Auret van Heerden: Making global labor fair

138,430 views ・ 2010-11-11

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:15
This cell phone
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started its trajectory
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in an artisanal mine
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in the Eastern Congo.
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It's mined by armed gangs
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using slaves, child slaves,
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what the U.N. Security Council
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calls "blood minerals,"
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then traveled into some components
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and ended up in a factory
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in Shinjin in China.
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That factory -- over a dozen people have committed suicide
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already this year.
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One man died after working a 36-hour shift.
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We all love chocolate.
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We buy it for our kids.
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Eighty percent of the cocoa comes from Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana
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and it's harvested by children.
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Cote d'Ivoire, we have a huge problem of child slaves.
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Children have been trafficked from other conflict zones
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to come and work on the coffee plantations.
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Heparin -- a blood thinner,
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a pharmaceutical product --
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starts out in artisanal workshops
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like this in China,
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because the active ingredient
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comes from pigs' intestines.
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Your diamond -- you've all heard, probably seen the movie "Blood Diamond."
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This is a mine in Zimbabwe
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right now.
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Cotton: Uzbekistan is the second biggest
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exporter of cotton on Earth.
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Every year when it comes to the cotton harvest,
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the government shuts down the schools,
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puts the kids in buses, buses them to the cotton fields
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to spend three weeks harvesting the cotton.
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It's forced child labor
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on an institutional scale.
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And all of those products probably end their lives
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in a dump like this one in Manila.
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These places, these origins,
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represent governance gaps.
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That's the politest description
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I have for them.
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These are the dark pools
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where global supply chains begin --
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the global supply chains,
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which bring us our favorite brand name products.
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Some of these governance gaps
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are run by rogue states.
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Some of them are not states anymore at all.
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They're failed states.
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Some of them
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are just countries who believe that deregulation or no regulation
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is the best way to attract investment,
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promote trade.
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Either way, they present us
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with a huge moral and ethical dilemma.
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I know that none of us want to be accessories
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after the fact
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of a human rights abuse
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in a global supply chain.
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But right now,
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most of the companies involved in these supply chains
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don't have any way
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of assuring us
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that nobody had to mortgage their future,
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nobody had to sacrifice their rights
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to bring us our favorite
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brand name product.
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Now, I didn't come here to depress you
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about the state of the global supply chain.
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We need a reality check.
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We need to recognize just how serious
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a deficit of rights we have.
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This is an independent republic,
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probably a failed state.
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It's definitely not a democratic state.
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And right now,
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that independent republic of the supply chain
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is not being governed
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in a way that would satisfy us,
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that we can engage in ethical trade or ethical consumption.
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Now, that's not a new story.
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You've seen the documentaries
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of sweatshops making garments
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all over the world, even in developed countries.
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You want to see the classic sweatshop,
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meet me at Madison Square Garden,
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I'll take you down the street, and I'll show you a Chinese sweatshop.
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But take the example of heparin.
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It's a pharmaceutical product.
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You expect that the supply chain that gets it to the hospital,
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probably squeaky clean.
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The problem is that the active ingredient in there --
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as I mentioned earlier --
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comes from pigs.
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The main American manufacturer
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of that active ingredient
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decided a few years ago to relocate to China
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because it's the world's biggest supplier of pigs.
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And their factory in China --
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which probably is pretty clean --
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is getting all of the ingredients
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from backyard abattoirs,
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where families slaughter pigs
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and extract the ingredient.
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So a couple of years ago, we had a scandal
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which killed about 80 people around the world,
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because of contaminants
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that crept into the heparin supply chain.
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Worse, some of the suppliers
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realized that they could substitute a product
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which mimicked heparin in tests.
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This substitute cost nine dollars a pound,
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whereas real heparin, the real ingredient,
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cost 900 dollars a pound.
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A no-brainer.
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The problem was that it killed more people.
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And so you're asking yourself,
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"How come the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
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allowed this to happen?
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How did the Chinese State Agency for Food and Drugs
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allow this to happen?"
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And the answer is quite simple:
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the Chinese define these facilities
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as chemical facilities, not pharmaceutical facilities,
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so they don't audit them.
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And the USFDA
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has a jurisdictional problem.
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This is offshore.
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They actually do conduct a few investigations overseas --
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about a dozen a year -- maybe 20 in a good year.
