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How the OAS Violates Women's Rights
by Antonia Baker
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The Organization of American States (OAS), which parented the Free Trade
Area of the Americas (FTAA) is a political forum that is based in
Washington, DC and includes the heads of state of all of the countries
in the Americas, with the exception of Cuba which has no voting rights.
The
OAS' main priority is building the FTAA, an agreement that will enable
foreign companies to gain unlimited access to the domestic markets of
so-called "developing" nations within the Americas. As the extension of
NAFTA, the FTAA aims to consolidate the entire Hemisphere into one free
trade zone.
The liberalization of free trade has severely
oppressive consequences for the lives of all women living in the
Americas. It allows transnational corporations to buy up public
resources like health care, education, water and telecommunications,
making them increasingly unaffordable for the poor. It is women and
children who are most often denied their rights to such resources.
Importantly,
women of colour and aboriginal women suffer the most from the OAS'
agenda. As labour is deregulated and indigenous lands are both seized
and militarized, imperialist trade pacts result in the forced
sterilization of women within the workplace, military rapes of
indigenous women, and the feminization of poverty.
The
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is the investment body of the OAS
that funds development projects throughout the Americas. Like the World
Bank and the IMF, the IDB forces structural adjustment programs (SAP's)
upon indebted nations. The imposition of private sector development and
SAP's ensures that developing nations become economically dependent upon
US interests.
The IDB's development projects result in
environmental devastation and the mass displacement of indigenous
peoples. Aboriginal lands in Rio Negro, Guatemala were stolen for the
construction of the IDB's Chixoy Dam megaproject. Women and children in
the region were raped and massacred by the US backed Guatemalan
military. Instead of stimulating economic growth, as the OAS promised,
the project has only further impoverished the nation.
The mass
displacement of indigenous peoples has resulted in more women migrating
to towns in search of jobs. These women are often forced to take work as
low-paid domestic servants or seamstresses making products for foreign
corporations.
Free trade results in the deregulation of labour
in order to maintain a cheap, intimidated and submissive workforce.
Protection for workers is viewed by the Organization of American States
as an obstacle to development.
Foreign investors require that
women submit to pregnancy tests or submit proof of their sterilization
in order to be hired. The National Labour Committee (NLC) estimates that
500,000 women in the free trade zone of Central America and the
Caribbean work in conditions where they are forced to take birth control
pills while producing goods for US markets.
"Bloodsisters is
endorsing the actions in Windsor as a continuation of women's
resistance, in solidarity with women across the Americas", says Robin
Banks of Bloodsisters Toronto and the OAS / FTAA Shutdown Coalition. "As
women who organize locally, we are joining this movement to globalize
our resistance against agreements such as the FTAA which allow
transnational corporations to dictate women's reproductive health".
The
OAS shields its misogyny through fronts such as the "Inter-American
Convention on the Prevention and Eradication of Violence Against Women".
Although 25 out the 34 member states have signed the convention, Canada
and the US have still not ratified the agreement. The adoption of such
programs is really an attempt to build public relations, as OAS policies
create climates where women are violated and assaulted.
The
effects of privatization include government cutbacks, which means that
there are decreased funds allocated for services that provide shelter
for women escaping violence. Cutbacks in spending for health care in the
Americas adversely affect women who must provide care for family
members. In privatizing education, parents are often forced to pull
children, primarily girls, from school.
The OAS agenda includes
reducing spending so that only 75% of secondary school education will be
provided for by 2010 for member states, which includes Canada and the
US.
The OAS only pays lip service to dialogue and the
participation of civil society while concealing its agenda with claims
of promoting human rights and democracy. This June, the OAS / FTAA
General Assembly will be meeting in Windsor, Ontario to decide, behind
closed doors, on the fate of all 750 million people living in the 34
countries in the Americas. A coalition of activists and organizations
are coming from across Canada and the US with the purpose of shutting
down the meetings in Windsor, June 4th to 6th.
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