UN Commission on Human Rights

Fifty-fifth session

Provisional agenda item 10

Economic, social and cultural rights

Oral statement by the Transnational Radical Party, a non-governmental organisation in general consultative status

Delivered by Olga Cechurova

Geneva, 8 April 1999

Mr. Chairman,

A free market economy based on the Rule of Law, on the laws and standards for the market, is a fundamental condition for the existence and enjoyment of economic, social and cultural well-being of every individual. There is a fundamental difference between the Rule of Law and the rules of the free market. The first is created according to a fixed legal iter and has to respond to certain basic values that the UN Charter seeks to protect. The second is flexible and although it has proven to be the most effective means to protect individual liberty, it has to respond and act according to the first. And this is precisely what is not happening in some parts of the world where transnational corporations are active.

A specific group affected by these corporations are indigenous peoples. According to any social and economic indicator Indigenous Peoples are the single most disadvantaged group in society. They receive lower pro capita income, they have the highest unemployment, they work in the worst paid jobs, have the worst housing, the least access to education, the poorest health condition, and enjoy comparatively less social welfare.

Indigenous lands are also particularly affected by environmental degradation and pollution. In the last decades, areas occupied by indigenous peoples have been subjected to intensive developments in the form of mining, hydroelectric, logging and agro-industrial development, as well as settlement by non-indigenous peoples. These activities have often resulted in adverse social and environmental impacts on indigenous peoples.

The disruptive activities of Transnational Corporations have in many cases caused tension, sometimes disrupting in conflicts involving indigenous peoples; the situations of the peoples of Ogoni, and West Papua are just two examples.

Through their activities and financial support, Transnational Corporations often play a major role in the sustaining of repressive regimes. This has clearly been the case in West Papua, where the Freeport Mine is an important source of income for the Indonesian regime; it is the case in Nigeria, where the relationship between the regime and Shell had a major impact on the Ogoni population.

The Indonesian Government offers profitable opportunities to foreign investors for the exploitation of the natural resources of West Papua. These foreign investors can be multinationals such as the mining giant Freeport Mc Moran, which is now mining for copper and gold on the land of the Amungme in West Papua. Other investors are companies which take part in a big so-called development projects such as the one taking place in Mamberamo area where the Government wants to build dams for a project to develop hydro-power. The people in the Mamberamo area know little to nothing of what is about to happen to them and to their land.

Another aspect of the violation of the economic, social and cultural rights of the people in West Papua is transmigration. This organised migration of people from heavily populated regions such as Java, to less densely populated ones such as West Papua, very often subsidised by the Government, has negative economic and social consequences for the indigenous people of West Papua. The new-comers usually have an advantaged position on the job market and in other fields of the economy. As most newcomers are also subsidized by the Government, West Papuans find it hard to compete in a society where they are becoming a marginalized society; a disadvantaged minority on their own land.

Transmigration also has a cultural and social implication: West Papuans are looked down upon and considered as primitive by the Indonesian authorities. They are discriminated and their culture is often only valued as some "exotism", it sells well on the markets but the money goes to the Indonesian entrepreneurs.

The Transnational Radical Party is convinced that there is no freedom without a free market and no free market economy without the Rule of Law. States should be helped and encouraged to ensure and improve the law-based well-being of all its citizens, including the indigenous populations. The TRP asks this Commission to pay due attention to the activities of the transnational corporations and its impact on the life of indigenous peoples.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson.