Parade Planned for Human Rights Day

Several unions, environmental groups and justice organizations will gather at the World Trade Center at noon Saturday and parade through downtown Portland to commemorate National Human Rights Day.
The focus of the parade and the rally following it will be workers' rights and fair trade.

The event coincides with the World Trade Organization meeting in Hong Kong from Dec. 13 through 18.
Past meetings of the organization in Seattle and Cancun, Mexico, were disrupted by widespread protests.

At the request of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Portland Mayor Tom Potter signed a proclamation noting that, in the 60th year of the United Nations, "it is important to recognize one of the United Nations' most revered accomplishments, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its accompanying covenants and conventions."

Among those participating in the parade are: the Oregon AFL-CIO and local affiliates, Jobs With Justice, local unions in the Change to Win Federation, the Sierra Club, the Portland Central America Solidarity Committee, Cascadia Rising, Northwest Resistance Against Genetic Engineering and the Oregon Fair Trade Coalition.