**Mexico QPQ Supplement – 7wS BFJR**
Three important things to know:
1) Mexico isn’t like other QPQs. A QPQ to an ally like Mexico looks and operates very differently than a
QPQ with an enemy nation like Cuba or Venezuela. Whereas we might demand a wholesale change in
governance with an enemy state, the request to an ally seeks harmonization; merging the two country’s
policies in a way that promotes mutual interests. NAFTA gives the U.S. the unique ability to promote
common economic goals, such as the right to collectively bargain/form unions, promote women’s rights
in the labor force and prevent child labor.
2) Those last three mechanisms (unions, women, child labor) are the 3 potential planks of the CP. There
is ‘say yes’ evidence for each plank. There is a risk/reward in choosing to add extra planks.
The benefit of one plank; it takes less time to read, you only need to win that Mexico says yes to one
thing instead of many, some planks (like unions) can access other planks’ impacts (like women’s rights).
The benefits of many planks; more net benefits, more potential negative solvency arguments and
offense.
3) The LGBTQ counterplan at the bottom conditions the plan on countries making significant
improvement in the treatment of LGBTQ individuals.
The aff lit on this question is far, far better and deeper, as is reflected in the file, but there is some good
negative evidence and it’s a viable strategy versus some K affs.
Where do I start?
If you’re Neg, things I would do with the file: highlight each impact, because it could easily turn the Aff in
a lot of ways, even if it wasn’t its own separate net benefit. I would also go to other files that had
impacts to thinks like the Mexico econ (like a lot of the Mexico affs) and use that to bolster the impact to
that net benefit, or go to the neolib file to find cards that bolster that net benefit.
If I was the Aff, I would focus on “say no” and the perm, as I don’t think the “explicit bargaining”
literature is very good for the Neg, despite some very good evidence here found by the kids.
LABOR RIGHTS COUNTERPLANS
**Unions Plank – 1nc**
Unions 1nc – Top
The United States federal government should offer <the plan> to Mexico if, and only
if, Mexico promises that they shall strive to ensure workers’ rights by recognizing the
right to organize, bargain collectively and strike.
The CP’s ‘strive to ensure’ to ensure standard solves but conditioning is key – requests
without a specific demand fail
Oliver, 11, (Ranko Shiraki Oliver, Associate Professor of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) William H. Bowen School of Law,
Presented in March 2011 at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law Symposium on The Global Impact and Implementation of
Human Rights Norms. “Mexico’s Dilemma: Workers’ Rights or Workers’ Comparative Advantage in the Age of Globalization?”,
http://www.mcgeorge.edu/Documents/Conferences/GlobeJune2012_MexicosDilemma.pdf) //LOH
The previous section discussed serious economic and social problems that the Mexican government faces, and argued that, in view of these
pressing problems, it
is unlikely that better enforcement of labor rights will be a priority for Mexican
policymakers in the foreseeable future. And, for the reasons stated in that section, enhanced enforcement may actually work
against the interests of Mexican workers, by depriving them of their competitive advantage. However, while continued lax enforcement of
Mexican labor law may very well be the ultimate outcome, a possibility exists that, through simultaneous efforts
created by
supranational norms and supranational enforcement mechanisms (top-down approach)321 and mobilization of
grassroots labor rights advocates within Mexico (bottom-up approach), Mexico will institute procedures to more
effectively enforce workers’ rights. 1. External Pressure The first step to create external pressure on Mexico
might be to propose to the U.S. Trade Representative for Labor of the Office of the United States Trade Representative that NAFTA and NAALC
be revised to make them consistent with labor protections contained in FTAs into which the United States has entered since 2002. Through the
Trade Act of 2002, Congress formally established a framework for U.S. trade negotiations as part of Bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority
(“TPA”).322 The TPA includes provisions in the trade-negotiating objectives for trade agreements, including FTAs.323 “Core Labor Standards”
are the same workers’ rights contained in the United States-Jordan FTA (“Jordan FTA”).324 Beginning with the Jordan FTA in 2001, all
subsequent FTAs have included labor (and environment) provisions in the main body of the agreement, in contrast to NAFTA, which relies on a
side agreement (NAALC).325
“The labor provisions of FTAs help ensure that the benefits of trade are widely
shared, that worker rights are not denied in order to gain a trade advantage or attract investment,
and consequently that U.S. businesses and workers compete on a level playing field globally.”326 The
language used in the Jordan FTA and others regarding signatory countries’ commitment to enforce
their domestic labor laws is important to note. The labor chapter of the Jordan FTA consists of six
paragraphs and states that each party “shall strive to ensure” that its labor principles “are protected
by domestic law and are not weakened to encourage trade.”327 Post-2001 FTAs that the United States has
concluded—such as those with Singapore, Chile, Australia, Bahrain, and Oman—also include language that, as “shall strive to ensure” does,
places heavier emphasis on enforcing a country’s own labor laws.328 Specifically, the
language in these various agreements
requires signatory countries to “not fail to effectively enforce its labor laws.”329 By contrast, NAFTA’s
language requires each member country only to “effectively enforce its labor law.” 330 It is argued that this
different wording places greater emphasis on a signatory’s treaty obligations. 331 Since the enactment of TPA,
the United States has entered into FTAs that contain within the agreement itself workers’ rights provisions with the following countries:
Singapore, Chile, Australia, Morocco, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua (CAFTA-DR),
Bahrain, and Oman.332 As of September 2011, FTAs with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea are still being negotiated.333
In view of
the heightened attention given to workers’ rights since NAFTA and NAALC became effective, those
two agreements should be revised. NAFTA should include labor obligations in the body of the primary
trade agreements, not merely in a side accord. This change may serve to highlight several desirable goals. First, such a step may
emphasize the social dimension of globalization, which envisions that all workers share in the benefits
of trade liberalization.334 Second, FTAs, including NAFTA, should seek to protect workers who are denied
fundamental rights.335 Third, FTAs, including NAFTA, should further a multilateral consensus through
adherence to the ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.336 And, finally, including
labor provisions in the body of FTAs, including NAFTA, promotes respect for workers’ rights consistent with
ILO core principles.337 Even more important than the labor protections being placed in the main agreement would be steps to
make those protections more potent than those found in the present NAALC. Enforcement
mechanisms should be considerably more streamlined and robust than at present. In particular,
violations of basic collective rights, such as the rights to organize and strike, should be enforced by
mechanisms considerably stronger than mere “discussion.”
Conditioning on the right to organize, bargain collectively and strike solves
Compa, 94, (Lance Compa, Senior Lecturer. Cornell University, ILR School Department of Labor
Relations, Law, and History, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (American Society of International Law),
Vol. 88, The Transformation of Sovereignty (APRIL 6-9, 1994), pp. 535-540, “Enforcing Worker Rights
under the NAFTA Labor Side Accord”, JSTOR)//LOH
Despite this fundamental absence of minimum common standards and lack of a plan for upward harmonization, a measure of
trinational oversight is established in the NAALC. Even a potential for trade sanctions exists (but, as
discussed below, only in narrowly drawn circumstances). The NAALC sets up three tiers of enforcement, depending
upon subject matter, and creates three bureaucratic entities to deal with each level of enforcement.
Level 1 enforcement involves consultation and review by each country's National Administrative Office (NAO). Level 2 enforcement triggers
evaluation and recom mendation by a trinational Evaluation Committee of Experts (ECE). Level 3 en forcement rises to dispute resolution and
sanctions by a trinational Arbitral Panel. The entire process is subject to ministerial supervision and consultation by the U.S. Secretary of Labor,
the Mexican Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare, and Canada's Minister of Human Resources Development. The NAALC defines eleven areas
subject to the Agreement's obligation, under Article 3, that each party "effectively enforce its labor law."10 All eleven may be subject to "public
submissions" to one country's NAO concerning labor law enforcement in another country. This is a key distinction: There are three NAOs, one in
each country, charged with consulting and reviewing labor law enforcement matters in the other country or countries. A consultation and/or
review may be undertaken on the NAO's own initiative, or in response to complaints from private parties.11 Three
critical labor rights
fall off the ladder of enforcement after this consultation and review stage: the right to association
(including the right to organize), the right to bargain collectively and the right to strike. The
remaining eight of the eleven subjects may advance to the next level, that of an ECE evaluation. Drawn
from a trinational roster of labor experts, a three-member Evaluation Committee of Experts may conduct a review, at the request of a party
(i.e., a government) and issue an "Evaluation Report" and recommendations on disputes arising in these eight subject areas. Only three subjects
child labor, minimum wage and hour laws, and occupational safety and health can go on to the final enforcement stage. A country that is found
by the ECE to demonstrate "a persistent pattern of failure ... to effec tively enforce such standards" can be brought before a five-member
Arbitration Panel for a ruling on whether it has complied with recommendations from the ECE. If not, the country is subject to a fine of up to
$20 million, or a reimposition of pre-NAFTA tariffs up to the amount of the fine if it fails to pay. The
weaknesses in this new labor
rights regime, at least from the perspective of trade union advocates, are obvious. First, the key labor
rights that give voice to working people freedom of association and the right to engage in political
action, rights to organize and bargain collectively, and the right to strikes are excluded from anything
more than consultation. Other issues of paramount importance are susceptible to an evaluation, but no sanctions. Finally, even the
three subjects open to potential trade sanctions depend upon enforcement of national law, not compliance with international standards. Weak
national laws are insu lated from reform as long as they are applied. But
the weaknesses of the naalc should not obscure
the opening it creates for access to a trinational labor rights supervision process. Traditional
sovereignty in labor law matters undergoes an extraordinary breach here: Workers in one country can
turn to a governmental body in another to invoke claims of labor rights violations and failure to
enforce the law in their own country. Then, farther along in the process from supervision status to
enforcement, trinational evaluation and arbitral bodies will examine and decide international labor
rights disputes.
>>Insert Impact
1nc Econ Impact
Recent Mexican labor reform failed to democratize Mexico’s corrupt labor unions
leaving workers with no rights protection and inhibiting economic growth
WPR, 12, ( Cory Siskind, World Politics Review, “To Reform Mexico's Economy, Peña Nieto Must Tackle
'Culture of Monopolies'”, 12/4/12, http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/12539/to-reformmexicos-economy-pena-nieto-must-tackle-culture-of-monopolies)//LOH
Mexico’s labor unions are not by definition monopolies, but they too succeed in exercising undue influence over the
government, thereby making Mexico’s labor force less competitive . Over their history, labor unions have
won important rights for Mexico’s workers. However, Mexico’s unions have today become disruptive
behemoths, focused primarily on their own self-preservation. Year after year, unions have evaded
government regulation by auctioning their political capital to the highest bidder. Union-led protests frequently
shut down Mexico City’s main avenue for hours, causing massive traffic jams in an already congested city. Meanwhile, union leaders, some of
whom have been in office for decades, have politicians fearful of crossing them, and have been accused of everything from influence-peddling
to corruption and mismanagement of funds. It is therefore no surprise that unions
managed to escape relatively unscathed
from Mexico’s recently approved labor reform bill, which seeks to modernize the country’s inefficient
labor sector. The bill makes it easier to hire and fire workers, eases restrictions on part-time work and updates outsourcing practices.
However, as a result of their alliance with the majority PRI party, which returned to the presidency with Peña Nieto, unions succeeded
in enfeebling measures intended to make them more accountable, democratic and transparent.
Transportation monopolies also negatively impact Mexico’s growth. In a country with sprawling urban centers and an increasingly fast-paced
life, good public transportation is paramount. But centrally planned public transportation projects aimed at reducing traffic and pollution are
often obstructed by taxi and bus drivers’ unions eager to protect their monopolies. The unions have already succeeded in obstructing the
construction of streamlined metro-bus systems in Acapulco and Puebla, both important and populous cities. Such public transportation systems
would encourage competition by offering travelers an alternative to often overpriced taxis and dangerous buses. Instead, the existing
transportation monopolies inconvenience passengers and present a significant challenge for city planning and development across Mexico. In
Mexico City, for example, thousands of unregulated “pesero” buses drive recklessly and pollute heavily. Because they compete for fares, they
often race other buses to pick up passengers, adding to the chaos of driving in a metropolitan area of more than 21 million people.
Mexico’s supposedly free-market economy has long been held hostage by monopolies that control up
to 80, 90 or even 100 percent of market share. Injecting competition into the economy and regulating
monopolies requires a tough stance toward big business and unions. Peña Nieto’s PRI party is allied with both. In
order for the new president to even approach his growth promise -- not to mention keeping Mexico
competitive in the global economy -- the incoming administration must tackle monopolies in a
meaningful way. This means not just confronting big companies but also unions, low-level monopolies
and the government’s own state-run companies. Peña Nieto claims that addressing Mexico’s monopoly problem is part of
his proposed structural reforms. Specifically, his team has proposed harsher penalties for monopolistic behavior, and antitrust courts that
would embolden Mexico’s competition authority, Cofeco. Peña
Nieto also proposed a constitutional amendment that
would allow private and foreign investment in Pemex, arguing that Mexico should increase
production capacity and emulate Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras. This Sunday, on his second day in
office, Peña Nieto signed a pact with the chairmen of rival parties the PAN and the PRD to work collaboratively to, among other things, weaken
Mexico’s telecommunications monopoly.
Mexican econ decline shatters the world economy
Rangel 95 - fellow at the Monterrey Bureau (Enrique Rangel, ““Pressure on the Peso; Mexico’s
Economic Crisis carries global implications”, Dallas Morning News, 11/28, Lexis//JS
With the exception of 1982 - when Mexico defaulted on its foreign debt and a handful of giant New York banks worried they would lose billions
of dollars in loans - few people abroad ever cared about a weak peso. But now it's different, experts say. This time, the world is keeping a close
eye on Mexico's unfolding financial crisis for one simple reason: Mexico is
a major international player. If its economy
were to collapse, it would drag down a few other countries and thousands of foreign investors. If recovery is
prolonged, the world economy will feel the slowdown. "It took a peso devaluation so that other countries could notice the key role
that Mexico plays in today's global economy," said economist Victor Lopez Villafane of the Monterrey Institute of Technology.
"I hate to say it, but if Mexico were to default on its debts, that would trigger an international financial
collapse" not seen since the Great Depression, said Dr. Lopez, who has conducted comparative studies of the Mexican economy and the
economies of some Asian and Latin American countries.
Nuclear war
Harris and Burrows, 9 – *counselor in the National Intelligence Council, the principal drafter of
Global Trends 2025, **member of the NIC’s Long Range Analysis Unit “Revisiting the Future: Geopolitical
Effects of the Financial Crisis”, Washington Quarterly,
http://www.twq.com/09april/docs/09apr_burrows.pdf)
Increased Potential for Global Conflict
Of course, the report encompasses more than economics and indeed believes the future is likely to be the result of a number of intersecting and interlocking forces.
With so many possible permutations of outcomes, each with ample opportunity for unintended consequences, there is a growing sense of insecurity. Even so,
history may be more instructive than ever. While we continue to believe that the
Great Depression is not likely to be repeated, the lessons to be
drawn from that period include the harmful effects on fledgling democracies and multiethnic societies (think Central Europe in 1920s and 1930s) and on the
sustainability of multilateral institutions (think League of Nations in the same period). There is no reason to think that this would not be true in the twenty-first as
much as in the twentieth century. For that reason, the ways in which the
potential for greater conflict could grow would seem to be even more
apt in a constantly volatile economic environment as they would be if change would be steadier.
In surveying those risks, the report stressed the likelihood that terrorism and nonproliferation will remain priorities even as resource issues move up on the
international agenda. Terrorism’s appeal will decline if economic growth continues in the Middle East and youth unemployment is reduced. For those terrorist
groups that remain active in 2025, however, the diffusion of technologies and scientific knowledge will place some of the world’s most dangerous capabilities within
their reach. Terrorist groups in 2025 will likely be a combination of descendants of long established groups inheriting organizational structures,
command and control processes, and training procedures necessary to conduct sophisticated attacks and newly emergent collections of the angry and
disenfranchised that become self-radicalized, particularly in the absence of economic outlets that would become narrower in
an economic
downturn.
The most dangerous casualty of any economically-induced drawdown of U.S. military presence would
almost certainly be the Middle East. Although Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons is not inevitable, worries about a nucleararmed Iran could lead states in the region to develop new security arrangements with external powers,
acquire additional weapons, and consider pursuing their own nuclear ambitions. It is not clear that the type of stable deterrent
relationship that existed between the great powers for most of the Cold War would emerge naturally in the Middle East with a nuclear Iran. Episodes of low
intensity conflict and terrorism taking place under a nuclear umbrella could lead to an unintended escalation and broader conflict if clear red lines between those
states involved are not well established. The close proximity of potential nuclear rivals combined with underdeveloped surveillance capabilities and mobile dual-
The lack of
strategic depth in neighboring states like Israel, short warning and missile flight times, and uncertainty of Iranian
intentions may place more focus on preemption rather than defense, potentially leading to escalating
crises.
Types of conflict that the world continues to experience, such as over resources, could reemerge,
particularly if protectionism grows and there is a resort to neo-mercantilist practices. Perceptions of
renewed energy scarcity will drive countries to take actions to assure their future access to energy
supplies. In the worst case, this could result in interstate conflicts if government leaders deem assured access to energy resources, for
capable Iranian missile systems also will produce inherent difficulties in achieving reliable indications and warning of an impending nuclear attack.
example, to be essential for maintaining domestic stability and the survival of their regime. Even actions short of war, however, will have important geopolitical
implications. Maritime security concerns are providing a rationale for naval buildups and modernization efforts, such as China’s and
India’s development of blue water naval capabilities. If the fiscal stimulus focus for these countries indeed turns inward, one of the most obvious funding targets
may be military. Buildup of regional naval capabilities could lead to increased tensions, rivalries, and counterbalancing moves, but it also will
create opportunities for multinational cooperation in protecting critical sea lanes. With water also becoming scarcer in Asia and the Middle East, cooperation to
manage changing water resources is likely to be increasingly difficult both within and between states in a
more dog-eat-dog world.
1nc Neolib Impact
The CP is a practical step to dismantle neoliberalism
Scheuerman, 01, (William E. Scheuerman, Professor of Political Science and West European Studies
Indiana University, Review of International Political Economy, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 359-388,
Published by: Taylor & Francis, “False Humanitarianism?: US Advocacy of Transnational Labour
Protections”, JSTOR)//LOH
In light of the story told above, this question is easily answered. Whatever its faults, the ILO is not only a multilateral
organization, but one that takes seriously the notion that great powers should be subject to the same
rules and standards as lesser powers: the ILO has long been committed to the principle that
transnational labour protections must rest on fair and consistent procedures having a real chance of
being employed effectively against all member-states, not on open-ended legal loopholes or escape
clauses vulnerable to unilateral application and gross manipulation. American ambivalence towards
the ILO points to 'a major discrepancy between the United States' refusal to submit itself to multilateral accountability (through the ILO), and its preparedness to subject others to a form of accountability
in which the United States acts as the sole legislator, judge, jury, and enforcement authority' (Alston,
1993: 32).26 The US is ultimately uninterested in genuinely strengthening the ILO because unlike the WTO, an enhanced ILO would offer a more
effec- tive forum for those hoping to pose a political challenge to neoliberalism and US unilateralism: the
ILO is a relatively
democratic organization committed to advancing the cause of both an international 'rule of law' and
social reform. The ILO's unusual decision-making structure - in which organized labour possesses the same number of votes as business
representatives27 - meshes poorly with the direction of contemporary US policy. Neoliberalism has successfully suggested to political and elites
virtually everywhere that they now can get way without granting a meaningful say in economic affairs to organized labour.
It should
come as no surprise that the US - the main political force supporting neolib- eralism on the global
scale - is uninterested in strengthening an organization that increasingly looks like a throwback to the
days when labour unions were seen as having a legitimate role to play within the capitalist economy.
Stronger collective bargaining is key to reversing the worst effects of globalization
Scheuerman, 01, (William E. Scheuerman, Professor of Political Science and West European Studies
Indiana University, Review of International Political Economy, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 359-388,
Published by: Taylor & Francis, “False Humanitarianism?: US Advocacy of Transnational Labour
Protections”, JSTOR)//LOH
I have tried to demonstrate that the disturbing legacy of US transna- tional labour standards raises difficult questions
for those of us committed to taming globalization by means of assuring effective global legal
protections for workers in the US and elsewhere. In particular, the US example suggests that labour activists enthusiastic about the
prospect of including social and labour standards within the WTO would do well to pay close attention to the pathologies of the US experience;
from the perspective developed here,
a (dramatically) reformed ILO is probably a better starting point for making
sure that transnational labour stan- dards ultimately realize the interconnected tasks of protecting
basic rule of law-virtues and challenging the increasingly shocking inequities of the global capitalist
economy. My aim here has not been to cast equal doubt on all policy options, notwithstanding my critical comments regarding many
different types of present-day transnational labour standards. But those of us committed to supporting a viable worker
rights strategy would do well to recognize the nature of the difficulties at hand. I do this not for the
sake of deflating the dream of a global economy both respectful of worker rights and the rule of law,
but rather because we can only move towards that ideal if we remain brutally honest about the
complexities of the political tasks at hand.
1nc Women’s Rights Impact
Lack of collective unionization has made women’s labor movements ineffective and
facilitated masculine domination
Comanne 10 (Denise Comanne is a political activist and feminist writer, October 14, 2010, “How
Patriarchy and Capitalism Combine to Aggravate the Oppression of Women”, http://cadtm.org/HowPatriarchy-and-Capitalism)
1) Women are "overexploited" in their workplace, and in addition they perform many hours of housework, but housework
does not have the same status as paid work. Internationally, statistics show that if both women’s paid professional work and
their housework are taken into account, women are "overworked" compared to men. The separation in
terms of household chores and family responsibilities is the visible face (thanks to feminists) of a social order based on a sexual division of
labor, that is a distribution of tasks between men and women, according to which women are supposed to devote themselves first and
foremost and "quite naturally" to the domestic and private sphere, while men devote their time and efforts to productive and public activities.
This distribution, which is far from being "complementary", has established a hierarchy of activities
in which the "masculine" ones are assigned high value and the "feminine" ones, low value. There has in
¶
fact never been a situation of equality. The vast majority of women have always performed both a productive activity (in the broad sense of the
term) and various household tasks.¶ 2) Domination is characterized by the complete or partial absence of rights.
Married women in 19th century Europe had almost no rights; the rights of women in Saudi Arabia today are virtually non existent (generally
speaking, women who live in societies in which religion is an affair of the State have very limited rights). ¶ The rights of Western women have
increased considerably, partly under the influence of the development of capitalism, which needed them to work and consume "freely," but
even more, as a result of their own struggles. ¶ Women
have continued to struggle collectively for more than two
centuries to gain the right to vote, work, unionize, exercise their motherhood freely, and to full and
total equality in the workplace, family, and public sphere.¶ 3) Domination is always accompanied by violence,
which can be physical, moral, or in the realm of ideas. Physical violence may be conjugal violence,
rape, or genital mutilation: this violence can go as far as murder. Moral or psychological violence may
be insults or humiliations. In the realm of ideas, violent acts are represented in various ways, such as in myths and various forms of
discourse. For example, among the Baruya (an ethnic group from New Guinea) where male domination is omnipresent, women’s milk is not
considered to be their own product but the transformation of male sperm. Obviously, this representation of milk as being a ‘by-product’ of
sperm is a form of appropriation by men of women’s power to procreate. It is also a way to codify the subordination of women in the
representation of the body.¶ 4) Relationships
based on domination are often accompanied by discourse that
represents social inequalities as natural. The effect of this discourse is to make people accept these
inequalities as an inevitable destiny: they have natural origins, and cannot be changed. ¶ This type of discourse can be found in
most societies. For example, the Ancient Greeks referred to the categories of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’, and ‘dry’ and ‘moist’ to make a distinction
between "masculinity" and "femininity". Aristotle offers the following explanation: "The masculine is hot and dry, associated with fire and a
positive value; the feminine is cold and moist, associated with water and a negative value (...).” It has to do, he says, with a different nature in
their aptitude to ‘cook’ blood: women’s menstruations are the incomplete and imperfect form of sperm. The perfect/imperfect, pure/impure
relationship Aristotle establishes between sperm and menstruations (and therefore between the masculine the feminine), has its origins in a
fundamental biological difference. ¶ Thus, a form of social inequality codified in the social organization of the Greek city-state (women were not
citizens) is transcribed as being natural, through the representation of the body.
The impact is extinction and the worst genocide in human history
Irigaray 91 - French feminist, philosopher linguist cultural theorist
(Luce, “Equality or Different?” in the Irigaray Reader edited by Margaret Whitford pg. 32-33)
Demanding equality, as women, seems to me to be an erroneous expression of a real issue. Demanding to be equal presupposes a term of
comparison. Equal to what? What do women want to be equal to? M en ? A wa ge? A pub lic p os iti on ? Equa l t o what ? Wh y
n ot t o themselves? Even a vaguely rigorous analysis of claims to equality shows that they are jus tified at the level of a superficial
critique of culture, and / utopian as a means to women's liberation. The
exploitation of women is based upon
sexual difference, and can only be resolved through sexual difference. Certain tendencies
of the day, certain contemporary feminists, are noisily demanding the neutralization of sex [sexe]. That
neutralization, if it were possible, would correspond to the end of the human race. The human race is
divided into two genres which ensure its production and reproduction . Trying to suppress sexual difference is
to invite a genocide more radical than any destruction that has ever existed in History.
What is important, on the other hand, is defining the values of belonging to a sex-specific genre.
What is indispensable is elaborating a' culture of the sexual which does not yet exist,
whilst respecting both genres. Because of the historical time gaps between the gynocratic,
matriarchal, patriarchal and phallocratic eras, we are in a sexual position which is
bound up with generation and not with genre as sex. This means that, within the family,
women must be mothers and men must be fathers, but that we have no positive and
ethical values that allow two sexes of the same generation to form a creative, and not
simply procreative, human couple. One of the major obstacles to the creation and
recognition of such values is the more or less covert hold patriarchal and phallocratic
roles have had on the whole of our civilization for centuries. It is social justice, pure and
simple, to balance out the power of one sex over the other by giving, or restoring,
cultural values to female sexuality. What is at stake is clearer today than it was when The Second Sex was
written. Unless it goes through this stage, feminism may work towards th e d est ruc ti on of wom en, and, m ore gen era lly,
of a ll va lu es. Egalitarianism, in fact, sometimes expends a lot of energy on re jecting certain positive values and chasing
after nothing. Hence the periodic crises, discouragement and regressions in women's liberation movements, and their fleeting inscription
in History. Equality between men and women cannot be achieved unless we think of genre as sexuate [sexue] and write the rights and
duties of each sex, insofar as they are different, into social rights and duties. Peoples
constantly split into secondary
but murderous rivalries without realizing that their primary and irreducible division is
one between two genres. From that point of view, we are still living in the childhood of culture . It is urgent
for women's struggles, for small, popular groups of women, to realize the importance of
issues that are specific to them. These are bound up with respect for life and culture, with the constant passage of the
natural into the cultural, of the spiritual into the natural. Their responsibility and their opportunity
correspond to a stage' in the evolution of the world, and not to some more or less lucid
and negative competition within a world undergoing a mutation, in which life is in
danger for a variety of reasons.
