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Africa: Civil Society NAM Statement, 1
Africa: Civil Society NAM Statement, 1
Date distributed (ymd): 980908
Document reposted by APIC
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +political/rights+ +economy/development+ +security/peace+
Summary Contents:
This posting and the next contain the declaration from a meeting of civil
society groups gathered preceding the 12th Non-Aligned Summit in Durban,
South Africa. The 400K official statement by the governments gathered at
the Summit can be found at the South African government web site (http://www.nam.gov.za/finaldocument.html).
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
For more information on the civil society conference contact:
The Foundation for Global Dialogue
PO Box 32571 Braamfontein
Johannesburg, South Africa 2017
Tel: 27-11-339-6585; Fax: 27-11-339-6616 E-mail: fgd@icon.co.za
Web: http://sn.apc.org/fgd
DECLARATION
Representatives of civil society from the South gathered in Durban on
19 - 21 August 1998 at the University of Durban-Westville prior to the
XII Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement to consider the priorities and challenges
facing the global South in the next millennium.
The conference was organised by the Foundation for Global Dialogue (South
Africa) and the International Institute of Non- Aligned Studies (India)
in co-operation with the South African National NGO Coalition, the Co-operative
for Research and Education, the Group for Environmental Monitoring, the
South African Campaign to Ban Landmines and the African Centre for the
Constructive Resolution of Disputes.
It considered a range of issues relating to sustainable development
and peace-building.
CONTEXTUALISING THE NAM AND THE ROLE OF GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY
In a post-cold war era, the Non-Aligned Movement is faced with a unipolar
strategy aimed at maintaining the hegemony of the North over the South.
Civil society in both the South as well as the North has a vital role
to play in ensuring democratic governance of the state and regular, free
and fair elections, and in serving as a vital partner in the socio- economic
development and the elimination of poverty, disease, hunger and malnutrition
in all countries of the world, but especially the poorer ones. Just as
civil society organisations have voiced their views and had a substantive
impact in policy forums at the national level and at the international
level, eg. in various United Nations organs and conferences, it is important
that the NonAligned Movement also takes the perspectives and positions
of civil society into account in its deliberations.
As the international economy has become globalised, so inevitably have
civil society's efforts to ensure that social, political and economic justice
prevail and that disadvantaged and neglected peoples and countries are
included in global progress.
Noting that:
The NAM political agenda is not in the public domain, and
There is presently no mechanism for civil society organisations (CSOs)
to qualitatively participate in NAM processes.
The Conference calls on the NAM and its member states to:
Give civil society full participation in all deliberations of NAM and
full access to information about NAM activities, including receipt of draft
documents before NAM meetings. Mechanisms have to be found for civil society
organisations (CSOs) to make presentations or other inputs to NAM deliberations.
Give civil society full accreditation to all future NAM summits, including
the 12th Summit.
Enshrine and protect the right of people's movements to represent their
legitimate interests without persecution. Some NAM states are using either
para-military clandestine groups or are openly using their defence force
for the oppression and eradication of legitimate people's movements through
the sustained use of state repression as a matter of policy in low-intensity
conflict. These states are: Afghanistan, Algeria, Burma, Colombia, Indonesia,
Iraq, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Sudan.
Calls on CSOs to:
Create a follow-up CSO interim committee to establish a mechanism which
will monitor the execution of NAM agreements and responses to this CSO
declaration and to ensure a follow-up to this Conference.
Calls on South African CSOs to:
Take the opportunity presented by South Africa's presidency of NAM to
build a NAM CSO Alliance. The Steering Committee which organised this Conference
should develop a network of CSOs from NAM states. This Southern bloc of
CSOs should conscientise Northern CSOs on the Southern priorities and solutions.
THE CHALLENGE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AN ERA OF GLOBALISATION
For the market, the future is an alien concept. In recent months, the
currency markets in the NAM countries have been ravaged by speculators.
The market has shown that it has no social conscience, takes no cognisance
of the environment and is ignorant of the concepts of international responsibility
and social justice.
For over two years, the OECD has debated the Multilateral Agreement
on Investment. This agreement has been nothing but a bill of rights for
global corporations and banks. Universal insecurity has resulted from the
role played by global capital. Today, financial globalisation is a law
unto itself, manipulated by unprincipled speculators acting as proxies
for their powerful but masked masters.
The International Monetary Fund's programmes consist of no new strategies
but rather the usual prescriptions for lay-offs, higher interest rates,
privatisation and further belt-tightening for the poorest members of the
population and those most vulnerable and least able to defend themselves.
The disastrous effects spill across the continents in Latin America, Asia
and Africa.
