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25 january 2001
davos
davos privatized as public access to town
denied.
Police confirmed that ‘normal-looking’
people not carrying propaganda will be
allowed to enter the Swiss ski resort of
Davos during the annual meeting of the World
Economic Forum. People have been arrested for
distributing leaflets and others refused
entry at road blocks on the opening day of
the World Economic Forum (WEF)
meeting.
The organizers of the Public Eye on Davos,
an alternative forum that is meeting to
question the legitimacy of the WEF and to
discuss environmental and social questions
raised by economic globalisation, criticised
the police actions as “a violation of human
rights and of Switzerland’s democratic
traditions”. The Public Eye on Davos opposes
the use of any kind of violence but believe
that the actions of the police are not based
on any evidence that those refused entry to
the town will commit crimes.
The Public Eye on Davos is holding open
meetings on issues such as trade policy,
regulation of corporations and alternatives
to economic globalisation. Members of the
public have been encouraged to attend but
many now cannot because of their appearance
or because they happened to be carrying
leaflets or other papers. Members of the
Berne Declaration, one of the organizers of
the Public Eye on Davos, have been sent back
to Zurich under threat of arrest. Students
distributing leaflets advertising the Public
Eye meetings have been arrested by police in
Davos and photographed. Journalists who
wanted to cover the “Public Eye” conference
were denied access to Davos as well.
Kerim Yildiz, a leading international
human rights lawyer and a speaker in the
Public Eye on Davos conference, said
“The actions of the police are a clear
violation of the European Convention on Human
Rights, to which Switzerland is a party. The
police have assumed, with no evidence and
purely on the basis of appearance, that
certain citizens are going to commit crimes.
This is a clear violation of the freedom of
movement. They have also refused entry to the
town on the basis that people will
demonstrate. This is a violation of the
freedom of assembly. No wonder people are
suspicious of large corporations meeting in
secret. This kind of behaviour can perhaps be
expected in undemocratic states but surely
not in a democracy as old as
Switzerland”.
Jolanda Piniel of the Public Eye on Davos
said:
“If looking normal is a test for getting
into Davos, then most of the chiefs of the
global corporations meeting here should not
have been let in. Is it right that the
majority of the world’s population is
excluded from these discussions even though
the issues being discussed by the WEF are of
importance to people world wide?”
Beat Jans of Pro Natura, Friends of the
Earth Switzerland, said:
“The Public Eye will be half blind as long
as Davos is not a public place any more. The
town has been effectively privatized so that
the heads of the world’s largest corporations
can meet without hearing the voices of the
people who will be affected by their
policies”.
Kerim Yildiz +44 411 583 638
Beat Jans +41 79 216 02 06
Jolanda Piniel +41 79 478 91 94
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