Human rights

In only three days, from January 8 to 11, the president of the United States eliminated the Temporary Protected Status for Salvadoran immigrants and said that El Salvador, Haiti and African nations are "shithole countries". His words were rejected by many people around the world. The president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) issued two strong statements.

After 30 years of neoliberal globalization, it has been increasingly acknowledged that austerity, privatization, deregulation of finance, markets and corporations, and trade and investment liberalization have had a devastating and discriminatory impact on women and have driven inequality. Recent large multilateral agreements, designed primarily to enable the unhindered flow of global capital, are significant barriers to the realization of the human rights of women.

Several media have identified declining living standards as the root cause of the protests, including the impact of new budget measures that are supposed to go into effect in March. However, few media reports have pointed out that the IMF has urged the country to adopt and implement some of the most unpopular measures.

In an interview for PSI, the president of the Union of Medical, Hospital and Similar Workers (Sitramedhys) talks about the situation in the Central American country after suspicions of electoral fraud. “Our perspectives for the future, once the will of the government is imposed, are not very encouraging”.

As delegates from United Nations Member States, international organisations, civil society organisations and various stakeholders gather in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for the Stocktaking Meeting to prepare for the negotiations for the UN Global Compact for Migration in 2018, the Trump Administration announces that the United States is pulling out of the process.

PSI joins in solidarity with global civil society in calling for urgent action to address the human rights situation of enslaved African migrants in Libya, during the Stocktaking Meeting towards the UN Global Compact for Migration, 4-6 December 2017 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Court in Istanbul will release Director of Amnesty Turkey, İdil Eser, and other activists who were arrested in July. Campaigners will press for the release of Amnesty Turkey's Chair, Taner Kılıç (pictured), whose separate trial begins on 27 October.

The 3rd session of the open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights (OEIGWG) started on Monday 23 October. For one week, experts, activists, governments, trade unions and other stakeholders will meet at the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, to discuss the possibility of adopting a binding treaty on transnational corporations.

PSI affiliates in the US and Canada comment on the NAFTA renegotiations submitted to the United States Trade Representative (USTR). "We need a new approach to trade that puts the interests of working people and the environment first. We need an economy that puts a high priority on jobs, living standards, sustainability, and labor rights." Click on the image below to read it in full.