Livewire - Amnesty International blogging for human rights

Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International’s section in Canada, is in Trinidad

It was quite something to see how quickly the people of Port of Spain reclaimed their city as the Summit came to an end on Sunday afternoon. As leaders headed off to the airport, barricades came down and city streets that had been off limit for several days were once again accessible.

You could almost hear a collective sense of relief in neighbourhoods that had been no-go zones throughout the Summit.

Clearly the big stories coming out of the Trinidad Summit revolve around what is being called a “new beginning” for US relations with the hemisphere, particularly with Latin American states. President Obama’s overtures towards Cuba and the several friendly encounters between him and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have received considerable play. All of the leaders are talking of the spirit of compromise and dialogue sparked by that “new beginning.”

Nevertheless, in the end, the final Declaration of the Summit did not receive unanimous support from governments. In particular leaders from countries involved in ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas), including Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Honduras, said that they would not officially sign on, citing objections to the provisions dealing with the global economic crisis and the failure to include references to Cuba in the Declaration.

Instead, the Declaration is being described as having been adopted by consensus, signed by the host Trinidadian Prime Minister Patrick Manning on behalf of all the leaders. Previous Summit Declarations have been adopted in much the same way.

Like all other civil society, Indigenous peoples, business, labour and other organizations, Amnesty International had great difficulty in gaining access to copies of the Declaration over the past year, as various rounds of negotiations advanced. The only officially released version dated from July 2008. We had unofficially seen later versions from February and March 2009. But we came to the Summit not at all sure what the final version would look like.

Sadly, the various ways in which we had called for its human rights provisions to be strengthened were not addressed. The shortcomings include important human rights concerns such as the land and resource rights of Indigenous peoples, maternal mortality, slums, human rights aspects of trade policy, the human rights accountability of companies, and strengthening of the Inter-American human rights system.

Particularly disappointing was to see that a proposal to create a new Legal Assistance Fund to improve access to the Inter-American human rights system by victims, included in the draft of the Declaration as recently as early March, was not included in the final declaration.

On the positive side, there does seem to be tentative momentum towards dealing with Cuba, including its reintegration into the Organization of American States, eventual lifting of the US embargo, and improvement of Cuba’s human rights record. As well, leaders appear to have had a constructive discussion about the terrible situation in Haiti and have agreed to focus on Haiti at the OAS General Assembly in Honduras in about six weeks time.

It was good that Amnesty was able to be here and to have a presence at both the official and alternative civil society/peoples summits. We made many strong contacts and found common cause across a range of issues. Certainly, we have seen many ways that we can link up with the rich array of social movements in Trinidad and other countries in the Caribbean.

And, while we did not manage to have any audiences with Presidents or Prime Ministers, we came close. vahanna Larossa, Director of Amnesty International’s section in Uruguay, and I wandered into the midst of a press conference with Bolivian President Evo Morales. I hovered on the edges of a press scrum of Colombian President Uribe.

Canadian Indigenous leaders and I crossed paths with Ecuadoran President Correa at dinner one night and Ivahanna and my taxi passed by President Obama in his infamous “Beast” while returning to our hotel on Sunday. Surely in all of those close encounters, some of our human rights message will have rubbed off.