Globalization: The Double-edged Sword

...Humanitarian advocacy groups brought the case of the U'wa to the OAS and protested the Colombian military's abusive attempts to dislodge the blockade...

...The outstanding illustration of this phenomenon is Mexico's Zapatista guerrilla movement, which built a dense transnational support base through the "Zapatista Intergalactic Network" bulletins, dozens of Web sites, media events, international conferences and monitoring tours...

...Peer networks of indigenous organizations engaged in world-wide media campaigns, and sent representatives for monitoring and accompaniment...

...New institutions, information and organization have contributed to new forms and levels of collective mobilization...

...The U'wa case has split the Colombian government...

...There are also informal partnerships between northern NGOs, including those that are not traditional human rights organizations, and Latin American grassroots groups...

...5. For details on the Kayapo and Zapatista cases, see Alison Brysk, From Tribal Village to Global Village: Indian Rights and International Relations in Latin America (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2000...

...forthcoming), based on a conference at the University of California, Irvine, January 2000...

...2 In what follows, we will discuss these four developments...

...So while some forms of globalization are generating new threats to human rights, other forms are creating new channels for accountability...

...Following the Pinochet case, Chilean courts have partially withdrawn his regime's 1978 self-amnesty, which has resulted in the arrests of several dozen military officers to face new charges...

...On the other hand, the United States has assisted efforts to reform the Colombian judiciary...

...In the latest episode this past June, U.S...

...International networks often The car combine labor, religious and human rights groups on the Northern side...

...But before they reached that level of desperation, they called upon global allies and set up an on-site blockade of the proposed drilling site...

...Dozens of international NGOs are active in Colombia, including Peace Brigades International, which offers direct accompaniment for potential victims...

...As Chile's new President Ricardo Lagos expressed it, "Pinochet's detention in London has shown that globalization has now expanded from economic affairs to the institutions of politics and justice...

...The Protesters in Washington, D. C. are harassed by police as they protest IMF and World Bank policies earlier this year...

...4. For further discussion including Latin American cases, see Thomas Risse, Steven Ropp, and Kathryn Sikkink, The Power of Human Rights (London: Cambridge University Press, 1999), and Alison Brysk, "From Above and Below: Social Movements, the International System and Human Rights in Argentina," Comparative Political Studies, Vol...

...Another growing form of internationalism consists of non-hierarchical coalitions of human rights organizations within Latin America itself...

...U'wa blockades in Colombia have temporarily halted oil development, while transnational legal appeals continue within and beyond the country...

...A variation on this arose during the 1980s when solidarity or accompaniment was carried out by Witness For Peace and Peace Brigades International, whose members served-and continue to serve-as "unarmed body- guards" for local populations at risk of human rights abuse...

...Second, Spain's request contributed to the doctrine of indirect "chain-of-command" responsibility for human rights violations established after World War II at Nuremberg...

...The UN has set up a special division of its Human Rights Office in Colombia, and helped found and fund a Children's Peace Movement which spearheaded nation-wide demonstrations...

...Within the United States, the Alien Torts Act has been used to bring civil actions against Latin American torturers by their victims when both are resident in the United States, resulting in recent judgments against an Argentine and a Guatemalan general...

...anthropologist founded the Kayapo video project using equipment donated from Japan-institutionalizing this empowerment through media...

...Political mobilization in the United States has increasingly focused on transnational human rights issues, many in Latin America...

...3. Ricardo Lagos and Heraldo Muhoz, "The Pinochet Dilemma," Foreign Policy, No...

...Indeed, over the Globalization expanded front affairs to the i of politics an past generation, new forms of human rights enforcement, international accountability and global cooperation have gradually become institutionalized...

...lobalization has also enabled and encouraged e formation of multiple models of organiza- S tions and alliances on a transnational level...

...and institutions with respect to human rights...

...The Indigenous Ministry has sued the state for negligence, and Congress has censured its own Environment Ministry for granting Occidental's permit without consultation...

...Reaching horizontally across borders, information flows and technology can be used to build networks and coalitions...

...Globalization: The Double-edged Sword 1. See Alison Brysk, ed., Globalization and Human Rights: Transnational Problems, Transnational Solutions...

...Such technology is often developed in the North, and transmitted or adapted by transnational human rights advocates...

...Finally, Britain's courts clarified the potential culpability of former heads of state for human rights abuse...

...A group of internal refugees from the conflict has pressed for state recognition by occupying the InternaVol XXXIV...

...International actors like the United Nations and Organization of American States (OAS) are attempting to move toward global-or at least regional-governance, while cross-border linkages among social movements are laying the foundations for a global civil society...

...Third, citizens have founded, joined, and linked organizations across borders...

...Spain's attempt to extradite former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet from Britain to face human rights charges was a "shot heard round the world" for transnational legal accountability-regardless of the shot's impact on its intended target...

...As far as human rights are concerned, this broad set of global relations has become both a threat to and a vehicle for the development of more humane political, social and economic relations.' Colombia is a dramatic case in point...

...The U'wa tribe, a small and isolated rainforest group, is threatened by oil drilling planned by Occidental Petroleum under a lease from the Colombian government...

