Mayo 11, 2007
GIRSCC (International Group for Corporate Social Responsibility in Cuba) will hold its Third Annual Conference in Rome, Italy on May 15, 2007. The theme of this year's conference is '' Workers Rights Are Human Rights''. Italy's Radical Party -Partito Radicale Italiano- is this year's conference co-sponsor. Several NGOs and labor organizations from Europe, Latin America and the United States have registered as participants.
Marco Pannella, a member of the European Parliament and Partito Radicale president, will inaugurate the conference. Prominent speakers include Italian political VIPs Emma Bonino and Matteo Mecacci; Europe-based NGO leaders Liduinne Zumpolle, Luz Modroño and Kristina Prunerova; and Latin American labor leaders José León Ramírez, José Altamirano, Tomas Martínez, and Fabio Colella; among others.
The conference committees will address several urgent issues, such as Possible Scenarios for Transition; The Independent Trade Union Movement and Its Role in Civil Society; Basic Principles of Corporate Social Responsibility for Present and Future Foreign Investors in Cuba; European Union Institutions and Cuba; and Cooperation: Strategies to Deal with Present Foreign Investors like Sol Meliá, Sherritt, Telecom, and Astilleros Curazao.
There will be telephone or teleconference communication with several opposition leaders inside Cuba, in order that they may participate in the conference and exchange views and opinions with conference participants.
The subject of corporate social responsibility will be the principal topic of debate in this Rome conference. It will serve as context to establish basic principles for socially-responsible corporate-labor relations among the most important foreign investors doing business with Cuba at the present time.
The conference will serve as forum to denounce the systematic violations of the most basic and fundamental human and labor rights that Cuban workers endure. The conference aims to nurture bonds of international solidarity between leading personalities and organizations in order to design new strategies and to forge alliances that can help to promote democratic change in Cuba.
The goal of GIRSCC's third annual conference is to widen the sphere of influence of democratic sectors world-wide vis a vis Cuba through creative strategies, wide-ranging policies, and targeted and audience-specific initiatives that are inclusive in scope and aimed at attaining for Cuban workers the kind of changes that will improve the quality of their lives and the day-to-day environment and conditions at work.
