wfn.org | Church women support law discouraging trade with Burma

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Oct. 19, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-33-71B{546}

NOTE: This report is a sidebar to UMNS story #545.

By Kelly Martini*

STAMFORD, Conn. (UMNS) - The Women's Division of the United Methodist Board
of Global Ministries is supporting a Massachusetts law discouraging state
agencies from doing business with corporations that have ties to Burma.

The Women's Division is signing an amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief in
favor of the law. Governing members of the unit reached that decision during
their annual meeting, Oct. 15-18. The division represents the 1
million-member United Methodist Women organization.

Modeled after successful anti-apartheid boycott laws, the Massachusetts law
provides a 10 percent preference for bids from multinational companies that
avoid doing business in Burma, based on the premise that virtually all trade
and investment in that Asian country contribute to the violation of human
rights there.

When a federal appeals court overturned the law, the decision was appealed
to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has yet to decide whether to review the
case.

The appeal, drafted at Georgetown University Law Center, notes that
"official reports of the U.S. government, the United Nations and the
International Labor Organization find that the military government of Burma
has violated international standards of public morality. These abuses
include forced labor, suppression of a democratically elected government,
suppression of individual political rights, torture, rape and various forms
of discrimination against ethnic minorities."

The amicus brief will focus on the human rights implications of the case.
Drafted by Peter Rosenblum of Harvard Law School, it argues that while the
U.S. Senate ratifies international human rights agreements, it has allowed
states to implement them within their own scope, such as through state
purchasing agreements.

During apartheid in South Africa, the Women's Division encouraged many
cities and states to use their purchasing power to bring about change there.
The Burma amicus brief will encourage the Supreme Court to review the case
and could be crucial in arguing various points of law that support the
Massachusetts position, according to Connie Takamine, Women's Division
treasurer. She noted that the division also has been engaged in various
corporate shareholder resolutions related to business ventures in Burma.

The division's participation in the brief reflects its mandate to protect
the human rights of women, children and youth, said Pamela Sparr, the
division's executive secretary for environmental justice. 

But if the Supreme Court does not overturn the appeals court ruling, the
impact could be grave, she added.

"Cities' and states' traditional authority to determine how they would spend
their money would be sharply curtailed," she explained. "Multinational
corporations could challenge and ignore laws that advance labor,
environmental, human, social and economic rights under the guise of 'free
trade.'"

# # #

*Martini is executive secretary for communications with the Women's
Division. 

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United Methodist News Service
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