Globalization

Globalization is multidimensional, consisting of numerous complex and interrelated processes that can have a dynamism of their own, resulting in varied and sometimes unpredictable effects. While previous eras have experienced globalization, the present-day version has a number of distinctive features, including though not limited to:

• trade liberalization
• changing patterns of financial flows
• a growth in the size and power of corporations
• advances in information and communication technology
• changing flows of people

While some of these processes – for example trade liberalization – are guided by international rules, others – especially advances in information and communication technology – have grown more spontaneously or in response to particular national or global phenomena, often outside the framework of international rules and policy. One thing all the processes have in common is that they affect, to varying degrees, the enjoyment of human rights. The challenge to human rights in the context of globalization is to identify how to maximize the opportunities of globalization while eliminating the challenges globalization poses to the enjoyment of human rights.

In his Millennium Report We the Peoples – The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century, the Secretary-General stated that if we are to capture the promises of globalization while managing its adverse effects, we must learn to govern better (A/54/2000). In the Millennium Declaration, Member States declared their belief that the central challenge today is to ensure that globalization becomes a positive force for all the world’s people.

OHCHR’s work on globalization has focused on two aspects of globalization in particular, namely:

• business and human rights
• human rights, trade and investment

OHCHR also works on globalization-related issues such as migration, trafficking, development and the human rights of indigenous peoples.