Development Dossier
Download 0.58 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Roberto Bissio
- Claus Lachwitz
- Tel:+1-212/420 1500; Fax: +1-212/505 0781
Assessment and Follow UpThe areas proposed by the Quality Benchmark for inclusion in the Social Summit Declaration and Programme of Action are integrated in the final document. They have been given high profile in the structure of the declaration. However, even though the agreements reached are comprehensive, new and innovative steps for solving the problems described have been avoided. The Summit re‑affirms agreements reached earlier at a high political level and therefore it creates an even larger obligation to implement the Declaration and Programme of Action. The contribution of NGOs has been recognised through the access created in the preparatory process. The recognition now needs to be translated in the follow up process at the national level. The Quality Benchmark for the Social Summit continues to be an important instrument for NGOs to measure the implementation of the Declaration and Programme of Action both at a national and at international level. Roberto BissioInstituto del Tercer Mundo Casilla de Correo 1539, Montevideo, Uruguay Tel:+598-2/496192; Fax:+598-2/419222 Disabled People's Organizations Umbrella GroupAccording to the United Nations, one person in ten has a disability and all of us will be affected by disability for a shorter or longer period at some time in our lives. Today, I am speaking on behalf of all organizations of disabled people represented at this global event. We are people first, and only secondly do we have a disability. We reject the label of 'vulnerable' as it appears in the documents of the Summit; we are fellow citizens, with equal rights and responsibilities. What makes us disadvantaged, are the obstacles we face in society and its physical, social, economic, cultural and political structures. We look to this Summit to break down the barriers to our full participation and equality. All the themes of this Summit are highly relevant to us. We are the poorest of the poor in most societies. Disability increases poverty and poverty increases disability. It is women who bear a particular burden of poverty, both as carers and as disabled persons. Two thirds of disabled people are estimated to be without employment. Social exclusion and isolation are the day to day experiences of disabled persons. Too many must live in institutions. We cannot and we will not tolerate such conditions any longer. Disabled people must be included in the decisions, and above all, in the follow‑up of the implementation of the plan of action of this Summit. Every paragraph and every sentence of International Human Rights Conventions and other legal instruments apply to disabled people as well as to non‑disabled people. But now we also have the United Nations Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities. The Special Rapporteur, Mr. Bengt Lindqvist, has written to all Governments asking some basic questions about their policy towards the Standard Rules. So far, only 15 Governments have responded. The disability NGOs call on every Government representative here to support the full implementation of the Standard Rules in their country. Governments need their national NGOs in working for a better future for disabled people. Governments also need to ensure that a percentage of their development funding goes to grassroots projects empowering disabled people. The UN needs the international NGOs. It is the NGOs who work at the grassroots, with people, with public authorities and with the UN to create a better life for disabled people and to realize the goals of this Summit. We disabled people ourselves need to be empowered to combat poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. The UN itself must set a better example: it could employ many more qualified disabled people; it could provide better access to UN meetings; it could provide documentation in Braille or tape; it could recognize Sign Language as one official UN language. Only as equals can we disabled people contribute our full potential to social development. Equal opportunities can only be realized if society adapts itself to the diversity of its members. A society good for disabled people is a better society for all. Claus LachwitzInternational League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap/ Inclusion International on behalf of the World Federation of the Deaf, World Blind Union, International League of Societies for Persons with Mental handicap/Inclusion International, Rehabiliation International, and Disabled Peoples' International International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap 248 Avenue Louise, Bte 17, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium Tel:+32-2/502 7734 World Federation of the Deaf P.O. Box 65, SF-00401 Helsinki, Finland Tel:+358-0/580 31; Fax:+358-0/580 3770 World Blind Union 58 Avenue Bosquet, F-75007 Paris, France Rehabilitation International 25 East 21st Street, New York, N.Y. 10010, USA Tel:+1-212/420 1500; Fax: +1-212/505 0781Disabled Peoples' International 101-7 Evergreen Place, Winnipeg Manitoba R3L 2T3, Canada Eurostep In January 1994 we were able to address you during the first preparatory committee meeting. “We still have a long road to go,” was our conclusion at that time.We would like to congratulate you on the results from the process we went through. It has been a process full of discoveries for many of us, and we are grateful for the opportunity at this final stage to mention a few highlights. As non-governmental organisations we have discovered how difficult it is to change the political reality of the world we live in. Yet, as you may remember, during the second PrepCom, quite desperately, we launched the Ten Points to Save the Social Summit. Urgently the NGOs in the women’s and development caucuses pulled together their ten priorities, which, in our views were vital to the success of the summit. Since then the agenda of the summit changed. Structural adjustment was included in the commitments, so was debt, and more serious proposals on aid came into the negotiations. Space was made for the fundamental frameworks that help create accountability between governments and international organizations. Specific attention was given to women and to Africa. We were happy with the documents presented to us after PrepCom III. The last week has shown us that reality is harsh. In the final negotiations for a document that our government leaders will sign, many of the innovative and further reaching commitments have disappeared. We are disappointed, since our hope was raised. The question we have to answer now is, was it worth the investment? In this process of preparing in cooperation with you for this summit we have discovered both the space, the strength and the capacity of the civil organisations we represent. Together with our Southern partners we found that we did have a common agenda, and that we did have the arguments that helped to influence the outcome of the summit. However, we have also experienced that often governments feel threatened by our offer to cooperate in finding ways to solve the problems of poverty around the world. Some of our friends were threatened not to leave the country to attend the summit. It shows, Mr. President, that many of our governments are not committed to serve their country in the way they claim to do. We feel that with the results of the summit, even if they are not as concrete and specific as we had wished, we have a programme and a tool in hand that will make a beginning of addressing poverty. It does address the roots of the increase in poverty, it does define poverty in a much more comprehensive way and it does acknowledge that basic services, but also the self organisation of people, are priorities for social development. We now have a Declaration which is signed by our governments’ leaders. We will hold them accountable to their signatures and we will do it in the cooperative fashion of non-governmental organisations from many different countries. We learned so much from each other, from the interactions between people living in very different realities, from the debates between men and women, and the meeting between civil society and governments. In this spirit we intend to stay alert, to develop activities with which we can hold our governments, both in the North and in the South, accountable to the implementation of the Declaration. We offered our cooperation in the preparatory process of this summit and now we offer our cooperation in ensuring the implementation of the summit’s agreements. Novib and Eurostep will regard the Social Summit Declaration as a standard for policy setting and implementation both at the national and the regional level. In this summit women were identified as key actors for social development. Not far ahead of us is the Women’s Conference to be held in Beijing. We will seek the further specification of the summit’s Declaration and we will work in the 180 days campaign to ensure that the results of the summit will be implemented. Likewise, at the international level, we expect ECOSOC, the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO and TNCs to implement the request put upon them. Likewise, back at home, we are determined to ensure that the declaration is implemented by our governments. Once we warned Chairman Somavía that the summit would become a lion which could roar but had not teeth. Tonight, at the eve of the summit, we feel being the teeth of a very large lion laying before us. The lion, which is called the Social Summit, is full of royalty and highness, it looks beautiful and important, but its only strength in reality is its teeth. That is what we will be, that is both an offer and a promise. Max Van Den Berg Eurostep 115 Rue Stevin, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel:+32-2/231 1709; Fax:+32-2/230 0348 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:
|