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Asian Women’s Tribunal: WTO guilty of crimes vs. rural women

Before an audience of 200 and a presidium of six women judges and six women witnesses, Ms. Irene Fernandez, presidium head and awardee of the 2005 Alternative Nobel Prize read the verdict of the Asia-Pacific Women’s Tribunal Against the World Trade Organization (WTO) as GUILTY of numerous crimes against rural women at 3:30 pm on December 16, 2005 at the Boy’s and Girl’s Club Auditorium in Wanchai, Hong Kong.

The Asia-Pacific Women’s Tribunal was organized by the Asia-Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), Amihan Philippines (national federation of peasant women in the Philippines) and GABRIELA Philippines (national alliance of women in the Philippines) to give a stronger voice to women in the Asia-Pacific region in presenting their cases against the global trade regime in the 6th WTO ministerial meeting held in Hongkong from December 13-18, 2005. The women’s tribunal is one among the several actions of women and people’s movements all over the world to demonstrate their resistance and call for an end to the WTO.

According to Ms. Tita Elisa Lubi of APWLD and Gabriela Philippines who served as chief presentor in the tribunal, the WTO proves to be monopoly capital’s most ambitious, far-reaching and wide-ranging scheme to change neo-colonial policies to serve its end. Lubi said that WTO already spans 88.0% of the world’s population and 93.2% of the world’s economy.  With the addition of 33 of countries which are now observers, the WTO will cover 98.8% of the world’s population and 99.8% of the world’s economy.

Yaowapa Promwong from Ban Jode in the northeast part of Thailand said that the ricefield used to be a main source of people’s survival in her country but this is no longer the case. The ricefield has evolved into a commercial center for agri-chemical companies of rich countries like the US and EU in collaboration with the Thai government’s agricultural department to dump first generation seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. In the introductory phase, Promwong said the inputs were given by the government for free. Shortly after that, they were sold at expensive price. At the end of each production period, a women peasant cannot recover the expenses she incurred thus ending up bankrupt. Prongwong emphasized that the entry of the Thai government to the WTO only meant producing for export which is killed by the entry of cheap agricultural imports.

“WTO destroyed my life, my role in production. I am no longer a seed selector and keeper as the agri-chemical company has stolen this role”, Promwong stressed.

A woman worker from Hong Kong who presented her testimony demanded her government not to privatize services. She said that the government should be the employer. As it is now, as the sole bread winner of the family and earning only a measly amount of HK$4,000.00, she cannot move out to a bigger flat where her family can be more comfortable.

Purevdulam, a herding woman from Mongolia said in her testimony that with her government entering into the WTO, mining companies both local and foreign had polluted and killed 800 rivers and 700 lakes. The resulting ecological imbalance caused harsh winters from 1998-2001. Some 10,000 livestock had been killed because of the climate change and livestock is no longer diverse as before. Now, most herding families are raising goats.

Mariena Manurung from a fishing community in Indonesia shared about the displacement of fisherfolk from their livelihood because of the domination of foreign fishing trawls numbering about three million and price of oil products getting increasingly unaffordable to small and medium fisherfolk. Her husband was killed by a foreign fishing trawl and she was left to raise the orphaned family. At least nine fishing women including her have been widowed when their husbands were killed by big or foreign fishing trawls which prevent small local fishers from engaging in this livelihood. The foreign trawls are backed by the Indonesian Navy.

Carmen Buena, a poor peasant from Pampanga, Philippines and national chairperson of Amihan discussed the increasing number of peasant women in her country being pushed to prostitute themselves to landlords in exchange for a meal of rice.

“This is the extent of poverty among rural women in the Philippines”, Buena illustrated. “This is the price of the Philippine government’s entry into WTO— 7 out of 10 peasant families are landless, 10 pregnant women die daily and the country has become a food importer”.

Shanti of Tamil Nadu, India representing the Association of Dalit Women said that the Indian government’s entry to WTO has prevented them from keeping their own seeds. The Indian government, as part of its commitment to WTO imposed on Indian farmers to have all seeds certified before these are used or planted. Shanti shared that farmers are fined of 25,000 Indian rupias if caught using uncertified seeds.

“This is theft, this is depriving us of life, this is genocide”,explained Shanti.

In the verdict, Irene Fernandez further read that WTO, the governments of the US, EU and Japan and their multinational companies are GUILTY of killing the livelihood of many rural women, of intensifying hunger and poverty among rural women and their communities and subjecting rural women to different forms of violence including forced prostitution, out-migration and sex trafficking.

The Asian Women’s Tribunal ordered the WTO to discontinue from being a world trade body and demanded the WTO and the governments of the the US, EU and Japan to compensate the damages they caused the rural women of Asia. It also demanded the respective governments of Asia to cease taking orders from the WTO and to heed their people’s call on the negative impacts of the WTO.

In celebration of the victory of the women’s tribunal, a women’s march was held from Wanchai to the Convention and Exhibition Center in Causeway Bay where the ministerial meeting was being held. Vernie Yocogan-Diano of Innabuyog-GABRIELA and master of ceremonies for the women’s rally said that the tribunal had captured the real situation of rural women all over the Asia-Pacific region.

“The stories of the six women who gave their testimonies are the same stories told by women who are peasants, indigenous, herders, fishers, workers in the Asia-Pacific region. WTO is indeed guilty of numerous crimes against rural women. It has only intensified hunger, poverty and has driven rural women to forced prostitution and migration even to foreign lands thus the urgent call is to junk this global trade body”, summarized Diano in the rally program.

The women marched with a 25 feet by 50 feet patchwork of women’s resistance bearing slogans against WTO in different languages. The march-rally was participated in by about a thousand women and support groups with thousands of by-standers who clapped and cheered while the marchers stopped for short programs.

Representatives of the women contingent led by Irene Fernandez submitted to the ministerial meeting the verdict of the Asian Women’s Tribunal after a long negotiation with the police. #

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