This unbridled and uncontrolled speculation must be harnessed and preferably
disarmed. The opportunity for introduction of the Tobin tax has never been
better than now. This tax envisaged a modest tax on all exchange transactions
to stabilise markets and generate revenue for international development.
Civil society organisations including trade unions in every country
need to be consulted in all phases of the discussions about the new free
trade zones being speculated about in many parts of the globe. The envisaged
Free Trade Area of the Americas from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego poses unimagined
threats.
Increasingly, in the name of globalisation, employers are guilty of
social, wage and eco- dumping, all of which foster social insecurity, poor
health and poverty.
Global resources -- production, distribution and exchange -- therefore
need to be shaped in such a way that they are fair to the people -- both
workers and consumers. The profits of the global market must be used for
the benefit of the world community, not an isolated and irresponsible few.
What is required is an Alliance for Work, bringing together all the
social partners to reach a consensus and recognise the need for closer
relations between those who steer the tax policy at government level and
those who pay the taxes.
The conference noted the key problems in the following commissions and
made recommendations as to how to address them.
POVERTY
Noting that:
Poverty is a key challenge in developing countries creating a crisis
situation in their economies,
Poverty is rooted in historical processes which impact on the access
to and distribution of resources and power,
Poverty has social, cultural, psychological, health, economic and environmental
dimensions, and
The state has a key role to play in poverty eradication measured by
levels of employment, control of resources, meeting of basic needs and
equity of resource distribution.
The Conference calls on the NAM and its member states to:
Protect and promote human rights (including social and economic rights),
Distribute resources equitably,
Ensure administrative efficiency,
Prioritise resource distribution to the poor and ensure equality of
access to all,
Divert military spending to meet social needs,
Invest in basic need programmes, eg. education,
Invest in rural areas,
Play an active role in the delivery of services and redistribution of
assets to the poor,
Provide an enabling environment and support for, inter alia, the informal
sector, women (through micro-credit), and South-South co- operation and
trade,
Invest in non-conventional alternate technology,
Eliminate overtime in order to facilitate greater job opportunities,
DEBT
Noting that:
Debt repayment limits government expenditure on services and undermines
development.
The debt crisis is deepening and its impact on government expenditure
and development is intensifying.
Various initiatives to address the debt crisis have been undemocratic,
have failed or are failing,
The Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative is inadequate;
the HIPC countries are defined by the North, pitting Southern countries
against each other; and the HIPC Initiative will only bring limited relief
to at most 6 countries by 2000.
The HIPC criteria for debt relief are unacceptable, notably the determination
of debt sustainability in terms of projected estimates of export earnings,
and intensification of structural adjustment conditionality.
The origins and deepening of the debt crisis are primarily a political,
and not technical, problem.
The debt crisis is interrelated with the environmental crisis, including
irreversible environmental destruction, and it is imperative that these
crises are addressed as a matter of urgency.
The NAM has failed in its efforts to ensure an international conference
on debt.
The Conference calls on the NAM and its member states to:
Call for the cancellation of Third World debt and support Jubilee 2000
in its call for the cancellation of Third World debt.
Call for the scrapping of loan conditionality, in particular structural
adjustment programmes.
Call for a mechanism for international regulation of debt which (1)
involves peoples' organisations and movements, (2) acts according to the
principle that governments cannot cut services to meet the requirements
of creditors, and (3) addresses the issues of odious debt in post-war societies.
Call for South-South co-operation in developing a multilateral approach
to creditors, and a framework for multilateral negotiations.
Improve its efforts to call for an international conference on debt
within the United Nations framework. The conference agenda should include
(1) the role of the IMF and World Bank, notably with regard to the IMF
bailout of Northern creditors in the Asian crisis, and to the IMF and World
Bank being absolved of responsibility for failed projects; (2) South-South
co-operation with regard to potential sanctions on Northern countries who
do not fulfil their international development commitments; and (3) the
double standards of Northern countries which have benefited from debt relief
but are unwilling to grant debt relief to Southern countries.
Call for the active involvement of civil society in the various mechanisms
for international regulation of debt, at the national and South-South levels.
