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CWS Joins in Week of Action on Trade

April 4, 2005

NEW YORK / LANSING – World communities must be assured of affordable access to water, says an economic justice executive for global humanitarian agency Church World Service. The crisis of water and water as a basic human right will highlight the agenda of a conference on globalization and just trade, this week in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The conference, "A Better World Is Possible: Sustainable Globalization and Economic Justice," is scheduled April 8 and 9, to coincide with the Global Week of Action on Trade (April 10-16), and is being co-sponsored by Church World Service and a variety of civil and religious groups. The symposium will look at the positive and negative effects of economic globalization: what works and what fails people.

In the case of the growing world crisis of water resources, conference presenter and Church World Service Education and Advocacy Director Rajishri Waghray says, "In developing nations as well as in regions of the United States, the costs to operate water delivery and wastewater removal are staggering. That’s why," she says, "governments are attracted to privatization.

"The urgent challenge," Waghray says, "is to develop community-based models that are responsive and effective in meeting water needs. This approach creates space for local communities to develop their own solutions and maintain their traditional rights and approaches to water use."

Dr. David C. Korten will keynote the Sustainable Globalization and Economic Justice Conference. President of the People-Centered Development Forum, Korten, who "seeks to challenge the dominant development paradigm," is author of When Corporations Rule the World.

Other presenters joining Dr. Korten and Waghray on the program are Charles Kernaghan, Director, National Labor Committee; David Bonior, former U.S. Congressman; and Peter Brown of McGill University.

The just trade conference, being held at the First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor, will also feature twelve workshops, including Waghray’s on "Water as a Right." Others include "Globalization for Beginners," "Hunger/Food Security," and a University of Michigan professor on "Environment: Global Problems/Local Solutions."

Conference sponsor Church World Service is actively advocating for economic justice in North America and globally. Says CWS Michigan Director David Bower, who is based in Lansing, "Global trade can either promote or hinder justice, peace, and sustainable economic development.

"Trade on unequal terms creates and maintains inequities and can lead to violence, conflict, and environmental destruction," Bower says.

Waghray, who represented CWS at the United Nations as part of the agency’s advocacy for international justice and human rights, has overseen the recent launch of CWS's participation in the Decade for Action on Water.

Through its office at the UN Church Center in New York and with coalition partners in Washington, D.C., Church World Service is working with the UN Millennium Development Goals to insure that access to water is seen as a basic human right.

During the Global Week of Action, events are planned in over 70 countries, involving faith groups and civil society organizations calling for international trade policies that emphasize human rights, the environment and economic justice. For more details, visit www.april2005.org.

For information on the Ann Arbor conference, visit the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice at www.icpj.net.

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;

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