...Matching universal standards with global action is a key step towards protecting human rights within and across borders...

...Land rights conflicts between peasants and transnational corporations seeking shares of potentially lucrative oil and coffee export markets also contribute to rural violence...

...Three of these international activists were murdered in 1999 by guerrilla forces also contesting U'wa territory...

...259-85...

...Pinochet was arrested in London in October 1998, following an extradition request from Spanish judge Baltasar Garz6n...

...Activists on the U.S.-Mexican border, for example, have used information appeals to groups who might have some influence on corporate behaviorincluding U.S...

...the U'w The Texas-based Coalition For Justice in the Maquiladoras, for exam- many c ple, includes the Interfaith Center for transnati Corporate Responsibility, the American Friends Service Committee, rights Human Rights Watch and the United Auto Workers...

...In a similar vein, labor and human rights groups like Human Rights Watch publicized and reframed border assembly plants' practices of compulsory pregnancy testing of Mexican workers...

...Congressional offices...

...As of June 2000, Pinochet himself has been stripped of his parliamentary immunity by Chilean courts, allowing the possibility of domestic prosecution for disappearances authorized by the military regime...

...The struggle to control the international cocaine market-the ultimate free trade-underlies much of the ongoing political violence...

...The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists fits this model...

...And in 1999, an OAS ruling forced Honduras to acknowledge responsibility for death-squad activity and pay $2.1 million compensation to victims' families...

...The U'wa's defenders overseas have picketed Occidental Petroleum and Fidelity Investments, and exposed the Gore campaign's financial ties to Occidental...

...The Colombian military-the worst violator of human rights in the hemisphere-has long been trained and equipped by the United States, and is slated to receive a $1.3 billion aid package...

...First, international relations have become more structured by rules while domestic rules have become more tightly bound to international standards...

...Transnational coalitions have also disseminated and translated information about labor rights and occupational safety to border workers, enabling them to better defend their own rights...

...The creation of alternative "fair trade" marketing networks which offer improved labor rights and local control is a program activity of Global Exchange, one of the lead organizers of the protests...

...3 After numerous delays and appeals through every level of the British legal system, Britain's High Court eventually ruled that Pinochet was unfit to stand trial for health reasons...

...consumers, Mexican and U.S...

...Amnesty International, for example, using information which shows an association between certain 30 NMIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 30REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS military units slated for aid and a high prevalence of human rights abuse, has lobbied the U.S...

...Human rights activists have been able to achieve greater levels of success for four identifiable reasons...

...Labor coalitions, through press campaigns, letter-writing, tours, testimonials and documentation, have exposed oppressive working conditions and defended workers' rights to organize, winning union rights in Mexican and Nicaraguan assembly zones...

...However, subi has now sidiary rulings established important principles and precedents for n economic transnational accountability...

...Furthermore, Spain v. Pinochet is only the bestknown of a number of transnational legal proceedings for human rights accountability...

...Chile enjoys the unique status of having been buffeted by both forms of global contagion-with diametrically opposite results...

...At the same time, Latin America has suffered more from economic globalization than any other region...

...26-39...

...The group monitors and protests harassment, prosecution and assassination of journalists worldwide and has recently been quite active in Colombia...

...Meanwhile, U'wa leaders brought to the United States by international supporters have confronted corporate representatives in U.S...

...In Brazil, a U.S...

...In October 1999 alone, activists marched on Colombian consulates in 21 cities in ten countries...

...This means both the introduction of new rules, like the sanctions at the disposal of the International Criminal Court, and an increased willingness to use longstanding rules, such as the 1984 Torture Convention, as a basis for extradition...

...This new reality has begun In Bos Occid to transform human rights activism, which must destrc seek to defend new kinds of victims, use and foster new organizations, and make new connections between civil rights and a broad array of social conditions challenged by globalization...

...Initially, the U'wa threatened to commit mass suicide, in accord with their traditions, if their land was lost...

...One of the first such coalitions was the Federation of Families of the Disappeared (FEDEFAM) founded in Argentina in the 1980s to unite national human rights organizations comprised of relatives of the disappeared...

...oldest tradition of humanitarian advocacy speaks for victims who cannot speak for themselves...

...5 A new human rights organization, Derechos Human Rights, was formed on the Internet by U.S., Argentine, and Spanish activists, with Web-based networks, action campaigns, and legal services...

...Second, all forms of social interaction involve greater and faster exchanges of information, some through new media...

...In addition, the new wave of mobilization has been taken up at every subsequent meeting of the major multilateral financial institutions-both global and regional-and such institutions have been forced to respond to the demands of labor, environmental and indigenous-rights groups at a new level...

...Inter-American institutions, information flows and networks have grown dramatically, while broadened conceptions of rights better confront Latin American reality...

...Spain's Baltasar Garz6n, the judge prosecuting Pinochet, has also issued arrest warrants for 98 Argentine military officers from the same era...

...the Americas...

...As a result, several multinationals such as the Aluminum Company of America and General Electric have discontinued such practices...

...First, repressive or negligent states can be challenged from above and below with new, better or more widely disseminated information about their domestic human rights practices...

