INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS (ICFTU)

ICFTU OnLine...
202/031201/JK

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

Brussels, December 10, 2001 (ICFTU OnLine): Protecting workers' fundamental
human rights is one of the principal tasks of the ICFTU, and it is fitting
that we should remember the trade unionists who have lost their lives or
their freedoms as we celebrate International Human Rights Day.

Today is also the 100th anniversary of the Nobel prize, and ten years since
the Peace prize was awarded to Burmese democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi.

Burma is one of the worst violators of human rights, practising forced
labour on a daily basis, as a recent ICFTU report* and ongoing campaign
show. Refusal to work for the army may lead to being detained, tortured,
raped, or killed.

The most dangerous country of all for trade unionists however is Colombia.
Last year 135 workers were murdered for their trade union activities. This
year that figure has already been exceeded. One of the latest victims was
Aury Sara Marrugo, President of the Bolivar branch of the 'Union Sindical
Obrera' (USO) whose dead body was found on December 5, bringing the total
number of murdered trade unionists this year to 148.

Elsewhere in the world, trade unionists are also facing death or
imprisonment and harassment, notably in Guatemala, where death threats are
on the increase, South Korea, where strikers are systematically imprisoned,
Indonesia where union activity is regularly repressed, or China, where those
who try to collectively organise are sent to psychiatric hospitals or forced
labour camps and Zimbabwe where intimidation is mounting in an increasingly
tense situation. The list goes on.

The recently published ICFTU Annual Survey** lists 139 countries where trade
union rights have been violated. As it prepares next year's issue, there
is no lack of fresh, and disturbing, information, with a steady stream of
reports of violations flooding in. All the more reason for the ICFTU and
the whole of the Global Unions family to renew their commitment to the
protection of workers' human rights.

* "Forced Labour in the 21st Century" by ICFTU and Anti-Slavery
International, November 2001. Available on the ICFTU web-site:
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Language=EN&Index=991214393

** Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights 2001. Available on
the ICFTU web-site: http://www.icftu.org/survey2001.asp?Language=EN

The ICFTU represents more than 157 million workers in 226 affiliated
organisations in 148 countries and territories. ICFTU is also a member of
Global Unions:
http://www.global-unions.org

For more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2 224
0232 or +32 476 62 10 18.