Hong Kong (Dec 16) — Irene Fernandez has become quite accustomed to the cold weather these days. Joining intrepid delegates at the Peoples Camp on Food Sovereignty as temperatures dipped to a chilly 12 degrees in Victoria Park, she is glad to be in Hong Kong after the long flight from Sweden.

In response to the now ubiquitous question, “so, why are you in Hong Kong?”, the feisty 59 year old Malaysian activist is quick to respond, “because we need to resist the WTO!”

“I am here to make a stand against the WTO, and join thousands from the Peoples Movement and their supporters here to tell the world, “WTO has to Go!”

Irene is in Hong Kong to serve as a judge in two tribunals taking place during the Peoples Action Week. The first, the ‘Rural Peoples Tribunal on the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA)’ which took place yesterday; and the second, the ‘Women’s Tribunal on the Impact of WTO on the World’s Women’ which is taking place today. She is also taking part in the Forum Speak Out on “Globalisation, WTO and Forced Migration” tomorrow, in preparation for the International Migrants Day on December 18th.

“Being part of the resistance is important because it has become very clear that the most effected by the WTO are the communities. Globally the poor are getting poorer. It is becoming increasingly clear also that the WTO only serves the interests of a few – the global transnational corporations, the local elites and the dominant powers like the U.S., the E.U. and Japan”, she adds.

Commenting further on the agenda of these powers at the WTO 6th Ministerial Conference, she asserts, “the whole framework and basis of the WTO these last 10 years has been to oppress communities, and to commodify every possible form of life for trade and profit”. “With the privatisation of water, land, seeds; and fundamental needs like education and health care, everything is now commodified!”, she states. “This is the wrong kind of value system, it is inhuman, it is unjust!” She continues, “the values we need to live by are ‘People Before Profits!’, ‘The Planet Before Profits!'”.

Irene is no stranger to voicing out the need for justice. In fact, her recent trip to Sweden was related to this very subject, but in that case the focus was on the struggle of workers rights, in particular the rights of migrant workers.

She was recently awarded the Right Livelihood Award 2005, also known as the “alternative Nobel Prize”, at a ceremony in Stockholm, “for her outstanding and courageous work to stop violence against women and abuses of migrant and poor workers.”

As she explained during her acceptance speech, “I am a product of migrant labour. My father was a migrant worker from Kerala India. He worked in the rubber plantations during the British rule in Malaysia. I know the experience, the pain, anxiety and discrimination that we went through. And it is this part of my history that gives me the passion, and the zeal and commitment to promote and protect migrant workers and women, affected by violence, denied rights, dignity and justice”.

She is particularly thrilled to have received this award as it emerged out a ‘dissent’ of sorts, the promulgators of the award did not agree with the Nobel list. As Irene puts it, “it reflected a capital and elite centered focus, and did not focus on people’s struggles and the environment. It is good to have this kind of recognition on the struggles of communities for rights, sustainability and justice”.

She does not consider this an award for her personally, but “winning this award means global recognition for the millions of migrant workers suffering injustice in the host countries they are forced to travel to in order to make a living. In Asia alone over 40 million people are on the move in search of work or anything to survive. There are over 60 million people, again in Asia, who go hungry each day. And more than half of humanity earns and lives on less than US $2.00 a day”.

“Migrant workers are forced to leave their loved ones, their homes and sell all they have because they can no longer survive in their countries where poverty, unemployment and hunger are increasing day by day. Confronted with this reality, the poor are becoming more vulnerable. Feminization of migration, particularly in Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Sri Lanka is the norm of the day”, she informed delegates to the awards ceremony.

She asserts, “It is a slavery that is growing. It is a slavery that is institutionalised and legalised through repressive regulations like the Malaysian Immigration laws and the laws of many developed nations”.

Irene is the Director of Tenaganita (Women’s Force) an organisation that campaigns for the rights of foreign workers, up to three million of whom are in Malaysia. Foreign workers have been lured into the country and have played a critical role in the country’s recent economic success, but many now find themselves suffering the most appalling abuses and are detained in camps as undesirables.

In 1995, Fernandez published a report on the abuse of migrant workers, cataloguing the malnutrition, physical and sexual abuse, and the appalling conditions the workers endure, and set out the facts about the detention camps where they end up and where many of them die. Over 300 migrant workers were surveyed for the report.

