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	Mozambican food riots reminder of vulnerability of poorest nations by AP / Financial Times & agencies   Sept 2010   The first food riots since the 2007-08 crisis have left seven people dead and at least 280 injured in Maputo, the Mozambican government reported. The unrest in the country’s capital followed the government’s decision to raise bread prices by 30 per cent.   The riots have prompted concerns that food protests could spread across poor African countries that rely heavily on agricultural commodities imports. Discontent about rising prices for staples has already emerged in countries from Egypt to South Africa.   “Bread is the key item in the basket for ordinary people,” said Adriano Nuvunga, a political analyst in Maputo. “People are worried that the rising costs have reached the point of no return.” Further violence in Maputo was possible, he added.   The 2007-08 food crisis, when the cost of agricultural commodities such as corn and rice hit a record high, sparked riots across scores of developing countries, particularly in Africa, from Egypt to Senegal.   The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s food index last month reached a two-year high on the back of rising cereal, sugar and meat prices, up almost 16 per cent since last year.   High food prices have been a key factor behind the calls by South African public sector unions for a large wage increase, which led to a strike this month.   Although official consumer price inflation for the year to June was only 4.2 per cent, food prices have been rising much more rapidly, said Sizwe Pamla of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union in South Africa.   “Look at Mozambique – we are sitting on a potential time-bomb,” he said. “Too many workers are living from hand to mouth; the costs for poor people are skyrocketing.”   Across North Africa, newspapers have also carried reports of rising anger about food prices. The region relies heavily on wheat imports from Russia, which on Thursday extended an export ban on grains by 12 months to the end of next year.   The protest in Mozambique was aggravated by a rise of more than 10 per cent in the cost of both water and electricity. Furthermore, petrol prices have gone up three times in two months in many African countries, pushing up the cost of transportation.   Mozambique’s gross domestic product increased by 7.2 per cent in the first half of this year, making it one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies. But that has done little to relieve the poverty of many of its people, analysts said.   Jakkie Cillers, director of South Africa’s Institute of Security Studies, said the growth has come mainly from a small number of large capital-intensive projects. “It has not translated into improvements in the life of ordinary Mozambicans,” he said. The average worker in the country was earning $37 a month.   Mozambique was particularly vulnerable to violent protest because of the weakness of its civil society. “Avenues to express dissent are limited.”   Sept 2010   Mozambican food riots reminder of vulnerability of poorest nations. (AP & agencies)   A few pennies increase in the price of a loaf of bread can mean the difference between getting by and going hungry — and erupting in anger — in the worlds poorest countries.   A spike in food prices has triggered deadly riots in Mozambique this week, and experts worry other countries that saw such unrest during the last global food crisis in 2008 could be hit again. Over the last two months alone, food prices worldwide have risen 5 per cent.   "I think everyone is wondering if we are going to have a repeat of 2008 when ... there were food riots around the world," said Johanna Nesseth Tuttle, director of the Global Food Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.   Countries from Asia, to the Middle East to Europe are feeling the strain. In Egypt, where half the population depends on subsidized bread, recent protests over rising food prices left at least one person dead.   The crisis could impact upcoming parliamentary elections because the regime"s increasingly tenuous legitimacy rests on its ability to provide the masses with cheap bread.   In Pakistan, the prices of many food items have risen by 15 per cent or more following devastating floods that destroyed a fifth of the country"s crops and agricultural infrastructure. Flooding has also hit distribution networks, leading to shortages.   In China, officials are threatening to punish price gougers, while in Serbia, a 30 per cent hike in the price of cooking oil reported for next week has led to warnings of demonstrations by trade unions.   In downtown Dakar, Senegal, 29-year-old security guard Djiba Sidime recalled going to the market to buy a bag of rice and finding it had spiked from around $30 to $38.   The increase is no small matter in a country where most people get by on around $4 a day. To make up the difference, Sidime said he won"t be able to buy new clothes to mark the end of Ramadan later this month. "Of course, I"m frustrated," he said.   International food prices have risen to their highest levels in two years, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said, reporting a 5 per cent increase between July and August alone. The Rome-based agency also forecast this year"s wheat crop at 648 million tons, down 5 per cent from 2009, reflecting a cut in drought-hit Russia"s harvest.   However, there are few parallels between today and the 2008 food crisis, which was blamed on high oil prices and growing demand for biofuels that pushed world food stocks to their lowest levels since 1982, according to Maximo Torero, an expert on markets and trade with the International Food Policy Research Institute.   The United States, Canada and other countries have had good harvests and supplies are sufficient, Torero said.   Mozambicans saw the price of a loaf of bread rise 25 per cent in the past year — from about four to five U.S. cents, and fuel and water costs also have risen.   The increases have had a dramatic impact in a nation where more than half the population lives in poverty. Mozambique ranks 175th of 179 countries on the U.N. Human Development Index, a measure that takes into account health and education levels as well as income.   Per capita income in the southeastern African country is just $802, compared to $9,757 in South Africa, where many Mozambicans have fled in search of work.   Still, the country has recovered from a devastating civil war that broke out after independence from Portugal in 1975 and lasted for 17 years. From 1994 to 2006, it saw annual GDP growth of about 8 per cent. Mozambique is relatively stable and a popular tourist destination, particularly for visitors from South Africa.   The government has urged calm, saying it can do little about the high prices, which were sparked by a drop in the value of the import-dependent nation"s currency. It pointed out that Mozambique grows only 30 per cent of the wheat it needs.   "The importation of wheat and other commodities incur high costs in international markets," government spokesman Antonio Nkutumula said.   Augusto Gonas, a protester, said that instead of calls for calm, the government should address the needs of its people."What we need to hear is the order to lower prices," Gonas said.   Marc Van Ameringen, executive director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, said the price spike is hitting a country already seriously affected by malnutrition: 44 per cent of Mozambican children suffer from stunted growth and nearly 20 per cent of those under 5 are underweight.   Young children and pregnant women are at particular risk, because poor nutrition in the early years can permanently affect the development of the brain and body, Van Ameringen said.   He noted that more than 1 billion people around the world are hungry and malnourished, and another 1 billion are not getting the proper nutrition from the food they do manage to obtain.   "These crises should remind the world that we already have a crisis, even before this food price spike," Van Ameringen said.