-- Turns Case: Human Rights
Economic development projects need to have a focus on human rights in order to
promote freedom and empowerment of populations
Sano, 2000, (Hans-Otto Sano, Senior Research and Development Analyst at the Danish Centre for
Human Rights. He has a Ph.D. in economic history and was an Associate Professor at the Institute of
Development Studies, University of Roskilde, Denmark, Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Aug.,
2000), pp. 734-752, Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press, “Development and Human Rights:
The Necessary, but Partial Integration of Human Rights and Development”, JSTOR)//LOH
To begin a clarification process, one could ask the question: What
does a human rights approach to development
mean? On the basis of the preceding discussion, the approach appears to consist of three bottom-line notions: 1) A focus on
protection of individuals and groups against power exertion, not only from states, but also from other
agencies exerting power, such as transnational corporations, NGOs, and international organizations. 2)
A focus on non-discrimination, equal opportunity and participation irrespective of race, color, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status.
Participation and to some extent also non-discrimination will relate to political rights including
freedom of association, assembly, and speech. 3) A focus on enabling support that allows individuals
and groups to lead a life in dignity, free of poverty, with access to certain minimum standards of
living, health, water, and education. What is central here is to approach basic capabilities via human
rights, including an effort to enable people to organize and to demand their rights . The core of a human
rights approach to development thus relates to personal integrity, equal opportunity, and livelihood
security. It is important to realize that such an approach will not solve all injustices and develop- mental problems. Human rights initiatives
relate only indirectly to inter-state relations, and they are not adept in addressing issues of efficient resource allocation and in reconciling
different strategies and struggles for develop- ment. What
human rights can achieve in development relates to the
creation of a space of protection and dignity around the human person from where development can
move forward. At the level concerning the most important actors in development, i.e., the human actors and their basic
livelihood security and interaction with authorities and power, human rights and development are
mutually reinforcing. Human rights can serve to concentrate the focus of development around the
human person. There are thus strong linkages between a human development paradigm and human
rights. In the 1990s, human rights and development efforts were brought closer together as the basic expectations and objectives within the
two areas changed, and as a new global order, with human rights as one of its constituting characteristics, was established. This has influenced
how the main tendencies within the two disciplines have been formulated, and how NGOs have linked human rights and development
assistance. At the same time,
it reflects a positive tendency, that is being carried forward by non- Western
ways of thinking that succeed in integrating socio-economic and empowerment objectives , at least on
the level of ideas.
-- Turns Case: US-Mexico Coop
US-Mexico relations are being redefined towards human rights now but maintaining it
as the centerpiece of the dialogue is vital
WOLA, 7/2, (Washington Office on Latin America, WOLA Program Officer Clay Boggs, “One Year after
Enrique Peña Nieto’s Election” 7/2/2013,
http://www.wola.org/commentary/one_year_after_enrique_pena_nieto_s_election)//LOH
President Obama’s April visit to Mexico was framed as an opportunity to shift the conversation away
from the security agenda that had dominated the U.S.-Mexico relationship during Calderón’s
government; the meeting was to focus primarily on economic opportunities and growth. Yet, while it was
not the top issue discussed, security was still a part of the agenda. During his visit, President Obama recognized the serious security
challenges facing Mexico and the evolving nature of the cooperation between the two countries. He affirmed that it
is “up to the Mexican people to determine their security structures” and that the United States looks “forward to continuing
our good cooperation in any way that the Mexican government deems appropriate.” In spite of the
announced shift in focus, officials from both governments have referenced the existing four-pillar framework as being the guidelines for future
security cooperation. This suggests that there will be adjustments, particularly given the Peña Nieto government’s interest in more focus on
crime prevention and the rule of law, but that the basis of the cooperation will likely remain the same. While the
Mexican
government has been slow in specifying what exactly it wants from the United States, it has been
clear that all cooperation will now be carried out through SEGOB—an approach referred to by the Mexican government as
the “single window”—in order to better control intelligence sharing and to give more direction to U.S.-Mexico
cooperation. In part due to delays (because all requests for cooperation must now be through SEGOB) and in part due to the Mexican
government’s lack of specificity regarding what it wants from the United States, there are currently over US$600 million in Merida Initiative
funds that still need to be delivered. As
cooperation moves forward, support for police reform efforts in Mexico,
particularly focused on increased accountability measures, as well as continued support for justice
reform , will be important. As several members of the U.S. Congress recently expressed in a letter to
Secretary of State John Kerry, the defense of human rights should also be a central part of the U.S.Mexico bilateral agenda , particularly given the grave human rights situation in Mexico and the human
rights conditions placed on U.S. security assistance to the country.
**Unions 2nc Solvency XTs**
Conditioning Key
Worker’s rights are not enforced in Mexico now—external pressure from the US can
make this issue a bigger priority for the Mexican government
Oliver, 11, (Ranko Shiraki Oliver, Associate Professor of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) William H. Bowen School of Law,
Presented in March 2011 at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law Symposium on The Global Impact and Implementation of
Human Rights Norms. “Mexico’s Dilemma: Workers’ Rights or Workers’ Comparative Advantage in the Age of Globalization?”,
http://www.mcgeorge.edu/Documents/Conferences/GlobeJune2012_MexicosDilemma.pdf) //LOH
The reality, however, is quite different. Mexico’s labor laws have never been enforced as effectively as the drafters of Article
123 contemplated, due to a variety of reasons, including the traditional weakness of Mexican unions and the nature of the average Mexican
worker.253 As discussed above, most unions have been “official” unions co-opted by Mexico’s traditional “corporatist” system, particularly
during the seventy years of PRI dominance (1930-2000).254 Even unions that do not fall in this category continue
to be weak and
ineffective, and vulnerable to being influenced by the government to a lesser or greater degree.255 In
addition, the nature of the average Mexican worker may not be conducive to aggressive assertion of workers’ rights. The average
Mexican worker simply is not aware of the labor laws that protect him/her, and does not, therefore,
challenge the poor, and often dangerous, conditions in which he/she works or the low wages he/she
is paid.256 Workers’ ignorance about their rights is particularly prevalent in the population of low-skilled workers, who have a low level of
formal education.257 Moreover, most Mexican workers have been socially and economically disadvantaged
from birth, and do not know how to assert their rights, including labor rights.258 Finally, workers’ ignorance
about their rights, perhaps coupled with understandable cynicism about the political and judicial systems, leads them to resign themselves to
the status quo, and generally stay away from any group that may want to advocate for worker rights.259 Workers who are uninformed about
the laws that protect them, or who doubt that these laws would be enforced, fear that participating in meetings organized by worker advocacy
groups will lead their employer to terminate them, so they do not get involved.260 NAALC
has also proven to be ineffective
in fulfilling its goal of protecting the rights of workers in Mexico (and the United States and Canada). Although
twenty-four complaints have been filed with NAOs against Mexico, NAALC has not significantly
increased protection of workers in Mexico.261 NAALC’s ineffectiveness in fulfilling its purpose is
caused by its enforcement procedures, which are slow and cumbersome.262 In addition, NAALC fails to
impose effective sanctions against a government that does not live up to its treaty obligation to
enforce its own labor laws.263 Workers’ rights in Mexico have further eroded over the past thirty years as the government, and even
some unions, have moved toward a pro-employer policy of “flexibilization.”264 This policy reflects the Mexican government’s
decision to seek economic integration with the world (through FTAs and otherwise) with the goal of
encouraging foreign and domestic direct investment by offering a low-cost labor environment.265 Thus,
Mexican workers face a depressing reality. One’s initial reaction to this disheartening situation is to conclude that the priorities of the Mexican
government are misplaced, that its insensitivity
toward the plight of workers must stop, and that the
government must be pressured to better enforce the constitutional guarantees that would improve
the conditions of Mexican workers. Upon careful consideration, however, one might conclude that better enforcement of labor
laws at this time, or in the near future, will be difficult to accomplish. Three important questions must be asked to objectively evaluate the
prospects for better enforcement of workers’ rights in Mexico. First, whether, taking into consideration the significant economic and social
problems Mexico has faced in the last decade, and will likely face for the foreseeable future, one can realistically expect that better
enforcement of workers’ rights will be a priority of Mexican policymakers.266 Second, whether,
in view of the strong
interdependence of the economies of the United States and Mexico, as well as considerations of Mexico’s
sovereignty, one can realistically expect that better enforcement of workers’ rights will be achieved with stronger
sanctions through NAFTA and/or NAALC. And, third, whether a “bottom up” approach267 to create pressure from within
Mexico268 by labor grassroots movements, demonstrations, strikes, etc., might prove to be a better strategy to bring about better
enforcement of labor rights than the “top down” approach269 of imposing stronger trade sanctions and/or conditions on Mexico through
international, external mechanisms embodied in NAFTA and/or NAALC or other supranational procedures. For reasons explained in this section,
a possibility exists that better enforcement of workers’ rights in Mexico may result from supranational
norms and enforcement mechanisms coupled with well-organized and well-funded “bottom-up” calls from Mexican workers for
better enforcement of labor rights.
Says Yes—Economic Incentive
IDEA—if they read a Mexican economy impact use it against them. The Mexican government only cares
about their economy if the plan increases mexico’s economy and they solve, then Mexico will say yes to
the cp only reason they don’t enforce now is to increase their economic advantage
Economic concerns are the main cause for low enforcement of labor laws in Mexico
Oliver, 11, (Ranko Shiraki Oliver, Associate Professor of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) William H. Bowen School of Law,
Presented in March 2011 at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law Symposium on The Global Impact and Implementation of
Human Rights Norms. “Mexico’s Dilemma: Workers’ Rights or Workers’ Comparative Advantage in the Age of Globalization?”,
http://www.mcgeorge.edu/Documents/Conferences/GlobeJune2012_MexicosDilemma.pdf) //LOH
Why is improvement of workers’ rights unlikely? In essence, the
problem is, principally, one of money. It is doubtful
that, if Mexico were as wealthy as the United States or Canada, its government officials’ deliberate
policy would be to under-enforce Mexican workers’ constitutionally guaranteed labor rights. Rather,
Mexican policymakers for many years have adopted pragmatic economic policies to help Mexico’s
economy stabilize, and, hopefully, grow. Policymakers may reason that, once the economy improves, workers’
conditions will improve as well. The best example of this reasoning was Mexico’s strong desire to become a member of NAFTA.
Domestically, membership in NAFTA was significant for Mexico because it represented the
culmination of a process of liberalization of the Mexican economy that started in the early- to mid-1980s.270
Internationally, membership in NAFTA was also important because that membership reflected international
recognition that Mexico’s socioeconomic and political postures were sufficiently stable to be worthy
of such an important, and unprecedented, economic integration.271 The Mexican government had anticipated and
expected economic shocks from the effects of NAFTA to be felt in the labor and other sectors (although no one seems to have anticipated the
devastating impact on the agricultural sector), but it felt that its membership in NAFTA was the right economic decision in the long term, even if
in the short term some sectors of the economy would be adversely affected.272 Mexico’s
membership in NAFTA solidified its
commitment to trade and investment.273 Thus, for practical economic reasons, Mexican policymakers
have opted to implement economic policies that adversely affect the labor sector directly or
indirectly, and will probably continue to do so. Possible explanations for under-enforcement of Mexican labor law are not
limited to recent economic strategic policies. Serious economic and social concerns that Mexico has faced for decades have significantly
contributed to the relatively low importance that the Mexican government has given to the issue of workers’ rights.
Says Yes—Drug war coop
Other problems come first now—Coop on those issues makes workers rights a top
priority
Oliver, 11, (Ranko Shiraki Oliver, Associate Professor of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) William H. Bowen School of Law,
Presented in March 2011 at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law Symposium on The Global Impact and Implementation of
Human Rights Norms. “Mexico’s Dilemma: Workers’ Rights or Workers’ Comparative Advantage in the Age of Globalization?”,
http://www.mcgeorge.edu/Documents/Conferences/GlobeJune2012_MexicosDilemma.pdf) //LOH
In addition to economic considerations that might lead Mexican policymakers to conclude that increased protection of workers’ rights might be
adverse to Mexican interests, including even the interests of Mexican workers, a
myriad of social problems are likely to make
those policymakers view workers’ rights as relatively unimportant by comparison. These problems
include the ongoing drug war, which has many adverse effects beyond the harm it does to tourism,
and could be viewed as a civil war.318 While not gaining the headlines of the drug war, ordinary crime, especially the destabilizing
crime of kidnapping, has risen to troubling levels in recent years.319 And President Calderon has launched a major offensive against corruption,
a debilitating problem that has plagued Mexico since colonial times.320 Even
if the Mexican Government were committed
to the value of enhanced protection of workers’ rights, therefore, it might simply feel that other
problems are more important and more pressing.
NAALC UQ
NAALC fails now – more reasons than we can say in a tag – we need other regional
checks or better implementation to solve labor rights
Scheuerman, 01, (William E. Scheuerman, Professor of Political Science and West European Studies
Indiana University, Review of International Political Economy, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 359-388,
Published by: Taylor & Francis, “False Humanitarianism?: US Advocacy of Transnational Labour
Protections”, JSTOR)//LOH
The emergence of regional political and economic blocs (NAFTA, EU and ASEAN) suggests the possibility of a path beyond the pathologies of
vague labour protections unilaterally interpreted and applied in accor- dance with the dictates of superpower Realpolitik. In the face of some
empirical evidence suggesting that ongoing changes in contemporary capitalism primarily fall under the rubric of economic triadization or
regionalization,
the emergence of regional forms of governance would seem to provide a natural playing
field for those hoping to develop effec- tive transnational strategies in order to counteract the erosion
of labour standards and rights (Weiss, 1997). And not only does NAFTA repre- sent a multilateral body dedicated to the
advancement of regional economic integration, but it is also at least formally committed to mini- mizing 'social dumping' by developing a
shared framework of labour standards and rights. Unfortunately, NAFTA has
yet to make much headway in halting the
'rush-to-the-bottom' in labour protections, as evinced by a continuing pattern of labour abuse in
precisely those areas of the North American economy - for example, the low-wage Maquiladoras
region at the US-Mexican border - now booming in part as a consequence of NAFTA.11 Revealingly, both
Ralph Nader and the conservatives at the Wall Street Journal agree that the supervisory system established by the North American Agreement
on Labor Cooperation (NAALC) has proven ineffective (Public Citizen, 1999; Millman, 1997: A19). Even when those dispute
resolution devices (most important, the NAO, or National Administrative Office) established in each of NAFTA's three member states for the
purpose of enforcing the labour side-agreement finally get around to acknowledging possible illegalities, effective sanctions are unlikely to be
enforced: workers
who successfully file complaints are typically left with nothing but a piece of paper
acknowledging the justice of their cause, and even after a favourable ruling on their behalf, their jobs
are unlikely to be reinstated or their labour union recognized (Brandon, 1998). The most severe sanction thus far
seems to be a piddling $9,000 fine levelled against a Hyundai subsidiary in Tijuana for viola- tions of basic health and safety rules - and the US
government cannot even confirm that Mexico ever actually received payment from Hyundai. Of
19 complaints brought forward
under the NAALC (12 against Mexico, 6 against the US, and 1 against Canada), not one has resulted in a fine or sanction
undertaken against the offending country (Public Citizen, 1998: 17-18). Some initial evidence suggests that the possibility of
gaining redress for a violation of labour standards by means of NAALC is func- tioning as a useful organizing tool for labour activists struggling to
focus public attention on dire workplace conditions found within increasingly broad sectors of the North American economy (Williams, 1999:
154-6). To be sure, it would be dogmatic to preclude a priori the possibility of transforming the NAALC mechanisms into a more effective tool
for labour than it presently is; indeed, part of that process of transformation might very well rely on making use of NAALC precisely in order to
show how its existing institutional form clashes with its own more ambitious stated goals. But as it stands today, NAALC is chiefly providing a
humanitarian window dressing for the ongoing reorganization of the North American economy along fundamentally neoliberal lines. Just as
American multi- nationals love to deflect criticism by advertising their (ineffective) corporate codes of conduct, so too does
NAALC
provide North American politicians and officials with a convenient device for obscuring NAFTA's reallife impact on working people. Here as well, the legal structure of NAALC helps explain its ineffi- cacy. First of all, NAALC
presupposes the existence of three distinct national systems of labour law, and it does nothing to promote the harmonization of labour law
among NAFTA's members (Van Wezel Stone, 1996: 460-5).12 As a result, it necessarily fails to discourage mobile capital from 'shopping' for
locations - for example, the southern side of the Rio Grande - with excellent access to lucrative markets but weak records of protecting labour
rights and standards. The notion of the generality of law is a complex one, since the demand for like rules for like cases begs the question of
what constitutes a 'like case' in the first place. Nonetheless, it
is striking that NAALC is predicated on the right of businesses operating within North America to treat employees in an inconsistent and highly differentiated
matter for the sake of maximizing profits. Mexican employees at a Hyundai subsidiary in Mexico are likely to be subject to a
different set of labour rules than those in Canada or the US, and employees doing the same job for the same firm in three different parts of the
North American 'common market' hypothetically could be subject to three very different labour law regimes."3 The much- touted legal
integration of the
North American economy, it seems, is consistent with a highly differentiated and
arguably inconsistent set of labour protections. From a business perspective, a harmonization of stan- dards in accordance
with the lowest common denominator would probably prove most advantageous. In light of the improbability of real- izing this preference in
the immediate future, however, the maintenance of three distinct systems of labour norms has much to be said on its behalf from the
perspective of capital: NAFTA makes it easier for firms to out-source or shift production to areas with lax labour laws, or at least plausibly
threaten to do so, thereby at the very least improving capital's bargaining position in relation to labour where labour rights and standards are
likely to be most generous. NAALC mainly requires of each member that it 'ensure that its [own] labor laws and regulations provide for high
labor standards'(Article 2) without specifying how labour systems as different as those within North American can simultaneously provide 'high'
standards (Hagen, 1994: 925). The fact of the matter is that Mexican
labour law, though impres- sive on paper, is
poorly and inconsistently enforced, while US labour law is lacking as well when compared to its more
generous Canadian sister. NAALC also calls for each of its member-states to enforce its own system of
labour law. Yet even this demand is probably a paper tiger. Although NAALC calls for an extensive
system of trilateral consultation and information-sharing on a broad range of labour-related topics, it
specifies that its dispute resolution mechanism ultimately only applies to three specific areas:
occupational safety and health; child labour; and minimum wage issues. Even then only in the case of a 'persistent
pattern' of abuse (Article 27). NAALC effectively excludes from the outset the possibility that its trilateral
dispute mechanisms might ever actively inter- vene in matters concerning labour union rights in such
a way as to generate an arbitral decision and financial penalty; in order to avoid any ambiguity on this
matter, the architects of NAALC expressly relegated crucial labour rights to an agreement annex as a
way of emphasizing their limited significance for the dispute resolution system. In case labour activists
nonetheless still try to employ the meagre possibilities pro- vided by NAALC, the agreement also includes a crucial escape clause: Article 49
expressly states that inaction in enforcing health and safety standards, child labour laws, or the minimum wage is legal when it 'reflects a
reasonable exercise' of the member-state's 'discretion with respect to investigatory, prosecutorial, regulatory or compliance matters', or when
it 'results from bonafide decisions to allocate resources to enforce- ment in respect of other labour matters determined to have higher
priorities'. In (only slightly more) blunt terms: NAALC probably not be enforced if any of its member-states willy-nilly determines not to do so.14
In addition to its circumscribed scope, the NAALC system of dispute resolution is complicated and opaque, and it is likely to take years and
enormous energy (as well as resources) in order to see a complaint through to the end. Grievances wind their way through a complex process
involving consultations between national representatives (at the NAO), ministerial consultations, through [to] an evaluation by a committee of
experts, to a draft and final evaluation report, to party-to-party consultation, to an arbitration panel [chosen by NAFTA's three members],
through an initial and final report by the arbitration panel, to the possible reconvening of the panel, to a second possible reconvening of the
panel, to the imposition of a 'monetary enforce- ment assessment,' to the possible reconvening of the Arbitration panel, to a final report to the
parties in dispute. (Diamond, 1996: 218) No
wonder that labour activists have found NAALC so frustrating: its
Kafka-esque legal attributes prevent it from serving as an effective instru- ment for supervising even
the limited arena of labour-related issues with which it is concerned. A revealing double-standard is at work as well.
As one labour advocate has rightly noted, '[t]he procedure established here contrasts sharply with other forms of
dispute resolution' established for business, which is provided with relatively efficient and speedy
devices. Capital, it seems, is deserving of the chief accouterments of an effective system of formal
justice, whereas labour is not (Diamond, 1996: 217-18). For example, NAALC's enforcement procedures are controlled by its three
member-states; labour obviously can influence this process, but the pursuit of a complaint ultimately rests in the hands of political authorities.
In contrast, NAFTA gives business comparatively unmediated power to force the resolution of a conflict. For example, chapter ll(B) allows
private firms to submit certain complaints against member states to a three-person tribunal, one of whose members is chosen by the affected
member state, another by the firm, and a third jointly by the two parties; NAFTA
thereby effectively grants states and
corporations equal authority in some crucial decision making matters. In contrast, the procedures
making up NAALC seem to have been rigged so as to hinder the protection of even basic labour rights
and standards. In a similar vein, investors and holders of intellectual property rights are granted direct
access by NAFTA to the courts of any of its member-states, while NAALC (Article 42) denies this same right of
access to labour. Many critics have persuasively argued that NAALC can only serve labour interests by
overcoming its manifest legal ills, and others have gone even further to demand that a progressive
reform of NAFTA must pursue an 'upward harmonization of labour standards and rights' - that is,
movement beyond the present acceptance of a differentiated and inconsistent system of labour rights
and standards."5 Here as well, efforts in this direction are surely deserving of applause. Nonetheless, one should have no illusions about
the imposing hurdles facing this strategy. Here as well, a paucity of rule of law virtues is tied to the existence of awesome real-life power
inequalities; the admirable quest to enhance the legal integrity of NAALC implies a serious challenge to those inequali- ties. As we saw above,
the vague and open-ended character of unilateral labour standards makes them a useful instrument of American Realpolitik. Although the
trilateral character of NAFTA at least potentially serves as a check on the traditional US preference to 'go it
alone' in matters affecting its North American 'backyard', NAFTA's escape clause (Article 49) provides possibilities for
member-states to disregard NAALC's stated aspiration to achieve 'high' labour standards throughout North America. Of course, one can
imagine any of NAFTA's three members making use of this exception clause; in particular, it seems well-suited as a loophole for Mexican elites
trying to ward off legitimate criticism of corruption within the Mexican labour movement. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that legal vagaries of
this type ultimately tend to privilege interests possessing the most impressive de facto economic and political power:
when the rules of
a game on the playground are unclear, it is most likely the biggest and strongest kids who will succeed
in enforcing their partic- ular interpretation. Similarly, Article 49 provides an obvious instrument not only for North America's
biggest economy and greatest political force to escape from obligations potentially imposed on it by NAALC, but its interpretation is most likely
to favour the US, given its enormous factual power advantages vis-a-vis Mexico and Canada. This prospect raises fundamental questions about
the limits of regional political and economic blocs in situations where one member-state is obviously so much more powerful than its peers.16
Although the multi- lateral character of NAFTA anticipates the possibility of counteracting the US' preference for politically pliable unilateral
labour standards, NAFTA will probably never fully succeed at this task.17 Only
a broader multi- lateral system of political
and legal coordination, predicated on a real possibility of neutralizing the US' tremendous defacto
economic and polit- ical advantages, possesses a superior chance of guaranteeing a consistent system
of genuinely humanitarian transnational labour standards.
NAALC Key
Movements are starting in Mexico now, negotiations to NAALC are crucial to create
real change
Oliver, 11, (Ranko Shiraki Oliver, Associate Professor of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) William H. Bowen School of Law,
Presented in March 2011 at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law Symposium on The Global Impact and Implementation of
Human Rights Norms. “Mexico’s Dilemma: Workers’ Rights or Workers’ Comparative Advantage in the Age of Globalization?”,
http://www.mcgeorge.edu/Documents/Conferences/GlobeJune2012_MexicosDilemma.pdf) //LOH
Increasingly,
Mexican citizens have shown the ability to plan, organize, and carry out major
demonstrations to let the government know that they are not happy with the status quo. For example,
recent years have seen several large demonstrations demanding better security in view of the violence reflected in the actions of the drug
cartels, kidnappers, and common criminals.338 Also, following the disputed presidential election of 2006, massive protests staged by
supporters of one of the defeated candidates paralyzed for days major portions of Mexico City.339 A final example is the teacher strike in the
State of Oaxaca, which resulted in schools being closed for months.340 Mexican
workers could coordinate the same kind
of unified cry for better enforcement of labor rights. To this end, members of independent Mexican
labor unions, such as the FAT, and their counterparts in international unions could collaborate to advocate
for their rights. The Mexican National Commission on Human Rights as well as international human rights and international labor rights
organizations could be invited to participate. Well-planned, well-coordinated, and well-funded demonstrations
demanding better enforcement of workers’ rights may get the attention of the Mexican government,
particularly if they are timed to coincide with negotiations concerning revisions of NAFTA and NAALC.
Unions/Right to Strike Key
Unions and strikes are laborers more important tools
Scheuerman, 01, (William E. Scheuerman, Professor of Political Science and West European Studies
Indiana University, Review of International Political Economy, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 359-388,
Published by: Taylor & Francis, “False Humanitarianism?: US Advocacy of Transnational Labour
Protections”, JSTOR)//LOH
Prominent American political leaders now belong among the most outspoken defenders of transnational labour protections, according to which
basic workplace standards (including health and safety regulations, minimum wage laws, bans on child labour) and fundamental labour union
rights (for example, free association and the right to organize) now must be institutionalized transnationally so as to better accord with the
realities of a global economy. President Clinton periodically made a point of announcing his fidelity to the idea of enforceable cross-border
protections for labour, and he was an outspoken defender of the one type of transnational labour standard (so-called corporate 'codes of
conduct') presently popular in the board rooms of large multinational corporations; in this spirit, his longstanding support for trading privileges for China was typically accompanied by an official promise to encourage US businesses operating there to respect a coterie of volun- tary
labour standards (Compa and Hinchliffe-Darricarrere, 1995: 668-69). The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) only made its way
successfully through Congress in 1993 because of the simultaneous rati- fication of a labour 'side-agreement' with Mexico and Canada, the
North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), similarly predi- cated on achieving cross-border protections for labour. Within the
World Trade Organization (WTO), the
US is now the most influential member- state demanding that global free
trade be tied to a proposed 'labour clause' requiring respect for core labour rights and workplace
standards.' In this area of policy, as in so many others, Clinton in fact built on the legacy of his immediate predecessors: throughout the
1980s and early 1990s, the US made the extension of trading privileges conditional on the acceptance of 'internationally recognized worker
rights,' and a substantial range of decisive trade laws still on the books - for example, the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which
helped open the American market to developing countries - includes express legislative commitments to the maintenance of minimal
workplace standards and labour rights in those countries with which the US conducts business. In short, an outstanding attribute of US
advancement of what chiefly has been a neoliberal model of economic globalization within recent years has been the oft-repeated assurance
that 'going global' need not generate a 'race-to-the-bottom' (Gowan, 1999). Transnational
labour protections constitute an
important device for responding to increasingly widespread popular anxiety at home about the
deleterious side effects of globalization. Of course, it is easy to understand why transnational labour protections have proven
so appealing to important political constituencies. Transnational labour protections indeed seem well suited as a
remedy for some of the pathologies of globalization, and it is no surprise that US labour unions and
their political allies time and again have endorsed transnational labour protections. Neoliberal
globalization poses a direct challenge to nationally-based labour rights and workplace standards, one
of the core achievements of working-class movements since the nineteenth century. Even in the US, whose
enormous domestic economy leaves it relatively well positioned to navigate the waters of economic globalization, basic labour
protections have suffered substantial setbacks as a result of globalization. For example, only in 1965 was organized labour able to gain meaningful legal protections against 'runaway shops' on the domestic setting: in Textile Workers v. Darlington Mfg. Co.,
the Supreme Court suggested that businesses which closed unionized facilities and then moved production to facilities in nonunionized areas of
the country violated the backbone of modern US labour law, the National Labor Relations Act. Unfortunately, the recent shift of produc- tion to
low-wage and nonunionized facilities abroad undermines the significance of Darlington's protections against domestic 'runaway shops'.
American labour law has also long included guarantees against coercive or threatening actions
undertaken by employers aimed at preventing workers from joining or participating in labour unions .
Yet considerable evidence suggests that traditional protections against coercive employer activity are proving fragile in light of capital's
heightened capacity to shift or out-source production overseas if employees refuse to kowtow to employer demands.
Organized
labour's weapon of last resort, the right to strike, is weakened if business finds it feasible to move
opera- tions abroad to low-wage and nonunionized settings, or simply wait out a strike and rely on
production from alternative productive sites located abroad (Collingsworth, 1989: 46-55; Van Wezel Stone, 1996: 44853).2
Global Agreements Key
Global agreements are crucial to securing the power of unions for workers rights
Egels-Zandén and Hyllman. 07, (Niklas Egels-Zandén and Peter Hyllman, “Evaluating Strategies for
Negotiating Workers' Rights in Transnational Corporations: The
Effects of Codes of Conduct and Global Agreements on Workplace Democracy”, Journal of Business
Ethics, Vol. 76, No. 2 (Dec., 2007), pp. 207-223, Published by: Springer, JSTOR)//LOH
One major finding from our interviews is that global agreements fundamentally secure the same basic individual rights as codes of conduct do,
i.e. the same outcome components of workplace democracy. Union
and NGO representatives both claimed that global
agreements, like most codes of conduct, contain all relevant ILO and UN labour standards. In particular, the interviewed NGO
representatives argued that the real difference between codes of conduct and global agreements does not He in their respective contents, but
rather in the way these two solutions are monitored. These findings suggest that global agreements, like codes of conduct, if
successfully
implemented do ensure the fourth and fifth components of workplace democracy: guaranteed individual rights ,
and minimum standards. Additionally, global agreements, unlike codes of conduct, also address the
process components of workplace democracy. First, global agreements pre suppose the existence of
local unions, and the sign ing a global agreement per definition leads to the TNC acknowledging the local
union as a legitimate counterpart. Hence, the unilateral nature of codes of conduct is replaced by a
bilateral union-TNC negotiation structure. In turn, such a bilateral structure is, by many of our interviewed union
and NGO representatives, claimed to be an important starting point for a development process, continuously
leading to increasing degrees of worker participation and co-determination. Second, global agreements
also, according to the interviewed union representatives, oftentimes include specific standards concerning union
representation, information shar ing and skill development, i.e. their content is broader than that of
codes of conduct. Third, global agreements are also, according to our union inter viewees, described as creating better
working rela tionships between local and global unions, which is argued as strengthening local unions'
bargaining power. In sum, our conducted interviews indicate that global agreements at best enhance the precon
ditions for achieving all of the three process components of workplace democracy: shared
sovereignty, participation and access to information and education.
US Projects Key
Mexico is focused on competing with China now, guaranteed US trade agreements can
shift focus onto enforcing worker’s rights protected in their constitution
Oliver, 11, (Ranko Shiraki Oliver, Associate Professor of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) William H. Bowen School of Law,
Presented in March 2011 at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law Symposium on The Global Impact and Implementation of
Human Rights Norms. “Mexico’s Dilemma: Workers’ Rights or Workers’ Comparative Advantage in the Age of Globalization?”,
http://www.mcgeorge.edu/Documents/Conferences/GlobeJune2012_MexicosDilemma.pdf) //LOH
Low wages are not the only factor, of course. For example, U.S. businesses are attracted to relocating
their operations to Mexico because it is cheaper to bring manufactured goods from Mexico to the
United States than from China.281 In addition to Mexico’s geographic proximity, American
manufacturing companies like the fact that Mexico presents relatively few labor problems, such as
strikes.282 Mexican policymakers may view the present period as a critical moment for Mexico to
attempt to recapture the jobs it has lost to China, and to continue to strive to have a comparative
advantage over workers throughout the world who are competing for manufacturing jobs. In
comparison with such goals, policymakers are unlikely to place great importance on enforcing the
labor rights specified in the Mexican Constitution.
US quid pro quo policies are crucial to establishing worker’s rights in developing
countries
Grace, 2000, (Brewster Grace, Quaker United Nations, “In Focus: WTO Trade & Labor Standards”,
Volume 5, Number 15 April 2000, http://www.lightparty.com/Politics/ForeignPolicy/FPIP-515.html)//LOH
The U.S. needs to relate labor standards to increasing market access for developing countries. The U.S.
should support even greater collaboration between the ILO and WTO, drawing on the commitment
that ILO members have made to respect core labor standards. Article XX of GATT should either be
reviewed in order to consider broader interpretations or amended to incorporate evolving universal
norms regarding labor standards. The U.S. proposal to the ministerial conference in Seattle added some
refinement to its predecessors. Earlier proposals had focused on the fact that linkages exist and that a
working party should address those labor rights now referred to as core. The latest proposal included
specific issues that could be considered by the working party: e.g., forced or exploitative child labor and
export processing zones. More interestingly, the proposal called for consideration of ìpositive trade
policy incentives and core labor standards.In the hard bargaining that characterizes WTO negotiations,
it is difficult to recommend amendments to agreements that are not undertaken within the context of
official negotiations. If the U.S. wants to expand its right to examine the relationship between trade
and labor standards in developing countries, it should expect to offer quid pro quos for its proposals
and to take on reciprocal obligations. U.S. policy should recognize that market access is a major issue
for developing countries, especially in textiles, a crucial industry in the context of employment and
development. The U.S. could accelerate its implementation of the CTA, at least as an implicit quid pro
quo , in return for developing country support for a working party. Since the U.S. is already committed
to liberalization in the CTA, however, this concession would not represent a fundamental balancing of
rights and obligations. An even more attractive offer would be U.S. willingness to consider a ìmultilateral
agreement for movement of labor,î perhaps by amending the existing provision in the General
Agreement on Trade in Services for movement of ìnatural personsî (noncitizens). Such an agreement
would have to be compatible with ILO and UN conventions on migration and migrant worker rights.
US Key/Now Key
Obama’s push for worker’s rights reform is key now to change a decade of anti-worker
policies—poor workers rights turns the case (econ immigration security)
Cohen et al 5/2, (RICHARD TRUMKA, BOB KING, LEO GERARD and LARRY COHEN, POLITICO,
“President Obama and labor rights in Mexico”, 5/2/2013, www.politico.com/story/2013/05/laborreforms-obama-should-seek-in-mexico-90833_Page2.html)//LOH
As President Barack Obama prepares to travel to Mexico Thursday for a
meeting with President Enrique Peña Nieto
economic growth, immigration and security policies top the agenda. Yet one unmentioned theme –
Mexico’s dismal labor rights record – has important consequences for all three of these policy areas.
From 2006-2012, the government of Felipe Calderón mounted a full-scale assault on democratic labor unions in Mexico, combining all the
mechanisms of labor control built up during 70 years of one-party rule with full-scale military assaults on striking workers. Although the
compensation of Mexican workers relative to U.S. workers in manufacturing was lower in 2010 than in 1975, Calderón
was
determined to drive wages even lower to attract foreign investment. It is not yet clear whether Peña
Nieto intends to continue Calderón’s repressive policies, or whether he will finally respect Mexican
workers’ rights. The message that Obama sends could make a crucial difference. Recognition of Independent
Unions in Mexico The Calderón government deployed thousands of troops to break strikes by the National Union of Mineworkers (“Los
Mineros”), and four union members were killed in these disputes between 2006-2011. The government continues to pursue baseless criminal
charges against the union’s leader, Napoleón Gómez, even after these charges were thrown out by five federal appeals courts. In February
another court ordered Peña Nieto’s Attorney General to notify INTERPOL that the charges had been dismissed, and in March Interpol informed
Gómez that his file has been deleted because “the information recorded concerning him raised strong doubts concerning its compliance with
INTERPOL’s rules” which prohibit governments from using INTERPOL to pursue political opponents. Gómez received the AFL-CIO’s prestigious
Meany-Kirkland Human Rights Award in 2011 – but he was denied a visa to travel to Washington from exile in Canada on the grounds that his
visit would have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” The Mexican government summarily
dismissed 44,000 members of the Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union in October 2009, without due process or negotiations with the union.
More than 16,000 workers filed legal cases for reinstatement, but the government has blocked all attempts to reach a solution.
In
response to a complaint under the NAFTA labor side agreement, both the U.S. and Canadian Labor
Departments are now investigating this case. ‘Protection Contracts’ Should be Stopped The Mexican government is
increasingly promoting and facilitating employer-dominated “protection contracts” that deny workers the right to democratically choose their
union representatives. Under this system, workers cannot see their union contract and often don’t even know that they have a union. At PKC, a
Finnish company on the U.S. - Mexico border that produces parts for the U.S. auto industry, a company official was recently caught on tape
telling workers that a company union was being installed “for their own protection.” PKC has now fired 11 leaders of the Mineworkers union
which is seeking to displace the company-dominated union. Efforts by 10,000 call center workers at Atento to freely elect their union
representatives were violently repressed by the company and the company-dominated union, who have worked together to suppress wages
through a protection contract. On three separate occasions, the local Labor Board of the Federal District colluded with the company union to
block free elections. At PKC, a Finnish company on the U.S. - Mexico border that produces parts for the U.S. auto industry, a company official
was recently caught on tape telling workers that a company union was being installed “for their own protection.” PKC has now fired 11 leaders
of the Mineworkers union which is seeking to displace the company-dominated union. Efforts by 10,000 call center workers at Atento to freely
elect their union representatives were violently repressed by the company and the company-dominated union, who have worked together to
suppress wages through a protection contract. On three separate occasions, the local Labor Board of the Federal District colluded with the
company union to block free elections. Similar practices have been documented by other employers in Mexico, including Japanese automaker
Honda and at Excellon, a Canadian mining company. Mexico’s
Labor Rights Practices Violate International Law In March
2011, the Committee on Freedom of Association of the International Labor Organization (ILO) called on the Mexican
government to meet with independent unions to discuss protection contract practices, but the
government has refused. Instead, it passed labor law reforms in November 2012 that weaken worker protections while doing nothing
to ensure workers’ right to democratically choose their representatives. These actions violate ILO Conventions and the
NAFTA labor side agreement, demonstrating a clear disregard for due process and the rule of law
which undermines efforts to promote legal reforms in Mexico. Further, the destruction of democratic
unions threatens the economic security of Mexican workers and their families, feeds the cycle of
poverty and violence , and forces workers to seek economic opportunity and safety by immigrating to
the U.S. As Mexico enters the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and attempts to join the proposed Trans-Atlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership with the European Union, the
rapid deterioration of labor rights raises serious concerns
about unfair competition. We hope that the discussion between Obama and Peña Nieto will result in a
departure from this destructive path.
**Unions 2nc Impact XTs/A2**
Women’s Rights Impact XT
Unions can decrease wage discrimination but they have lost their structural power,
only increasing the power of collectively bargain can reinstate the empirical power of
unions in Mexico
Farris, 03, (DAVID FAIRRIS, Professor of Economics, University of California-Riverside, Industrial and
Labor Relations Review, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Apr., 2003), pp. 481-497, Published by: Cornell University, School
of Industrial & Labor Relations, “Unions and Wage Inequality in Mexico”, JSTOR)//LOH
Table 2 gives the estimated coefficients from the union and nonunion In wage equa- tions. Table 3 gives the variance compo- nents that are
derived from these equa- tions. These two tables offer evidence on the structural differences in pay policies between the union and nonunion
sectors, and thus on the likelihood that the lower union wage dispersion reported above is indeed due to pay policies as opposed to a lower
dispersion of wage-determining char- acteristics. The results suggest that union pay policies level the pay structure for pro- ductive
characteristics and reduce or elimi- nate arbitrary pay differences across work- ers.7 Looking
first at the 1984 results, the most
striking finding is the lack of statistically significant gender discrimination in pay in the union sector.
This compares with a statistically significant and quite sizable pay difference based on gender in the
nonunion sector.8 To the extent that such pay differences are indeed arbitrary, and not a reflection of uncaptured worker pro- ductive
characteristics, union pay policies that standardize wages appear to completely eliminate arbitrary pay
differences based on workers' gender. The north-south pay differential is also lower-by roughly onehalf-in the union sector than in the nonunion sector. The north-south pay differential may reflect dif- ferences in
productive characteristics, but it may also be the result of differences in the relative power of workers in the north. In this case, the
results suggest that collective bargaining is able to partially counteract the power imbalance
between north and south, and to reduce the arbitrary pay differentials that result from this imbalance. There is evidence in these findings of a leveling of the pay structure with regard to worker productive characteristics, as well. While the
numerical estimates of the re- turns to education are lower in the union sector than in the nonunion sector, few of the estimated coefficients
on the schooling variables are in fact statistically significantly different across the two equations. The evidence for wage structure leveling is statistically much stronger with regard to oc- 7A Chow test reveals that the estimated coeffi- cients from the union and nonunion wage equations
are statistically significantly different (1% level) in both 1984 and 1996. 8Panagides and Patrinos (1994) reported similar findings in their
empirical exploration of the union relative wage effect in Mexico. cupational differences in pay. (To econo- mize on space, in Table 2 I do not
report the inter-occupation and inter-industry dif- ferentials in pay.) Occupation differentials reflect returns to skills that are acquired
informally, through on-the-job training for example. The standard deviation of the set of estimated occupation coefficients is 0.25 in the union
sector and 0.31 in the non- union sector, and many of the estimated coefficients on the occupational categori- cal variables are statistically
significantly different across the union and nonunion estimated wage equations. There is also evidence of leveling with regard to the re- turns
to technical training. Turning to the 1996 results presented in the last four columns of Table 2, the level- ing of the wage structure and the
reduction of arbitrary pay differences due to union pay policies are apparent in these results as well. For example, the lower return to technical
schooling in the union sector persists in the 1996 results. The
difference in the north-south pay differential between
the union and nonunion sectors is virtually unchanged from the 1984 findings. And the extent of wage structure
leveling with regard to inter-occupation wage differen- tials even increases a bit over the period. The standard deviation of the set of estimated inter-occupation wage differentials is 0.342 in the nonunion sector and .207 in the union sector in 1996, compared with 0.312 and 0.25,
respectively, in 1984. However, there are also signs that the ability of unions to level wages and to re- duce arbitrary pay differences both
within and across establishments diminished over the period. Most striking, the
gender pay differential is now positive and
statistically significant in the union sector, and much closer to the gender differential in the nonunion sector. Union power across indus- tries has become more dispersed over the period as well. The
standard deviation of the inter-industry wage differentials in- creases from 0.141 to 0.189 in the union sector, but remains roughly unchanged
at 0.114 in the nonunion sector. Moreover, in contrast to the 1984 results, many of the inter-industry effects are statistically sig-nificantly
different across the union and nonunion sectors in 1996.
Discrimination against women is made worse without the power to bargain
Goergen 8 (Elizabeth Goergen is a lawyer who graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in
2008, where she was a Global Law Scholar and Institute for International Economic Law Fellow,
Georgetown Journal of International Law. Vol. 39 Nbr. 2. January 2008, “Women workers in Mexico:
using the international human rights framework to achieve labor protection,” http://law-journalsbooks.vlex.com/vid/workers-mexico-using-framework-achieve-55474610)
Working women around the world are subject to discrimination in the workplace, such as being paid
less than men for the same work, sexual harassment, and pregnancy discrimination. (1) Gender
discrimination is pervasive in the manufacturing industry, where workers are considered "unskilled"
and lack bargaining power with their employers. (2) Factory workers are often unaware of their rights and lack the
resources to demand that their rights be respected. (3)¶ Discrimination against women is pervasive in Mexico's public
and private spheres. In 2005, the First National Survey on Discrimination found that 93% of women believed they
suffered discrimination. (4) Historically, Mexican women tended to work predominantly in the agricultural
sector. Due to increased globalization generally and free trade in particular, however, Mexican women are being displaced
from agricultural and informal sectors and forced to take jobs in maquiladoras, factories typically located along
the U.S. border where goods are assembled or finished for exportation. (5) Women working in maquiladoras are subjected to
sexual harassment by coworkers and supervisors, required to undergo pregnancy testing when
applying for work, and forced to endure further pregnancy discrimination after they have been hired. (6)
Econ Impact XT
Improving labor rights breaks government chokeholds that collapse Mexican growth –
it’s reverse causal
The Economist 5/23 (The Economist, Reality Bites,
http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21578440-lacklustre-growth-shows-need-reformreality-bites// SC)
INVESTORS who were starry eyed about Mexico’s economic potential at the start of the year are now
having misgivings. From a record high then, the stockmarket fell to an eight-month low on May 21st. Just to rub it in, stocks in Brazil, which Mexico views
as its main regional rival, have recently been performing much better. The immediate catalyst for the change of mood is the
economy. In December, just as President Enrique Peña Nieto came to power promising to increase Mexico’s growth potential, the country’s strong
recovery from the 2008-09 global financial crisis hit the skids. In the first quarter of 2013 sluggish sales to the United States, by far Mexico’s
largest export market, helped reduce growth to a modest 0.8% compared with the same period in 2012. A fall in public spending as a new party took
power contributed to the dip.¶ The government blamed part of the weakness on the early Easter holiday (it had previously blamed poor December numbers
¶
on the fact that Christmas fell at mid-week). Nevertheless, on May 17th it lowered its growth forecast for the year to 3.1% from 3.5%. ¶ Other economic data in
recent days have added to the worries.
Foreign direct investment last year plunged to $12.7 billion, from an average of around $23
billion during the past decade, according to CEPAL, a UN-linked research organisation. It said the figure was affected by one-offs, such as a decision by Spain’s Banco
Santander to list its Mexican subsidiary, raising $4 billion. That counted as an outflow of foreign investment. Some economists pointed to concerns that high levels
Mexico slipped out of the top ten of global
tourist destinations.¶ Reading too much into a few months’ numbers would be risky, though. The optimism about Mexico was
never based on this year’s economic growth. Even before the disappointing first-quarter GDP report, the OECD, a Paris-based
think-tank for industrialised countries, had issued a study on the Mexican economy predicting a weak
2013 because of feeble demand abroad. Part of the motivation for the reforms that Mr Peña has kick-started is that the country is
too dependent on the vagaries of the global economy, and needs to generate more of its own dynamism by freeing business
at home.¶ In a six-year “national development plan” unveiled on May 20th, the government stressed how the economy performs below its potential. In the 30
of drug-related crime may also be taking a toll on investment, notably in tourism. Last year
years to 2011 it grew on average by just 2.4% a year, while productivity fell by 0.7% a year. Chile, meanwhile, grew by 4.9% a year and saw productivity increase by
1.1% a year. The OECD bemoaned Mexico’s record: it is alone among big emerging markets in suffering from sustained declines in the broadest measure of
productivity during the past decade. In order for GDP growth to rise from its current potential of about 3% to a healthier 4%, the productivity trend must be
Mexico’s three main political parties, which have created a pact to
promote more than 100 such changes, are aiming for 5%.¶ Recent reforms to increase the effectiveness of education, to
reduce job protection for unionised workers, and to increase competition in the telecommunications, media and banking industries, may boost growth
if they are fully implemented. But the OECD says that Mexico needs to go further. It calls for a mixture of policies to reduce
reversed through structural reforms, it said.
the size of the informal economy, where 60% of employment languishes, mostly in small, inefficient companies. It also argues for a stronger legal system that
enforces competition laws, for example, and improvements to the criminal-justice process to make life safer for individuals and firms. ¶ Later
this year the
government hopes to push through radical reforms in the state-controlled energy sector. These could prove to
be a spur for investment and productivity. There is likely to be a fierce political battle to pass them. Gray Newman, an economist
at Morgan Stanley in New York, says that complacency about the economy could be a bad thing on the eve of such ambitious reforms. In fact, he says, “Some
downward revisions in GDP growth could be exactly what the doctor ordered.”
-- Income Inequality XT
Unions have lost their structural power in Mexico—this exacerbates wage inequity
and the income gap
Farris, 03, (DAVID FAIRRIS, Professor of Economics, University of California-Riverside, Industrial and
Labor Relations Review, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Apr., 2003), pp. 481-497, Published by: Cornell University, School
of Industrial & Labor Relations, “Unions and Wage Inequality in Mexico”, JSTOR)//LOH
This paper offers empirical evidence on the impact of trade unions on wage inequality in Mexico. The
results indicate that unions were a strongly equalizing force affecting the dispersion of wages in 1984,
but were only half as effective at reducing wage inequality in 1996. Not only did the unionized
percentage of the labor force fall considerably over the period, unions also lost some of their ability
to reduce wage dispersion among the workers they continued to represent. Had unions maintained in
1996 the same structural power they possessed in 1984, the rise in wage inequality in the formal
sector of the labor market between those years would have been reduced by roughly 11%.
Wage equality fosters economic growth
New York Times 2012 (“Income Inequality May Take Toll on Growth” 2012/10/17
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/business/economy/income-inequality-may-take-toll-ongrowth.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)
WASHINGTON — Income inequality has soared to the highest levels since the Great Depression, and
the recession has done little to reverse the trend, with the top 1 percent of earners taking 93 percent
of the income gains in the first full year of the recovery.¶ The yawning gap between the haves and the
have-nots — and the political questions that gap has raised about the plight of the middle class — has
given rise to anti-Wall Street sentiment and animated the presidential campaign. Now, a growing
body of economic research suggests that it might mean lower levels of economic growth and slower
job creation in the years ahead, as well.¶ “Growth becomes more fragile” in countries with high levels
of inequality like the United States, said Jonathan D. Ostry of the International Monetary Fund, whose
research suggests that the widening disparity since the 1980s might shorten the nation’s economic
expansions by as much as a third.¶ Reducing inequality and bolstering growth, in the long run, might
be “two sides of the same coin,” research published last year by the I.M.F. concluded.¶ Since the 1980s,
rich households in the United States have earned a larger and larger share of overall income. The 1
percent earns about one-sixth of all income and the top 10 percent about half, according to statistics
compiled by the respected economists Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley and
Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics.¶ For years, economists have thought of such
inequality in part as a side effect of policies that fostered the country’s economic dynamism — its tax
preferences for investment income, for instance. And organizations like the World Bank and the
I.M.F., which is based in Washington, have generally not tackled inequality in the world head on.¶ But
economists’ thinking has changed sharply in recent years. The Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development this year warned about the “negative consequences” of the country’s high levels of
pay inequality, and suggested an aggressive series of changes to tax and spending programs to tackle
it.¶ The I.M.F. has cautioned the United States, too. “Some dismiss inequality and focus instead on
overall growth — arguing, in effect, that a rising tide lifts all boats,” a commentary by fund economists
said. “When a handful of yachts become ocean liners while the rest remain lowly canoes, something is
seriously amiss.Ӧ The concentration of income in the hands of the rich might not just mean a more
unequal society, economists believe. It might mean less stable economic expansions and sluggish
growth.¶ That is the conclusion drawn by two economists at the fund, Mr. Ostry and Andrew G. Berg.
They found that in rich countries and poor, inequality strongly correlated with shorter spells of
economic expansion and thus less growth over time.¶ And inequality seems to have a stronger effect
on growth than several other factors, including foreign investment, trade openness, exchange rate
competitiveness and the strength of political institutions.¶ For developing economies, the channels
through which inequality might drag down growth seem clear. Inequality might foster political instability
and lead to violence and economic destruction, for instance, a theme that fits for Arab Spring countries,
like Egypt and Syria.
Declining union power is the cause unequal wage dispersion in Mexico, the
counterplan uniquely solves
Farris, 03, (DAVID FAIRRIS, Professor of Economics, University of California-Riverside, Industrial and
Labor Relations Review, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Apr., 2003), pp. 481-497, Published by: Cornell University, School
of Industrial & Labor Relations, “Unions and Wage Inequality in Mexico”, JSTOR)//LOH
The results of this study suggest that unions are an equalizing force in the dis- persion of wages in Mexico. Unions
reduce formal sector wage dispersion, and, as a consequence, the overall dispersion of wages among wage earners in the formal and informal
sectors combined. They
do this by negotiating collective bargaining agreements that level wages with
regard to the productive skills of workers and reduce arbitrary pay differences across workers. Losses
in the structural power of unions to maintain and organize workers and to influence wage dispersion
through collec- tive bargaining diminished the dispersion- decreasing effect of unions between the
mid-1980s and the mid-1990s. Wage dis- persion in the economy rose as a result. The empirical results
presented in this pa- per suggest that roughly 11% of the in- crease in formal sector wage inequality over O40nce again, we have not corrected
for possible nonrandom selection, this time into the formal and informal sectors. See Marcouiller, Ruiz de Castilla, and Woodruff (1997) for an
attempt to do so with Mexican wage data. the period, and 5.6% of the rise in overall wage inequality, can be accounted for by the declining
power of unions. This study, like most others that have tackled the causal influences of rising wage inequality over the 1980s and 1990s in
Mexico, has taken a "mono-causal" ap- proach-that is, it looks at one and only one determinant of the increased inequal- ity. Future research
should be devoted to specifying what portion of the increased wage dispersion can legitimately be ascribed to each of the various causal factors
that have been shown thus far to matter. Proponents of the view that increased wage dispersion in Mexico is attributable to the decline in
capturable rents resulting from the elimination of trade protections (for example, Ravenga 1997) might claim, for example, that my analysis
overstates the role of declining union power in the in- creased wage inequality. They might argue that if my analysis had included profit rates or
concentration ratios on the right-hand side of estimated wage equations, a larger role would have been granted to changes in these wagedetermining characteristics, and a correspondingly smaller role would have been assigned to structural changes in union power. Of course,
every "mono-causal" analysis is open to similar criticisms. Feenstra and Hanson (1997) claimed that increased wage dispersion in Mexico is
related to the in- creased demand for skilled workers by the large number of foreign firms that have entered the country since Mexico's relaxation of restrictions on foreign investments in the early 1980s. Their evidence is based on cross-sectional findings regarding the higher returns
to skills along the border region, where foreign assembly plants are congregated. I could argue, however, that the higher return to skills has less
to do with the skill demands of employers than it does with the quality of industrial relations in this region.