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There are 500
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of these facilities
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producing active ingredients in China alone.
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In fact, about 80 percent
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of the active ingredients in medicines now
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come from offshore,
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particularly China and India,
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and we don't have a governance system.
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We don't have a regulatory system
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able to ensure
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that that production is safe.
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We don't have a system to ensure
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that human rights, basic dignity,
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are ensured.
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So at a national level --
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and we work in about 60 different countries --
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at a national level
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we've got a serious breakdown in the ability of governments
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to regulate production
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on their own soil.
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And the real problem with the global supply chain
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is that it's supranational.
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So governments who are failing,
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who are dropping the ball
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at a national level,
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have even less ability to get their arms around the problem
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at an international level.
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And you can just look at the headlines.
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Take Copenhagen last year --
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complete failure of governments
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to do the right thing
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in the face of an international challenge.
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Take the G20 meeting a couple of weeks ago --
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stepped back from its commitments of just a few months ago.
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You can take any one
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of the major global challenges we've discussed this week
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and ask yourself, where is the leadership from governments
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to step up and come up with solutions,
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responses,
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to those international problems?
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And the simple answer is they can't. They're national.
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Their voters are local.
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They have parochial interests.
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They can't subordinate those interests
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to the greater global public good.
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So, if we're going to ensure the delivery
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of the key public goods
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at an international level --
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in this case, in the global supply chain --
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we have to come up with a different mechanism.
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We need a different machine.
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Fortunately, we have some examples.
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In the 1990s,
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there were a whole series of scandals
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concerning the production of brand name goods in the U.S. --
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child labor, forced labor,
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serious health and safety abuses.
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And eventually President Clinton, in 1996,
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convened a meeting at the White House,
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invited industry, human rights NGOs,
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trade unions, the Department of Labor,
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got them all in a room
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and said, "Look,
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I don't want globalization to be a race to the bottom.
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I don't know how to prevent that,
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but I'm at least going to use my good offices
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to get you folks together
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to come up with a response."
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So they formed a White House task force,
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and they spent about three years arguing
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about who takes how much responsibility
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in the global supply chain.
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Companies didn't feel it was their responsibility.
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They don't own those facilities.
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They don't employ those workers.
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They're not legally liable.
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Everybody else at the table
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said, "Folks, that doesn't cut it.
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You have a custodial duty, a duty of care,
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to make sure that that product
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gets from wherever to the store
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in a way that allows us to consume it,
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without fear of our safety,
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or without having to sacrifice our conscience
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to consume that product."
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So they agreed, "Okay, what we'll do
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is we agree on a common set of standards,
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code of conduct.
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We'll apply that throughout
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our global supply chain
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regardless of ownership or control.
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We'll make it part of the contract."
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And that was a stroke of absolute genius,
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because what they did
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was they harnessed the power of the contract,
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private power,
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to deliver public goods.
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And let's face it,
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the contract from a major multinational brand
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to a supplier in India or China
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has much more persuasive value
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than the local labor law,
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the local environmental regulations,
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the local human rights standards.
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Those factories will probably never see an inspector.
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If the inspector did come along,
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it would be amazing if they were able
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to resist the bribe.
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Even if they did their jobs,
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and they cited those facilities for their violations,
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the fine would be derisory.
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But you lose that contract
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for a major brand name,
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that's the difference
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between staying in business or going bankrupt.
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That makes a difference.
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So what we've been able to do
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is we've been able to harness
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the power and the influence
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of the only truly transnational institution
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in the global supply chain,
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that of the multinational company,
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and get them to do the right thing,
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get them to use that power for good,
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to deliver the key public goods.
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Now of course, this doesn't come naturally
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to multinational companies.
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They weren't set up to do this. They're set up to make money.
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But they are extremely efficient organizations.
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They have resources,
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and if we can add the will, the commitment,
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they know how to deliver that product.
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Now, getting there is not easy.
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Those supply chains I put up on the screen earlier,
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they're not there.
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You need a safe space.
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You need a place where people can come together,
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sit down without fear of judgment,
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without recrimination,
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to actually face the problem,
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agree on the problem and come up with solutions.
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We can do it. The technical solutions are there.
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The problem is the lack of trust, the lack of confidence,
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the lack of partnership
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between NGOs, campaign groups,
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civil society organizations
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and multinational companies.
