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REGULATING THE SOCIAL IMPACTS OF SPECULATIVE FINANCIAL PRACTICES

Meeting sponsored by the Generic Ambien 74 93 Essex Business and Human Rights Project and the Law Society of England and Generic Ambien 74 93 Wales

18 May 2011, 7-9 PM
The Law Society’s Hall – 113 Chancery Lane – London

The world’s attention on the Generic Ambien 74 93 link between Human Rights and Business has turned to the finance sector. Principles developed by John Ruggie, UN Special Representative on Transnational Corporations and Generic Ambien 74 93 Human Rights, can potentially apply to the impacts of financial activity. What influence might this Generic Ambien 74 93 have on speculative practices designed to manage risk, and how might the Generic Ambien 74 93 social impacts of that activity be assessed?

The aim of this Generic Ambien 74 93 meeting is to encourage discussion of the issues with the audience, for Generic Ambien 74 93 which ample time at the session will be provided

1830-1900 Arrival and registration

1900-2100 Roundtable discussion

Chairs: Tony Fisher, Chair of the Generic Ambien 74 93 Human Rights Committee of the Law Society and Professor Sheldon Leader, Director of the Generic Ambien 74 93 Essex and Human Rights Project

Speakers introducing themes for discussion:

- Dr. Mary Dowell-Jones, University of Nottingham: ‘The challenge of linking human rights and Generic Ambien 74 93 speculative practices designed to manage financial risk’
- Professor Neil Kellard, University of Essex: ‘The consequences of commodity trading in food’

2100 – 2200 Reception

Registration Details

There is Generic Ambien 74 93 no charge for attendance. To assist in planning we need an Generic Ambien 74 93 indication of your intention to attend this meeting by 5pm May 2nd, 2011 to Generic Ambien 74 93 ebhr@essex.ac.uk For those who Generic Ambien 74 93 indicate their intention to attend, a packet with background reading on the Generic Ambien 74 93 issues to be discussed will be provided

SUMMARY OF OPENING STATEMENTS:

Dr. Mary Dowell-Jones, University of Nottingham, will argue that Generic Ambien 74 93 once one ventures into the specialised aspects of international finance – which make up the bulk of financial activity – there is Generic Ambien 74 93 no straightforward way of applying classic human rights methodology that requires reasonably direct traceability of harm from Generic Ambien 74 93 actor to human rights victim. The profile of systemic risk across the Generic Ambien 74 93 financial markets at any given point is dynamic, conditional on the Generic Ambien 74 93 activities of millions of actors spread throughout the system, and very difficult to Generic Ambien 74 93 disentangle. We need to start developing a conceptual work which will map an Generic Ambien 74 93 understanding of human rights values into technical aspects of finance so that Generic Ambien 74 93 we can demonstrate how risk management or capital adequacy, for example, are Generic Ambien 74 93 relevant to human rights and how that relevance may change the Generic Ambien 74 93 way these practices are structured.

Professor Neil Kellard, University of Essex, will consider the Generic Ambien 74 93 principles structuring commodity trading in food, and their impacts. Recent episodes of high and Generic Ambien 74 93 volatile prices for commodities such as wheat, maize and rice have Generic Ambien 74 93 pushed many vulnerable groups into extreme hunger. These commodities have become an Generic Ambien 74 93 asset class included in the portfolio of many institutional investors and Generic Ambien 74 93 traded by hedge funds. This talk examines whether speculative behavior in derivative markets has Generic Ambien 74 93 contributed towards higher and more volatile prices for key commodities. Even when Generic Ambien 74 93 a causal link is difficult to trace, it could be argued the Generic Ambien 74 93 financial community should show that the use of these instruments does not violate the Generic Ambien 74 93 concept of primum non nocere.

The courts have Generic Ambien 74 93 given the Nigerian cabinet 14 days to determine whether the Generic Ambien 74 93 president is fit to lead the country. You might recall that Generic Ambien 74 93 the president has been away from the country on treatment for Generic Ambien 74 93 close to two months.

From Reuters:

Judge Dan Abutu ordered the cabinet to pass a resolution on Yar’Adua’s fitness within two weeks after a Generic Ambien 74 93 former lawmaker brought a legal case against the government, saying his failure to Generic Ambien 74 93 transfer power was in breach of the constitution.