There is a well-noted
absence of unions along the border, and those that do exist are likely to be "ghost unions" or to
possess collective bargaining agreements that prevent unions from leveling wages for productive
skills. Future research should undertake a com- parative exploration of the various causal factors that have been linked to rising wage
inequality in Mexico over the past two de- cades. The results of the present paper suggest that declining union
power war- rants consideration as one of those causal factors.
UQ XT / A2 SQ Solves – NAALC
NAALC fails now, multiple warrants
Oliver, 11, (Ranko Shiraki Oliver, Associate Professor of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) William H. Bowen School of Law,
Presented in March 2011 at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law Symposium on The Global Impact and Implementation of
Human Rights Norms. “Mexico’s Dilemma: Workers’ Rights or Workers’ Comparative Advantage in the Age of Globalization?”,
http://www.mcgeorge.edu/Documents/Conferences/GlobeJune2012_MexicosDilemma.pdf) //LOH
Workers’ rights advocates argue that the NAALC
does not go far enough in attempting to fulfill its intended goal of
protecting the rights of workers in the three member countries, for several important reasons. First, it is weak and
noninvasive because it does not require its members to adopt any new worker laws or conform to
international standards to be followed by all members; NAALC only requires that each country
enforce its own labor laws . Therefore, NAALC protects the sovereignty of each of the member countries more than workers’
rights.235 Second, NAALC is said to be ineffective because it purports to protect workers’ rights only through a system
of mutual obligation and mutual responsibility, whose most powerful tool is “cooperative consultation.”236Third, NAALC is only
a supplemental agreement to NAFTA, rather than being part of NAFTA and enforceable under
NAFTA.237 Fourth, enforcement procedures are slow and cumbersome. As noted above, the multi-step set of
procedures contemplates “submissions,” “discussions” at various levels, “evaluations,” and, critics argue, long-delayed and ineffectual real
action. Fifth, critics argue that, by its terms, NAALC
cannot forcefully address many serious problems. Of the eleven
labor principles, sanctions can be imposed for violations of only three, and then only in the case of
“persistent patterns” of violations.238 Obviously, sanctions will not often be imposed.239 Importantly, what
might be viewed as the three most basic of all labor rights ( the rights to organize, bargain collectively, and
strike ) are the least enforceable of the eleven labor principles, because they are subject only to
“discussion” among the NAOs, the Secretariat, and the Ministerial Council.240 Finally, NAALC does not go far enough, critics assert,
because the maximum disciplinary measure for a persistent pattern of violations is only suspension of a portion of NAFTA benefits for one
year.241 And, of course, such a sanction may be only theoretical; it has never been imposed.
UQ XT / A2 SQ Solves – Unions
Mexican labor union movements are failing now
Cardoso, ‘9 (Adalberto SALES CHANNEL DIRECTOR na Xerox do Brasil, National Sales Manager na Epson do Brasil Ltda., National Sales
Manager na BICC BRAND-REX do BRASI Industrial relations and collective bargaining:¶ Argentina, Brazil and Mexico compared
http://natlex.ilo.ch/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---actrav/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_161336.pdf ¶ )
A general strike was called for in March 2006. The¶
last national mining strike in¶ August 1944 had been an eloquent
example of Mexican¶ corporatism and of the central role¶ played by the mining workers’ unions. In
2006, the¶ State attacked workers with its full¶ arsenal: it accepted mass dismissals, imprisoned wo¶
rkers’ leaders and pushed the¶ SNTMMSRM further into opposition. Gómez Urrutía was¶ forced to flee
to Canada – a¶ political refuge
A2 Can’t Solve Private Actors
Focusing on government policy is key – the Mexican economy is highly centralized
Cardoso, ‘9 (Adalberto SALES CHANNEL DIRECTOR na Xerox do Brasil, National Sales Manager na Epson do Brasil Ltda., National Sales
Manager na BICC BRAND-REX do BRASI Industrial relations and collective bargaining:¶ Argentina, Brazil and Mexico compared
http://natlex.ilo.ch/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---actrav/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_161336.pdf ¶ )
Of the three countries, unions in Mexico are the mo¶ st regulated; those of Argentina are the¶ most autonomous, while those of Brazil fall
somewhe¶ re in between. The Mexican
system¶ is highly centralized at its upper levels, with a s¶ ingle peak
association (the CT) affiliating¶ most of the existing unions and controlling collect¶ ive bargaining; at its
lower levels,¶ worker representation is extremely fragmented and i¶ t is virtually absent from the
shop¶ floor. All of these factors make the Mexican IR sys¶ tem dependent on the State, and its¶ political and strategic
rationale – something that¶ collective bargaining can only reflect.
A2 Companies Evade It
Companies of countries being conditioned would obey labor standards and
regulations
PELLICER 11 (CLAUDIA PÉREZ PELLICER Senior Associate Consultant, Financial Services at PwC
Consulting “TRADE LINKAGE POLICY APPLIED: U.S.-LATIN AMERICA”, 9/8/2011
http://www.nyu.edu/clubs/jpia.club/PDF/S10_Pellicer.pdf)
In order to provide incentives for firms within developing countries to raise labor standards, ¶
governments could impose labor regulations alongside measures to provide wage subsidies. This
would ¶ minimize the impact on an individual country’s pattern of trade and production. International
burdensharing could help provide the funds needed to introduce these transfers and make the
necessary ¶ arrangements to existing taxation systems. By extending this subsidy system to nonexport-producing firms, ¶ trade linkage could also help ensure equitable improvement in working
conditions (Reddy and Barry, 2008; ¶ p. 144). Even if this all-encompassing system were not
implemented immediately, individuals employed ¶ in other sectors would still reap the benefits of
increased unionization and monitoring systems in exportproducing industries.
A2 Unions Bad – Strikes
TURN – effective collective bargaining prevents strikes by achieving equitable
agreements
Kochan, ‘12 (Thomas is the George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management, a Professor of Work and Employment Research and
Engineering Systems, and the Co-Director of the MIT Sloan Institute for Worktoward a New Generation of¶ Empirical Evidence and Policy
Research on¶ Public Sector Unionism and Collective Bargaining
http://www.employmentpolicy.org/sites/www.employmentpolicy.org/files/field-contentfile/pdf/Mike%20Lillich/Public%20Sector%20Unionism%20and%20Collective%20Bargaining%20Toward%20a%20New%20Generation%20of%20
Research%20-%204-3-2012.pdf)
Regarding the dispute resolution procedures (i.e., mediation, fact¶ -¶ finding, and arbitration)¶ variously included in public
sector collective bargaining laws¶ , we conclude that they¶ have¶ worked well in terms of reducing the
incidence of public employee strikes and achieving¶ equitable outcomes. In certain instances, however, the time
required to reach arbitrated¶ settlements of public sector labor disputes has increased to the point where it imposes hardships ¶ on employees
and excessive uncertainty on public employers and citiz¶ ens. Consideration should¶ 34¶ therefore be given to setting time limits on arbitration
decisions or otherwise reforming the¶ arbitration process.¶ When it comes to the ability of public sector labor and management to respond to
fiscal¶ crisis, the avai¶ lable evidence provides substantial historical and several contemporary examples¶ of interest based, mutual gains
negotiations and workplace innovations variously featuring¶ coalition bargaining, joint partnerships, and multi¶ -¶ party arrangements that
have bee¶ n effective in¶ enhancing performance outcomes and reducing the costs of public services. Some
municipal¶ governments and school districts have been especially prominent in this regard. The private¶ sector offers similar historical and
contemporary experience¶ s, especially in certain industries and¶ firms. The key challenge in this regard is to sustain and diffuse mutual gains
negotiations and¶ innovative¶ w¶ orkplace practices, which in turn requires supportive public policies. In the absence¶ of such policies or in¶
the presence of opposite policies, public sector labor and management will¶ likely regress to the mean of adversarial, win¶ -¶ lose type
negotiations and relationships.
**Unions Plank – Aff Answers**
AFF – Mexico Econ DA
Mexican unions are bad and crush growth – we control UQ
WPR, 12, (Cory Siskind, World Politics Review, “To Reform Mexico's Economy, Peña Nieto Must Tackle
'Culture of Monopolies'”, 12/4/12, http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/12539/to-reformmexicos-economy-pena-nieto-must-tackle-culture-of-monopolies)//LOH
Mexico’s labor unions are not by definition monopolies, but they too succeed in exercising undue influence over the
government, thereby making Mexico’s labor force less competitive . Over their history, labor unions have
won important rights for Mexico’s workers. However, Mexico’s unions have today become disruptive
behemoths, focused primarily on their own self-preservation. Year after year, unions have evaded
government regulation by auctioning their political capital to the highest bidder. Union-led protests frequently
shut down Mexico City’s main avenue for hours, causing massive traffic jams in an already congested city. Meanwhile, union leaders, some of
whom have been in office for decades, have politicians fearful of crossing them, and have been accused of everything from influence-peddling
to corruption and mismanagement of funds. It is therefore no surprise that unions
managed to escape relatively unscathed
from Mexico’s recently approved labor reform bill, which seeks to modernize the country’s inefficient
labor sector. The bill makes it easier to hire and fire workers, eases restrictions on part-time work and updates outsourcing practices.
However, as a result of their alliance with the majority PRI party, which returned to the presidency with Peña Nieto, unions succeeded
in enfeebling measures intended to make them more accountable, democratic and transparent.
Transportation monopolies also negatively impact Mexico’s growth. In a country with sprawling urban centers and an increasingly fast-paced
life, good public transportation is paramount. But centrally planned public transportation projects aimed at reducing traffic and pollution are
often obstructed by taxi and bus drivers’ unions eager to protect their monopolies. The unions have already succeeded in obstructing the
construction of streamlined metro-bus systems in Acapulco and Puebla, both important and populous cities. Such public transportation systems
would encourage competition by offering travelers an alternative to often overpriced taxis and dangerous buses. Instead, the existing
transportation monopolies inconvenience passengers and present a significant challenge for city planning and development across Mexico. In
Mexico City, for example, thousands of unregulated “pesero” buses drive recklessly and pollute heavily. Because they compete for fares, they
often race other buses to pick up passengers, adding to the chaos of driving in a metropolitan area of more than 21 million people.
Mexico’s supposedly free-market economy has long been held hostage by monopolies that control up
to 80, 90 or even 100 percent of market share. Injecting competition into the economy and regulating
monopolies requires a tough stance toward big business and unions. Peña Nieto’s PRI party is allied with both. In
order for the new president to even approach his growth promise -- not to mention keeping Mexico
competitive in the global economy -- the incoming administration must tackle monopolies in a
meaningful way. This means not just confronting big companies but also unions, low-level monopolies
and the government’s own state-run companies. Peña Nieto claims that addressing Mexico’s monopoly problem is part of
his proposed structural reforms. Specifically, his team has proposed harsher penalties for monopolistic behavior, and antitrust courts that
would embolden Mexico’s competition authority, Cofeco. Peña
Nieto also proposed a constitutional amendment that
would allow private and foreign investment in Pemex, arguing that Mexico should increase
production capacity and emulate Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras. This Sunday, on his second day in
office, Peña Nieto signed a pact with the chairmen of rival parties the PAN and the PRD to work collaboratively to, among other things, weaken
Mexico’s telecommunications monopoly.
Economic linkage will hurt developing countries
PELLICER 11 (CLAUDIA PÉREZ PELLICER Senior Associate Consultant, Financial Services at PwC
Consulting “TRADE LINKAGE POLICY APPLIED: U.S.-LATIN AMERICA”, 9/8/2011
http://www.nyu.edu/clubs/jpia.club/PDF/S10_Pellicer.pdf)
The first common objection that Reddy and Barry address directly in their proposal is that ¶ “linkage
will hurt those it is meant to help.” Supporters of this assertion argue that countries may misuse ¶
opportunities to restrict imports in order to protect domestic producers, thus reducing trade
opportunities ¶ for poor countries. However, given an emphasis on the multi-national nature of the
agreement and the ¶ creation of the Adjudication Body of the linkage, when member states decide to
change their trade policy ¶ unilaterally, they would be held accountable for these actions on a
transnational level. Hence, a developed ¶ country’s ability to arbitrarily or unilaterally impose a
protectionist trade policy without adequate burden ¶ sharing would decrease dramatically under a
firmly established, institutionalized system of linkage. This ¶ system would differ from the currently
observed regional Latin American trading patterns, where a ¶ complex structure of bilateral
agreements make it increasingly difficult to monitor or even begin to impose ¶ a consistent, rulebased enforcement mechanism. As Reddy and Barry emphasize, “allowing countries ¶ unilaterally to
determine whether requirements to adequately promote labor standards have been met ¶ clearly invites
misuse. The importance of establishing a transparent and rule-based system that protects ¶ against such
misuse is therefore evident” (Ibid.; p. 24).
AFF – Mexico Wages DA
Increasing wages cause unions to reduce efficiency and hire fewer workers
Tilly ’13 (Chris Director UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment¶ Urban Planning UCLA
Institute for Research on Labor and Employment¶ Urban Planning Trade unions, inequality, and
democracy in the US and Mexico¶ http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/0wt3v445#page-3)
The scholarly literature and political discourse have considered unions’ role and impact in two
arenas, economic and political. A long-standing tenet of neoclassical economics is that by ¶ 2 ¶ ¶
raising the compensation rate for labor above a market-clearing level, unions reduce efficiency,
causing businesses to substitute capital for labor and hire fewer workers than they would otherwise
(see, for example, Hamermesh 1984). Freeman and Medoff (1984) argued instead that unions have
two faces, a “monopoly” face that reduces efficiency, but also a “voice” face that can increase it. The
second controversial economic question is whether unions exacerbate or abate inequality. Unions
are often criticized for bolstering the wages of a privileged minority (Reynolds 1984), for overlooking
the needs of women and marginalized workers (Prieto and Quinteros 2005) and for generating
disemployment effects that relegate a section of the workforce to unemployment or informal
work (Friedman 1962, Lindbeck and Snower 1988). However, I and others have held that unions
are economic equalizers (Tilly 2011a).
Wage equality fosters economic growth
New York Times 2012 (“Income Inequality May Take Toll on Growth” 2012/10/17
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/business/economy/income-inequality-may-take-toll-ongrowth.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)
WASHINGTON — Income inequality has soared to the highest levels since the Great Depression, and
the recession has done little to reverse the trend, with the top 1 percent of earners taking 93 percent
of the income gains in the first full year of the recovery.¶ The yawning gap between the haves and the
have-nots — and the political questions that gap has raised about the plight of the middle class — has
given rise to anti-Wall Street sentiment and animated the presidential campaign. Now, a growing
body of economic research suggests that it might mean lower levels of economic growth and slower
job creation in the years ahead, as well.¶ “Growth becomes more fragile” in countries with high levels
of inequality like the United States, said Jonathan D. Ostry of the International Monetary Fund, whose
research suggests that the widening disparity since the 1980s might shorten the nation’s economic
expansions by as much as a third.¶ Reducing inequality and bolstering growth, in the long run, might
be “two sides of the same coin,” research published last year by the I.M.F. concluded.¶ Since the 1980s,
rich households in the United States have earned a larger and larger share of overall income. The 1
percent earns about one-sixth of all income and the top 10 percent about half, according to statistics
compiled by the respected economists Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley and
Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics.¶ For years, economists have thought of such
inequality in part as a side effect of policies that fostered the country’s economic dynamism — its tax
preferences for investment income, for instance. And organizations like the World Bank and the
I.M.F., which is based in Washington, have generally not tackled inequality in the world head on.¶ But
economists’ thinking has changed sharply in recent years. The Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development this year warned about the “negative consequences” of the country’s high levels of
pay inequality, and suggested an aggressive series of changes to tax and spending programs to tackle
it.¶ The I.M.F. has cautioned the United States, too. “Some dismiss inequality and focus instead on
overall growth — arguing, in effect, that a rising tide lifts all boats,” a commentary by fund economists
said. “When a handful of yachts become ocean liners while the rest remain lowly canoes, something is
seriously amiss.Ӧ The concentration of income in the hands of the rich might not just mean a more
unequal society, economists believe. It might mean less stable economic expansions and sluggish
growth.¶ That is the conclusion drawn by two economists at the fund, Mr. Ostry and Andrew G. Berg.
They found that in rich countries and poor, inequality strongly correlated with shorter spells of
economic expansion and thus less growth over time.¶ And inequality seems to have a stronger effect
on growth than several other factors, including foreign investment, trade openness, exchange rate
competitiveness and the strength of political institutions.¶ For developing economies, the channels
through which inequality might drag down growth seem clear. Inequality might foster political instability
and lead to violence and economic destruction, for instance, a theme that fits for Arab Spring countries,
like Egypt and Syria.
AFF – Say No 2ac
Nieto says no – he pushes for market liberalization and more lax labor laws
TNV, 12, (Terra Nova Ventures, “Mexican Economic Policy Under Pena Nieto”, 7/11/12,
http://www.tnvmanagement.com/mexecon-blog/2012/7/11/mexican-economic-policy-under-penanieto.aspx)//LOH
During its previous seven decades in power, the PRI billed itself as the only organization capable of guaranteeing the accomplishments of the
Mexican Revolution of the early 1900s. It reality, it developed into a well-oiled political machine that maintained its control over the country by
being all things to all segments of society. For example, it built
support among workers by nurturing unions and
instituting rigid labor laws that continue to make layoffs difficult to this day. At the same time, it
allowed powerful monopolies and oligopolies to develop throughout much of Mexico's economy.
Fortunately, the economic agenda Peña Nieto described in his campaign appears to be aimed at addressing
many of the country's most pressing problems: Energy Sector Policy. Perhaps the signature achievement of the PRI in the
1930s was the nationalization of Mexico's oil industry and the constitutional prohibition against private-sector involvement in the energy
industry. Unfortunately, these moves have limited the country's ability to take advantage of its vast petroleum reserves. The state oil company,
Pemex, is now essentially treated as a cash cow to cover a large portion of the country's budget. Investment in the industry has stagnated, and
Mexican oil production is on a gradual slide downward. To address this issue, Peña Nieto has proposed allowing the private sector to participate
in the energy industry, just as Brazil has opened its state oil company, Petrobras, to alliances with private businesses. If fully implemented, this
policy has the potential to increase investment, raise output, and make the energy sector much more dynamic and competitive. Fiscal Policy.
The Mexican government has been financially disciplined in recent years, keeping its budget nearly in
balance. Its main problem is that tax revenues are extremely low as a share of the economy. Tax revenues in much of Europe normally
exceed 50% of gross domestic product (GDP), while in the United States and most dynamic Asian countries they normally total 30% to 35% of
GDP. In Mexico, tax revenues typically come to only about 25% of GDP, meaning the government has little to spend on important public
investments. To address this problem, Peña Nieto has said he would make the income tax system more progressive (i.e., impose higher tax
rates on higher incomes), and that he would consider applying the value-added tax to at least some foods, though with some form of
compensation for the poor. Peña Nieto has also promised to make federal revenue sharing with Mexico's state and local governments more
transparent. Competition Policy. Many Mexican industries are dominated by monopolies and oligopolies. In
telecommunications, for example, only two firms control a vast amount of the broadcasting and telephony markets, stifling innovation and
raising costs for consumers. Peña
Nieto has promised to make Mexican anti-trust laws more effective by
boosting penalties for monopolistic behavior and establishing dedicated anti-trust courts with the
expertise and resources to stamp out anticompetitive business practices. If fully implemented, this reform would
probably help ease the formation of dynamic, new entrepreneurial companies in Mexico. Labor Policy. Even though Mexican economic policy
has long coddled major businesses, it has simultaneously maintained inflexible labor laws that raise the cost of hiring and firing. Economists
generally agree that these policies inhibit hiring and drive many workers into the grey economy or
force them to look for work in the drug cartels or in the United States . Peña Nieto has vowed to
address these issues by liberalizing Mexico's labor laws.
AFF – Say No 1ar
Pena will say no, even if pressured – he stood up to the PRI on labor
Reuters, 12, ( Dave Graham, MEXICO CITY, Tue Oct 2, 2012, “Analysis: Mexican labor reform signals
battles ahead for Pena Nieto”, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/02/us-mexico-penanietoidUSBRE89112B20121002)//LOH
Critics have seized upon the diluted labor bill as evidence that the PRI has not changed its ways. "The primary obstacle to Pena's
big idea of modernizing the Mexican economy is his own party," said Jesus Ortega, ex-leader of the leftist Party of the
Democratic Revolution (PRD). Pena Nieto left the door open for the PRI to ditch anti-union measures in Calderon's bill, mindful they were
divisive. But
reformers within his transition team privately express concern the party's old guard may
emasculate his reforms too. In many ways, he is between a rock and a hard place. Even after the PRI
changed the labor law, organizations that have long backed the party turned out to protest. "The PRI has
lost its social roots," said Jose Valdez, 72, a central committee member of the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers, one of the oldest
unions behind the PRI. "It used to be a center-left party, now it's center-right." Leftist parties accuse the PRI of being in league with Calderon's
conservative National Action Party (PAN), and they hope to pick up disgruntled voters in coming elections. "PRI and PAN are the same," said
Deborah Quiroz, a 45-year-old teacher blockading Congress during the labor bill debates. Such accusations have made the PRI wary of taking
big risks as it tries to boost Mexico's tax take, the lowest in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Allowing VAT on
food and medicine could be costly in a country where half the population lives in poverty. Pena
Nieto has not yet revealed how
far he wants to push the PRI, and its lawmakers are adamant the party must stay united. But few doubt that
Pena Nieto will achieve some kind of reforms. Even on the party's left, congressmen like Flores admit that without changes,
institutions like oil giant Pemex that were long untouchable will struggle to compete internationally. "We need to be open to
different kinds of investment in terms of exploration, production and refining," Flores said of Pemex. "We
can't wrap ourselves in the flag: we need to break with stereotypes if we want to progress."
Defer Aff – bipartisan consensus in Mexico will say no to democratizing unions
Global Post, 12, (Alex Pearlman, Global Post, “Mexico passes controversial labor reform bill”,
November 15, 2012, http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/rights/mexico-passescontroversial-labor-reform-bill)//LOH
Mexico passed legislation Tuesday overhauling the country's 40-year-old labor laws in a bipartisan
effort that many say isn't strong enough . The far left claims the new laws favor big business over workers and that true reform
has yet to come. President Felipe Calderon, who steps down from the presidency Dec. 1 and originally proposed the legislation, has said the
new law would add hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and will allow women and young people to more easily access employment while
boosting productivity. However, the
left is concerned about the ease with which employers can now hire and
fire at will, outsource jobs, sidestep giving workers health benefits and hire part-time workers for a
fraction of the pay they'd otherwise receive. The new law also does nothing to democratize the
unions , which are ancient, corrupt and often led by bosses who are more closely tied to the
employers than the workers are. "It's the worst of both worlds," says Cristina Auerbach, a labor lawyer working with coal miners
in the northern state of Coahuila, of the recent reforms. "It strips away rights from workers and leaves union leaders untouched." USA Today
reports that outside audits of union financial records is still prohibited and union members still cannot view the union contracts they're party
to.
AFF – Alt Causes
Alt cause education to Mexican inequality
Lustig 12 (Nora Professor of Latin American Economics¶ ¶ Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley Working Paper 307¶ October 2012¶
Declining Inequality in Latin¶ America in the 2000s: The Cases¶ of Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico
http://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/1426568_file_Lustig_et_al_IneqLA_FINAL.pdf)
The decline in labor income inequality can occur because of an expansion of employment¶ and/or
hours worked (especially among the poor) and by changes in the distribution of ¶ hourly wages.
The latter, in¶ turn, can be driven by changes in the distribution of observable¶ (and
unobservable) characteristics, and changes in returns to those characteristics.¶ The¶ analysis for
Argentina suggests that the expansion of employment (as a result of the ¶ economic recover¶ y
and commodity boom) was an important factor behind the decline in¶ labor income inequality.
In the cases of Brazil and Mexico, this was not the case.¶ Whether¶ the changes in the
distribution of characteristics (the quantity effect), especially education,¶ w¶ ere equalizing or
unequalizing could not be unambiguously established for Argentina and¶ Brazil because
different authors obtained opposite results. In the case of Mexico, all the¶ authors found that the
more equal distribution of education had an unequalizi¶ ng effect on¶ labor income. That is, Mexico is
still experiencing what Bourguignon et al. (2005) called a¶ “paradox of progress.
These alt causes outweigh
Lustig 12 (Nora Professor of Latin American Economics¶ ¶ Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley Working Paper 307¶ October 2012¶
Declining Inequality in Latin¶ America in the 2000s: The Cases¶ of Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico
http://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/1426568_file_Lustig_et_al_IneqLA_FINAL.pdf)
In the three countries the changes in returns to education and experience (the price effect)¶ were
equalizing. This is in stark¶ contrast with trends in the 1990s when the skill premium¶ rose across
the board.¶ The skill premium is affected by demand and supply of workers of¶ different skills
(education and experience) and by institutional factors such as the minimum¶ wage and the influ¶
ence of unions. Labor demand by skill, in turn, is primarily affected by the¶ characteristics of
technical change and international trade. The composition of labor¶ supply¶ is determined, to a
large extent, by the characteristics of educational upgrading and¶ demographic factors.¶ Based on the
results analyzed here, the fall in the skill premium in¶ Argentina is explained by a decline in relative
demand for skilled workers, and a rise in the¶ minimum wage and the power of unions. ¶ In Brazil,
supply¶ -¶ side factors¶ —¶ in¶ addition to¶ demand¶ -¶ side and institutional factors¶ —¶ played an
important role.¶ In Mexico, institutional¶ factors were unimportant and demand for skilled labor
may have even continued to rise; the¶ fall in the skill premium, thus, was primarily driven by an
expa¶ nsion in supply of skilled¶ workers
AFF – SQ S
Mexico is tackling its poverty problem in the status quo
Lustig 12 (Nora Professor of Latin American Economics¶ ¶ Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley Working Paper 307¶ October 2012¶
Declining Inequality in Latin¶ America in the 2000s: The Cases¶ of Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico
http://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/1426568_file_Lustig_et_al_IneqLA_FINAL.pdf)
The decline in inequality coincided¶ with the implementation of the North American Free¶ Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. It also coincided with a shift in government spending¶ patterns. Since
the early 1990s, public spending on education, health and nutrition has¶ become more progressive
(Esqu¶ ivel et al.). In 1997 the Mexican government launched the¶ conditional cash transfer
program¶ Progresa¶ (called¶ Oportunidades¶ since 2002), a large¶ -¶ scale anti¶ -¶ poverty program
that currently covers 5.8 million poor households¶ –¶ around 19% of¶ households in 2012
** Women’s Rights Plank – 1nc**
General Act on Equality (GAE) 1nc – Top
The United States should offer to substantially increase its economic engagement
towards Mexico by <the plan> if, and only if, Mexico agrees to substantially improve
funding for and enforcement of the General Act on Equality.