But in March 1996, Fernandez was arrested and charged with ‘maliciously publishing false news’. Her trial dragged on until 2003 when she was finally found guilty and sentenced to a year in prison, having by then appeared in court more than 300 times. She is currently out on bail pending an appeal. It has been the longest trial in Malaysian history. While on bail, her passport is confiscated and is only available to her on appeal to the court, and she is banned from standing for election.

‘”The government went into a state of denial on the whole migrant workers issue. Unfortunately it continues to do so. Winning this award is a challenge to the government itself!” she explains. “In the absence of a free media, of an independent judicial system and independent oversights for police and state accountability, I was found guilty of publishing false news under the Printing Presses and Publication Act on October 16, 2003 and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. I came out of court smiling because I knew that I had spoken the truth; we had not compromised on fundamental rights and dignity of people. The conviction has in more ways than one, brought about a new awakening to Malaysians and to the global community”.

To Irene, this global prize has also enabled her to highlight and forge global concern and solidarity on other issues. While in Sweden, she took the opportunity to speak to Swedish officials to garner their support to overturn the decision by the E.U. to allow the use of the herbicide, paraquat, in member countries. “Lifting the restriction is unjust, it effectively sent a message around the world that the status of paraquat was changed from “hazardous” to “non-hazardous”, and the E.U. decision is being used by the companies to thwart attempts by peoples organisations and some governments to phase out or ban the pesticide”, she explains.

Irene is also the Chairperson of the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Asia and the Pacific, working for the elimination of pesticides and development of sustainable agriculture. She has been tirelessly working for safer working conditions for agricultural workers who suffer ill health and die of pesticides exposure; and for their rights to just wages and treatment.

“I also spoke to the Swedish Minister responsible for International Development Aid, and stressed that the Swedish government needs to be strong on the issue of pesticides, especially paraquat. In terms of the kind of development aid they provide, I stressed the need to look at the kind of agriculture their aid is used for. There is a need to move away from highly chemicalised agriculture systems, towards ecological, biodiversity based agriculture that is free of hazardous pesticides” she explains.

While there are numerous issues being raised inside and outside of the MC6 at the Hong Kong Convention Centre, Irene is most concerned about the impacts of the WTO on workers, and especially women. As she points out, “Workers and women are the most vulnerable within our communities. The WTO related policies being pushed in our countries are basically destroying jobs. It is creating redundancies as it is promoting the use of mechanisation and other technologies. The point is to acquire the cheapest resources and products for consumers in developed countries”.

“As the privatisation of our resources intensifies, women are being drastically affected. With resources like water, land, and seeds becoming more privatised, women working in agriculture are suffering the effects. As their agriculture suffers and they lose their livelihoods, women are forced to take up other modes of livelihood and often childcare suffers. Women also face violence in the home as they are unable to meet the needs of the family. In other cases, where men leave the villages and migrate to the cities and other countries for jobs, and women are left behind to deal with the farms or to eek out a living doing other things to support their families” she comments.

She asserts, “this is not only a vicious but also an intensified cycle, and it is taking place not only at the local level, but also at the national and international levels. So what we are seeing is an increase in forced labour, in the informal sector, in sex workers. This must be stopped!”

Tenaganita is also a member if the newly launched Coalition of Agricultural Workers International (CAWI), a coalition that brings together Peoples Movements, Trade Unions, NGOs and other support networks representing agricultural workers, peasants, small farmers, dalits and fisherfolk; and fights for their rights.

“We must forge global resistance to overcome the WTO. There are going to be many more communities facing problems under the policies of the WTO, and we need to assert pressure on developing country governments that are pushing WTO policies” she declares, “there are going to be no more farmers, no more land, no more seeds, no more agriculture as we have known it if the agreement on agriculture, trade related intellectual property rights, and the general agreement on tariffs and trade push through. All sectors will be affected!”

So given the chance, what would she say to the leaders and government officials gathered at the Hong Kong Convention Centre?

“It is time to dismantle the WTO! It is time to believe in democracy, it is the peoples’ right to decide on their own destinies”, she states unequivocally.

“Respect the rights and dignity of our people!”

===============

The People’s Camp for Food Sovereignty takes place from December 15-17 in Victoria Park, and will have tribunals, seminars, workshops, protest actions, exhibits, a Rice Festival and other cultural events. It is being organized by Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific (PANAP) and the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) together with 40 People’s Organisations and support NGOs from all over Asia and other regions.