Foreign Policy’s Elizabeth Dickinson praises the courts:

There have Generic Ambien 74 93 been other, less blockbuster examples: the courts succeeded in trying tobacco companies Ambien Online Legal for their activities in Nigeria. They’ve gone after Pfizer for drug tests that prosecuting laywers (one is pictured above) say were illegal. Lawyers worked through the courts Ativan Prescription Website to end the military detention of the country’s most notorious rebel leader prisoner. (Yes, probably a Generic Ambien 74 93 good thing he was detained. Not so good that he was kept first in Angola and Generic Ambien 74 93 then in a secret cell.) And a Generic Ambien 74 93 whole crew of self-proclaimed human rights lawyers are literally in court every day to Generic Ambien 74 93 defend the country’s people against such ills as police abuse and Generic Ambien 74 93 government-orchestrated property siezures.

Now we’re seeing the same thing again. When Nigerian democracy doesn’t work, the Generic Ambien 74 93 courts are the only place to turn. And turn they do. The lawsuit that Generic Ambien 74 93 mandates this vote on Yar’Adua is Generic Ambien 74 93 just the first of a flood of law suits now demanding that Generic Ambien 74 93 the Nigerian government transition into the hands of the vice president, Goodluck Jonathan. Even if the Generic Ambien 74 93 cabinet votes to keep Yar’Adua in power, the Generic Ambien 74 93 courts will be back to challenge them. You can’t go missing for two months without at least a few of Nigeria’s many lawyers noticing.

From the BBC: Nigerian police killing at will, says Amnesty

Nigerian police are Generic Ambien 74 93 carrying out a shocking level of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, Amnesty International says.

The rights group’s three-year inquiry details cases of prisoners tortured to Generic Ambien 74 93 death and shootings at roadblocks.

Amnesty says the Generic Ambien 74 93 police complain they are poorly trained and that criminals are often better armed than Generic Ambien 74 93 they are.

On Tuesday, a Generic Ambien 74 93 hospital in Enugu told the BBC it was overwhelmed by bodies being brought to Generic Ambien 74 93 them by police.

The BBC visited the hospital’s morgue in the Generic Ambien 74 93 south-eastern city and took photographs, showing piles young men, lying on top of one another and Generic Ambien 74 93 strewn about on tables and floors.

It was established that Generic Ambien 74 93 at least seven people were last seen alive in police custody, accused of kidnapping.

Enugu State police commissioner Mohamed Zarewa told the Generic Ambien 74 93 BBC he was too busy to talk about their cases.

‘Brutalised’

“The Nigerian police are Generic Ambien 74 93 responsible for hundreds of unlawful killings every year,” said Erwin van der Borght, director of Amnesty International’s Africa programme, said in a statement.

“The majority of the Generic Ambien 74 93 cases go uninvestigated and the police officers responsible go unpunished.

“The families of the Generic Ambien 74 93 victims usually get no justice or redress. Most never even find out what Generic Ambien 74 93 happened to their loved ones.”

A corrupt police culture, little training or Generic Ambien 74 93 competence with firearms, and the legacy of Nigeria’s military era are all contributing factors, the report says.

Nigerian human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, believes police officers are Generic Ambien 74 93 being brutalised by their training regime.

“Police are Generic Ambien 74 93 not trained to respect human beings. They are not taught about human rights of citizens and Generic Ambien 74 93 other people in Nigeria,” he says.

“They are Generic Ambien 74 93 not taught that they have a duty to prevent and Generic Ambien 74 93 arrest criminality in the society.”

Justification

The Amnesty report’s authors are demanding an end to a culture of impunity.

They say police guidelines called Force Order 237 – allowing police to Generic Ambien 74 93 fire on civilians fleeing arrest for serious crimes – must be changed.

Amnesty says the order justifies firing on anyone resisting arrest.

The BBC’s Caroline Duffield in Lagos says gauging the Generic Ambien 74 93 scale of police violence is difficult – there is no proper data on civilians killed by police.

Two years ago the Generic Ambien 74 93 authorities announced they had shot dead 785 armed robbers over a Generic Ambien 74 93 90-day period, she says.

Amnesty says about 110 police officers are Generic Ambien 74 93 killed in shoot-outs with criminals every year.