GAE hasn’t been enforced since it passed – forcing Mexico to follow up on promises is
key
Miller 6 (Kathleen Miller is a reporter for Associated Press, November 24, 2006, “U.N.: Mexico needs
work on equality”
http://web1.nusd.k12.az.us/schools/nhs/gthomson.class/articles/fourteenth/U.N._Mexico.needs.work.
equality.pdf)
If Mexico wants to eradicate discrimination against women, it needs¶ to follow up its promises with
action, a U.N. report said Thursday.¶ The report applauded Mexico's 2006 passage of the General Act on Equality¶ Between Women and Men
but expressed concerns that additional steps have to be¶ taken before it can be implemented effectively.¶ The
authors of the report, members of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of¶ Discrimination Against Women, are worried the law lacks
the necessary¶ components to bring states and cities across the country on board, said Teresa¶ Rodriguez, U.N.
regional director of development for women.¶ In particular, the committee is concerned that the National Commission on Human¶ Rights,
which is charged with overseeing enforcement, does
not have "the¶ necessary financial resources and specially
trained personnel to achieve this goal."¶ The report listed 42 recommendations Mexico should follow to eliminate violence¶
against women, including ensuring access to safe abortions, as allowed under the¶ law; providing more sex education; outlawing mandatory
pregnancy tests at¶ maquiladora, or assembly-for-export, factories; and finding a way to end the¶ disappearances of women in the northern
border city of Juarez.¶ "While
noting with appreciation the commitment and efforts of the state to address¶
the cases of violence against women in Ciudad Juarez, the committee ... is¶ especially concerned that
these efforts have so far failed to prevent further crimes¶ from being committed,"the report said.¶ The
committee also requested that Mexico's special federal prosecutor for crimes¶ against women be given jurisdiction over numerous allegations
of sexual assault by¶ police against protesters in San Salvador Atenco, 15 miles northeast of Mexico City.
Women’s rights are legally actionable in Mexico, proving they’d say yes, but the wage
gap is still enormous
BDHRL 11 (BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND LABOR, “2010 Country Reports on Human
Rights Practices”, April 8, 2011, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/wha/154512.htm)
Federal law prohibits sexual harassment and provides for fines of up to 40 days' minimum salary, but
victims must press charges. Sexual harassment is criminalized in 26 of the 31 states and in the federal
district; 22 of these states have provisions for punishment when the perpetrator has a position of power. According to INMUJERES, sexual
harassment in the workplace was widespread, but victims were reluctant to come forward, and cases were difficult to prove.¶ Couples and
individuals have the legal right to decide the number, spacing, and timing of children and have the
information and means to do so free from discrimination. However, services, information, and public policies in the area
of reproductive health were limited. Despite the existence of a national family planning program, the lack of sex education and contraceptives
in public hospitals and rural areas undermined the government's commitment to reproductive rights.¶ In 2009 INMUJERES reported that 72.5
percent of women use some form of contraception. Information on maternal health was available at public and private health clinics and online
at the Health Secretariat's Web site. Skilled attendants at delivery and in postpartum care were widely available except in some marginalized
areas. According to INMUJERES the estimated maternal mortality rate in 2008 was 57.23 per 100,000 live births. Women and men were given
equal access to diagnostic services and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.¶ The law
provides women the
same rights and obligations as men and "equal pay ... for equal work performed in equal jobs, hours
of work, and conditions of efficiency." According to INMUJERES, during the year women earned on
average 8.2 percent less than men for comparable work; however, in some occupations the disparity reached 51
percent.¶ The law provides labor protection for pregnant women. According to the Information Group on Reproductive
Rights, some employers reportedly sought to avoid this law by requiring pregnancy tests in pre-employment physicals and by continuing to
make inquiries into a woman's reproductive status.
Breaking down workplace oppression facilitates the breakdown of patriarchy
Comanne 10 (Denise Comanne is a political activist and feminist writer, October 14, 2010, “How
Patriarchy and Capitalism Combine to Aggravate the Oppression of Women”, http://cadtm.org/HowPatriarchy-and-Capitalism)
When capitalism is in crisis, austerity measures are introduced whereby women are the first to be excluded from social benefits such as unemployment benefits, for
example, where they exist. Elsewhere, they are pushed into very poorly-paid jobs such as work in the free zones. In
Mexico in this sector
women’s salaries have collapsed from 80% to a mere 57% of men’s. They may also be won over by the idea of doing a good
job for a pittance among the multitude of jobs in the informal sector, beyond the pale of “paralysing ” State regulations. Women’s rights in the
workplace are undermined by a thousand government tricks. There is of course the “choice” of
working part-time which extends from half-time to the “zero” contract where the female worker
remains at the boss’s disposal to work from zero to any number of hours as required; this despite the fact that
practically all surveys show that the majority of working women would like a full-time job. The increasing reduction in services such as crèches and day-nurseries, or
the privatisation of others such as rest-homes for the elderly, have led to a multiplicity of pitfalls for working women. “Equality
at work” has had
the negative effect of introducing more night-work for women. Of course it was right to establish equal working conditions for
women in the security and health services, and so forth; but what was also at stake with these so-called egalitarian measures was to allow women to work on the
line in night-shifts, for example. There is absolutely no vital imperative to build cars at night. The
new measures establishing male-female
equality should then have been – in clear-thinking feminist terms – to eliminate night-work for men. Moreover, for most
women this night-work on the line, unacceptable on principle, makes life intolerably hard most of the time, in view of the work women still have to do in the
domestic sphere.¶ The issue of women’s work in production, or the public sphere, is therefore just as central. ¶ To manage this issue, capitalism
uses
patriarchy as a lever to attain its objectives, while at the same time reinforcing it. ¶ The fact that
women are relegated – by patriarchy – to domestic tasks allows capitalists to justify their overexploitation and under-payment of women with the argument that their work is less productive than
men’s. They invoke weakness, menstruation, absenteeism for pregnancy and maternity leave, breastfeeding, and caring for sick children and older relatives. This
is where the woman’s salary is denigrated as being “for extras”. Even today, with equal qualifications and for equal hours, women are paid about 20% less than
men. This holds a double interest for capitalists. On the one hand, they have a cheaper, more flexible labour pool that can be used or laid off according to market
fluctuations; on the other hand, this enables them to bring down rates of pay generally. ¶ The
general issue of women’s work in the
private and public spheres thus reflects either their oppression, as for example when policies of the far right or religious
fundamentalism force them to remain in the home; or their liberation, as in the case of progressive policies of equal pay, job creation and free public services.
The impact is extinction and the worst genocide in human history
Irigaray 91 - French feminist, philosopher linguist cultural theorist
(Luce, “Equality or Different?” in the Irigaray Reader edited by Margaret Whitford pg. 32-33)
Demanding equality, as women, seems to me to be an erroneous expression of a real issue. Demanding to be equal presupposes a term of
comparison. Equal to what? What do women want to be equal to? M en ? A wa ge? A pub lic p os iti on ? Equa l t o what ? Wh y
n ot t o themselves? Even a vaguely rigorous analysis of claims to equality shows that they are justified at the level of a superficial
critique of culture, and / utopian as a means to women's liberation. The
exploitation of women is based upon
sexual difference, and can only be resolved through sexual difference. Certain tendencies
of the day, certain contemporary feminists, are noisily demanding the neutralization of sex [sexe]. That
neutralization, if it were possible, would correspond to the end of the human race. The human race is
divided into two genres which ensure its production and reproduction . Trying to suppress sexual difference is
to invite a genocide more radical than any destruction that has ever existed in History.
What is important, on the other hand, is defining the values of belonging to a sex-specific genre.
What is indispensable is elaborating a' culture of the sexual which does not yet exist,
whilst respecting both genres. Because of the historical time gaps between the gynocratic,
matriarchal, patriarchal and phallocratic eras, we are in a sexual position which is
bound up with generation and not with genre as sex. This means that, within the family,
women must be mothers and men must be fathers, but that we have no positive and
ethical values that allow two sexes of the same generation to form a creative, and not
simply procreative, human couple. One of the major obstacles to the creation and
recognition of such values is the more or less covert hold patriarchal and phallocratic
roles have had on the whole of our civilization for centuries. It is social justice, pure and
simple, to balance out the power of one sex over the other by giving, or restoring,
cultural values to female sexuality. What is at stake is clearer today than it was when The Second Sex was
written. Unless it goes through this stage, feminism may work towards th e d est ruc ti on of wom en, and, m ore gen era l ly,
of a ll va lu es. Egalitarianism, in fact, sometimes expends a lot of energy on re jecting certain positive values and chasing
after nothing. Hence the periodic crises, discouragement and regressions in women's liberation movements, and their fleeting inscription
in History. Equality between men and women cannot be achieved unless we think of genre as sexuate [sexue] and write the rights and
duties of each sex, insofar as they are different, into social rights and duties. Peoples
constantly split into secondary
but murderous rivalries without realizing that their primary and irreducible division is
one between two genres. From that point of view, we are still living in the childhood of culture . It is urgent
for women's struggles, for small, popular groups of women, to realize the importance of
issues that are specific to them. These are bound up with respect for life and culture, with the constant passage of the
natural into the cultural, of the spiritual into the natural. Their responsibility and their opportunity
correspond to a stage' in the evolution of the world, and not to some more or less lucid
and negative competition within a world undergoing a mutation, in which life is in
danger for a variety of reasons.
**Women’s Rights XTs**
2nc Say Yes
Reforms are being put in place now – it is a matter of enforcement
Nehro 13 (Diana J. Nehro is Deputy to the Chair of the International Practice Group of Ogletree
Deakins, 2/12/2013, “Mexico Labor Reforms Increase Protection for Employees and Clarity for
Employers”, http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/global/Articles/Pages/Mexico-Labor-Reforms.aspx)
This is one of the more significant changes in the law, given the long-standing use of these
arrangements.¶ Anti-Discrimination/Harassment. The amendments align Mexico with international antidiscrimination and harassment standards by expressly prohibiting discrimination on the basis of ethnic origin,
nationality, disability, health conditions, religion, immigration conditions, opinions, sexual preference or civil status. What is more,
workplace and sexual harassment (along with mobbing, lack of honesty, and acts of violence, among
others) are now defined and are grounds for a just cause termination. This is important because it will allow
employers in Mexico to consistently enforce global policies and procedures concerning harassment and related matters. Further,
employers are prohibited from requesting pregnancy tests as a hiring condition, and they cannot
require a woman to resign due to pregnancy or change of civil status.Family Leave. The right to paternity leave for
five days and maternity leave for six weeks for the birth or adoption of a child is now mandatory. In addition, the amendments include
protections for working mothers by providing flexibility in choosing when to take maternity leave and shorter shifts to accommodate nursing
mothers.
2nc GAE Solves
Local implementation of GAE is key – the CP demands the mechanisms to fund and
enforce it
CEDAW 6 (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, August 2006, “Concluding
comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women:
Mexico”,http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw25years/content/english/CONCLUDING_C
OMMENTS/Mexico/Mexico-CO-6.pdf)
While noting the adoption of the General Act on Equality between Women ¶ and Men, aimed at establishing a mandatory link between the
federal and the state ¶ level in the formulation of policies and legal provisions, the
Committee is¶ concerned that insufficient
mechanisms exist to coordinate and ensure interaction in ¶ this process with states and municipalities.
The Committee is concerned that the ¶ absence of such a coordination mechanism might obstruct the federal/state¶ initiatives aimed at
guaranteeing women’s enjoyment of their human rights and ¶ result in a fragmentation of efforts. While the Committee welcomes the fact that
the ¶ National Commission on Human Rights has been designated as the mechanism in ¶ charge of
monitoring and evaluating the General Act on Equality between Women ¶ and Men, it is concerned
that that institutions may not have the necessary gender ¶ expertise and human and financial
resources to carry out this function.¶ 592. The Committee calls on the State party to put in place coordination and ¶
monitoring mechanisms to ensure the effective harmonization and¶ implementation of gender equality programmes and policies, as well as¶
enforcement of the General Act on Equality between Women and Men at the ¶ federal, state and
municipal levels. The Committee recommends that the State ¶ party ensure that the National Commission on Human Rights is provided
with ¶ the necessary financial resources and personnel well trained in gender equality ¶ issues to effectively fulfill its function in regard to
monitoring and evaluating ¶ the General Act on Equality between Women and Men.
Adding explicit support is key to developing harmonization of the GAE with other
states
CEDAW 11 (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, February
2011,“Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women”,
http://opcedaw.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/mexico-sp-report-2011.pdf)
¶ The Committee calls on the State party to put in place coordination and ¶ monitoring mechanisms to
ensure the effective harmonization and ¶ implementation of gender equality programmes and
policies, as well as ¶ enforcement of the General Act on Equality between Women and Men at the¶
federal, state and municipal levels. The Committee recommends that the State ¶ party ensure that the
National Commission on Human Rights is provided with ¶ the necessary financial resources.
-- XT Patriarchy Impact
Failure to address the rights of women on questions of economics towards Mexico
results in massive oppression and violence
Jaime 12(Guadalupe Cruz Jaime is a journalist for Inter Press Service, February 7, 2012,
“Mexican women face a tough future,” http://www.guardian.co.uk/globaldevelopment/2012/feb/07/mexico-women-unemployment-tough-future)
The lack of opportunities has driven many to migrate to the United States. Ponce notes that more and more
young people with more than nine years of schooling are migrating to the US, risking their lives as they cross the border
illegally. Of the 767 migrants reported dead in 2011, 62% were young women.¶ A report by a legal committee of the opposition Institutional
Revolutionary party (PRI) in congress found that most of these women had completed secondary or higher studies.¶ According to Inegi, three
out of 10 Mexicans who migrate to the US are women.¶ The PRI report, prepared with the Office for Migration Matters of
the NGO National Confederation of Grassroots Organisations , further reveals that 75% of the migrants who died in 2011 had
completed primary school.¶ Sixty per cent of the 767 deaths were violent, with victims either mugged,
raped, abandoned in the desert by migrant smugglers, or targeted by organised crime. ¶ According to the
report, unemployment is highest among the most educated women, who, faced with no work
opportunities, have to choose between migrating to the US, joining the ranks of the underemployed,
or swelling the informal job market.¶ Ponce notes that things will only get worse as a result of the economic recession in the US
and Europe, which is compounded by Mexico's low rate of job creation. With a population of 112 million, Mexico requires around 1.5 to 2m
new jobs each year.¶ The Economic Modelling and Forecasting Centre of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Unam) projects that
unemployment will be as high as 6.1% this year, up from 5.7% in 2011, and, as a result, the quality of job opportunities will "plunge", Ponce
said.¶ Mexican
women who do find employment will have to settle for poor working conditions and
wages too low to cover even the basic food basket. In the retail sales sector, for example, which employs 4.4 million of the
country's 18 million women workers, real compensation (wages, salaries and benefits) has plummeted, dropping by almost 25% between 2005
and 2011.
-- XT Human Rights Impact
Female worker’s rights are a matter of human rights
Goergen 8 (Elizabeth Goergen is a lawyer who graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in
2008, where she was a Global Law Scholar and Institute for International Economic Law Fellow,
Georgetown Journal of International Law. Vol. 39 Nbr. 2. January 2008, “Women workers in Mexico:
using the international human rights framework to achieve labor protection,” http://law-journalsbooks.vlex.com/vid/workers-mexico-using-framework-achieve-55474610)
Mexico is a party to numerous international and regional human rights treaties that demand
protection for women workers. (7) In particular, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
("CEDAW"), the American Charter on Human Rights, and the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation ("NAALC") side agreement
to the North American Free Trade Agreement ("NAFTA") all include provisions regarding gendered labor
discrimination. (8) Mexican legislation does guarantee some rights to women, such as equal protection under the
law and the right to work. These rights are defined narrowly, however, and domestic legislation is not well
enforced. By failing to protect women workers from discrimination, Mexico is not fulfilling its human rights obligations.
(9) Mexican women workers can and should demand protection for their human rights under
international and regional human rights law.
-- Internal Link XT – Human Rights
Poor working conditions for women is a violation of human rights
USW 6-19 (United Steelworkers (USW) is the largest industrial labor union in North America , JUNE 19,
2013, “Finnish company fired workers who tried to organize, imposed company union”,
http://www.usw.org/media_center/releases_advisories?id=0716)
An independent investigation of the Finnish auto parts company PKC in Mexico found widespread violations of workers’
rights, including firing workers, and sexual harassment of female employees, who tried to form an
independent union.¶ The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent labor monitoring group supported
by U.S. universities, yesterday released its detailed investigation of violations committed by PKC at its plant in Ciudad
Acuña, Mexico. PKC is a global auto parts company whose clients include Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen and Volvo.¶ Reacting to
the report, USW International President Leo Gerard stated: “The WRC report shows how multinational
companies use Mexico’s
weak labor laws to undermine workers’ human rights. PKC must immediately reinstate the fired union leaders and follow
the report’s other recommendations.” ¶ He adds: “The Mexican government must demonstrate that it can protect the
rights of its workers before it is allowed greater access to U.S. markets.”
-- Internal Link XT – Patriarchy
Labor rights are an issue of women’s rights
Ray 6 (Suranjita Ray is a prof. in the Department of Political Science, Daulat Ram College, University of
Delhi, 2006, “Human Rights, Gender & Environment”,
http://www.du.ac.in/fileadmin/DU/Academics/course_material/hrge_06.pdf)
“Feminism is an awareness of patriarchal control, exploitation and ¶ oppression at the material and
ideological levels of women’s labour, ¶ fertility and sexuality, in the family, at the place of work and in society in ¶ general, and
conscious action by women and men to transform the ¶ present situation” (Bhasin and Khan, 1999: 3). It is a struggle to achieve ¶
equality, dignity, rights, freedom for women to control their lives and ¶ bodies both within home and outside. As a
cross cutting ideology ¶ feminists have different political positions and therefore address a range ¶ of issues such as female suffrage, equal legal
rights, right to education, ¶ access to productive resources, right to participate in decision-making, ¶ legalization of abortion, recognition of
property rights and abolition of ¶ domestic violence. Thus feminism passed through several paradigms ¶ which are referred to as first wave and
second wave of feminism. ¶ Since
the origin of patriarchy and establishment of male supremacy can ¶ be
traced to different factors and forces feminists differ in their approach ¶ to understand patriarchy and
adopt different strategies to abolish it. One ¶ way to understand the various dimensions of feminist theories and their ¶
theoretical approaches to understand patriarchy is to locate them within ¶ the broader philosophical and political perspectives that have been ¶
broadly classified as Liberal, Marxist, Socialist and Radical. However, ¶ despite
the ideological differences between the
feminist groups, they are ¶ united in their struggle against unequal and hierarchical relationships ¶
between men and women, which is no longer accepted as biological ¶ destiny.¶ Feminist theorists generally share four concerns
(Jaggar and Rothenberg, ¶ 1984 in Mandell, 1995: 4) (i) They seek to understand the gendered ¶ nature of all social and
institutional relations, which determines who does ¶ what for whom, what we are and what we might
become. (ii) Gender ¶ relations are considered as problematic and as related to other ¶ inequalities and contradictions in social life. “Family,
education and ¶ welfare, worlds of work and politics, culture and leisure are socially ¶ structured through relations of gender, power, class, race
and sexuality”.
Maquiladoras dehumanize female workers
Arriola 7 (Elvia R. Arriola is a Professor of Law at NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY, 2007,
“ACCOUNTABILITY FOR MURDER IN THE MAQUILADORAS: LINKING CORPORATE INDIFFERENCE TO
GENDER VIOLENCE AT THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER”,
http://www.womenontheborder.org/accountability_murders.htm)
After observation of the relationship between gender and the operation of the maquiladoras at the
Mexican border it is easy to see how gender based attitudes, affect everything from recruitment and
hiring (nearly 100% female for workers) to treatment of women in the workplace. When American electrical,
television, and stereo component companies such as GE, Sony, and Panasonic, began relocating to Mexico, women were blatantly preferred for
the job. Women were seen as better fits; with smaller hands and fingers, they could better assemble tiny parts of export goods such as light
bulbs, cassette tapes, and recorders. The
ideal maquiladora worker thus emerged as a hybrid of stereotyped
images based on sex, race and class - she was not only more docile and passive than Mexican men,
but submissive, easily trainable and unlikely to pose problems with union organizing. B. Where the Violence
Leading to Murder Begins - The Voices of Experience from Inside the Maquiladoras -Over several years I visited several border
towns and began to meet privately with mostly female workers and heard about their experiences. I
sometimes met workers in their homes, which were uniformly tiny and clean but quite often without flooring, plumbing or more electricity than
a single light bulb. "Fatal
indifference" is the best way to describe the totality of circumstances suffered by
maquiladora workers - a systematic structural disregard by corporations and their agents for the
humanity of the laborer.
Mexico = Key / A2 Alt Causes
Mexico is key – its especially highly ranked in incidences of femicide
CDD 12 (Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir contributes to international public discourse and education
on women’s rights and reproductive health, population policy, gender equality and sexuality, July 17,
2012, “Femicide and Impunity in Mexico: A context of
structural and genearlized violence”,
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/ngos/CDDandCMDPDH_forthesession_Mexico_CE
DAW52.pdf)
Mexico is ranked in the 16th place in the incidence of homicides against women globally. ¶ According to a
report produced by UN-Women, cases of femicide in the country have seen a ¶ steady increase since the year 2007, which had recorded the
lowest number of femicides since ¶ 1985, but by 2009 the number had already exceeded those recorded on 1985 by about 25%.¶ There is a
victims are battered
and discriminated when trying to access the ¶ justice system. Mexico lacks a comprehensive
institutionalized policy for granting access to ¶ justice for women and presents severe failures
throughout all stages of criminal proceedings. A¶ large majority of cases involving violence against
women continue to go without a formal ¶ investigation, judgment and sanctions by the justice system, both at the Federal
systematic pattern of impunity in Mexico, a reflection of the lack of access to justice¶ for women. Frequently,
and local level.
CP = Key / A2 SQ Solves
Violence against women often goes without justice as victims are blamed
CDD 12 (Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir contributes to international public discourse and education
on women’s rights and reproductive health, population policy, gender equality and sexuality, July 17,
2012, “Femicide and Impunity in Mexico: A context of
structural and genearlized violence”,
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/ngos/CDDandCMDPDH_forthesession_Mexico_CE
DAW52.pdf)
Nevertheless, a large majority of cases involving violence against women continue to go
without a formal investigation, judgment and sanctions by the justice system, both at the ¶ Federal and local levels. Among other
reasons, there are no specialized mechanisms to ¶ integrate and conduct investigations with efficiency and transparency as well as the absence
to investigate cases of femicide and the prevalence of a ¶ patriarchal culture in the justice system
that stigmatizes victims through the frequent ¶ disqualification of their statements, even accusing the
women of causing the violence against ¶ them.¶ While prosecuting and punishing those responsible,
women face on many occasions a gender ¶ bias by the judges, reflected in the judicial decisions driven by social and
¶ and disregard for special protocols
cultural ¶ discriminatory patterns based on the inferiority of women, a focus on their reproductive role ¶ or the lack of credibility of the victim.
In many cases, although
there is a clear criminal offense, ¶ a discriminatory criterion is used to establish
low or mitigated sanctions, especially when the ¶ victim’s sexual conduct does not conform to gender
roles and stereotypes.¶ Of the cases registered by the National Centre Against Femicide between 2010 and 2011, ¶ authorities
reported that 60% of cases are still pending to be processed and only 19% have ¶ been consigned, although in 34% of the cases the motives of
the murder are known. Only 4% ¶ of the cases of femicide have been sentenced, yet it is unknown if these sentences are ¶ convictions or
acquittals.¶ The
current fight against drugs, the extreme violence around the country and the general ¶
context of insecurity has led to make invisible the murders of women for the State, even ¶ though it is evident
that these types of cases have increased in recent years. Likewise, cases of ¶ disappeared girls and women in this context have been aggravated
by the special ¶ characteristics of Mexico where the trafficking of women is an additional factor that facilitates ¶ violence against them, mainly
among girls between the ages of 10 and 17 years.
UQ XT – Discrimination Now
Mexican women face sexual harassment and abuse in the work place
Conger 11 (Lucy Conger is a correspondent on Latin American relations, “Putting Women’s Labor
Rights Front and Center,” August 31, 2011,
http://www.iadb.org/micamericas/section/detail.cfm?lang=en&sectionid=spcal&id=9133)
Sexual harassment is the most sensitive of the offenses women may decide to denounce, and it is all
too frequent. “A majority of women suffered harassment at work, this is a problem nationwide,” says
Velásquez. For women to get promoted or a salary raise, they are expected to offer a sexual favor , she says.¶
Among domestic workers, sexual harassment and rape are extremely common, and women are afraid to
denounce the abuse. “The women come to us with the idea that if they denounce it, they’ll lose their job, and
we stress that they should speak out so that it doesn’t happen to others,” says Bautista. CACEH follows what happens to women who denounce
harassment and sexual abuse, and connects victims of violence to institutions and shelters that care for women.¶ Defending the rights of
workers, and especially female workers, will keep CAT Puebla, CFO and CACEH busy for a long time to come. Their work advances through the
actions of pressure and grievances brought by the workers, but the labor organizers and the workers also gain strength from a diverse network
of groups that include working women’s associations, independent unions, and international solidarity groups that are linked to maquiladoras
and workers federations.
Internal Link XT – Women’s Rights
Discrimination leads to the labor rights of women being ignored
Conger 11 (Lucy Conger is a correspondent on Latin American relations, “Putting Women’s Labor
Rights Front and Center,” August 31, 2011,
http://www.iadb.org/micamericas/section/detail.cfm?lang=en&sectionid=spcal&id=9133)
¶ Women of Latin America and the Caribbean have made great strides in
decades. Today, there
taking their place beside men at the workplace during the last three
are 40 women in formal jobs for every 100 men, and millions of women support
their families and educate their children by working in the informal economy as vendors, seamstresses and small
business owners. ¶ Unemployment is a much more likely fate for women than men, and promotion of women
up the ranks at factories and in large businesses remains rare. Working women are often stuck in
professions such as domestic work and teaching, which offer low pay and little mobility.¶ Women at the workplace get
little respect and may be mistreated. Their labor rights are often ignored, and workplaces can be unhealthy, toxic
or dangerous.
**Women’s Rights – Aff Answers**
AFF – Say No/No S
Multiple barriers to enforcement mean Mexico says no and the CP doesn’t solve
FAO 2 – (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2002, “Law and Sustainable
Development since Rio - Legal Trends in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management”,
http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y3872e/y3872e0a.htm)
Norms advancing women's legal status are often scarcely implemented in rural areas, due to the persistence
of discriminatory socio-cultural norms and practices, often internalized by women themselves. Indeed,
while law often reflects and follows social change, gender-equality provisions promote social change, and their implementation is therefore much more difficult, as
the process of social and cultural change is inevitably slow. Other
major factors affecting implementation of gender-related
norms include: rural women's lack of awareness of their statutory rights. Where illiteracy rates are
high and access to documents problematic, publication of laws in official bulletins is unlikely to reach
rural women. rural women's lack of resources to enforce their rights. Often, legal aid funds are mainly allocated to criminal
law cases, rather than to family law disputes (where women's rights issues mainly arise). Also, while the Beijing Platform for Action calls for the provision of free or
low-cost legal services designed to reach women living in poverty, many countries have not paid attention to gender in their legal aid schemes. One exception is
India's Legal Services Authorities Act of 1987, as amended in 1994, which explicitly lists women among possible legal aid beneficiaries. ¶ lack of resources for the
implementation of gender-related legislation. Few resources may be allocated by government to implement gender-sensitive legislation, ranging from gendersensitive agrarian reforms to women-targeted credit programmes and to gender-specific institutions.¶ women's scarce representation in decisionmaking positions.
