Development Dossier
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- The Warning
- The Appeal
Carlos CusterConfederación Mundial del Trabajo Case Postale 122, CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland Tel:+41-22/733 6688 Fax:+41-22/733 4785 Conference of Non‑governmental Organizations in Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (CONGO) As the governments of the world gather at this Summit, so do the representatives of non‑governmental and peoples' organizations. I speak on behalf of the Conference of non‑governmental organizations in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The many thousands of NGO representatives gathered here in Copenhagen reflect the enormous diversity of the civil societies of our communities. The social worker and the environmental activist, the health worker and the trade unionist, the businessman or woman and the Médecins sans Frontières, the teacher, the human rights advocate, the peasant representative, the Nobel Prize winner; those representing women, youth, the aged, the handicapped, indigenous peoples ‑ all are increasingly organized to act ‑ and to make their voices heard. During this week, you hear the voices of the organizations and the caucuses which have contributed to the preparatory process. With all our diversity, there is a striking convergence ‑ a convergence of concern and, yes, a convergence of ideas. For the voices of the people are carrying a message to the Summit. That message is a warning. It is an appeal. And it is a proposal. The WarningFirst, I speak of the warning. This is the year of all the anniversaries. The 50th Anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Charter is also the 50th Anniversary of the end to six years of terrible folly. The historian Barbara Tuchman described the march of folly in human affairs. She defined folly as the pursuit of a policy which leads to disaster, despite clear warnings. Today, the warnings could not be louder or clearer, from the Earth Summit of Rio to the Human Rights Conference of Vienna to the Population Conference of Cairo and now the Social Summit here. Yet the policies which have neglected or even exacerbated these problems during the last two decades are still being pursued. Indeed they account largely for the remaining difficulties in reaching agreement here in Copenhagen. We must recognize the folly of economic and social policies which continue to take their toll and to lead us on a path towards renewed chaos and upheaval. When a single individual can bet on financial markets, in three weeks, more than the annual gross domestic product of many nations, that is also a warning. The man who broke Britain's oldest Bank is portrayed in the media as a "rogue trader". Similar things were said of the individuals whose speculations caused great losses for one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, and for a series of major international companies. It must be recognized that these were more than the acts of individuals who had miscalculated. They were warnings that the system is in deep trouble. They were the consequences of policies of deregulation, of edifying greed, and of placing free market forces on such a pedestal of economic theory, that no place is left for principles of solidarity. This is a Summit about more than noble aspirations. This is a Summit about hard realities. For just as the economic folly of the 1930's led to the folly of World War II, so the policies of the free market, pushed to an extreme, now threaten human security and could lead again to folly on the scale of those horrendous events of fifty years ago. The warning is this: many communities around the globe are becoming social bombs, primed to explode with increasing frequency and with unpredictable consequences. The AppealThis is the appeal. Let us not step backwards from the universal aspirations which nations and peoples articulated when they adopted the Charter of the United Nations fifty years ago. Let us not undo our global neighborhood's recognition, already in l946, that certain rights are universal, founded in our very being, in our common humanity. Let us not turn away from respect for basic freedoms ‑ freedom of association, freedom of expression and the right to organize. Let us work for an end to discrimination and for elimination of such scourges as the cruel exploitation of little children. It is important for the summit to make a commitment to education, which has a vital role to play in relation to each of the three themes. As the Plan of Action states, education is an investment in human resources, one of the keys to productive employment and development. Universal access to quality education plays a crucial role in the achievement of greater equity and social justice, as does the struggle against illiteracy, and the elimination of gender disparities. But more than anything else, education, education for all, provides one of the vital underpinnings of democracy. There is no more serious danger in today's world than a sense of helplessness and alienation from political institutions. So the appeal is this: Let not communities slide back into a kind of obscurantism, based on the ignorance of the masses. And our appeal is also for action. From the outset, the Chairman of the Preparatory Committee has said the follow‑up will be more important than the Summit itself. We agree. The adoption of this document is but the beginning. The Proposal Lastly, the message of the people to the Summit is a proposal. The implementation of the Plan of Action will depend on the peoples of the world. People are searching for ways of having an impact on events, of being actors rather than mere spectators, if not victims. The organizations of civil society give people that capacity. Chapter V of the Plan of Action recognizes their role. Sometimes, during the preparatory process, we felt like the Chorus in one of the plays of ancient Greece ‑ alternatively lamenting and applauding the actors. But today, you must recognize organizations of people, as actors. Chapter V provides you with an opportunity to do that. Our proposal is this: that governments and the inter‑governmental agencies work together with non‑governmental and peoples' organizations in a true partnership for action. A true partnership requires more than observation. It requires more than consultation. A true partnership requires participation. Another way of saying it is to speak of empowerment. This is a word you have heard often this week ‑ empowerment of those who have until this day suffered discrimination, deprivation, and degradation. Our proposal is that you, the governments, open the way to such a partnership, and to such empowerment. Directory: images images -> Pelan pentaksiran kursus images -> Military callsign list as of dec 2010 images -> For Date: 02/01/2013 Friday Call Number Time Call Reason Action 13-768 0008 motor vehicle stop warning Issued images -> New embedded S images -> Creating Buy-In – Building Relationships images -> Deadline: Saturday, March 12th, 2016 images -> News items from Raising Our Voices images -> Last year four of the best Afrikaans Christian singers joined forces to tour Down Under with the production ‘Manne wat Glo’ images -> World-renowned vocal ensemble sweet honey in the rock images -> Peoples Voice Café History Download 0.58 Mb. Share with your friends:
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