...While some nations are simply neglected by the international community, many Latin American countries now find themselves in a wide range of relationships with outside forces as they attempt to find their way through projects of regional integration, negoAlison Brysk is Associate Professor of Political Science and Chair of International Studies at University of California, Irvine...

...In Mexico, anti-logging activist Rodolfo Montiel-winner of the 2000 Goldman Environmental Prize-has been declared a prisoner of conscience, and as a result of accompanying pressure, his case is being re-examined by the Mexican government...

...Indigenous rights and environmentalist coalitions such as the Amazon Coalition and Rainforest Action Network have mobilized multinational waves of protest against Colombia and Occidental...

...Despite the region's continuing economic dependence, its international interactions are actually becoming more varied and diffuse...

...The case of the U'wa was cited by Seattle demonstrators against the WTO as an example of the dark side of globalization...

...Furthermore, the growth of formal ties of economic interdependence among nations has inspired some human rights violators to recalculate the trade-offs of international cooperation with human rights norms, and has increased their propensity to comply...

...Latin America has benefited more from the globalization of human rights than any other region...

...The Sierra Club, together with Amnesty International, has launched a campaign to protect environmental activists worldwide, with featured cases in Mexico and Ecuador, and a special focus on the responsibility of multinational corporations...

...Transnational human rights activism has strengthened existing opportunities, while also promoting new institutions, issues and organizations...

...In this sense, though international trade and global investment are the most widely chronicled transnational influences on Latin American development, the globalization of the political sphere is growing as well...

...In El Salvador, for example, satellite mapping of military zones was used by investigators for the UN Truth Commission to correlate abuses with command structures...

...A second kind of internationalism unites people within common sectors-co-religionists, for example, or professional groups-around the activities of actors with sufficient resources to play a leading role...

...government to reduce or suspend military aid to Colombia...

...ston, demonstrators protest Fidelity Investment's huge holdings in ental Petroleum, whose oil exploration in Colombia threatens to y the indigenous U'wa community...

...She is author of The Politics of Human Rights in Argentina (Stanford, 1994) and From Tribal Village to Global Village: Indian Rights and International Relations in Latin America (Stanford, 2000...

...Guatemalan Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchdi has brought charges in the same Spanish court against former dictator Efrain Rfos Montt, leading a Guatemalan attorney to charge her with treason...

...Similarly, massive April protests against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington, D.C.-in which some 1,300 protesters were arrested-linked demands for social rights, relief from oppressive foreign debt and greater grassroots influence on the U.S.-dominated global institutions...

...26 (October 1993), pp...

...The n a f a December 1999 Seattle protests paign for against the World Trade Organi- zation (WTO), for example, in illustrates which 30,000 demonstrators disrupted the international meeting, fthe new included demands for "fair nal human trade"-including the enforcement of basic labor rights-within Alliances...

...The campaign for the indigenous U'wa people of Colombia illustrates many of these modes of transnational alliance...

...New forms and flows of information have also become a resource for the protection of human rights in the Americas...

...This new layer of global support is necessary--though not yet sufficientto address the persistence of state-sponsored repression, along with the intertwined threats to civil, social and environmental rights generated by globalization itself...

...ners in the European Union-was bound by international convention to extradite suspected torturers...

...114 (Spring 1999), pp...

...Activists struggling for human rights have always aspired to global reach, but in the A ast generation that reach has begun to become a reality...

...The Amazon Alliance, for example, unites northern environmentalists with Latin American indigenous peoples' organizations...

...These new charges result from the evolving legal doctrine that forced disappearance-kidnapping-is an ongoing crime not subject to statutes of limitations...

...And fourth, there has been a growing sophistication in both the form and content of transnational mobilization...

...Third, transnational information campaigns can target international actors such as multinational corporations...

...Although the OAS is not the main vehicle for pan-American economic integration, transnational protestors against globalization have begun to contest the basic structures of inter-state governance...

...In addition, the transnational activity catalyzed a new wave of human rights accountability within Chile...

...4 Second, intervening states can be pressured with information by their own citizens to change their behavior towards a subject state...

...What remains to be seen is how activists across the Americas can meet this double-edged structural challenge...

...No 1 JULY/AUGUST 200029 Vol XXXIV, No 1 JuLY/AuGUST 2000 29REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS tional Red Cross, and one beleaguered indigenous group petitioned the Spanish Embassy for political asylum for the entire tribe...

...Finally, new information technology can become a resource for documentation by human rights defenders...

...and Canadian activists linked protests in Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario against the OAS meeting in Canada...

...The growth of global action corresponds to a new era of multilayered human rights threats, from legacies of authoritarianism to democratic deficits to the contradictions of globalization itself...

...manufacturers, the governments of both countries, and even third-country owners or sub-contractors...

...tiate with extra-hemispheric partners and deal with multilateral lenders...

...2. See Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999) for a discussion of the use of information politics, leverage, and organization by transnational networks...

...Accessible video cameras have enabled indigenous peoples in isolated areas to document their own conditions and confrontations with officials...

...First, nstitutions the Pinochet proceedings affirmed that Britain-and implicitly its partId justice...