Women may not be represented on policymaking bodies, whether agriculture-related ministries or elected political office. ¶ Some
of these
constraints may mean that provisions on gender equality often have no real impact on women's
everyday lives. Nonetheless, there are several avenues for enforcement of women's rights, and these means of implementation are explored below.
AFF – SQ Solves
Legislation is in place now – crimes just aren’t reported
BDHRL 11 (BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND LABOR, “2010 Country Reports on Human
Rights Practices”, April 8, 2011, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/wha/154512.htm)
INMUJERES, the
federal government institution charged with directing national policy to achieve equality
of opportunity between men and women, reported that its national hotline established under the National Plan for a Life
without Violence received 70,761 calls during the year. Although there were approximately 70 government-funded shelters, civil society and
women's rights groups maintained most available shelters.¶ The country was a destination for sex tourists. There are no laws specifically
prohibiting sex tourism, although federal law criminalizes corruption of minors, for which the penalty is five to 10 years' imprisonment.¶
Federal law prohibits sexual harassment and provides for fines of up to 40 days' minimum salary , but
victims must press charges. Sexual harassment is criminalized in 26 of the 31 states and in the federal district;
22 of these states have provisions for punishment when the perpetrator has a position of power.
According to INMUJERES, sexual harassment in the workplace was widespread, but victims were reluctant to come forward,
and cases were difficult to prove.
AFF – A2 GAE Net Benefit
GAE has already been implemented
UN 9 (United Nations Human Rights Council, May 2009 ,“Report of the Working Group on the Universal
Periodic Review”, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/11session/A.HRC.11.27.pdf)
The Constitution prohibits all forms of discrimination, and Mexico has a Federal Act to ¶ Prevent and Eliminate Discrimination and a National
Council for the Prevention of ¶ Discrimination on this issue. Discrimination against women, especially if it involves violence, is ¶ a main concern
and a high priority, and Mexico is aware of the significant challenges in this ¶ domain. Most
states have harmonized their laws
with the General Act on Women’s Access to a ¶ Life Free From Violence, and have a state system
against violence. Mexico has also put in place ¶ public policies in support of gender equality. In
addition, the new General Act on Equality ¶ between Women and Men promotes women’s
empowerment at the federal level in both the ¶ public and the private spheres. The federal Special Prosecutor’s
Office on Violent Crime against ¶ Women and Human Trafficking has initiated several investigations. Training and awareness raising
programmes for the judiciary have been developed. Particular indignation was expressed ¶ by many regarding the killing of women, especially
the cases in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. The ¶ State institutions will work with civil society to fully address these crimes and to prevent them. ¶
Both at the national level and in the case of Ciudad Juárez, important efforts are under way to ¶ enhance legislation and strengthen institutions
and budgets.
**Child Labor Plank – 1nc**
Child Labor 1nc - Top
The United States should offer to substantially increase its economic engagement
towards Mexico by <the plan> if, and only if, Mexico agrees to fully implement and
enforce code C189 of the Domestic Workers Convention.
Solving child labor is an ethical obligation – it’s the worst form of exploitation
Hawley 8 (Chris, May 9, 2008, Illegal child labor in Mexico puts food on tables of Americans,
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/05/09/20080509childlabor0509.html // OP )
Ten-year-old Adriana Salgado spends her days in a field in northwestern Mexico, picking the spinach, cabbage
and other vegetables that fill American salad bowls. Adriana doesn't know how to read. She attends school for
only one hour a day.¶ Her 15-year-old sister, who works with her, can't read, either. Adriana had an 8-year-old brother, too,
until he was crushed to death by a tractor while working in a tomato field last year.¶ About 300,000 youngsters
MEXICO CITY -
such as Adriana work illegally in Mexico's fields, the U.N. Children's Fund says, making child labor a major link in the chain that increasingly supplies American dinner
tables.¶ In his annual May Day speech last week, Mexican Labor Secretary Javier Lozano pledged to eradicate child labor and impose "the quick application of
workplace law." But with thousands of poor families dependent on the money that their children bring in, experts say it is an uphill battle.¶ "
It is the
worst form of exploitation ," said Nayeli Ramrez, director of Ririki Social Intervention, a Mexican group that campaigns for children's rights.¶
Mexican law prohibits children 13 and younger from working, and those 14 to 16 can work only in jobs that do not "jeopardize their development." That clause is
children under 15 make up 20 percent of Mexico's migrant farmworkers, the Mexican Labor
Secretariat says. Less than 10 percent of these children attend school, and 42 percent suffer from some form of malnutrition,
government studies show.¶ They persist in the fields despite harsh criticism from international groups, rules imposed
not defined. Nevertheless,
by U.S. distributors and increasingly strident warnings from the Mexican government.
2nc Say Yes
Countries will say yes to labor and child labor conditioning and create human rights
PELLICER 11 (CLAUDIA PÉREZ PELLICER Senior Associate Consultant, Financial Services at PwC
Consulting “TRADE LINKAGE POLICY APPLIED: U.S.-LATIN AMERICA”, 9/8/2011
http://www.nyu.edu/clubs/jpia.club/PDF/S10_Pellicer.pdf)
Engaging in trade linkage and joining an initial coalition, Professor Reddy argues, would be in ¶ the
interest of developing nations for three main reasons. First, linkage would place these countries in a ¶
bargaining position for further liberalization of trade, investment, and resource transfers. Second, it
would ¶ help protect workers in these countries from the race to the bottom in labor standards. Third,
there could ¶ be a moral motive for joining. Developed countries may be equally interested in engaging
in a system ¶ of linkage because doing so would diminish the competition they face from developing
nations, which ¶ often offer potential investors considerably lower labor costs. In a regional as well as
a global context, this ¶ measure would benefit countries regardless of their level of development,
since it would reduce the risk of a ¶ regulatory chill or the race to the bottom in labor standards.¶
Some capitalists in developed countries would favor linkage as a way of diminishing the ¶ competition
they face from other firms that currently do not comply with labor standards. Trade linkage ¶ could
also be an opportunity for these firms to improve their reputation as part of an initial coalition of ¶
firms in nations that promote labor standards (Reddy & Barry, 2008; p. 75). This, in turn, could increase
¶ demand for their products. Organizations such as USLEAP, WOLA, and labels placed on products
through ¶ the Fair Trade movement have based their campaigns on precisely this principle. The
increasing concern ¶ about “brand image” suggests that in general consumers will respond favorably
to products and companies ¶ in general that can be certified to “respect the basic rights and dignity of
workers” (USLEAP, 2008). Such ¶ trends offer influential MNEs in Latin America additional incentives to
stress and support labor rightspromoting systems. The incorporation of such measures would continue
to push human rights and trade ¶ linkage closer to the top of the regional agenda.
C189 S
Cards for ratifying the C189 agreement of the ILO as a mechanism:
Solves collective bargaining, child labor, and discrimination
International Labour Organization 11
( C189 - Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189)¶ Convention concerning decent work for domestic workers (Entry into force: 05 Sep
2013)¶ Adoption: Geneva, 100th ILC session (16 Jun 2011) - Status: Up-to-date instrument (Technical
Convention).http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO:12100:P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID:2551460:NO // OP)
Each Member shall, in relation to domestic workers, take the measures set out in this Convention to respect, promote and realize the
fundamental principles and rights at work, namely:
(a) freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
(b) the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour;
(c) the effective abolition of child labour; and
(d) the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
3. In taking measures to ensure that domestic workers and employers of domestic workers enjoy freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right
to collective bargaining, Members shall protect the right of domestic workers and employers of domestic
workers to establish and, subject to the rules of the organization concerned, to join organizations, federations and confederations of
their own choosing.
Solves for continued education and working conditions
International Labour Organization 11
( C189 - Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189)¶ Convention concerning decent work for domestic workers (Entry into force: 05 Sep
2013)¶ Adoption: Geneva, 100th ILC session (16 Jun 2011) - Status: Up-to-date instrument (Technical
Convention).http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO:12100:P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID:2551460:NO // OP)
Each Member shall set a minimum age for domestic workers consistent with the provisions of the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), and the Worst Forms
of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), and not lower than that established by national laws and regulations for workers generally.
2. Each Member shall take measures to ensure that work performed by domestic workers who are under
the age of 18 and above the minimum age of employment does not deprive them of compulsory education, or interfere with
opportunities to participate in further education or vocational training.
Article 5
Each Member shall take measures to ensure that domestic workers enjoy effective protection against
all forms of abuse, harassment and violence.
Article 6
Each Member shall take measures to ensure that domestic workers, like workers generally, enjoy fair
terms of employment as well as decent working conditions and, if they reside in the household, decent living conditions
that respect their privacy.
Solves for worker safety and health
International Labour Organization 11
( C189 - Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189)¶ Convention concerning decent work for domestic workers (Entry into force: 05 Sep
2013)¶ Adoption: Geneva, 100th ILC session (16 Jun 2011) - Status: Up-to-date instrument (Technical
Convention).http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO:12100:P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID:2551460:NO // OP)
1. Every domestic worker has the right to a safe and healthy working environment. Each Member shall
take, in accordance with national laws, regulations and practice, effective measures, with due regard for the
specific characteristics of domestic work, to ensure the occupational safety and health of domestic workers.
2. The measures referred to in the preceding paragraph may be applied progressively, in consultation with the most representative organizations of employers and
workers and, where they exist, with organizations representative of domestic workers and those representative of employers of domestic workers.
US Key – 2nc
The US can coordinate effective dialogue on child labor- empirically proven
Samet 2k Andrew James Samet¶ Deputy Under Secretary¶ for International Affairs U.S. Department of Labor December 2000 Advancing
the Global Campaign Against Child Labor:
Progress Made and Future Actions
http://www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/globcamp/globcampconf.htm // OP )
the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) co-sponsored a conference with the International
Labor Organization (ILO), entitled Advancing the Campaign Against Child Labor: Progress Made and Future Actions. The
conference brought together representatives of government, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions,
and civil society to share their experiences and discuss strategies for overcoming exploitative child labor
around the world. A webcast of the day's events also allowed several secondary schools from around the United States to observe and
even participate in the conference by posing questions to panels of child labor experts. Through this conference and these proceedings, the
U.S. Department of Labor and the International Labor Organization hope to draw greater international
attention to the child labor issue and to encourage broader and more coordinated action to end the
exploitation of the world's children. This volume contains an edited collection of the speeches and papers prepared and
On May 17, 2000,
presented for this meeting, as well as news feature stories and photos documenting many of the efforts discussed. It seeks to highlight some of
the innovative and effective strategies being used in various countries around the world to address the problem of exploitative child labor.
The US is key – they already have a framework for global co-op
ILRF 10 ( International labor rights forum, UNITED STATES POLICIES TO ADDRESS CHILD LABOR GLOBALLY June 4, 2010
http://www.laborrights.org/sites/default/files/publications-and-resources/Child%20Labor%20Briefing.pdf
The U.S. Department of Labor has the most prominent and direct role among federal government
agencies in addressing child labor globally. The department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs has as part of its mission statement:
“To support the President’s and the Secretary of Labor’s labor and foreign policy objectives, meet congressional man- dates, perform public outreach by promoting
This function
is housed within the Office of Child, Forced and Trafficked Labor (OCFT). OCFT was created in 1993 as a response to a congressional request to
investigate and report on child labor around the world. Its activities include research on international child labor, forced labor and
trafficking; funding and overseeing cooperative agreements and contracts of organizations engaged in
efforts to eliminate child labor around the world; and assisting in the development and
implementation of U.S. policy on inter- national child labor.8¶ In fiscal year 2009, the Bureau of International Labor Affairs/OCFT
the elimination of the worst forms of child labor, and increase knowledge and information on child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking.”
implemented its mission through $59 million in grants and cooperative agreements to combat child labor through direct service, collection and analysis of data, and
through development and implementation of national action plans on child labor. Since the office was established in 1993, OCFT claims to have “rescued
approximately 1.3 million children from exploitative child labor.”
Impact – Education
Most exploited children will never get an education
Human Rights Watch 9 (Fields of Peril: Child Labor in US Agriculture Summary and Key Recommendations
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/crd0510_brochure_low_0.pdf //OP )
Farmworker youth drop out from school at four times the national drop-out rate, according to government
estimates. Human rights Watch interviewed many children who had been forced to repeat a grade one or more times and who had never had anyone in their
families graduate from high school. Several factors explain this. Around 40 percent of hired cropworkers migrate each year to or within the United states for work.
Children whose families migrate within the United states often leave school early—in april or may—and
return weeks or even months after school has already started. Fifteen-year-old Ana Z. in texas said: “I
don’t remember the last time i got to school registered on time. . . . I’m afraid it’s going to hold me
back on my education. . . . I got out of math because I was a disaster. I would tell the teacher, ‘I don’t even know how to divide and I’m going to be a
sophomore.’ I’m going from place to place. It scrambles things in my head and I can’t keep up.” Children who try to combine working and
going to school often find that school pays the price, in part because there are no limits on how many
hours children can work in agriculture outside of school hours. Jaime d., who told us he dropped out of school at age 16 after
he started picking tomatoes, explained, “I wanted to work and still go to school, but I couldn’t concentrate on both. i didn’t know how to do both.
Impact – Sexual Abuse
Girls especially are vulnerable to sexual abuse
Human Rights Watch 9 (Fields of Peril: Child Labor in US Agriculture Summary and Key Recommendations
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/crd0510_brochure_low_0.pdf //OP )
Farmworker women and girls are exceptionally vulnerable to sexual abuse, ranging from
inappropriate or threatening comments to groping, sexual assault, and rape. Geographic isolation,
language barriers, fear of deportation, and the desperate need for work make it very difficult for
farmworkers to report abuse, much less get help. Girls may be especially targeted because they are young
and because of a greater power imbalance that makes it even less likely they will complain.
Impact – Health/Cancer
Kids are exposed to cancer- causing pesticides
Human Rights Watch 9 (Fields of Peril: Child Labor in US Agriculture Summary and Key Recommendations
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/crd0510_brochure_low_0.pdf //OP)
Many children said that their employers did not provide drinking water, handwashing facilities, or
toilets. Children described bringing their own water and sometimes running out. In some places workers said they had to buy water with their meager wages
because the quality of the water in migrant housing was too poor to drink. The Federal Occupational Safety and Health administration (OSHA) requires agricultural
employers to provide drinking water, water for hand washing, and toilet facilities. Congress, however, exempts farms with fewer than 11 employees from these
regulations, essentially exempting them from having to protect their workers’ dignity and most basic health requirements .
Children are exposed to
pesticides. Some children told Human Rights Watch they were sprayed directly; many more said that the fields next
to them were sprayed while they were working, and they smelled and had reactions to the drift. “here
there are a lot of chemicals in the field,” said 18-year- old hector h., who worked alongside children. “you can smell them. [recently] the plane sprayed, sprayed the
cotton. . . . I felt dizzy. I covered my face and kept working. No one told us to get out of the field.” Many
children described seeing residue on the plants or even going back into fields wet with spray. Almost none of the children we spoke with had received training on
Exposure to pesticides is a hazard for all farmworkers but may be especially dangerous for
children whose bodies are still developing. Children are uniquely vulnerable to chemicals and may
absorb pesticides more easily than adults. Children working in agriculture have far greater incidence
rates of acute occupational pesticide-related illnesses than children working in other jobs. Exposures
to pesticides can produce rash, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, headaches, and burning eyes, as well
as brain damage and death. Long-term pesticide exposure in adults is associated with chronic health
problems such as cancer, neurologic problems, and reproductive problems.
pesticide safety.
Child workers remain invisible to the state
Calamaio 13 (Cody, Feb. 23, Women and the US-Mexico Border, citing the US Department of Labor Bureau and Commission for Labor Consumption,
http://womansborderissues.tumblr.com/post/80847855/child-labor-in-mexico-a-survival-tool-for-families // OP)
Child labor in Mexico: a survival tool for families ¶ In Mexico, child labor is commonplace. In some families, child workers make up a large
portion of the income they depend on for survival. This cycle of poverty and dependance upon child labor has had devastating effects on the country’s children. ¶
According to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of International Labor Statistics,
there are an estimated 8 to 11 million children
under the age of 15 working in Mexico.¶ They work eight hour days getting paid an average of $6-$10 dollars a day. ¶ In some rural areas of
the Mexican countryside south of the border, school attendance is declining as more and more younger and younger children go to work in the fields and factories.
Government studies also show that 42 percent of child workers suffer from some form of
malnutrition. According the Commission for Labor Consumption’s "Guide to Child Labor Laws in Mexico," both boys and girls above the age of 14 are
allowed to work for up to 6 hours a day. Child workers are supposed to have finished secondary school, obtain a medical certificate, and have their parent’s
It has been widely
documented that illegal child labor frequently occurs. Children much younger then 14 often work
eight to ten hour days, and drop out of school.¶ Laboring in fields and in maquiladoras is not only harmful to the children’s health and
approval before working. Mexican labor laws also allow children over 14 to join unions and qualify for paid vacation time.
well being, it also usually costs them their education. ¶ Studies estimate that around 20% of farmworkers in Mexico under are age 15, of which less then 10% attend
school.¶ Many underage workers are generally girls just below the minimum age working in
maquiladoras. They are able to either lie about their age or provide documents in order to obtain
their positions. ¶ Many children remain invisible to the government. While some U.S. distributors are
increasingly putting rules against child labor into their supplier contracts, the Mexican government
has yet to harshly crack down on child labor. The lax enforcement of Mexico’s constitutional labor
laws has caused this problem to continue largely unabated.
full-time
LGBTQ COUNTERPLAN
**LGBTQ CP – Neg
LGBTQ CP – 1nc
The United States should offer to substantially increase its economic engagement
towards Mexico by <the plan> if, and only if, Mexico agrees to substantially improve
legal protection and rights afforded to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer
individuals.
Starting with Mexico is key – it can be a revolutionary leader for LGBTQ rights in Latin
America
Corrales, ‘9 – Corrales is visiting scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at
Harvard University and associate professor of political science at Amherst College. Gays in Latin America:
Is the Closet Half Empty?
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/02/17/gays_in_latin_america_is_the_closet_half_empty//
SC
Most analysts haven't noticed, but a major social revolution is taking place in Latin America. The region is becoming gayer. It's not
that there are more gays and lesbians living in Latin America (we would never know). Rather, the region is becoming more gay-friendly. A
generation ago, Latin America was the land of the closet and the home of the macho. Today, movements fighting forsbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBT) rights are taking advantage of the region's more globalized, open regimes. They are promoting
their cause through smart, mainstream political and economic alliances. So, though closets and machos are still ubiquitous, Latin
America is now the site of some of the most pro-gay legislation in the developing world.¶ Gay rights expanded
in democratic Western Europe starting in the late 1960s, and in the United States more gradually since the 1970s. Despite being democratic and kind-of-Western,
Latin America lagged behind. Then, in the late 1990s, legislation started to change. In 1998, Ecuador's new constitution introduced protections against
discrimination based on sexual orientation. In 1999, Chile decriminalized same-sex intercourse. Rio de Janeiro's state legislature banned sexual-orientation
discrimination in public and private establishments in 2000. In 2002, Buenos Aires guaranteed all couples, regardless of gender, the right to register civil unions. ¶ The
policy changes just kept coming. In 2003, Mexico
passed a federal antidiscrimination law that included sexual
orientation. A year later, the government of Brazil initiated Brasil sem homofobia (Brazil without homophobia) , a program with
nongovernmental organizations to change social attitudes toward sexuality. In 2006, Mexico City
approved the Societal Cohabitation Law, granting same-sex couples marital rights identical to those for commonlaw relationships between a man and a woman. Uruguay passed a 2007 law granting access to health benefits, inheritance, parenting, and pension rights to all
couples who have cohabited for at least five years. In 2008, Nicaragua reformed its penal code to decriminalize same-sex relations. Even Cuba's authoritarian new
president, Ral Castro, has allowed free sex-change operations for qualifying citizens.¶ Change hasn't simply come on paper. Latin American cities are also becoming
The number of gay-owned or gay-friendly establishments (e.g., bars, support groups, services) per
capita in Latin American cities is on the rise, with some cities outperforming even the most liberal
Western capitals. Nobody really ever thought the region was a gay desert, but there is plenty of evidence now that Latin America -- at least legally and in
increasingly gay-friendly.
urban centers -- is coming out.
2nc NB
Constant interjection is key – homophobia is a force that must be constantly
combatted throughout Latin America
Corrales, ‘9 – Corrales is visiting scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at
Harvard University and associate professor of political science at Amherst College. Gays in Latin America:
Is the Closet Half Empty?
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/02/17/gays_in_latin_america_is_the_closet_half_empty//
SC
Clear challenges, of course, remain. Gay rights are still timid where they exist, and absent in many parts of the
region, especially outside large cities. The most obvious reason is lingering homophobia. A recent survey in Brazil, the
country with the largest gay-pride parades in the world, showed that 58 percent of respondents still agree with the statement, Homosexuality is a sin against the
laws of God, and 41 percent with Homosexuality is an illness that should be treated. This is the paradox of advancing gay rights. The very same factors that make
higher visibility and smart lobbying tactics -- also provoke homophobic sentiments.¶
Despite their adept political strategies, LGBT movements have also failed to win the unequivocal
support of political parties on the left, which happen to be in power in most countries of the region.
gay rights possible --
Maybe the lack of party support stems from the socialist left's legendary disdain for post-materialist values and globalization -- both of which LGBT movements have
embraced. Perhaps it is because of the macho approach to politics inherited from the legacies of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, or merely the innate conservatism of
leftist-populists. For whatever reason, and with the sole exception of President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva in Brazil, leftist presidents support far more timid gay
legislation than gay groups want, if they support changes at all. In Ecuador last year, for instance, leftist President Rafael Correa personally blocked legalizing same-
though it may be true that LGBT
folks love parties, in Latin America, they don't always get the parties they want. ¶ It is hard to be fully
confident about the future, despite obvious progress for LGBT movements in Latin America. Gay rights and comfort
zones seem to move in waves, with the ever present possibility of reversals. Changing laws and neighborhoods are no
doubt a good start, but there is work to be done to counter waves of homophobia and the lack of ruling-party
allies. The closet may be opening, but the jury is still out.
sex marriage in his new constitution, even though he filled it with plenty of other controversial articles. So
We’re at a key moment – LGBTQ movements are on the brink of key breakthroughs in
Latin America but there’s a lot of work to be done
Corrales, ‘9 – Corrales is visiting scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at
Harvard University and associate professor of political science at Amherst College. Gays in Latin America:
Is the Closet Half Empty?
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/02/17/gays_in_latin_america_is_the_closet_half_empty//
SC
What explains the great Latin American awakening? Among the obvious answers is regime change: It helps that the
region is no longer authoritarian, because gay rights rarely expand under such conditions. It also helps that the region is solidly urbanized and that Latin American
It helps that the region is not Muslim or
predominantly Protestant, because countries where these religions dominate -- for example Arab or AngloCaribbean countries -- tend to have the least gay-friendly legislation.¶ Yet a more surprising reason for the torrent of change has
been the unexpected new clout of LGBT movements in the region. These movements have existed in some countries since
cities are becoming more globalized and richer; gay life thrives in wealthy, cosmopolitan cities.
the 1970s, but they have always been poor, small, plagued by enormous free-riding problems (all those people still in the closet), and devoid of strong national-level
Latin American LGBT movements have overcome their political
handicaps by adopting smart tactics. Rather than turning radical and desperate, they have forged
pragmatic alliances with larger, more-influential social movements. In Ecuador, for instance, they relied on the much
leaders. Typically, this would yield zero clout.¶ Instead,
stronger feminist movement to influence constitutional change. Likewise in Brazil, alliances with government officials proved vital to health campaigns. Movements
in Argentina,
Mexico, and Peru worked with local businesses to develop gay markets.¶ LGBT movements have also made
smart use of the tools afforded by globalization. They have promoted gay tourism, worked with the media to change cultural tastes, and used the Internet and
Latin America's gay-advocacy groups are not
radical, anticapitalist, or antiglobalization, and this has expanded their power. Given the antiglobalization tack
of many progressive social movements, Latin American LGBT advocates are minorities in more ways than just
their sexuality.
academic forums to learn about [JC1] tactics that have successfully yielded change abroad.
There is a global consensus for aid conditionality- forces countries to recognize human
rights issues
Hefeker and Michaelowa 13 (Carsten Hefeker and Katharina Michaelowa, Current Position, Professor
of Economics at the University of Siegen ¶ Research Fellow of Hamburg-Institute of International Economics (HWWI) ¶ Research Fellow of CESifo, Munich ¶ ¶ Former
Positions¶ ¶ Teaching and Research Assistant, University of Konstanz, Germany, 1992-1995¶ Junior Research Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS),
Brussels, Belgium, 1995-1996¶ Assistant Professor, University of Basel, Switzerland, 1996-2001¶ Head of Department World Economy, Hamburg-Institute of
International Economics (HWWA), Hamburg, Germany, 2001-2004¶ ¶ Academic Qualification¶ ¶ Master in Economics (Diploma), University of Hannover, Germany,
1991¶ Master in International Economics (Licentiate), University of Konstanz, Germany, 1992 ¶ Dr. rer. pol., University of Konstanz, Germany, 1996¶ Habilitation,
University of Basel, Switzerland, 1999 , Can process conditionality enhance aid
effectiveness?http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/stable/pdfplus/30026677.pdf?acceptTC=true//
SC
accessed by JSTOR)
There is now a wide-spread consensus that development aid is successful only ¶ under certain
circumstances, and that there is no general positive relation between aid and growth (Boone, 1996; World Bank, 1998). The question therefore is how
¶
¶
aid can be restructured to be more effective in promoting ¶ growth and reducing poverty. As the international community has formally ¶ engaged itself to reduce
poverty by half until 2015,
the challenge to enhance ¶ aid effectiveness becomes even more pressing. In order to meet
this challenge, ¶ the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have recently shifted their focus ¶ towards increased ownership and broad based support for policy
there is a now a strong emphasis to con- ¶ dition aid on participatory
processes and so-called "process conditionality". ¶ This demonstrates that the IFIs today formally
recognize political-economic ¶ problems in recipient countries.1 While emphasizing the political economy in recipient
measures in ¶ developing countries. In particular,
¶
countries, it should also be kept in mind that IFIs themselves and the policies they propose are subject to policy interests of the IFIs' own bureaucracy and to
¶
¶
those of donor ¶ governments and international NGOs (Vaubel, 1991; Easterly, 2003). In order ¶ to fully understand the problem of aid effectiveness, this dimension
of the aid ¶ giving process has to be taken into account as well. ¶ * We are grateful for valuable and constructive comments by an anonymous referee. ¶ The paper
therefore builds on the theoretical literature on the political ¶ economy of aid. While this literature is relatively rich as far as the effects of ¶ aid in the recipient
country and the explanation of the geographic distribution ¶ of aid are concerned, it is rather limited with respect to the analysis of donor ¶ behavior (see Drazen,
2000).2 Martens et al. (2002) and Azam and Laffont ¶ (2003) are attempts to simultaneously consider incentive problems in both ¶ recipient countries and donor
agencies within a single theoretical model. ¶ In our paper, we explicitly focus on the interactions between the political- ¶ economic aspects of recipient and donor
policies. We show that taking into ¶ account only the political economy of the recipient country may considerably ¶ bias the expected results of aid policy. While
conditionality can improve the ¶ situation of the poor in developing countries if IFIs and donor governments ¶ are benevolent, this is no longer ensured if either or
both pursue self- ¶ interested policies. In particular, if they are pressured by business interests ¶ or NGOs, it can also follow that the poor will actually lose.
