Have a Follow up Pacific Forum Group and Pacific Oasis meeting in New York with Tuvalu Officials

Director, Asia Pacific Human Rights Network

9 June Tuvalu Hawaii across Pacific

African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States

Ovetz, R., Pillaging the Pacific Pelagic Longline Fishing Captures or Kills About 4.4 Million Sharks, Billfish, Seabirds, Sea Turtles, and Marine Mammals Each Year in the Pacific Ocean, a report by the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, November 16, 2004.

Host conference in Hawaii with various University of Hawaii departments focusing on Pacific, Human Rights and Environment

Ferguson, I. and Chandrasekharan, C. Paths and Pitfalls of Decentralization for Sustainable Forest Management Experiences of the Asia Pacific Region.

Paper presented at the Conference on Combating Corruption in the Asia Pacific Region (Seoul, 11 13, December 2000).

Cooper is discussing with Tuvalu to have a talk with Pacific Forum at United Nations in New York

Cooper is discussing with Tuvalu to have a panel with Pacific Forum Group at United Nations in NYC

Human Rights in the relationship between the European Economic Community (ECC) and African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP), Advanced University degree thesis, Nancy, 1990.

In the Spring, HIHR continued to coordinate efforts among university programmes, humanitarian associations and traditional NGOs to raise awareness about the human rights issue in the Pacific.

Mathews JA (2002). Competitive advantages of the latecomer firm A resource based account of industrial catch up strategies. Asia Pacific Journal of Management 19 (4) 467 488.

See Manoa, P., Apps, L., and Q. Hanich, Development without destruction Towards sustainable Pacific fisheries, February, 2004, found at http www.greenpeace.org.au oceans pdfs DWDReport_feb04.pdf.

HIHR also met with PEACESAT to examine the potential to communicate in the region via the university telecommunication system to schedule a virtual conference to connect the peoples of the Pacific.

Cho JW (2003). Foreign direct investment determinants Trends in flows and promotion policies. In Investment Promotion and Enterprise Development Bulletin for Asia and the Pacific 1. New York United Nations.

C. Dumas, The Economic Impacts of Banning U.S. Pelagic Longline Fishing, Eastern Pacific (U.S. West Coast) Longline Fisheries, Chapter 2, unpublished research report, January 15, 2005, pp. 11 and 21.

Dhungana BP (2003). Strengthening the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises in the globalization process Prospects and challenges. Investment Promotion and Enterprise Development Bulletin for Asia and the Pacific 1. New York United Nations.

A number of these SINTNCs are also family owned enterprises, e.g. Pacific International Lines (shipping), Hong Leong Asia (industrial) and City Developments Ltd (property development and hotels).

This backgrounder is an excerpt from the book Striplining the Pacific The Case for A United Nations Moratorium on High Seas Industrial Longline Fishing, Sea Turtle Restoration Project, 2005, pp. 71 101, available at www.seaturtles.org.

HIHR met with East West Center Pacific Island Development Program again to discuss the working paper written on Tuvalu in 2002. The meeting explored possible future papers updating the situation in Tuvalu relating to environmental conditions. Also, discuss future panel at East West Center.

For further details, papers and recommendations see Sexuality and Violence against Women Access to Justice, Summary Report of study workshop and Asia Pacific Consultation with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Jakarta, Indonesia, 25 28 July 2004, APWLD, Forum Asia, Komnas Perempuan.

This one is infected! Women, HIV and Human Rights in the Asia Pacific Region. See also UNDP.HIV and Development Programme. Young Women Silence, Susceptibility and the HIV Epidemic.

HIHR participated in the International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability at the East West Center. HIHR presented a research paper examining the issue of human rights of indigenous peoples in the Pacific in relation to extreme environmental conditions focusing on the right of self determination.

HIHR also met with the director of the University of Hawaii Center for Pacific Island Studies. The meeting focused on a future conference to be cosponsored together on the UH campus or another potential campus in the region. Discussion also focused on next steps including submission of proposal for co sponsorship of the conference.

WASHINGTON, DC Looking for ways to stimulate economic growth and create jobs, US President Barack Obama s administration is seeking to press ahead with the mega regional free trade deal known as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). But is the US going about it the right way?

