Who's watching "Big brother"? Globalization and the protection of cultural rights in present day Africa

Human Rights Quarterly

Volumn 27, Issue 4, 2005, Pages 1245-1273

  Oloka Onyango, J ^a  

^a MAKERERE UNIVERSITY   (Uganda)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GLOBALIZATION; HUMAN RIGHTS; TRADE LIBERALIZATION; TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE; WOMENS STATUS;

EID: 27844509114     PISSN: 02750392     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2005.0051     Document Type: Article

References (92)

1. United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2004: Cultural Liberty in Today's Diverse World 85 (2004), available at hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2004.
2. The author was Special Rapporteur on Globalization and Human Rights of the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights for five years (1999 to 2003), and much of the analysis in this article is drawn from that experience. In particular, see the three reports on the subject issued over the period, namely, J. Oloka-Onyango & Deepika Udagama, The Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Globalization and its Impact on the Full Enjoyment of Human Rights, Preliminary Report, U.N. ESCOR, Sub-Comm'n on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, 52nd Sess., Provisional Agenda Item 4, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/sub.2/2000/13 (15 June 2000), available at www.unhchr.ch/ Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/E.CN.4.Sub.2.2000.13.en?Opendocument;
3. J. Oloka-Onyango & Deepika Udagama, The Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Globalization and its Impact on the Full Enjoyment of Human Rights, Progress Report, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 53rd Sess., Provisional Agenda Item 4, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/sub.2/2001/ 10 (2 July 2001) available at www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/ (Symbol)/E.CN.4.Sub.2.2001.10.En? Opendocument;
4. J. Oloka-Onyango & Deepika Udagama, The Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Globalization and its Impact on the Full Enjoyment of Human Rights, Final Report, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 55th Sess., Provisional Agenda Item 4, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/ 14 (25 June 2003), available at www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/ (Symbol)/E.CN.4.Sub.2.2003.14.En?Opendocument.
5. See, e.g., Priest Prays for Ugandan Eviction, BBC News, 13 Aug. 2003.
6. Gaetano and "Abby" had drawn the ire of most commentators because they allegedly had sex in front of the cameras.
7. Both definitions are derived from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, available at www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary.
8. See World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All, ILO, Geneva (24 Feb. 2004), available at www-ilo-mirror.cornell.edu/public/english/wcsdg/docs/ report.pdf.
9. J. Oloka-Onyango, Globalization in the Context of Increased Incidents of Racism, Racial Discrimination and Xenophobia, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 51st Sess., Provisional Agenda Item 3, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1999/ 8, ¶ 15 (22 June 1999), available at www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/ huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/E.CN.4.SUB.2.1999.8.En?Opendocument.
10. A great debate broke out when Prof. Henry Gates produced a series on Africa in 1999. Wonders of the African World (PBS 1999) (television series). Particularly vitriolic exchanges were made between Professor Ali Mazrui and Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka.
11. See Anne Orford, Self-Determination after Intervention: The International Community and Post-Conflict Reconstruction (2003) (seminar manuscript), available at www.jeanmonnetprogram.org/seminar/03/ Orford_Chapter_4_final.rtf.
12. Hans-Henrik Holm & Georg Sorensen, Whose World Order? Uneven Globalization and the End of the Cold War (1995),
13. quoted in Robert J. Holton, Globalization and the Nation-State 11 (1998).
14. Ian Aart Sholte, The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations 16 (1998).
15. Abdulrahman Aden, No Connection under this Number: Africa and Internet, 5 Dev. & Change 24 (2000), available at www.inwent.org/E+Z/1997-2002/ de500-5.htm.
16. United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 1999, at 4 (1999), available at hdr.undp.org/reports/global/1999/en/.
17. Human Development Report 2004, supra note 1, at 4.
18. Brian K. Murphy, International NGOs and the Challenge of Modernity, 10 Dev. in Practice 332 (2000), available at www.interpares.ca/en/ publications/pdf/modernity.pdf.
19. As the economist John Saul has stated, "Globalization has been asserted by its believers to be inevitable - an all-powerful god; a holy trinity of burgeoning markets, unsleeping technology and borderless managers." John Ralston Saul, The End of Globalism, Financial Rev., 20 Feb. 2004, available at www.afr.com/articles/2004/02/19/ 1077072774981.html.
20. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted 10 Dec. 1948, G.A. Res. 217A (III), U.N. GAOR, 3d Sess. (Resolutions, pt. 1), at 71, U.N. Doc. A/ 810 (1948), reprinted in 43 Am. J. Intl'l L. 127 (Supp. 1949), available at www.un.org/Overview/rights.html.
21. See International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted 19 Dec. 1966, G.A. Res. 2200 (XXI), U.N. GAOR, 21 st Sess., Supp. No. 16, art. 15
22. U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 993 U.N.T.S. 3 (entered into force 3 Jan. 1976) (ICESCR), available at www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/aşcr.htm.
23. See African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, art. 22, adopted 27 June 1981, O.A.U. Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 Rev. 5 (entered into force 21 Oct. 1986), reprinted in 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982) (ACHPR), available at www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/z1afchar.htm.
24. See, the Declaration of the Principles of International Cultural Cooperation, proclaimed 4 Nov. 1966, General Conference of the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 14th Sess., available at www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/n_decl.htm.
25. See also, the Declaration on the Right to Development, adopted 4 Dec. 1986, G.A. Res. 41/128, U.N. GAOR, available at www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/ b/74.htm.
26. UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, available at www.cesmap.it/ifrao/unescode.htm. The adoption of the declaration was specifically linked to the challenges presented by the "growing pace of globalization." See Report of the 166th session of the Executive Board of UNESCO (12 Mar. 2003), available at unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001297/129718e.pdf.
27. ICESCR, supra note 18, art. 15.
28. See Oloka-Onyango, Preliminary Report, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/13, supra note 2;
29. see also J. Oloka-Onyango & Deepika Udagama, The Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Human Rights as the Primary Objective of International Trade, Investment and Finance Policy and Practice, Working Paper, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 51st Sess., Provisional Agenda Item 4, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/sub.2/1999/11 (17 June 1999), available at www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/ E.CN.4.Sub.2.1999.11.En?Opendocument.
30. Makau Mutua, Human Rights: A Political and Cultural Critique (2002).
31. Othman and Kessler argue that globalization processes "do not together add up to any simple, obvious, natural, irresistible good.... They may just amount to a very mixed, contingent, jumbled and mutable 'package': One whose various contents may change in intensity and even character, independently of one another, overtime." Norani Othman & Clive Kessler, Capturing Globalization: Prospects and Projects, 21 Third World Q. 1025 (2000).
32. The UNDP describes these as "global brands" in demand especially among "global teens" who, "inhabit a global space, a single pop culture world, soaking up the same videos and music and providing a huge market for designer running shoes, t-shirts and jeans." See Human Development Report 2004, supra note 1, at 87.
33. Ali Mazrui, Shariacracy and Federal Models in the Era of Globalization: Nigeria in Comparative Perspective, paper presented at the International Conference on the Restoration of Sharia in Nigeria: Challenges and Benefits, London (14 Apr. 2001), at 3, available at www.shariah2001.nmnonline.net/mazrui¶per.htm.
34. This is a caution most recently articulated by Mahmood Mamdani in his book on the social and political roots of global terrorism. See Mahmood Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, The Cold War, and the Roots of Terror (2004).
35. See Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, art. 2, adopted 18 Dec. 1992, G.A. Res. 47/135 U.N. GAOR, 47th Sess., Annex, U.N. Doc. A/Res/47/ 135/Annex (1992), reprinted in 32 I.L.M. 911, available at www.unhchr.ch/ html/menu3/b/d_minori.htm.
36. Dinah Shelton, Protecting Human Rights in a Globalized World, 25 Boston College J. Int'l & Comp. L. 297 (2002). available at www.bc.edu/ bc_org/avp/law/lwsch/journals/bciclr/25_2/06_TXT.htm.
37. For a critical analysis of the operations of the organization, see Bhagirath Lal Das, The WTO and the Multilateral Trading System: Past, Present and Future (2003).
38. See Human Development Report 2004, supra note 1, at 96-99.
39. Developing and underdeveloped countries have recently realized the need to challenge developed countries at their own game. Thus, Brazil successfully challenged the United States on the issue of cotton subsidies. See Cotton Subsidies Must Go (Editorial), New Vision (Kampala), 23 June 2004, available at newvision.co.ug/D/8/14/367775.
40. See Kiplangat Cheruiyot, Our Languages are Dying, available at www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2003/0224language.htm.
41. Id.
42. Id.
43. ACHPR, supra note 19.