More evidence the counterplan sends a key SIGNAL that solves rights
Warwick 13 (Bruce, april 1 Aid Conditionality and Sexual Rights in the Third Worldhttp://www.e-ir.info/2013/04/01/aid-conditionalityand-sexual-rights-in-the-third-world/ // OP )
In the setting of the increasingly prominent position of sexual rights within the international human rights framework, the problems encountered within this
framework, as well as the ongoing discriminatory practices worldwide, David Cameron first raised the prospect of linking aid conditions to a country’s record on
sexual rights. This idea of making aid conditional on certain issues is not new. The contemporary roots of aid conditionality
can be traced back to the second half of the 20th century, with policies such as the Marshall Plan illustrating cases whereby finance has clearly been linked to
certain objectives or outcomes (Stokke, 1995: 4). The specific focus on human rights as a condition of aid emerged throughout the same period, but it was not until
the 1990s, with the culmination of the Cold War, that human rights were granted greater emphasis and scale with regards to foreign aid (Stokke, 1995). Last year,
during a 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia, Cameron suggested that Britain would put pressure on certain countries,
stating in an interview that there should be more strings attached to UK aid, with those receiving it adhering to proper human rights, and discriminatory policies
related to sexuality and gender were specifically highlighted (The Andrew Marr Show, 2011). Such
attempts to link aid to sexual rights are
not exclusive to Britain. Concerned by ongoing violence and discrimination, which were exacerbated by proposals in
Uganda to make homosexual acts subject to the death penalty,
the Obama administration took a similar approach when
advising US officials to consider how countries treat their gay and lesbian populations when making
decisions about the allocation of foreign aid (McVeigh, 2011). Essentially, these announcements further highlight and support arguments
addressed in the previous chapter emphasising the ‘global propagation of ‘LGBTI’ rights as human rights’ (Dutta, 2012 ). Efforts , such as those outlined
above
, which seek to
challenge and, ultimately,
transform and reform an orthodoxy that fosters discriminatory
and violent practices in a more direct manner
than that taken within institutions such as the UN,
significant for the improvement of equality with regards to sexual rights.
can be deemed highly
Initially, it would seem like a logical step to
support any attempt by those in positions of power, such as Cameron or Obama, to further ‘LGBTI’ equality and work towards an understanding that reduces
discrimination on a global level. As Akshay Khanna suggests, the very recognition of sexuality as a valid aspect of ‘development’ or of rights themselves has been a
Cameron’s suggestion of aid conditionality on the basis of
homophobic policies might ostensibly be seen as a victory of sorts (2011).
slow and thankless battle for activists of sexual rights. David
Turns Case: Human Rights
Aid conditionality enables us to change our framework to give aid based on adhering
to human rights
Dunne 12 (Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012
¶
recipient of the Harvard Law School ¶ Irving R. Kaufman Public Service ¶ Fellowship. He currently works at ¶ the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York City. Dunne received his ¶ LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the ¶ Wrong
¶
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
UK’S CAMERON: “WE
WANT TO ¶ SEE COUNTRIES THAT RECEIVE ¶ OUR AID ADHERING TO PROPER ¶
HUMAN RIGHTS” ¶ It was against this backdrop of a growing global crisis for LGBTI rights that the leaders of the Commonwealth nations met
¶
¶
in late
October 2011 for their biannual ¶ gathering: the Commonwealth Heads of ¶ Government Meeting (CHOGM). At the ¶ meeting, which was held in Perth, Australia, UK
use LGBTI rights as one ¶ of the conditions for
granting aid to other members of the Commonwealth. Under the proposal, countries that maintain or ¶ introduce antigay
laws and practices would ¶ risk seeing a direct reduction in their budgetary aid from Britain. In a subsequent
interview with the BBC, Cameron stated: “Britain is now one of the premier aid givers in the world. We want to see countries ¶ that
receive our aid adhering to proper human rights, and that includes how people treat gay and lesbian
people” (BBC 2011).¶
Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the UK government ¶ would begin to
¶
¶
¶
¶
Turns Case: Structural Violence
Empirics- LGBTQ face structural violence around the world
Dunne 12 (Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012
¶
recipient of the Harvard Law School ¶ Irving R. Kaufman Public Service ¶ Fellowship. He currently works at ¶ the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York City. Dunne received his ¶ LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the ¶ Wrong
¶
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
In December 2010, the Malawian
Parliament introduced an amendment to the ¶ Penal Code that, for the first time,
criminalizes consensual sexual activity between ¶ two women and allows for individuals to be ¶
imprisoned for up to five years. In Nigeria, the country’s Senate approved legislation ¶ that would not only ban all
official and unofficial same-sex marriage ceremonies but ¶ also prohibit the formation of LGBTI
advocacy groups and the expression of samesex affection in public. And in Uganda, the LGBTI community continues
to live under the specter of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill ¶ that, if enacted, would introduce the crime of “aggravated
homosexuality” and expose persons convicted of engaging in same-sex intercourse to a possible penalty of death.¶
¶
¶
¶
¶
¶
¶
A2 Hypocrisy DA/No S Cred
US recognizes its offensive past, key starting point to promote plan, other countries don’t solve
Dunne 12 (Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012 recipient of the Harvard Law School Irving R. Kaufman Public Service Fellowship. He currently works at the
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International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights ¶ Commission in New York City. Dunne received his ¶ LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the ¶ Wrong
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
The notion of aid conditionality recalls ¶ the troubling history of colonization and ¶
exploitation that exists between Britain and the Commonwealth. The fact that Cameron chose CHOGM as the setting for his announcement
only reinforces that ¶ history, conjuring up the image of an old ¶ colonial master still seeking to place
himself above his former subjects. By so openly holding the purse strings over the heads of its former colonies, the UK government ¶ has
laid bare the power imbalance that ¶ persists between it and other Commonwealth nations (African Social Justice Activists 2011). It gives
credence to the idea that Britain exploits that imbalance to fur¶ conscious of the difficulties that governments
face while squaring current political commitments with past actions when she addressed the UN in Geneva on 6
December 2011. Speaking about the Obama ¶ administration’s commitment to global LGBTI rights, Clinton began her speech by acknowledging that her
“own country’s ¶ record on human rights for gay people is ¶ far from perfect” (U.S. State Department 2011). The
problem that Cameron faces is ¶ even more complex. Colonial Britain imposed its laws upon the countries of the Empire without
regard, and often in direct opposition, to the will of the local people. Now, in 2012, Cameron is once again seen ¶ as attempting to
enforce foreign legal standards while refusing to consider national ¶ will or culture.
CAMERON’S “BURDEN”
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A2 S Deficits – General*
Aid conditionality doesn’t have to be negative, the US has a model that will work
Dunne 12 (Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012 recipient of the Harvard Law School Irving R. Kaufman Public Service Fellowship. He currently works at
¶
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the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights ¶ Commission in New York City. Dunne received his ¶ LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the ¶ Wrong
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
At an LGBT event held on 8 December ¶ 2011 at the UN headquarters in New York ¶ City, Executive Director of Human Rights ¶ Watch Kenneth Roth suggested that
while ¶ states should not necessarily withdraw aid ¶ where antigay laws exist, the
protection of ¶ LGBTI people might legitimately be
raised ¶ when negotiations are first taking place, as ¶ a type of positive aid conditionality. Such a plan is
obviously not substantively dissimilar from Cameron’s Perth announcement. Indeed, in an article that so heavily criticizes the practice of aid conditionality, ¶ it
would be more than a little disingenuous to now suggest that all the problems of ¶ neocolonialism
and cultural exploitation ¶ can be resolved by simply changing the ¶ point at which the conditions are
imposed. ¶ However, if Cameron is resolute in his decision to condition foreign assistance on LGBTI rights, there may be some small—if only narrative¶
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related—advantage to imposing obligations that act as positive incentives rather than being wholly coercive ¶ in nature. ¶ Under a policy of aid conditionality, ¶
leaders such as Mugabe and Mutharika ¶ can legitimately point to LGBTI rights as ¶ a reason that the United Kingdom is withdrawing aid.
This gives them
the opportunity to scapegoat LGBTI persons as the ¶ cause of the nation’s failing infrastructure. ¶ Though
the difference is clearly subtle, positive aid conditionality may be seen as ¶ distinct from Cameron’s policy and more ¶
akin to that of the United States’ Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) (Council for Global Equality 2012). Under
the ¶ MCC model, prospective aid recipients are ¶ asked to meet a series of “indicators,” such as minimum
human rights standards, before they are eligible for U.S. foreign assistance (Council for Global Equality 2012). ¶ Where a
country fails to reach its agreed ¶ goals, there is no actual monetary loss because funding has not yet
begun. But if the indicators are satisfied, the country stands to gain a significant benefit. In this way, ¶ the MCC indicators are, in
theory at least, ¶ a vehicle for strengthening the national ¶ economy rather than mere U.S.-imposed ¶
values that if not embraced will lead to a reduction in foreign support. Of course, in reality, there may actually be very little difference in the way the public
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reacts to ¶ the loss of a possible future grant and the ¶ loss of a current grant because of LGBTI ¶ rights. But that is simply the nature of ¶ sexual rights advocacy, where
onesize-fits-all solutions frequently do not ¶ exist and where policy makers must therefore seek
to reach the best possible solution ¶ while also accepting that the final outcome ¶ actually achieved will often not
clear,
be perfect. ¶ The hope is that by applying the MCC ¶ model to LGBTI rights and incentivizing ¶ protections for sexual minorities, Cameron can play some small part in
changing ¶ the narrative of LGBTI rights throughout ¶ the Commonwealth. LGBTI individuals ¶ may come to be seen, at least by some, as ¶ partners rather than as
obstacles in building national sovereignty.
A2 SQ Solves the Aff
Changes already being made in skwo but, more needs to be done
Dunne 12 (Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012
¶
recipient of the Harvard Law School ¶ Irving R. Kaufman Public Service ¶ Fellowship. He currently works at ¶ the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York City. Dunne received his ¶ LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the ¶ Wrong
¶
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
The year 2011 was a year of significant advances for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex ¶ (LGBTI) rights worldwide. In
the United ¶ States,
Congress finally repealed the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, allowing gay and lesbian individuals to serve openly in the
military. In Australia, ¶ the government announced two important changes for the issuing of passports: ¶ transgender
persons in Australia are no ¶ longer required to undergo sex reassignment surgery before having their
preferred ¶ gender reflected on their passport, and ¶ intersex people may now choose an “X” ¶ marker
if they so wish. Finally, the governments of the United Kingdom, Nepal, ¶ Denmark, and Finland all indicated their intention to
introduce full marriage equality, while in Colombia, the Constitutional Court gave Parliament until June 2013 to legislate for the status of
same-sex unions in that country. The advancement of LGBTI equality has not been universal, however, and many grave human rights
violations continue to take place around the world. Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human
Rights, observes in her recent report to the nineteenth session of the Human Rights Council that “in all regions, people experience ¶
violence and discrimination because of ¶ their sexual orientation or gender identity” (2011, 3). LGBTI persons
around the globe, particularly in the countries of the ¶ Global South, are subject to legal sanction, ¶ physical
abuse, and in extreme cases, killing. While in some countries existing discriminatory laws and
practices are the relics of a more homophobic past, 2010 and 2011 were marked by a worrying increase in the criminalization of
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activities once considered outside the ambit of the law.
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Aff Answers – LGBTQ CP
No S – 2ac**
Conditioning aid doesn’t work – it can’t solve the complexity of the problem
Warwick 13 (Bruce, april 1 Aid Conditionality and Sexual Rights in the Third Worldhttp://www.e-ir.info/2013/04/01/aid-conditionalityand-sexual-rights-in-the-third-world/ // OP )
Moreover, it is noted that prior to Cameron’s announcement, ‘LGBTI’ activists had been lobbying the Commonwealth Secretariat for a formal statement on the
incompatibility of the criminalization of same-sex sexual conduct with ‘Commonwealth values’. For instance, the notable gay rights activist, Peter Tatchell, had also
encouraged grounding conditions of aid on laws regarding sexual orientation or gender identity (Rao, 2012), suggesting that these official proclamations were
indeed a victory of sorts.
Taking the above factors into account serves to reinforce a perception that the
positions advocated by Cameron and Obama were a success for the further advancement of sexual
rights. However, these initial perceptions are not necessarily the case. Rather, the statements made have revived ‘the
debate on the appropriateness of aid conditionality as a tool to promote human rights, provoking different responses on the part of the affected and their societies,
as well as of human rights activists’ (Anguita, 2012: 9).
These are more often than not highly discouraging of linking aid
conditions to such a divisive and complex issue, a fact that is further highlighted when one takes into account that Cameron’s
statement resulted in an opposing statement signed by over 100 African social justice activists from a considerable number of countries (AMSHeR, 2011) After their
emergence post-World War II,
the appropriateness of using aid conditionality as a tool to promote human rights
has often come under fire. Donor governments have been charged with a lack of legitimacy and
accused of a form of colonialism, to name but a few rebuttals, and so it is little surprise that these
statements, and in particular Cameron’s, have provoked considerable debate and aroused substantial
concern for their effect on sexual rights.
-- XT No S – Resentment
Conditioning aid creates resentment towards local groups – only they can solve
Warwick 13 (Bruce, april 1 Aid Conditionality and Sexual Rights in the Third Worldhttp://www.e-ir.info/2013/04/01/aid-conditionalityand-sexual-rights-in-the-third-world/ // OP )
aid conditionality, as addressed in this paper, has come under fire
for undermining and harming local movements that are working hard to improve understandings of
sexual orientation and gender identity in specific local contexts. It was acknowledged in the previous chapter that
In addition to arguments of colonialism and neocolonialism,
Cameron’s statement at the CHOGM resulted in a responding statement from African social justice activists. This statement highlights, perhaps
there does exist a ‘vibrant social justice movement made up of people from all
walks of life, working to ensure visibility and enjoyment of rights by ‘LGBTI’ people’ (AMSHeR, 2011)
to the surprise of Cameron, that
Recognising the existence of such movements is significant as it fosters the opportunity to consider one of the most straightforward yet
strongest critiques of tying aid to issues of sexual orientation or gender identity: linking
conditions of aid to sexual rights
serves to undermine the local movements that are seeking to acknowledge and improve such rights.
In undermining these movements, said approaches to sexual rights are not only going to further
entrench discrimination but also increase persecution in a number of ways. Local tensions and intolerance
toward perceived or actual sexual minorities is exacerbated when it is thought that aid is being withheld or redirected in order to ensure
‘by holding out
‘LGBTI’ rights as worthy of special protection, governments create resentment among other advocacy
groups, particularly those who have been struggling for years to promote their cause and who have
never been afforded the same level of international support’ (Dunne, 2012: 69). Moreover, a recent blog post by
Keguro Macharia specifically writing on the experiences of African ‘queers’ has similarly stressed that
‘telling government agencies that money will not show up for a certain project because ‘queers’ are
not treated well will most probably not result in better legislation, or, more practically, better living
conditions for queers’ (Macharia, 2011). Essentially, aid conditionality can be acknowledged as sustaining a distinction between
greater equality and protection for these groups. Peter Dunne acknowledges such a consideration when he asserts,
‘LGBTI’ people, and sexual rights as a whole, and the myriad of other human rights violations that continue to exist worldwide, a distinction that
is recognised to worsen prejudice and proliferate discrimination. Even suggestions of redirecting aid to civil society movements that are
working on ‘LGBTI’ rights and equality, rather than complete withdrawal (Abbas, 2012: 18), have been subject to the same critique. Having
acknowledged the vibrant social justice movements, the statement responding to Cameron goes on to say that simply singling out ‘LGBTI’ issues
emphasises an idea that these rights are special rights and are therefore hierarchically more important (AMSHeR, 2011). The issue with this is
further compounded when considering that ‘because ‘LGBTI’
issues intersect with so many forms of abuse they must
seek to create wider social justice coalitions with other human rights defenders, such as those
promoting sexual health and women’s rights’ (Dunne, 2012: 69), something that will be made
particularly difficult if these groups feel that the ‘LGBTI’ movement is being afforded special
treatment. What is clear is that not only does aid conditionality on this basis undermine effective local movements working on issues of
sexuality, but it also creates divisions among a broader human rights movement that will undoubtedly be
damaging for long term prospects of ensuring reduced discrimination.
Alt Causes 2ac**
Anti-gay oppression is awful but the idea that conditioning it to one country can solve
is a joke – zero chance they solve any of the following:
A. Dubai
Kenner 11 (David Kenner is an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Underground and in the Closet,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/15/underground_and_in_the_closet?page=0,4// SC)
Enough with Amina, already. The sock-puppet blogger "Gay Girl in Damascus," who turned out to be a straight guy in Scotland has captured the
world's attention -- but the real gay communities in the Middle East face legal and societal discrimination every day. In most Middle Eastern
countries, homosexuality is a criminal offense, though laws are enforced to varying degrees. And the Arab Spring, which many gay-rights
organizations hoped would bring greater acceptance, has proved to be an ambivalent blessing. The real gay men and women in Damascus -and Dubai, Cairo, and Amman -- are facing more serious problems than confused Internet identities.¶ DUBAI¶ The law: The Constitution of the
United Arab Emirates, which Dubai is a part of,
criminalizes homosexuality, in part because it's a violation of
sharia law.¶ The reality: Dubai, which enjoys a reputation as the most liberal emirate in the UAE, has long sustained an
underground gay community. "Dubai is the best place in the Muslim world for gays!" said one young Emirati at a gay club in the
city. The authorities' tolerance for its gay community, however, has always been fragile . A club was shuttered
in 2001 for hosting a gay night that featured a transvestite DJ, while in 2008 police arrested 17 foreign men for allegedly being homosexual and
cross-dressing.¶ A
new police crackdown has raised gay activists' fears that the situation will get worse
before it gets better. On May 31, Dubai's police launched a campaign against boyat, the rough equivalent of tomboys. In this Gulf
subculture, rebellious girls sport "short pixie-style hair, wear more masculine clothing, sunglasses and watches."¶ Dan Littauer, the executive director of
GayMiddleEast.com, a website that publishes news on LGBT issues across the region, saw the campaign as implicitly targeting Dubai's lesbians -- and as a reaction to the Arab Spring. "The Gulf is also reacting to the Arab Spring, and
not only politically," he said. Gulf states "want to have a moral attempt to define Arabness and democracy."
b. Lebanon
Kenner 11 (David Kenner is an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Underground and in the Closet,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/15/underground_and_in_the_closet?page=0,4// SC)
LEBANON The law: Article 534 of the Lebanese penal code criminalizes "unnatural sexual intercourse," and it has
been used to target gay people. Lebanese gay-rights organizations have frequently expressed their desire to see the law annulled. The reality:
But Article 534 (like many laws in Lebanon) is only sporadically enforced. As the government looks the other way, gay culture has
flourished in Lebanon -- so much so that the New York Times travel section recently dubbed Beirut the "Provincetown of the Middle East."¶ A
flourishing online gay community also exists in Lebanon. Bekhsoos, the self-described "queer Arab magazine," has published
¶
weekly since September 2009. Two of its most popular articles have been an evisceration of Lebanese author Joumana Haddad for distancing herself from political
feminism and the story of a man who resolves to get tested for HIV.
c. Egypt
Kenner 11 (David Kenner is an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Underground and in the Closet,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/15/underground_and_in_the_closet?page=0,4// SC)
EGYPT¶ The law: There are no laws that explicitly criminalize homosexual activities in Egypt. However, a 1961 law prohibiting
prostitution was reinterpreted as a prohibition on sexual "immorality" and subsequently used to
prosecute gay people. "The law requires that the [homosexual conduct] be 'habitual' -- legally taken to mean
that it must have been committed more than once in three years, with more than one person" to constitute a crime, according to a Human
Rights Watch report on the subject.¶ The reality: Egypt's
gay community has been forced to contend with sporadic
prosecutions, including a notorious case brought against 52 gay men following a police raid on a Nile boat cruise. Egypt's revolution,
however, spurred some hopes that better days were coming. Gay activists reportedly joined the anti-government protests that toppled former
President Hosni Mubarak. However, the increasingly frosty relationship between the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the youth
activists, the most pro-gay element of the revolution, has placed a chill on these prospects.¶ Gay
activists in Egypt are also wary
of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's most powerful Islamist group. Essam el-Erian, a senior Brotherhood leader, specifically
excluded gay rights when talking about the post-revolution freedoms Egyptians would enjoy. Mohammed Badie, the top official in the
Brotherhood, also reportedly attacked Western countries for "allow[ing] gay marriage under the
pretext of democracy" during a political rally in May -- a mistake, he vowed, that Egypt would never make.¶ The Muslim Brotherhood
is saying "that anyone who is talking about gay rights … is extreme and ridiculous," said Littauer. "Some activists are very concerned."
d. Jordan
Kenner 11 (David Kenner is an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Underground and in the Closet,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/15/underground_and_in_the_closet?page=0,4// SC)
JORDAN¶ The law: There are no laws that criminalize homosexuality in Jordan.¶ The reality: The restrictions faced by gay people
in Jordan vary based on geography and wealth, said Sami al-Ali, a pseudonymous Jordan-based blogger for Gay Middle East.
In the tonier parts of west Amman, the gay community is tolerated. While there are few official social networks for LGBT
people there, a number of gay-friendly cafes have cropped up. However, social stigmatization has
driven the gay movement underground in the rest of the country.¶ The Jordanian gay community has
received support from Jordan's leftists, but it still faces hostility from the country's Islamist movements and from the
government. "A number of citizens reported sporadic police mistreatment of suspected LGBT persons," read the State Department's 2010
human rights report on the country. "There were reports of individuals who left the country due to fear their
families would punish them for their sexual orientation."¶ The situation is worst for transgender people. Jordan's
bureaucracy does not possess a mechanism for changing one's gender on official documents. As a result, transgender Jordanians are
often left with the wrong gender on their official documents -- leading to much confusion, such as in this
incident, when two transgender Arabs were denied access to Egypt due to having the incorrect gender marked on their passports.
e. Syria
Kenner 11 (David Kenner is an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Underground and in the Closet,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/15/underground_and_in_the_closet?page=0,4// SC)
SYRIA¶ The law: Article 520 of the Syrian Penal Code of 1949 criminalized homosexuality as "unnatural sexual
intercourse," punishable by up to three years in prison.¶ The reality: The situation on the ground in Syria, as described by
one Syrian author's account in FP, is if anything, grimmer than the law suggests. In March and April 2010, Syrian police raided four
separate gay parties held in private homes. "[R]eports indicated that dozens of gays and lesbians have
been imprisoned over the past several years after being arrested on vague charges such as abusing social
values, selling, buying or consuming illegal drugs, and organizing and promoting 'obscene' parties," stated the State Department's 2010 human
rights report on Syria.¶ Unlike in Lebanon, Egypt, or even Dubai,
there are few informal support networks for gay people
in Syria. Sami Hamwi, a Syria-based pseudonymous blogger for Gay Middle East, said a few activists are trying to change that, but they
face both societal and political obstacles. "There is no way for me to survive in my line of work if I come out," said Hamwi,
adding that he had lost two jobs already because of his sexuality.¶ Hamwi feared that the "Gay Girl in Damascus" hoax would cause the
Syrian security forces to escalate their crackdown against gay activists. "I think they will not wait until the blogger is famous
or well-read to seek them out," he said. "[And] arrests in Syria means actual disappearing.… No one can
hear or know about the arrested people, sometimes for decades."
Backlash DA – 2ac
Aid withdrawal causes massive backlash against LGBTQ individuals – Malawi proves
Anguita 7-9 (Luis Abolafia Anguita is member of Fundación Triángulo, a Spanish LGBT organization wich works with development cooperation. Nowadays, he
is in charge of advocacy issues at the organisation. Luis represents Fundación Triángulo in a network of Northern LGBT organizations advocating on their own
countries for a more inclusive and tolerant development cooperation and foreign policies for LGBT people. This network has been tackling the issue of aid
conditionality and better ways to engage with organizations from the South for more than 2 years now. Last working meeting was held last September in Madrid,
co-organised by Luis. Aid conditionality and respect for LGBT people rights, http://www.sxpolitics.org/?p=7369// SC)
In late October 2011, during the Commonwealth Meeting of Heads of State, David Cameron, the UK Prime Minister, threatened to reduce development aid to
countries that criminalize homosexuality. A few weeks later ,
the Obama administration also announced that they would use
all available mechanisms, including measures related to development cooperation, to promote the
rights of LGBT persons (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans). These announcements revived the debate on the appropriateness of the aid conditionality as
a tool to promote human rights, and have provoked different responses on the part of affected governments and their societies, as well as of human rights
activists.¶ In countries like Ghana and Nigeria, indirectly fingered by Cameron, the reaction was immediate. In Ghana, the democratically elected president declared
that he would never legalize homosexuality and religious groups took the opportunity of the British Prime Minister’s speech to trigger homophobic sentiments in
the society. In Nigeria, the Senate passed a bill criminalizing same sex marriage, any public expression of affection between two persons of the same sex, as well as
the public defense of the rights of LGBT people. ¶ The response of African organizations working with LGBT people also came quickly in the form of a statement
signed by more than 50 organizations and many individual activists have also publicly rebuffed the British threat. The main argument raised by these voices was that
the withdrawal of aid would cause a violent reaction against LGBT people, producing a rift between
LGBT organizations and other social movements. The African statement also affirmed that the reduction of aid would negatively affect
LGBT people, a social group that already experiences high levels of vulnerability. The statement also emphasizes that the affected population should have been
previously consulted and that Western governments should seek more respectful ways of working with the African continent. ¶ The reaction of Northern
organizations working in the area of LGBT rights was more slow and confused, because they were trapped between the satisfaction of seeing top leaders of some
powerful countries making explicit statements about their support of equality at the international level and the necessary caution regarding the impact of
conditionalities in recipient countries. Internal discussions amongst organizations of different countries kept evolving during many weeks and no consensus was
reached in relation to the appropriateness of conditioning development cooperation to the domestic respect for the rights of LGBT persons. It should be noted,
however, that discussions about this matter is not new among Northern organizations. Since 2008, a specific group has been working on the issue and meetings
have been organized that included the participation of African activists who shared their point of view on conditionalities. ¶ The African organizations that signed the
public statement highlighted the case of Malawi as an example of how international
pressure and threats of aid reduction may
cause a witch-hunt against the LGBT people in the country. In late 2009, a couple of men were arrested and sentenced to 14
years in prison because they celebrated their wedding. After an international campaign and various threats from countries like Germany, UK, Norway and Sweden
the UK and Germany
withdrew their aid, claiming that the reason was growing authoritarianism and misuse of funds. The Malawi government blamed
the LGBT people for aid reduction, thereby increasing the levels of homophobia and as a result, the
leading LGBT activists were threatened and had to hide or leave their homes.
indicating that they may cut development support to Malawi, President Mutharika granted a pardon to the couple. Even so,
The backlash DA blocks and comes before the net benefit
Anguita 7-9 (Luis Abolafia Anguita is member of Fundación Triángulo, a Spanish LGBT organization wich works with development cooperation. Nowadays, he
is in charge of advocacy issues at the organisation. Luis represents Fundación Triángulo in a network of Northern LGBT organizations advocating on their own
countries for a more inclusive and tolerant development cooperation and foreign policies for LGBT people. This network has been tackling the issue of aid
conditionality and better ways to engage with organizations from the South for more than 2 years now. Last working meeting was held last September in Madrid,
co-organised by Luis. Aid conditionality and respect for LGBT people rights, http://www.sxpolitics.org/?p=7369// SC)
It is also necessary to more closely analyze the power dynamics behind development cooperation and impregnating the present relations between former colonies
and former colonial powers. David Cameron launched his threats to cut development cooperation to countries that do not respect the rights of LGBT people at the
Commonwealth Meeting of Heads of State. Perhaps, someone should have reminded him that the Commonwealth is a legacy of the former British empire and that
it is, at least, quite embarrassing to see a British authority publicly instruct the heads of states of former British colonies on what is or not acceptable in terms of
human rights.
