13/06/2004
CSF opens the main points of Civil Society Statement that will be given to Unctad XI
Civil Society Forum, which is taking place from June 11th to 17th in Anhembi Conventions Center, in São Paulo and is simultaneous with Unctad XI (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), openned today (Saturday, June 12th) the main points of the Civil Society Statement that will be handed tomorrow (Sunday, June 13th), at 11:30 AM to Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General in room 1 in Anhembi’s Conference Hall, where Unctad XI is being held.
Iara Pietricovsky, general coordinator of Brazilian Network for Peoples Integration (Rebrip) and Jose Bové, representative of Via Campesina, a French pro-agricultural workers movement, will hand over the document written by the civil society.
The Civil Society Statement took two months to be written (from April until June) and 400 NGOs from all over the world took part in the elaboration process. Via internet they exchanged their opinion about the matters that should be mentioned at the document, in order to consider all the remarks and suggestions of economic and social sectors from several parts of the world and present them to Unctad.
A group of several NGOs and social movements that were attending the Forum finished the final version of the Civil Society Statement during the first two days of CSF. The document criticizes and comments on matters reported in Unctad XI Statement, which will be presented during the UN Conference, in São Paulo.
Civil Society Statement questions Unctad XI official document, in which it is reported that “globalization has a broad potential power and strength to push growth and development”, alleging it contradicts the report attached to this document and that analyses the negative impacts neoliberal agenda has caused in the last years.
Civil society also declared to be concerned for the fact that in Unctad document there is no mention to the standstill reached in Cancun and that meant a new counterbalance of international power. According to the social organizations, Unctad official document does not recognize that World Trade Organization (WTO) is at a standstill and addresses to UN: “We don’t want a weak Unctad, that exists as a tool to operate WTO agreements, but an institution that is ready to face the obstacles of the poor countries.”
Some of the main recommendations from civil society to Unctad XI follow bellow:
· Unctad must become a multilateral space for critical thinking about the impacts of liberalization policies. Unctad must back up the governments to elaborate and implement developing policies that aim to promote positive impacts not only on life conditions of the people but also on the environment.
· Unctad XI must be based upon policies of reorientation and integration that would assure a world order directed to satisfying the needs of the developing groups that were mostly affected by globalization process. Unctad’s main role – to deal with general themes that affect development – must be revived. Civil society urges governments to support Unctad’s role as an independent and analytical institution, as well as to reinforce it with the necessary power to perform this role.
· Unctad XI must help both developing and transition countries to face the obstacles of elaborating its own national policies in accordance with their own development level and their own ability to implement them.
· Unctad must recognize and promote the right of each country or group of countries to protect their economies and agricultures by using taxes and other means.
· Unctad must strengthen its qualifying programs for small producers.
· Unctad has an essential role to provide independent research, analysis and consulting that not only criticize the prevailing economic model, instead of accepting it, but also, that propose alternatives to it. The mandate that allows Unctad to perform this role must be kept.
Based on the critical concerns for Unctad official document, the Civil Society Forum addresses:
· States must have back their supreme rights to define their own adequate domestic policies for their internal realities.
· Governs must be faithfully committed to overcoming all forms of inequalities such as gender and ethnic ones, while defining its policies against poverty.
· The defense of social rights and social control on natural resources and biodiversity must be guaranteed in order to promote a development truly supreme, sustainable and egalitarian.
The Civil Society Statement will be read at Unctad XI official opening on June 14th (Monday), at 4 PM, by Antônia Mello, leader of the Transamazonic and Xingu Development Movement (MDTX).