	Human Rights are good for Business by Mary Robinson Realizing Rights / Ottawa Citizen & agencies   July 2010   Last month, representatives of more than 1,000 companies headquartered in all regions gathered in New York to assess their progress under the United Nations Global Compact, the world''s largest corporate citizenship initiative.   The Global Compact, which marks its 10th anniversary this year, seeks to foster business practices that align with universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption. Among these principles, the more than 5,000 businesses which currently participate in the Global Compact have committed to "support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights," and to make sure they are "not complicit in human rights abuses."   A decade ago, few companies saw human rights as relevant to their operations, let alone had made a public commitment to respect them. I saw this begin to change during my term as UN high commissioner for human rights. Business leaders began to see how a range of dilemmas -- from complying with government censorship requirements, to providing finance for infrastructure projects that displace large numbers of people, to contracting with security forces which violate basic rights standards -- could all result in a range of reputational and legal risks for companies.   Today, we are getting closer to a tipping point when private-sector leaders from all industry sectors will recognize their companies need to engage proactively with human rights issues and demonstrate they are doing so in practice. More companies now see how respecting human rights can not only help avoid risk but can also contribute to good community and employee relations.   For many companies, the first step in that process involves developing a publicly stated policy on human rights. A still small but steadily growing number of firms from a range of business sectors and regions have adopted human rights policy statements to guide their efforts. The non-profit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, the world''s leading source of information in this area, keeps a running list of such policies.   What can be done to encourage more companies to make a commitment to human rights?   First, advocates and companies that have already taken steps to integrate concern for human rights into business practices need to make the case to other business leaders that rights are internationally accepted standards.   Human rights encompass a broad spectrum of issues, from workplace discrimination to health and safety, from access to water to security concerns in conflict zones. They provide a comprehensive and authoritative foundation on which firms should analyse actual and potential risks, and evaluate their social conduct throughout their operations.   Second, more business leaders need to understand that respecting human rights also makes good business sense. Attention to human rights concerns helps companies avoid costly litigation and reduces the likelihood of NGO campaigns or consumer boycotts.   Finally, companies need to know that, at the international level, the increasing expectation to respect human rights is reflected in the work of the UN special representative on business and human rights, Professor John Ruggie of Harvard University. His "protect, respect and remedy" policy framework has been unanimously accepted by the governments on the UN Human Rights Council, and welcomed by both human rights and business organizations. It consists of three "pillars": the state duty to protect human rights (including protection from abuses by third parties such as companies); the corporate responsibility to respect human rights; and access to remedy when abuses occur.   The corporate responsibility to "respect" makes clear that all companies must avoid infringing on the rights of others and stipulates four essential steps to this end: adopting a human rights policy; assessing the company''s impacts on human rights; integrating human rights into management procedures; and tracking and reporting on performance. Adopting a policy is an important step but just the first in a company''s ongoing human rights efforts.   The field of business and human rights is evolving rapidly. Both in terms of clarifying what companies are expected to do, and also the types of human rights issues they encounter, business leaders still need support to move in the right direction. Organizations such as the Institute for Human Rights and Business which I chair are working with the Global Compact and other initiatives to provide greater guidance and clarification for businesses on managing their human rights impacts and undertaking human rights due diligence processes.   The lesson for those who have not yet taken steps in this direction is that many of the first companies to adopt a human rights policy did so in the wake of public exposure for serious abuses. Increasingly, firms are taking a preventative rather than reactive approach. They realize that it is in their best interest to respect human rights and put responsible practices into place before abuses occur.   The 10th anniversary of the UN Global Compact provides an important opportunity for an honest assessment of progress to date and a renewed commitment to making respect for human rights part of mainstream business practices.   * Mary Robinson is former president of Ireland and UN high commissioner for human rights. She is founder and president of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative. Visit the related web page
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