44. For an analysis of the rationale and contents of the law, see Johnson A. Ekpere, African Union Model Law for the Protection of Local Communities Farmers and Breeders and the Regulation of Access to Biological Resources, in Trading in Knowledge: Development Perspectives on TRIPS, Trade and Sustainability 232-37 (Christophe Bellmann, Graham Dutfield, & Ricardo Melédez-Ortiz eds., 2003).
45. The main international organization that protects the rights of plant breeders is the Union pour la Protection des Obtentions Végétales (UPOV), translated as the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, Convention was signed in Paris in 1961, entered into force 1968, revised (1972, 1978, 1991), available at www.upov.int/en/publications/tgp/documents/ tgp5_section1-1.pdf.
46. For a comprehensive analysis, see Intellectual Property Rights: Implications for Development, UNCTAD/ICTSD Project on IPRs and Sustainable Development, Aug. 2003, at 52-55.
47. For an analysis of the arguments on cultural relativism, see Douglas Lee Donoho, Relativism in International Human Rights Law (unpublished LL.M dissertation, Harvard Law School, 1989) (copy on file with author).
48. For an articulation of the arguments surrounding how the issue of culture was manifested in the Charter, see Makau Mutua, The Banjul Charter and the African Cultural Fingerprint: An Evaluation of the Language of Duties, 35 Va. J. Int'l L. 339 (1995), available at hdr.undp.org/docs/publications/background_papers/MUTUA.PDF.
49. ACHPR, supra note 19, arts. 17(2), (3), 22(1).
50. See Kristin Henrard & Stefaan Smis, Recent Experiences in South Africa and Ethiopia to Accommodate Cultural Diversity: A Regained interest in the Right of Self-Determination, 44 J. Afr, L. 17 (2000).
51. Communication No. 155/96 to the ACHPR, available at www.communitylawcentre.org.za/ser/casereviews/serac.php.
52. The author has extensively examined this case elsewhere. See J. Oloka-Onyango, Reinforcing Marginalized Rights in an Age of Globalization: International Mechanisms, Non-State Actors, and the Struggle for Peoples' Rights in Africa, 18 Am. Univ. Intl'l L. Rev. 851 (2003).
53. Ogoni decision Commun. 155/96, African Comm'n on Hum. & Peoples' Rts., 30th Sess., Doc. ACHPR/COMM/A044/1, ¶ 58 (Oct. 2001), available at cesr.org/filestore2/download/579.
54. There has only been one decision made by the African Commission on the issue of self-determination, and the petition failed. See Communication 75/92 Katangese Peoples' Congress v. Zaire, Eighth Activity Report, 1994-1995, Annex VI (Documents of the African Commission, at 389).
55. For a good examination of the various conceptions of the term "peoples," see Richard Kiwanuka, The Meaning of "People" in the African Charter on Human and Peoples'Rights, 82 Am. J. Int'l L. 80 (1980).
56. See Barney Pityana, The Challenge of Culture for Human Rights in Africa: The African Charter in A Comparative Context, in The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights: The System in Practice, 1986-2000, at 234 (Malcolm D. Evans & Rachel Murray eds., 2002).
57. Id. at 233-34.
58. See J. Oloka-Onyango, Heretical Reflections on the Right to Self-Determination, 15 Am. Univ. Int'l L. Rev. 151 (1999).
59. The first time that the African Commission began to consider the issue of minorities and indigenous peoples was at a meeting organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The result of the meeting was the Report on the Second Workshop on Multiculturalism in Africa: Peaceful and Constructive Group Accommodation in Situations Involving Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 53rd Sess., U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.5 2001/3 (2 April 2001), available at www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/ E.CN.4.Sub.2.AC.5.2001.3.En?Opendocument. That declaration recognized the complexity of the concept "minorities" and "indigenous peoples" as applied in the African context; it encouraged further dialogue on the subject and made several other recommendations. Soon thereafter, the African Commission established a working group on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Communities in Africa, whose final report will be reviewed at the next meeting of the Commission.
60. See Pityana, supra note 48, at 227.
61. For example, the Basarwa or San peoples of Botswana who are traditionally hunter-gatherers are being forcibly resettled in order to preserve wildlife in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. They are being forced to speak Setswana and to live under Setswana customary law, rather than their own. See Charles Manga Fombad, The Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination in Botswana, 53 Int'l & Comp. L. Q. 159-60 (2004).
62. Susan Hawthorne, The Politics of Farming and Global Theft: Africa and Feminism From an Australian Perspective, 55 Agenda 91, 95 (2003).
63. For a broad discussion, see Sam Ricketson, Intellectual Property and Human Rights, in Commercial Law and Human Rights 187-213 (Stephen Bottomley & David Kinley eds., 2002).
64. On the general situation with respect and the protection of these rights, see Peter Drahos, The Rights to Food, Health and Intellectual Property in the Era of "Biogopolies," in Commercial Law and Human Rights, supra note 55, at 215-33.
