ISFIT 2013: Breaking the Standards

Nice debate covering several important issues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJdGB03EsCc

The world is witnessing a new balance of power as financial difficulties hit the industrialized West, and new countries, formerly regarded as underdeveloped, have become key players on the global stage. While growth is lacking or stagnant in the traditional leading countries of the world, the economy of Asia and many countries in South-America is thriving.

What are the implications of the new power-players in matters of international business and trade? How is corporate social responsibility, decent work and effective regulation ensured in the transnational market? What is, or what should be, the relationship between rights and responsibilities?

Through the shift in the global power balance, and the challenges of international regulation and commitments, it has become harder and harder to see the connections and consequences of our daily business.

Even though the world is 'smaller' than ever, much of it is largely invisible to us: the labourers of faraway countries, the commercial interests behind national legislation, or the deals being brokered in the back room. In this plenary session we look at ways of changing norms in a world that is changing rapidly, and the ethics of trade, such as the controversial arms deals, ecology, empowering of women and how the consequences of our everyday actions affect people and structures of power around the world.

Espen Barth Eide (NO), Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Labour Party.

Andrew Feinstein (ZA), former member of the South African Parliament and writer and campaigner against the corruption and lack of ethics within the global arms industry.

Dr. Vandana Shiva (IN), scientist, feminist, ecologist, author, founder of the Research Foundation for Science and recipient of the Right Livelihood Award 1993.