TRADE AND INVESTMENT
Noting that:
The inequitable effects of the liberalisation of trade and investment
(through bilateral/national structural adjustment programmes or multilateral/global
agreements) are evident,
Privatisation of national assets causes unemployment and reinforces
foreign ownership and influence,
Imbalances between developed and developing countries, especially the
least developed, will be reinforced by predatory 'reciprocal' free trade
agreements/areas now being extended over all other countries and regions
by the main economic powers,
The use of trade as a lever in the World Trade Organisation through
implementing global regulatory regimes to serve primarily the requirements
of transnational production, services and financial corporations, is highly
damaging to weak or vulnerable economies,
The utilisation of trade sanctions in the World Trade Organisation as
a weapon for the defence/promotion of specific economic/political/strategic
interests, is equally damaging,
The radical deregulation and global integration of financial markets
are contributing to the vast economic inequalities and financial instabilities
in the world today,
The promotion of environmental, labour, social, gender, human rights,
and other important standards throughout the world is a vital responsibility
of all governments and civil society,
Transnational corporations enter developing countries both at the invitation
of governments of those countries and in pursuit of their own economic
interest,
The Conference calls on the NAM and its member states to:
Oppose energetically the continuing marginalisation of the interests
and needs of developing countries in the emerging globalising economic
system. This includes ending the protectionist barriers and other impediments
against developing country trade and development. It also includes the
elimination of the self-serving and unfair practices and policies of the
highly developed countries.
As part of campaigning against the negative impacts of globalisation,
to cease forthwith the privatisation of all basic services, with particular
reference to water transnationals which are currently operating in developing
countries to the detriment of the communities.
Impose trade sanctions only on the basis of calls from the legitimate
representatives of the people of the country concerned.
Re-establish firmly the regulatory role and responsibility of democratic
national and international institutions over irresponsible, volatile, and
destabilising financial operations and operators.
Note that the use of trade levers and threats in the World Trade Organisation
is not the appropriate or most effective method to achieve improved standards
in the areas of environment, labour, and human rights, and other areas.
Oppose energetically the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, whether
in the OECD or the WTO, as it promotes the full rights of entry and operation
of investors into all countries, thereby creating a charter for the recolonisation
of the world by transnational corporations.
Oppose the anti-democratic concentration of wealth and power within
corporations and managerial, technocratic and political elites,
Apply full democratic principles and practices in the International
Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the WTO and all other United Nations institutions.
Similarly, the principles of transparency and accountability -- as well
as social and environmental responsibility -- also have to be applied to
transnational corporations, international banks and other such organisations.
Uphold vigorously such political principles and practices within their
own countries and in their inter-governmental relations, if they are to
play a role in relation to the above.
ENVIRONMENT
Noting that:
There is limited collaboration amongst Southern CSOs and no common agenda
on the environment,
Eighty percent of global resources are consumed in the North,
Women bear the brunt of environmental degradation,
NAM has no proposals to address gender inequality or participation,
There is a strong correlation between debt and environmental mismanagement,
The present system of global governance is not dissimilar to South Africa's
past regime of apartheid, which was declared 'a crime against humanity'.
The Conference calls on the NAM and its member states to:
Redefine sustainable development in terms of specifying agreed limits
to critical resource consumption globally. These limits can only be politically
established and sustained by common global consent when they are based
on the establishment of the principles and then the practice of equal rights
to the consumption of such resources on a globally per capita equal basis
both within and between societies and nations, and the generations to come.
Promote a culture of gender equality in decision-making and implementation
of all their policies.
Support the inclusion of environmental rights in the UN Declaration
of Human Rights as well as the national constitutions of its members.
Promote and lobby for the dismantlement of global apartheid, including
the elimination of racial, social, political and economic discrimination
and exclusion globally.
Become more accountable to their people.
Reject all attempts by some developed countries to link their ratification
of the Kyoto Protocol to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) with the question of participation by developing countries
in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. It should call on all countries
to undertake urgent and effective steps to implement their existing greenhouse
gas emission reduction commitments through domestic action. It should promote
corrective actions based on a deliberate convergence to a point of equal
per capita shares globally by a date to be set by UNFCCC. Emissions trading
for implementation can only commence after these initial allocations have
been agreed.
Promote the revision of Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs)
in order to allow countries to exclude life forms and bio- diversity-related
knowledge from intellectual property rights monopolies under the jurisdiction
of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Reinforce the defence mechanisms of local communities who are highly
vulnerable to unbridled bio-prospecting and to the introduction of genetically
engineered organisms.
Prepare a comprehensive listing under the Treaty on Prior Informed Consent
of all chemicals that are restricted by one or more countries due to their
harmful effects on human health or other species.
'Green the accounts' to reflect true economic growth / contraction so
that better decisions can be made regarding resource use and development.
Promote the 'structural alignment' of Northern countries to principles
of sustainability, in particular to reduced consumption and waste production
and an end to eco-dumping.
Ensure the transfer of environmentally sound technologies as promised
by the North in several multilateral environmental agreements.
(continued in part 2)
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the Africa
Policy Information Center (APIC), the educational affiliate of the Washington
Office on Africa. APIC's primary objective is to widen the policy debate
in the United States around African issues and the U.S. role in Africa,
by concentrating on providing accessible policy-relevant information and
analysis usable by a wide range of groups individuals.
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