65. On the African situation, see Francis Mangeni, Implementing the TRIPS and Agreement in Africa, in Trading in Knowledge: Development Perspectives on Trips, Trade and Sustainability, supra note 38, at 220.
66. This point is appreciated even by scholars who are otherwise very much in support of the liberalization of global trade. See, e.g., Jagdish Bhagwati, In Defence of Globalization (2004).
67. The Convention on Biological Diversity, entered into force 1993, available at www.biodiv.org/doc/legal/cbd-en.pdf. It is concerned, inter alia, with the "equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources." See arts. 8(j), 15.
68. Alex Kirby, Traditional Knowledge in Peril, BBC News, 19 Feb. 2004, available at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/teach/3496629.stm.
69. UNU-IAS, The Role of Registers and Data-bases in the Protection of Traditional Knowledge: A Comparative Analysis, Jan. 2004, available at www.ias.unu.edu/binaries/UNUIAS_TKRegistersReport.pdf.
70. For a critical analysis of this issue, see Ruth L. Gana, Has Creativity Died in the Third World? Some Implications of the Internationalization of Intellectual Property, 24 Denver J. Int'l L. & Policy 109, 143 (1995).
71. For an analysis of the gaps in the protection of traditional knowledge, see David Weissbrodt & Kell Schoff, Human Rights Approach to Intellectual Property Rights Protection: The Genesis and Application of Sub-Commission Resolution 2000/7, 5 Minnesota Intellectual Prop. Rev. 15-21 (2003), available at mipr.umn.edu/archive/v5n1/Weissbrodt.pdf.
72. See Michael M. Phillips, Bitter Remedies: The Search for Plants that Heal Generates International Feuding, Wall St. J., 8 June 2001, at A1.
73. In respect of the hoodia, following a challenge to the patenting of the cactus without acknowledging the San's contribution by Pfizer, an agreement was reached between the San and the government under which some 100,000 San peoples in four countries, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, will receive at least three more payments during the clinical testing of the drug. See Ginger Thompson, Bushmen Squeeze Money From a Humble Cactus, N.Y. Times, 1 Apr. 2003, available at www.williams.edu/go/native/san.htm.
74. See also Tom Mangold, Sampling the Kalahari Cactus Diet, BBC News, 30 May 2003, available at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/ 2947810.stm.
75. See Hawthorne, supra note 54.
76. Angela Miles, Integrative Feminism: Building Global Vision 1960s-1990s, at 3 (1996).
77. Hope Lewis & Isabelle Gunning, Cleaning Our Own House: "Exotic" and Familial Human Rights Violations, 4 Buffalo Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 123 (1998).
78. See Saving Amina Lawal: Human Rights Symbolism and the Dangers of Colonialism, 117 Harvard L. Rev. 2365 (2004), available at www.clas.ufl.edu/users/obriensu/harvardlawreview.pdf.
79. See The Const. of the Republic of Uganda (1995) arts. 33(6), 32(1); see generally cultural objective no.xxiv in the Preamble, which encourages the incorporation into aspects of Ugandan life all cultures and customary values consistent with fundamental rights and freedoms and human dignity.
80. See Pityana, supra note 48, at 237-39.
81. Judgment No.S.C.210/98/Civil Appeal No. 635/92 of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe (unreported).
82. Id. at 10.
83. J. Oloka-Onyango, Human Rights and Sustainable Development in Contemporary Africa: A New Dawn, or Retreating Horizons? 6 Buffalo Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 39, 65 (2000), available at hdr.undp.org/docs/publications/ background_papers/Oloka-Onyango2000.html.
84. This applies even to those countries that, in general, would be regarded as having fairly progressive constitutional instruments. Fombad, supra note 53, at 157-59.
85. See David Gantz, Failed Efforts to Initiate the Millennium Round in Seattle: Lessons for Future Global Trade Negotiations, 17 Arizona J. Int'l & Comp. L. 349, 351-52 (2000).
86. Rachel Murray, A Feminist Perspective on Reform of the African Human Rights System, 1 African Hum. Rts. L. J. 1, 2 (2001).
87. For a gendered critique of this aspect of the decision, see Oloka-Onyango, Reinforcing Marginalized Rights, supra note 45.
88. See Adrien Katherine Wing & Tyler Murray Smith, The New African Union and Women's Rights, 13 Transnat'l L. & Contemp. Prob. 59-64 (2003).
89. As of the middle of July 2004, only three (Comoros, Libya, and Rwanda) of the fifteen countries required to bring the instrument into force had ratified the Protocol. See Amnesty Interntional, African Union: Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa Must be Ratified (8 July 2004), available at www.amnesty.ie/content/view/full/2608/.
90. See Kenya Human Rights Commission, Beauty and Agony: An Advocacy Research on the Working Conditions in the Flower Plantations in Kenya (2001).
91. See also Cathy Majtenyi, Thorny Issue: Kenya's Flower Firms Accused of Exploiting Workers, East African, 18 Feb. 2002.
92. For an analysis of this issue, see Oloka-Onyango, Reinforcing Marginalized Rights, supra note 45, at 895-905.