the past decade. However, much of these gains will be lost if economic growth continues to be based on traditional, environmentally damaging activities, rather than on more sustainable, eco-efficient options.

The total EU emissions of the six greenhouse gases widely considered to be contributing most to global climate change are estimated to have been one percent higher in 2001 than a year earlier. However, despite this increase, it was 2.3 percent below their level of 1990. The latest data shows that ten of the 15 Member States of the European Union are a long way off the track for their agreed share of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions target.

Keeping the status in view, a new type of international compliance regime was launched during the establishment of the Compliance Committee under the Aarhus Convention. Under the new compliance mechanism, the public, including non-governmental organisations, will have the right to formally challenge Governments that they believe are failing to comply with their obligations under the Convention.

The Aarhus Convention is a relatively new (UNECE: United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) treaty that provides the public with the right to have access to information, to participate in decision-making and to have access to justice in environmental matters. Compliance is increasingly recognised as a key issue for all international environmental treaties and the development of an innovative compliance mechanism under the Aarhus Convention has been of particular interest.

These efforts need to be appreciated. But, there is uncertainty regarding real implementation. That may take considerable time before emission reductions materialise. The EU has to reach its target of reducing green house emissions by eight percent (from the 1990 level) by 2010, according to the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. The Editor

News Roundup

FIFA and ILO team up on worldwide campaign to fight child labour

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) have agreed to wave a “Red Card to Child Labour”, uniting the world of sport and the world of work in an unprecedented global campaign. Under the banner of the ILO’s “Red Card to Child Labour” campaign, the new alliance will seek to unite world football with the ILO and its tripartite partners and others in a common effort to increase global awareness about child labour and address its causes in the production of sporting goods and in other industries and sectors.

Proposed participants will also include other international sports organisations, the sporting goods industry, relevant non-governmental organisations, charities, different international and civil society institutions, and other stakeholders.

For more: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/index.htm

Children harvest chocolates consumed in the America in large part

The chocolate industry in the US is continue making and selling products without demonstrating any discernible progress in solving the problems associated with child labour. This is despite committing, 16 months ago, to a highly publicised four-year plan to abolish child slaves and labourers from the cocoa farms with whom they do business.

The chocolate companies say their efforts so far have been defeated by the chaos of civil war and stubborn traditions in an agriculture-based society. But those who monitor child labour around the world, and others who scrutinise labour practices of American companies with factories abroad, insist that chocolate companies have failed to take serious steps to end the abhorrent labour practices.

For more: http://www.laborrights.org

Bush administration weakens wetlands protection

The Bush administration issued new, and immediately controversial, guidance regarding federal authority over the nation’s wetlands. Environmentalists said the proposal is the first step in an industry-led effort to gut one of the nation’s most important environmental laws, the 30-year old Clean Water Act.

According to many of them, the Bush administration’s proposal ignores basic hydrology, since pollution in streams and wetlands eventually flows into big rivers and causes more pollution downstream. It also ignores the law, since the very purpose of the Clean Water Act is to eliminate pollution where it begins rather than forcing huge clean up expenses on communities who depend on clean waterways for fishing, swimming, and drinking water.

For more: http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2003/2003-01-10-06.asp

US prevented UNEP from adopting a binding protocol on mercury use

The delegates in an international meeting on environmental governance agreed to crack down on sources of mercury emissions around the globe. But objections from the US delegation prevented the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme from adopting binding limits on emissions from power plants and other major mercury sources.

The US delegation opposed such action, arguing that such international agreements take too long and cost too much to negotiate.

For more: http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2003/2003-02-10-06.asp

Studies & Reports

Fundamental rights at work and international labour standards, 2003

This book offers valuable insight on the application of the ILO’s international labour standards by governments, employers and workers around the world in an accessible, but at the same time, technically sound manner. These standards – on collective bargaining, forced and compulsory labour, equality of opportunity and treatment and protection of children and young people – are closely linked with the ILO’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, 1998.

A detailed description of each instrument and its principles is provided, along with specific problems encountered in applying that instrument at a national level.

For more: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/support/publ/xtextle.htm#b3753

State of the World, 2003: Progress Local Not Global

Worldwatch Institute has released the Annual State of the World report. This book has documented successes in everything: from energy to transportation, food and the combating of infectious diseases. Most case studies show that local and national efforts can begin to turn the tide on the critical issues relating to environment.

These successes, however, have not occurred in a vacuum, and issues of poverty, disease, pollution and climate change are only a few of the issues that threaten the planet and its people.

For more: http://www.worldwatch.org

Events

Linkages: How do we bridge the gap?

Adherence to core labour standards reduces inequality. Sometimes use of sanctions can be successful in catalysing desired reforms and changes, particularly in societies with a low level of democracy, said Peter Bakvis of International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. Responding to Bakvis, T. N. Srinivasan of the Yale University argued that if the rich countries want to help eradicate child labour then they should provide assistance and monetary help to the parents, build schools etc. The policy, based on sanctions-mode, will only create bottlenecks and retard the development of the child rather improving their conditions. We should aim for eradicating child-labour, while saving the child, he added.

They were speaking at a meeting held in Washington DC, USA on 22-23 April 2003, and organised by the CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment, in association with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

For more: http//www.cuts-international.org/news-cuts.htm#Not to focus

South Asian Civil Society Agenda for the Cancun Ministerial

CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment, in association with the South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment (SAWTEE), will be organising the annual conference of the SACSNITI (South Asian Civil Society Network on International Trade Issues) project at Kathmandu, Nepal on 24-25 July 2003.

The purpose is to organise a meeting of civil society organisations, research institutions and others for discussing WTO and related issues and to prepare a South Asian Civil Society Declaration in the run up to the fifth Ministerial Conference of the WTO to be held in Cancun, Mexico in September 2003.

For more: http://www.cuts-international.org/forthcoming-events.htm#South Asian

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Bipul Chatterjee, Editor

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