[asia-apec 273] Labor & Migrant Forum Statement

[alarm]

Labor and Migrant Rights Forum
Manila Peoples' Forum on APEC ‘96
18-20 November 1996,  IIRR Silang, Cavite, Philippines

STATEMENT

In 1995, the NGO Forum on APEC in Kyoto, Japan issued a challenge to
governments of the Asia-Pacific region.  In that declaration, it was
stated:

Genuine development must be centered on the needs of people and nature,
and deliver real social and economic justice.  The form of
indiscriminate, unregulated economic growth and trade which APEC
advocates delivers the opposite of this --- ecologically unsustainable;
it imposes irreversible social and environmental costs; and it enables
governments to abdicate their responsibilities to their citizens and
leave them at the mercy of transnational corporations and international
financial institutions who are accountable to no one.

Genuine development must also affirm the fundamental civil, political,
economic, social and cultural rights of individuals and peoples, and the
obligations of states to promote and protect such rights.

One year later, we, the 90 delegates to the Labor and Migrants Rights
Forum coming from 20 countries of Asia, the Pacific, the Americas and
Europe,  reaffirm this declaration. Again, we must emphasize that the
process of market-driven globalization has continued to deepen the
crisis faced by peoples of all our countries and to intensify the
poverty it is advertized to combat.  The promise of globalization, which
APEC is fostering in this region, was to bring mutual prosperity to all
our countries.  The reality is the integration of the poor and
vulnerable workers into the global economy in ways that exacerbate their
poverty. Globalization also undermines the prosperity of workers
elsewhere.

We hereby declare that "globalization", in the forms advocated by APEC,
must be rejected.  In its place must be built a system of international
economic relations that is people-oriented, based on  respect and the
promotion of human rights,  participation and democratic
decision-making, gender equality, efforts to lessen the disparity
between nations and to break the cycles of debt and impoverishment,
protection of international labor standards and respect for sound
environmental practices.

Global market pressures reinforce and magnify state repression of
workers, and undermine the ability of some to protect labor standards.
Globalization also undermines the security of employment, the right to a
living wage, and the ability to organize and bargain collectively. The
resulting pressure on workers to survive leads to the "informalization"
of the workforce. Informalization is turning workers, in both the formal
and informal sectors, into an even cheaper, more docile, exploited and
un-unionized labor force, and impacts particularly on women. It forces
families to resort to sending their children to work, and some women to
engage in prostitution to survive.

Globalization intensifies migration, and also has a particularly
negative impact on women. The exploitative system of migrant labor
recruitment, often operating outside state regulation, must be addressed
by governments. Special attention must be given to the rampant and
brutal abuses associated with the feminization of migration, and the
violation of the human rights of both documented and undocumented
migrant workers.

We are committed to a process of economic development which responds to
these needs and ends these  violations, and we hereby declare that no
pattern of economic integration or any other international agreement
will be acceptable unless it includes at a minimum the following
measures.

1. Alternative Development Strategies

Economic growth does not equal development; poverty is growing in our
countries faster than the GNP.  Trade, in and of itself, is also not
development.  Current market-based development strategies, which rely
solely on growth in trade, are causing ecological and human disasters,
and  are further intensifying the gap between wealthy and poor. We
therefore call on  our governments to pursue development and build
international cooperation based on people-oriented principles mentioned
earlier, and to re-examine development priorities, in at least the
following ways.

A. Land Use

Land is a finite resource.  Its use and sale can not be left to market
forces alone.  Food security and the tenurial right of farmers are
primary considerations.  We call on all governments to reverse policies
that undermine the protection of indigenous or peasant land rights and
the protection of people to produce their food.  We urge them to develop
land use policies that minimize the involuntary conversion of land at
the cost of displacing poor or indigenous populations, or the use of
inordinate commercial pressures to deprive the poor of their land
rights.

B. Marine Resources

We are very much concerned with lack of adequate governmental
interventions and concerns to protect the marine resources and life. 
When these resources are exhausted, the livelihoods of thousands of
families depending on them are lost.  Added to this is the growing
pollution of all waters, threatening the health and safety of all.  We
call on governments to actively intervene to halt such marine resource
destruction, not only for ecological and health reasons, but also to
develop a sound marine resource economic plan, for food security and
clean potable water.

C. Transitional Assistance

When workers are faced with dislocation, job loss, or informalization
caused by trade pressures or policies, we demand that governments
provide assistance and relief, through realistic and adequately funded
education and training programs.  Employment policies that foster  the
export of people to other countries as a substitute for developing
domestic employment must be amended.  All people have a right to live in
the country of their birth, and all governments have a responsibility to
make it a priority concern to enable that right to be realized.

2. Legal Protections and Procedural Safeguards

A. Honor International Commitments

As was noted at Kyoto, member governments of APEC have participated in
many  inter- governmental conferences:  on the Rights of the Child (New
York), the Environment (Rio de Janeiro), Human Rights (Vienna),
Population and Development (Copenhagen) and Women (Beijing) and Sexual
Exploitation of Children (Stockholm).  Despite their participation, none
of the commitments made in those conferences is visible in the APEC
process.  Rather, the consequence of this form of economic and trade
liberalization violates the fundamental rights to which they agreed.

We call on all governments participating in APEC to subject their
economic plans to the social criteria and commitments they made in these
international events.

B. Respect, Enforce and Improve National Law

Existing laws in our countries are frequently ignored, by-passed, or
even amended in the interest of enticing foreign investment. Genuine
development demands first that all governments:

1)  strengthen the enforcement of existing laws protecting human and
labor rights, 
2)  take measures to inform migrant workers of their legal rights, and
3)  where those laws do not meet international standards, amend them to
bring them into compliance. In particular, we insist that informal
sector workers, farm workers, migrant workers and free trade zone
workers be brought within the scope of labor law protection on a par
with other workers.