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If we can put those two together in a safe space,
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get them to work together,
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we can deliver public goods right now,
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or in extremely short supply.
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This is a radical proposition,
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and it's crazy to think
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that if you're a 15-year-old Bangladeshi girl
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leaving your rural village
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to go and work in a factory in Dhaka --
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22, 23, 24 dollars a month --
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your best chance of enjoying rights at work
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is if that factory is producing
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for a brand name company
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which has got a code of conduct
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and made that code of conduct part of the contract.
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It's crazy.
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Multinationals are protecting human rights.
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I know there's going to be disbelief.
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You'll say, "How can we trust them?"
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Well, we don't.
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It's the old arms control phrase:
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"Trust, but verify."
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So we audit.
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We take their supply chain, we take all the factory names,
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we do a random sample,
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we send inspectors on an unannounced basis
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to inspect those facilities,
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and then we publish the results.
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Transparency is absolutely critical to this.
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You can call yourself responsible,
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but responsibility without accountability
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often doesn't work.
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So what we're doing is, we're not only enlisting the multinationals,
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we're giving them the tools to deliver this public good --
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respect for human rights --
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and we're checking.
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You don't need to believe me. You shouldn't believe me.
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Go to the website. Look at the audit results.
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Ask yourself, is this company behaving
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in a socially responsible way?
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Can I buy that product
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without compromising my ethics?
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That's the way the system works.
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I hate the idea
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that governments are not protecting human rights around the world.
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I hate the idea
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that governments have dropped this ball
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and I can't get used to the idea
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that somehow we can't get them to do their jobs.
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I've been at this for 30 years,
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and in that time I've seen
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the ability, the commitment, the will of government
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to do this decline,
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and I don't see them making a comeback right now.
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So we started out thinking
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this was a stopgap measure.
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We're now thinking that, in fact,
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this is probably the start
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of a new way of regulating and addressing
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international challenges.
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Call it network governance. Call it what you will.
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The private actors,
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companies and NGOs,
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are going to have to get together
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to face the major challenges we are going to face.
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Just look at pandemics --
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swine flu, bird flu, H1N1.
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Look at the health systems in so many countries.
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Do they have the resources
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to face up to a serious pandemic?
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No.
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Could the private sector and NGOs
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get together and marshal a response?
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Absolutely.
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What they lack is that safe space
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to come together, agree
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and move to action.
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That's what we're trying to provide.
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I know as well
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that this often seems
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like an overwhelming level of responsibility
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for people to assume.
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"You want me to deliver human rights
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throughout my global supply chain.
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There are thousands of suppliers in there."
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It seems too daunting, too dangerous,
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for any company to take on.
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But there are companies.
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We have 4,000 companies who are members.
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Some of them are very, very large companies.
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The sporting goods industry, in particular,
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stepped up to the plate and have done it.
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The example, the role model, is there.
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And whenever we discuss
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one of these problems that we have to address --
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child labor in cottonseed farms in India --
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this year we will monitor 50,000 cottonseed farms in India.
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It seems overwhelming.
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The numbers just make you want to zone out.
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But we break it down to some basic realities.
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And human rights
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comes down to a very simple proposition:
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can I give this person their dignity back?
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Poor people,
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people whose human rights have been violated --
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the crux of that
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is the loss of dignity,
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the lack of dignity.
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It starts with just giving people back their dignity.
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I was sitting in a slum outside Gurgaon
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just next to Delhi,
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one of the flashiest, brightest new cities
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popping up in India right now,
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and I was talking to workers
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who worked in garment sweatshops down the road,
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and I asked them what message they would like me to take to the brands.
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They didn't say money.
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They said, "The people who employ us
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treat us like we are less than human,
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like we don't exist.
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Please ask them to treat us like human beings."
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That's my simple understanding of human rights.
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That's my simple proposition to you,
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my simple plea to every decision-maker
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in this room, everybody out there.
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We can all make a decision
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to come together
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and pick up the balls and run with the balls
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that governments have dropped.
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If we don't do it,
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we're abandoning hope,
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we're abandoning our essential humanity,
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and I know that's not a place we want to be,
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and we don't have to be there.
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So I appeal to you.
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Join us, come into that safe space,
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and let's start to make this happen.
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Thank you very much.
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(Applause)
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About this website

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