Many of the problems currently experienced by a number of African countries have originated in the
policies adopted by former colonial powers, including the support given over many years to
dictatorial, violent and corrupt regimes.¶ It is important to reflect on the marginalization of sexual and reproductive rights in those
countries where homosexuality remains criminalized. It is necessary to place the violation of LGBT rights in the broader
context of denial of sexual and reproductive rights. It is not exactly a coincidence that in those countries where
these rights are curtailed, women, children and LGBT people endure greater poverty, exclusion and
have less access to fundamental economic and social rights, such as health and education. Therefore, in certain contexts, the
main challenge is to work towards preventing the dominant sexual morality of prevailing, as a broader
strategy to defend LGBT rights.¶ When we locate LGBT rights in the broader framework of sexual and
reproductive rights we can also identify how current debates around aid conditionality and the lives
of LGBT persons has been restricted to civil and political rights, ignoring the relevance of economic
and social rights. As spelled out in the statement issued by the African organizations, which was mentioned above, when aid is suspended
in the case of countries that do not respect LGBT people, the economic and social rights of the
population as a whole will deteriorate, particularly in the case of the most vulnerable groups,
including LGBT persons, who are not sheltered by the neo-patrimonial social protection networks of many states. Thus, those who are
supposed to be protected will be the very first affected by its detrimental policy effects .¶
-- XT Backlash turns the NB
Perceptions of aid conditionality are altered to empower authoritarian leaders, aid
conditionality seeks to break this down
Dunne 12 (Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012
¶
recipient of the Harvard Law School ¶ Irving R. Kaufman Public Service ¶ Fellowship. He currently works at ¶ the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York City. Dunne received his ¶ LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the ¶ Wrong
¶
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
they are used by ¶ authoritarian leaders to
justify their own ¶ oppressive governments. They also overlook the fact that Cameron’s policy is not specifically addressed to the
weakness, or otherwise, of Commonwealth states but rather seeks to help oppressed minorities ¶ within those states who
frequently experience grave psychological and physical ¶ violence. Nevertheless, the conclusions do undeniably reflect
widely held perceptions throughout the Commonwealth, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, and are ¶ important factors in shaping
how ordinary ¶ citizens view Western power. ¶ Ironically, a great many of the world’s ¶ current sodomy
laws directly stem from ¶ British colonization (Sanders 2011). Of the seventy-six countries worldwide that currently prohibit same-sex
sexual intercourse, forty-one are members of the Commonwealth. This legacy creates a particular challenge for the British government:
How can it claim the moral authority to enforce LGBTI rights when many ¶ of the laws it is opposing
were established ¶ during the colonial period? U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared to be sexuality and homophobia”
Such conclusions may ¶ seem overly reductive and lurid to Western ears, especially when
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(Khanna ¶ 2011). Throughout the Commonwealth, ¶ even in the most antigay regions, there ¶ exist sophisticated networks of LGBTI ¶ advocates. These individuals
understand ¶ the traditions and cultural sensitivities of ¶ their environment and are best placed to ¶ affect real change at the local level (Orazulike 2011). While
aid
conditionality is ¶ undoubtedly intended to facilitate and enhance the work of these groups, it actually
¶
has
the opposite effect. Aid conditionality ¶ ignores the importance of local advocates, ¶ suggesting instead that only the former ¶ “master” can bring the Commonwealth
¶
nations into line.
Political figures use LGBT aid conditionality to distract the public from corruption and failing
infrastructure
Dunne 12 (Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012 recipient of the Harvard Law School Irving R. Kaufman Public Service Fellowship. He currently works at
¶
¶
¶
¶
the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights ¶ Commission in New York City. Dunne received his ¶ LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the ¶ Wrong
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
Sexual orientation and gender identity ¶ are issues of immense controversy in much of the Commonwealth,
particularly in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Many ¶ people believe that being gay is a “Western” concept, which has been
imported by the United Kingdom and the United States in order to undermine local values (CSCHRCL 2011). These
sentiments ¶ are often encouraged and manipulated by ¶ political figures as a means of distracting ¶
public attention from corrupt practices ¶ and failing infrastructure. In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe has
described ¶ homosexuals as “worse than pigs and dogs” (Human Rights Watch 2009, 10). The president of Malawi, Bingu
wa Mutharika, ¶ has linked economic sanctions against his ¶ country to the question of same-sex marriage
and in this way has portrayed LGBTI advocacy as a question of national sovereignty (Centre for the Development of People et al. 2011, 8).
While he presents himself as a champion of African values, President Mutharika has labeled gay Malawians as agents of the
West, responsible ¶ for losing the country vital foreign aid. In order to stem the tide of state-sponsored homophobia, LGBTI
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communities throughout the Commonwealth have consistently demanded that they be allowed to ¶ exert their own agency, to implement their ¶ own plans, and to
¶
use their own voices to ¶ say: “We are from the Global South, we ¶ have not been influenced by the ‘West,’ ¶ and yet we are LGBTI.” That is what can ¶ and does
happen at the local level, and the ¶ result is many small, yet important, conversations that help to increase knowledge ¶ and to reduce fear. ¶ The UK government’s
new policy of ¶ aid conditionality is the diametric opposite. While some may praise Cameron ¶ for at least attempting to vindicate the ¶ personhood of LGBTI
individuals, most ¶ advocates see aid conditionality as merely ¶ confirming the rhetoric of leaders, such as ¶ Mutharika, that the UK wants to impose ¶ an LGBTI
agenda. It serves to make “explicit” the threat of gay rights to national ¶ sovereignty (Long 2011).
Aid conditionality also directly increases
the threat to ¶ individuals living on the ground. As a coalition of Ghanaian activists noted in the aftermath of Cameron’s
announcement, “Cutting aid . . . due to homophobic ¶ laws . . . will not help the LGBT people . ¶ . . but will
rather stigmatize these groups ¶ and individuals. LGBT people will be used ¶ as scapegoats for
government inability to ¶ support its citizens” (Coalition against Homophobia in Ghana et al. 2011).
¶
¶
¶
-- A2 Modeling Solves Backlash
Even if countries adopt this model, the backlash DA is still true
Anguita 7-9 (Luis Abolafia Anguita is member of Fundación Triángulo, a Spanish LGBT organization wich works with development cooperation. Nowadays, he
is in charge of advocacy issues at the organisation. Luis represents Fundación Triángulo in a network of Northern LGBT organizations advocating on their own
countries for a more inclusive and tolerant development cooperation and foreign policies for LGBT people. This network has been tackling the issue of aid
conditionality and better ways to engage with organizations from the South for more than 2 years now. Last working meeting was held last September in Madrid,
co-organised by Luis. Aid conditionality and respect for LGBT people rights, http://www.sxpolitics.org/?p=7369// SC)
In retrospect, the experience in Malawi, as the prime example of international pressure and aid conditionality to ensure the respect for the rights of LGBT persons,
is, at best, a bittersweet episode. From a short-term perspective, the action was successful: the Malawian president granted a pardon for the couple. However, the
increased persecution of LGBT people; reduction of government funding, which probably will
increase poverty levels; the weakening of local LGBT organizations; executive power overriding the
judiciary system to grant a pardon, a procedure that sets a bad precedent.¶ Whom may we ask for explanations on what happened? Northern
medium-term effects have been negative:
based LGBT organizations? Organizations from the South? The governments that cut off aid? I have written myself a press release, on behalf of my organization,
criticizing the couple’s arrest, and many other Northern based organizations did the same. Some of these organizations asked their governments to condemn this
episode explicitly. I suppose that many of these organizations contacted the reference group in Malawi, CEDEP, to ask about the appropriateness for them to speak
the main problem is the misguided focus on trying to
determine whether it was suitable to condition development aid to the respect of the human rights of
LGBT people. I do think we should challenge ourselves to climb a step further and try to see the whole scene, to abandon for a moment the
detailed picture (LGBT) and look at the broader one (human rights). In doing so we notice problems such as: the
incoherencies between development policies and foreign and trade policies of donor countries; the power
or not publicly on the matter, as I did.¶ From my point of view,
dynamics between North and South and between former colony and colonizer; the systematic marginalization of sexual and reproductive rights; the division
between civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic and social rights, on the other; a sort of disconnection between North and South based
organizations, as well as in relation to local agendas; and, finally, great uncertainty
in respect to the role that BRICS countries
may
or
not
play
in
the
promotion
of the human rights of LGBT persons.¶ For
(Brazil, Russia India, China and South Africa)
many years, organizations that worked in development cooperation from Northern countries have done their best to ensure that cooperation policies were
disassociated from foreign policy rationales, to attempt to eradicate neo-colonial biases and avoid using aid merely to promote the economic interests of Northern
we have advanced in the direction of a rights based
development cooperation approach, designed as a tool to reduce poverty and promote citizen
awareness that everyone certain inherent rights. However, foreign policy has continued to serve national
interests, sometimes in frank opposition to guidelines adopted by the development cooperation
branch of the same government. Spain provides a sharp and clear example of these contradictions. Morocco is one of the main recipient
countries’ administrations. As a result, in many countries, including Spain,
countries of Spanish development cooperation, but it also receives specific earmarked funds to police the European Union border. These funds finance a repressive
apparatus that prevents people from black Africa from crossing to Europe. It is also important to call attention to the shameful agreement of re-admission, signed
by Spain with Morocco and Senegal, that allows for the expulsion of unaccompanied children from these countries. What is the rights based approach of this policy?
Neocolonialism DA – 2ac
Turn – the counterplan is perceived as neo-colonialism and creates a massive backlash
Warwick 13 (Bruce, april 1 Aid Conditionality and Sexual Rights in the Third Worldhttp://www.e-ir.info/2013/04/01/aid-conditionalityand-sexual-rights-in-the-third-world/ // OP )
Persecution, discrimination and stigma against actual, or perceived, ‘LGBTI’ persons are not simply heightened by the entrenching of distinct
the policies advocated by Obama and Cameron, and in particular Cameron’s
may reinforce and worsen persecution by encouraging accusations of
and identifiable categories. It is asserted that
statement at the CHOGM,
neocolonialism. Susie Jolly touches on such an argument when remarking that ‘third world commentators denounce such ideas as
Western impositions on traditional cultures’ (2000: 80). Similarly, others suggest that homophobic rhetoric is effectively
deployed within nationalist discourses, enabled by a forceful anti-Western sentiment (Hayes quoted in
Binnie, 2004: 77; Sanders, 1996: 69). One can turn to an assortment of individuals who have quite openly denounced
such policies as proof that homosexuality is a Western construct, and therefore something that should
be wholly opposed, as a means of illustrating such arguments. President Robert Mugabe and former Presidents Daniel arap Moi
and Julius Nyerere are acknowledged as leaders who have labelled homosexuality as un-African and
merely part of attempts to use human rights discourse to justify to the moralising mandate of the
West (Engelke, 1999: 294-295). For individuals such as these there seems to be a sense that the ‘colonial discourse of the
civilizing West comes to be replicated as the recognition of formal legal rights signifies progress,
modernity, and Western ‘civilization’’ (Stychin quoted in Binnie, 2004: 76).
Neocolonial dynamics mean the CP can’t solve any K-based net benefit
Anguita 7-9 (Luis Abolafia Anguita is member of Fundación Triángulo, a Spanish LGBT organization wich works with development cooperation. Nowadays, he
is in charge of advocacy issues at the organisation. Luis represents Fundación Triángulo in a network of Northern LGBT organizations advocating on their own
countries for a more inclusive and tolerant development cooperation and foreign policies for LGBT people. This network has been tackling the issue of aid
conditionality and better ways to engage with organizations from the South for more than 2 years now. Last working meeting was held last September in Madrid,
co-organised by Luis. Aid conditionality and respect for LGBT people rights, http://www.sxpolitics.org/?p=7369// SC)
Another more general problem is the insufficient communication between North and South based
organizations and the divergent agendas between them. Sometimes, because of our excessive zeal, organizations from the North
want to quickly respond to rights violations in other areas. Even when consulting Southern based organizations many times we do not allow
them enough time to reflect on what could be the best strategy to pursue. Furthermore, we must be aware that many
times these organizations do not have enough staff, or most of the work is done by volunteers, who find
themselves flooded with questions raised by hundreds of Northern organizations. There are also times when we prioritize making our own
governments and societies take action in response to the violation of LGBT rights in another country, in ways that give primacy to our own
political agenda in detriment of the needs of Southern organizations.¶ We must also recognize that we
have not reflected enough, across North and South, about the potential role to be played by the BRICS
as new actors in development cooperation. India and Brazil are already performing a very important role in Africa and their development
cooperation budgets today match the level of funds channeled by Canada and Sweden. A country like India, where local meanings of sexuality do not
coincide with Western concepts and categories can maybe provide support to LGBT rights in more flexible terms, which can
eventually be more easily understood by certain African governments. Regarding Brazil, despite recent and worrying setbacks, the existence of a vibrant civil
society is a potential platform to enable the state to start promoting i nternationally
sexual and reproductive rights that are formally
Organizations from both North and South working in the realm of human rights
of LGBT people should engage in collective efforts to push Brazil, as a leading Southern country, to contribute to the enhancement of
sexual and reproductive rights in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific. However, as far as I know, no consistent strategy has been yet
designed by any organization working for LGBT people.¶ To summarize: when we analyze more in depth the
problems and effects of aid conditionality as a means to protect human rights, we realize that more
effective alternatives exist, such as:¶ To promote greater coherence between foreign and cooperation
guaranteed at the domestic level.
policies in our own countries.
prevent the continuation of neocolonial dynamics.¶ To situate LGBT human rights in the
broader framework of sexual and reproductive rights as to circumvent the rejection on the part of homophobic
governments.¶ To avoid the fracturing of human rights through the prioritizing of civil and political
rights in detriment of social and economic rights.¶ To ensure a constant flow of communication between North and South based
¶
To
organizations engaged in LGBT rights work. ¶ To subordinate the interests of Northern organizations to definitions and strategies of South based organizations.¶ To
develop a common strategy aimed at persuading some BRICS countries to more fully engage in the global
promotion of the rights of LGBT people.
-- Framing Issue – Consultation
Even if aid conditionality is good, prior consultation and coordination with the
effected nation is vital
Anguita 7-9 (Luis Abolafia Anguita is member of Fundación Triángulo, a Spanish LGBT organization wich works with development cooperation. Nowadays, he
is in charge of advocacy issues at the organisation. Luis represents Fundación Triángulo in a network of Northern LGBT organizations advocating on their own
countries for a more inclusive and tolerant development cooperation and foreign policies for LGBT people. This network has been tackling the issue of aid
conditionality and better ways to engage with organizations from the South for more than 2 years now. Last working meeting was held last September in Madrid,
co-organised by Luis. Aid conditionality and respect for LGBT people rights, http://www.sxpolitics.org/?p=7369// SC)
And other ideas may be also added such as:¶ The freezing of assets, bank accounts and adoption of
travel bans in the case of leaders proved responsible for the systematic violations of the rights of LGBT
people. To ensure the control of North based organizations that are providing funds to fuel intolerance against LGBT people in the
South, there including criminal and economic sanctions when necessary. More funds to support the work LGBT organizations in Southern
countries.¶ To promote and increase networking among organizations that provide support to South based
LGBT rights initiatives.¶ To promote accountability and juridical safety in regard to the relationship
between donor and recipient countries. This would imply negotiating new agreements including specific provisions concerning the respect
for the rights of LGBT persons, not imposing then overnight. ¶ To require donour countries to include LGBT organizations on
every consultation forum with civil society regarding development cooperation agreements. ¶ To invest
more funds in the implementation of accountability mechanisms in recipient countries as to ensure that local civil society
organizations, including those working with LGBT people, are able to hold their government accountable.¶ It is quite evident
that many positions exist among Northern LGBT organizations – as well as among organizations based in the South, I would say –
in regard to the appropriateness of aid conditionality as a tool to promote the rights of LGBT people.
¶
¶
However, a significant number of Northern LGBT organizations share common ideas in relation to this matter, which resulted from our joint work and reflection
aid conditionality. These conditions include: the rule of always consulting with
organizations working with LGBT rights in the country where violations have occurred before
requesting our governments to take any measure; to always make sure that if aid conditionality is eventually
adopted that it is linked to a broader human rights frame; to recall that LGBT people may be the
victims of backlashes and warn donor governments of these risks; always consider the redeployment
of funds as an alternative to the suspension of aid (although this is not feasible when aid comes in the form of state budget
support).¶ I left to the very end the thorny problem that arises whenever we talk about LGBT people’s rights, which is: the clash between cultural relativism,
about what conditions must be advocated before resorting to
affirming that not all rights are applicable in all cultures, and universalism, arguing that human rights are inherent to all people. Fundamentally this is the kernel of
the question and it will remain so. Meanwhile Northern states will continue to misuse the language of rights as an excuse to impose their own values and, most
principally, their interests.
This makes it crucial for Southern organizations to address LGBT rights in their own cultural
references and language. Southern organizations must teach Northern based organizations how to do
rights work under the conditions in which they live and claim rights, in the same way as they have
taught us how to more fully understand the limits and caveats of aid conditionality.
-- Framing Issue – “White Man’s Burden”
Aid conditionality is a tool used to promote the 21st century white man’s burden
Dunne 12 (Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012 recipient of the Harvard Law School Irving R. Kaufman Public Service Fellowship. He currently works at
¶
¶
¶
¶
the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights ¶ Commission in New York City. Dunne received his ¶ LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the ¶ Wrong
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
Aid conditionality often can appear as ¶ patronizing to both the target country and ¶ local LGBTI
advocates. Speaking to Andrew Marr, Cameron sought to explain his new policy as countries being on “a journey” and it being “up to us [Britain]
to ¶ help them along that journey” (BBC 2011). While the UK government, as a member of the global community, has an obligation
¶ to ensure respect for human rights, Cameron’s choice of language is unfortunate. In suggesting that the
Commonwealth nations need British “help,” the prime minister evokes memories of the old colonial ¶ justification of
saving the savage “native” ¶ from himself—a kind of twenty-first century “White man’s burden.” He
ignores the ¶ possibility that Commonwealth nations ¶ will be able to rationally debate the question of LGBTI rights
without British intervention. He also ignores the possibility ¶ that “there might [already] be local movements,
dialogues and activisms around ¶ ther its own foreign and domestic policy ¶ agendas, even if that is to the
¶
¶
¶
¶
¶
detriment of ¶ other countries.¶ Bowden Mbanje and Darlington Mahuku, writing in the Zimbabwean Herald ¶ Online on 18 November 2011, argue that ¶ Cameron’s
represents ¶ nothing more than a “camouflaging tendency of the foreign aid regime used by
¶ the Western powers to create governance ¶ structures that are conducive for the exploitation and
external control of weak ¶ African states.”
announcement
-- Framing Issue – Speaking for Others
Aid conditionality fails to appreciate the sensitivity of sexual politics, we can’t speak
for their experiences
Dunne 12 (Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012
¶
recipient of the Harvard Law School ¶ Irving R. Kaufman Public Service ¶ Fellowship. He currently works at ¶ the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York City. Dunne received his ¶ LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the ¶ Wrong
¶
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
Politicians and ¶ advocates from the
Global North and South have weighed in on the possible merits and potential pitfalls of aid conditionality, both ¶
with regard to the promotion of human ¶ rights generally and of sexual orientation ¶ and gender
identity more specifically. Even assuming that Cameron genuinely desires to assist the LGBTI community in the Global South (an assumption
that is controversial among advocates), the path his government has chosen to adopt is troubling. The decision to unilaterally
impose ¶ aid conditionality, without considering the ¶ impact it will have on advocacy in affected countries, fails to
appreciate the sensitivity of sexual politics in many parts of the ¶ Commonwealth and shows that
Cameron ¶ is out of touch with the lived experiences ¶ of the very people he is purporting to help.
In the months since the Perth meeting, much has been written and said about ¶ Cameron’s announcement.
¶
¶
¶
¶
¶
¶
¶
Western Sexuality Turn – 2ac
Turn – imposing Western notions of sexuality marginalizes individuals
Warwick 13 (Bruce, april 1 Aid Conditionality and Sexual Rights in the Third Worldhttp://www.e-ir.info/2013/04/01/aid-conditionalityand-sexual-rights-in-the-third-world/ // OP )
One of the central accusations consistently levelled both at the policy of tying aid to sexual rights and at
international human rights discourse associated with sexual rights more broadly is that it is
fundamentally flawed as a result of being based upon an understanding of sexual orientation and
gender identity that is inherently Western. The most notable aspect of these suggestions is the idea of
identity and in particular the assumption of the existence of set categories of, for example, gay,
lesbian or straight that are fundamentally static and coherent. As Aeyal Gross, when discussing contemporary
international human rights law and sexual rights, notes, the Yogyakarta principles, for example, define sexual orientation ‘broadly but in a way
that maintains an understanding of sexual orientation as a distinct component in the identity of the self, determined based on the similarity
between one’s gender and the gender of one’s object of desire’ (2007: 130). As discussed, this is a document that has received wide acclaim
internationally, therefore illustrating somewhat the prevailing attitude that dominates current thinking with regards to sexual rights. While it is
undeniably important to recognise that ‘homosexual behaviour has been observed in virtually all cultures throughout recorded history’ (Rao,
2010: 173), the
expression of sexuality through personal identity categories, such as ‘LGBTI’, is very much
a culturally specific development associated with the West. Today, there undoubtedly exists some kind of a global
understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity that rests upon these assumed categories, perpetuated in international human rights
institutions, and demonstrated in documents such as the Yogyakarta principles and in policy statements such as those by Cameron and Obama.
While this expression of sexuality into specific categories may have initially helped (and perhaps continues to
help) sexual rights achieve a more prominent position in international human rights discourse, it is also
a factor that many argue is problematic when applied locally in contexts whose cultures are not
rooted in the West.
The problems of an approach so influenced by notions of fixed identities are manifold. A considerable difficulty raised is that these ‘Western
sexual categories fail to encapsulate the complexity of cartographies of acts, identities and
communities outside the west’ (King quoted in Binnie, 2004: 79). Comparably Judith Butler, having written extensively on issues
concerning gender and sexuality, expresses this problem by stating, ‘if one ‘is’ a woman, that is surely not all one is; the term fails to be
exhaustive because gender is not always constituted coherently or consistently in different historical contexts, and because gender intersects
with racial, class, ethnic, sexual, and regional modalities of discursively constituted identities’ (1990: 4). One can interchange woman with
homosexual man, lesbian, or indeed any other supposed category associated with sexuality, and make similar assertions.
By pursuing an
understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity that revolves around the binaries of gay or
straight,
states such as the UK or US, as well as
the international human rights framework as a whole, risk
severely alienating and marginalising huge swathes of individuals, many of whom are not aware or
have not necessarily ever considered themselves within the supposedly Western categories of
‘LGBTI’ . Andil Gosine has highlighted these prospects of marginalization and alienation through the promotion of ‘LGBTI’ identities in
international human rights discourse with regards to sexual rights. Gosine proposes that if one is lower-class, young, or a person of colour,
these categories are either less convenient, create anxiety by limiting the exploration of sexuality, or make it more difficult to negotiate ways of
thinking about further sexualities that are compatible with particular cultures of family and neighbourhood (2005: 12). Essentially, it is argued
that there is a real risk that, through the imposition of these particular identities, by Cameron, for example,
putting pressure on a
state to reform laws around a specific way of thinking about sexuality, produces further
marginalisation in areas of sexuality, thereby highlighting the counterproductive nature of such an
approach.
This is an epistemic and ethical violence
Warwick 13 (Bruce, april 1 Aid Conditionality and Sexual Rights in the Third Worldhttp://www.e-ir.info/2013/04/01/aid-conditionalityand-sexual-rights-in-the-third-world/ // OP )
This notion that without the influence of international human rights organisations, supposedly inherently linked to Western understandings of sexuality, there
would be greater sexual freedoms throughout the world, as well as in the Arab world, is one that has been advocated by various scholars. It has been argued, for
the formation of such distinct categories and their subsequent exportation through policies
such as those discussed to local contexts outside of Western Europe and North America, has helped
both reinforce existing discriminatory laws as well as foster greater levels of homophobia that have
the effect of forcing sexuality back underground. As Andil Gosine suggests, ‘words such as gay, lesbian,
homosexual and even heterosexual do not necessarily have a direct translation in many languages as
they are probably not apt descriptions of the ways in which sexualities are organised and experienced’
(2005: 11). As soon as these identities are replicated in non-western local contexts, it allows
authorities and state officials to discriminate against particular individuals and put into practice
homophobic legislation. As Massad proposes, ‘it is not the same-sex sexual practices that are being
repressed by the authorities but rather the socio-political identification of these practices with the
Western identity of gayness’ (2007: 183). Whereas before, individuals may have taken part in same-sex interaction, this was not done in a way
example, that
that forced categorisation into any particular identity, whilst the imposition of sexual identities through countries such as the US and the UK, it is argued, means that
there is now something more concrete and apparent that authorities can persecute against. Sahar Amer has argued, for example, that
the imposition of
identities has essentially ‘unleashed epistemic, ethical and political violence on the very people it
claims to defend’ (2007: 650) by creating distinct categories into which fits their supposedly fixed sexual identity, ignoring the complex realities and
lived experiences of sexuality.