We urge all governments in the Asia-Pacific region to refrain from
involving military or police  in labor disputes, or to harass,
intimidate or threaten workers, or as adjunct corporate security
personnel.  We further urge the immediate release of all imprisoned
labor leaders and workers detained for the exercise of their labor
rights.

We demand that each government develop stringent workplace health and
safety laws and regulations that include, but are not limited to:

*The right of workers to refuse dangerous work;

*The right of workers to refuse to work with substances that may harm
the worker, the air, water and/or the land;

*The complete disclosure of information regarding workplace hazards to
workers and their trade union representatives.

We remind all the governments that their first responsibility  to their
own citizens, whether they are at home or overseas, and urge them to
resist the temptation to sacrifice the rights of migrant workers abroad
for the sake of diplomatic or trade relations.

C. Ratify and Enforce International Conventions

The basis for international economic relations must be respect for law
and human rights. It is necessary for all  governments to ratify and
enforce, without reservation, the UN's International Convention on
Political and Civil Rights, the International Convention on Economic,
Cultural and Social Rights, and  the International Convention for the
Protection of the Rights of all Migrants and Members of their Families. 
Further we call on governments to ratify and enforce all ILO conventions
on migrant workers and their families, as well as the core worker rights
conventions guaranteeing freedom of association, the right of collective
bargaining, prohibitions against forced labor and child labor, and
non-discrimination in the workplace (Conv. 29, 87, 98, 100, 105, 11, and
138.)

D. Strengthen the Ability to Regulate Multinational Corporations

We call for international treaties or agreements to allow claims against
multi-national corporations to be filed in their country of corporate
headquarters, or in international courts, when legal claims can not be
adjudicated in the country of the alleged violation, or when damages can
not be collected in that country.

E. Protect Migrant Workers Against Abuse

Governments must establish protocols among receiving and sending
countries to institutionalize protection of migrant workers against
abusive practices or  conditions, both in the recruitment process and in
the workplace. These measures must include the regularization of all
undocumented workers. We demand the repeal of anti-migrant laws and
policies in both sending and receiving countries. 

F. Strengthen the ILO's Complaint Procedures

We call on governments, employers and workers representatives to the ILO
to establish complaint mechanisms related to migrant worker conventions,
as well as the core labor rights conventions mentioned above.  Further
we ask that enforcement systems to redress violations be developed at
the ILO in conjunction with other international bodies.

3. Research and Information

A. Migrant Worker Protection

We call on the governments to compile and publish a compendium of laws
and regulations regarding migrant workers in the different APEC member
economies, as well as judicial procedures for protecting their human and
labor rights, and to make this information widely available.

B. Accuracy of Information

Governments should refrain from issuing partial and misleading
information on the impacts of APEC, and commission independent research
on the consequences of liberalization, as it relates to various sectors
of the economy and workforce.

4. Corporate Codes and Enforcement

While corporate codes of conduct or codes of labor practice can not by
themselves be expected to lessen or control violations of workers rights
or environmental regulations, we nevertheless call on governments to
encourage corporations, in dialogue with workers and unions, to adopt
codes of conduct for all phases of their operations, including
contractors and sub-contractors everywhere in the Asia Pacific region. 
These codes must include respect for all relevant labor laws, and
especially recognize the right of freedom of association and expression
and collective bargaining rights.  Governments should also encourage
establishment of independent systems to monitor compliance with this
codes.

Governments must develop mechanisms to hold corporations accountable to
their obligations to workers, including back pay and severance pay, when
they relocate.

We further believe that governments should cooperate with trade unions
and NGOs  to develop means to monitor compliance with such codes of
conduct and to asses the practices of corporations related to
environmental pollution and cleanup.

Preparing for Popular Action

As trade unions, non-governmental organizations, and people's movements
committed to a different model of development and the full participation
of the people in their own destiny, we recognize the need for
consolidating and strengthening our efforts not only to combat the
globalization model of APEC but to imagine and construct an alternative
world based on fundamental principles respecting human rights and human
dignity.  We need to engage our membership in these issues to develop
new inclusive paradigms for relations among local workers and migrants,
and to fully foster gender equality and the affirmation of women's
perspectives.  

There is much work to be done on every front.   As a start, focusing on
preparations for coordinated activities, we propose to our colleagues to
undertake as appropriate the following actions.

1. Trade unions, people's movements and NGOs throughout the region
should undertake investigations and advocacy related to their own
nationally-based multinational corporations or MNCs operating in their
own country, and communicate this information to home country
organizations in order to develop international campaigns of corporate
accountability.

2. A multinational study of migrant worker-related laws, regulations and
practices, together with a listing of resources available to assist
migrant workers, should be developed and made widely available  in all
relevant languages.

3. We urge an international study be undertaken regarding the legal
obligations of multinational corporations in various countries of the
region, in order to develop proposals for strengthening the legal
mechanisms to hold MNCs accountable for their action.

As a part of these recommendations, we endorse and append to this
statement the action recommendations of this year's Labor and Migrants
Rights Forum.

We also adopt the action recommendations by the following conferences:

The Migrant Workers Challenging the Global Structures Conference, Seoul,
South Korea, August 28-September 1, 1996

The International Women's Conference on APEC, Shalom Center, Manila,
Philippines, 15-16 November 1996.

Approved and adopted by the Labor and Migrants Rights Forum of the
Manila People's Forum on APEC, 18-20 November 1996, IIRR, Cavite,
Philippines.