HIHR co sponsored a speaking tour of Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific with Gwich'in and Maori to speak on imminent issues of drilling for oil and biocolonialism through genetic modification of indigenous organisms. HIHR met with Gwich'in to verify global warming in the Arctic and to pledge continued communication on environmental concerns. Also, met with Maori to explore possible strategies with New Zealand government on Tuvalu.

Also at the same meeting, the Forum heard statements by the following observers Canada, Fundo Indigeno, Parlamento Indígena de América, The Koani Foundation, Waikiki Hawaiian Civic Clubs, Na Koa Ikaika o Ka Lahui Hawaii, Seventh Generation Fund, International Institute for the Study and Preservation of Aboriginal Peoples, Threatened (TIPs), India Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, Tugara Nation, Pacific Caucus, Asia Caucus, and Tlahtlokan Nahuacalli.

The first leg of the offensive was the idea of the Indo Pacific region, which Clinton developed a year ago and followed up this year with an essay called America s Pacific Century. There, she defines the new region of US strategic engagement as stretching from the Indian subcontinent to the western shores of the Americas.

Frustration cannot grow faster than opportunity in any country. For example, the negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) reflect President Obama s determination to strike an accord with countries that represent one third of global trade and 40 of global GDP.

Economic integration is a hot topic in the region. From the negotiation of the mega regional Trans Pacific Partnership to the establishment of China led investment platforms including the Silk Road Fund and, most recently, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Asia is becoming more interconnected than ever.

The US would, of course, need to respond to the conclusion of any trilateral Northeast Asian FTA in order to preserve its own role in global trade and in the supply chains that dominate the Asian economies. It would likely seek to expand and deepen the infant Trans Pacific Partnership, the trade agreement that President Barack Obama committed the US to last year.

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is further along, and involves 11 countries, besides the US, that collectively produce as much as 40 of global output but China, crucially, is not among them. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union has an even more ambitious reach, promising to join two giant regions that together account for half of world trade.

Unfortunately, the TPP s provisions remain secret meaning that it cannot be seen or discussed by members of the public. (Members of Congress may read the technical text, under restricted conditions, but are not allowed to describe its contents in detail.)

Congressional proposals to include currency provisions in the Trans Pacific Partnership, the mega regional free trade agreement currently in the final stage of negotiations, presumably target Japan (as China is not included in the TPP). Congress may also want to target the eurozone in coming negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Consider the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Japan European Union Economic Partnership Agreement. Completion of both trade and investment deals are among the most urgent tasks we face, because Japan s economy needs powerful external catalysts to spur change in how we compete at home and for export markets.

The TPP s strategic value extends far beyond the economic benefits it promises. It is also about turning an area that accounts for 40 of the world economy and one third of global trade into a region of lasting peace and prosperity for our children and theirs.

At the same time, Japan will undergo sweeping labor market reforms, open designated industries to foreign workers, and create special economic zones within which officials will have the authority that they need to reduce red tape in areas like agricultural land management. If concluded, the Trans Pacific Partnership a mega regional 12 country free trade agreement will provide an additional boost to Japan s economy.

For its part, the US has shifted substantial military power toward Asia with high profile military deployments in Australia and the Philippines, and 60 of America s naval capabilities now deployed in the region and has enhanced its defense ties with Japan and South Korea. Moreover, it is helping to spearhead the Trans Pacific Partnership, an economic and trade agreement that excludes China but includes many of its regional neighbors.

Simon Johnson, for example, recently argued that mega regional agreements like the Trans Pacific Partnership should be used to discourage countries from intervening in the currency market to prevent exchange rate appreciation Fred Bergsten has made a similar argument.

SEOUL Given that the 21 members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum account for some 54 of global GDP and about 44 of world trade, the agenda for this month s APEC summit should be drawing much global attention. Yet the only issue in which anyone seems interested is whether or not Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet on the sidelines, and, if they do, whether a substantive discussion to ease bilateral tensions will take place.

But, in South America, the rhetoric of trade integration has often been stifled by the harsh reality of protectionism. Fortunately, with the consolidation of a free trade bloc among the Pacific Rim countries home to 215 million people and accounting for 37 of Latin America s GDP this is changing.

Those past disputes probably explain why former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, though a political soul mate of then President Ronald Reagan, was never invited to address a joint session of Congress. Today, however, the bilateral relationship is very different.