'Every company can champion human rights'

His latest work, “The Harvest”, is about child labor in the United States. The theme of the three-day conference, which continues through Wednesday 22 June, is “Human Rights and Globalization – Challenges for the Media”.

Romano debated with various participants, including Christopher Davis, Director for International Campaigns of the Body Shop company. Davis suggested that any company “can champion human rights. Every company should scrutinize its supply chain closely and realize that it’s people who produce the products.” Davis received the United Nations Business Leaders Award in 2010 for his campaign “Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People”.

Water doesn’t simply fall from the sky

Since July 2010 people have had a right to clean water and hygiene backed by the United Nations. In theory, noted Amanda Marlin of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC). In reality, she said, there are still too many people without access to clean water.

Marlin remarked that many people think that water “simply falls from the sky”. The biggest challenge for journalists reporting on the human right to clean water is the difficulty of “selling” their stories, according to Kieran Cooke, who has reported for many years for the BBC and the Financial Times.

5 minutes for debate

Is it the media’s task to advocate for human rights? The core issue is being debated by about 1,500 participants attending the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn. One of them is Brenda Burell, co-founder and technical director of kubatana.net based in Zimbabwe, and Thomas R. Lansner, professor for international media at Columbia University in New York. They discussed the question in the series 5 MINUTES FOR DEBATE – an initiative of DW-AKADEMIE, presented by Patrick Leusch.

Quality journalism is costly

Investigative journalism needs time and money, but is essential to expose violations of human rights, argued Ingrid Deltenre of the European Broadcasting Union. “Despite external financial donors, quality media must preserve their independence. Funding independent media means funding quality journalism”, she said as a panel member of a session entitled “Development and Human Rights and the Role of the Media”. The discussion was started by Hans-Jürgen Beerfeltz, Secretary of State in the German ministry for economic cooperation and development (BMZ). He regards free media as “the source and roots of a civil society.”

Given the increasing speed of the globalization process there is a danger of “human rights issues getting run over,” warned Werner Hoyer, Minister of State of the German foreign office in an interview with Deutsche Welle. He spoke of “a large number of economic and political poles that now figure largely in globalization but show very worrying developments in regard to inherent liberties and human rights.” Hence it was important “for us to keep raising the human rights issue when authoritarian systems are economically successful,” Hoyer said.

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