Excerpt
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): As we just heard, despite their emerging economic power, some countries in Africa still lag behind on human rights issues.
Many who follow developments on the continent are hoping that this week’s summit will be an opportunity to press for change beyond trade.
One of them is Nicole Lee. She’s a human rights attorney and former head of the U.S.-based policy organization TransAfrica. And she is with us now.
Thank you for being here.
NICOLE LEE, Immediate Past President, TransAfrica: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Nicole Lee, when you look at this summit, what do you think could come of it?
NICOLE LEE: Obviously, we know by definition this is really an opportunity for African leaders to get together with U.S. leaders and talk about investment in business.
What has also happened — and I’m not sure that the administration was — really understood that this was going to happen, but civil society from the continent of African also got on those planes, came over and want their voices to be heard as well. They want to be heard on the issue of good jobs.
So does investment mean there’s going to be good jobs? Does investment mean there is also going to be human rights? And so while we have the official meeting, there is also a lot of side meetings going on as well. And in those side meetings, they’re really talking about the preeminence or the need, if you will, for the preeminence of human rights at the table as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment