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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE August 21, 2005
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| July 10, 2005 |
Dublin, Ireland – Working towards a fairer world: Visiting NGOs in Ireland |
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| Peace Boat participants visited this OXFAM fair trade shop in Dublin. |
Poverty, hunger, debt, suffering, conflict, exploitation, oppression, debt, injustice. These issues often seem distant to many of us living in the northern hemisphere. But it doesn’t erase the fact that 300 million children go to bed hungry each night, and that every day 30,000 of the 50,000 people who died as a result poverty are children. These issues stem from structures in the northern hemisphere, which maintain “an unjust global trade system, a debt burden that suffocates any chance of recovery, and insufficient and ineffective aid.” But there is always hope. And hope is what drives many NGOs and individuals to make a difference in our world each day. In Dublin a group of Peace Boat participants visited the NGOs OXFAM Ireland and Amnesty International Ireland to learn about their pro-active role and activities for change. |
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| Ms. Rebecca Emery from OXFAM Ireland. |
Located in a donated building in central Dublin, Peace Boat participants were met by OXFAM Ireland staff members Ms. Rebecca Emery and Ms. Junko Shimada. OXFAM began after World War II, when professors at Oxford University in Britain came together to try to help resolve postwar poverty in Europe. The name itself comes from Oxford (OX) + famine (FAM). OXFAM has since expanded to become one of the largest overseas development agencies with a mandate to help the world’s poorest people to end poverty, suffering and injustice. The organisation places a particular emphasis on its work in Africa. “We recently had a campaign rally in Edinburgh to coincide with the G8 summit,” added Ms. Emery, OXFAM Ireland’s campaigns and public communications coordinator. “We asked the world leaders to ‘Make Poverty History’ by pushing them to give more aid and ask for less debt.” Visit www.makepovertyhistory.ie for more information. |
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| The Fair Trade Mark found on food and drink products. |
OXFAM Ireland has three objectives: 1. Promote its overseas programmes in HIV/AIDS education and small business; 2. Promote its campaigns including “Make Trade Fair” to teach others how the program works; and 3. Fundraising and maintenance of Ireland’s 43 fair trade shops. Fair trade is an important element for OXFAM as the current state of global trade is unbalanced. Wealthy countries from the northern hemisphere have control in the World Trade Organization (WTO), and collectively their power decides how the rest of the world should trade. Fair trade helps the poor by guaranteeing a better deal for producers from the southern hemisphere. |
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| Peace Boat participants enjoy fair trade cookies and tea. |
While Ms. Shimada explained the fair trade system, Peace Boat participants were treated to samples of fair trade tea and cookies. “Not only are the products delicious, but I feel they taste better knowing they were ethically traded,” remarked participant Ms. Yoshiko Tamura. The fair trade system has been popular in Ireland ever since priests and nuns returning from missions in Africa brought back ethically-traded coffee. The coffee was packaged in brown paper bags and sold at local markets. The system has expanded to include a worldwide fair trade mark. The mark was launched two years ago and given to food and drink products that meet fair trade standards established by the FLO, a fair trade committee. The producers must abide by these standards in order to receive the mark. The standards include the need to treat the environment well, pay workers equitably, ensure gender equality as well as an assurance that a social premium is set up in a local bank to provide long term support for the community. |
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| Ms. Junko Shimada, OXFAM intern, talks about FLO. |
FLO has offices worldwide to monitor and ensure the standards are maintained. A premium bonus is paid to producers when the standards are met. Although difficult to receive a fair trade mark, many producers apply each year because the mark guarantees the producer receives double the market price. “Normally, a producer receives 1.5 cents on a 2.50 Euro coffee, but with the fair trade mark the producer receives 3 cents,” explained Ms. Emery. “It may not sound like a lot but it makes a difference to survival.” And although the fair trade mark is only labeled on food and drink products, OXFAM has a special relationship with the producers of other items that meet the same standards as the fair trade mark. Peace Boat participants visited an OXFAM shop near Grafton Street in Dublin. More impressive, there are Fairtrade towns in Ireland and Britain where people can shop and dine with a conscience. In order to receive this title of a Fairtrade town, town councils must achieve six goals, including the assurance that a range of Fairtrade mark products are available in the town’s shops, supermarkets, cafes, restaurants and hotels. Visit www.fairtrade.net for more information. |
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| Amnesty International workshop on human rights. |
After a traditional lunch, Peace Boat participants made their way to a workshop at the Amnesty International office. They were greeted by Ms. Kieran Clifford, an activism officer, who explained the basic points about the organization. Amnesty International is a global organization that promotes and protects human rights for all people. Its aim is to promote a coordinated worldwide movement to make a real impact on the rights of all human beings and to ensure the protection of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights standards. In its efforts, Amnesty International lobbies political representatives and motivates students to make an impact on government decisions. There are now over two million members of Amnesty International worldwide. In the workshop, Peace Boat participants were put into groups and asked to choose five out of 30 articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the ones they deem most important. The choices revealed what human rights we take for granted and which ones we hold dearest to our hearts.
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| Mr. Jim Loughran provides insight about arms control. |
Mr. Jim Loughran, a campaign manager, spoke about the danger in taking peace for granted. “We look at projects that encourage communication in our campaigns including conflicts of civil war, domestic violence, violence against women,” he stated. Amnesty International has to prioritize issues to lobby, create publicity for, and mobilize for effective change. In general the international community failed to deal with heavy conflict areas such as Congo where three million people have already died in the continuing conflict there. “Every year, throughout the world, more than half a million people are killed by armed violence—that’s one person every minute”. |
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| Getting signatures for the arms control petition. |
In its efforts to break the cycle of violence, Amnesty International worldwide has chosen two objectives: 1. Maintain the importance of the International Criminal Court to bring human rights abuses to justice; and 2. Control the international arms trade. “When you look at where human rights are being abused, you’ll see the arms trade is at the center of the problem,” explained Mr. Loughran. Every year US$60 billion is spent on weapons, with Africa, Asia, Latin America spending US$22 billion to buy arms every year. “US$10 billion of that money could end infant mortality, and US$12 billion would ensure all children had the right to read and write”. Most of the G8 nations—Britain, France, Germany and the United States— are the largest exporters of arms in the world. “This autumn the Irish government plans to establish new legislation against arms, because of pressure from Oxfam and Amnesty International,” said Mr. Loughran. “This is an example of how pressure from ordinary people can cause real action.” Visit www.amnesty.ie for more information. |
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| Million Face campaign booth. |
“Each one of us in this room has some power and it’s up to you to use it,” said Mr. Loughran. “Don’t put too much emphasis on formal structures, for you only need a group of people who believe in the same things to make change. It doesn’t matter if they are in a school, a factory or village.” With this in mind, Peace Boat participants gathered together with Amnesty International members at a public square to ask people passing by to sign a petition to control the arms trade. If the global Arms Trade Treaty was instituted it would create a legally binding agreement to regulate the arms trade. For now, arms are so prevalent that “worldwide, there is an estimated one weapon for every ten people”. In addition, a Million Face campaign booth was set up to gather photo messages against the arms trade. The aim is to collect one million faces as a “powerful, global message of support for the Arms Trade Treaty”. The petition will be displayed at United Nations headquarters in New York City by June 2006 in a demonstration against irresponsible arms trade. Visit www.controlarms.org for more information. |
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