“Vi kræver, at civilsamfundet skal være fast deltager i de internationale processer på alle niveauer”.
Det var en af de væsentligste konklusioner, som 100 NGO-repræsentanter fra så forskellige lande som Sverige, Yemen, Congo og 34 nationer nåede frem til ved FN-forbundets NGO-konference onsdag til fredag om FN-reformer i København.
De har været samlet i 3 dage for at diskutere deres holdninger til og muligheder for at øve indflydelse på FN-topmødet Millennium plus 5 i september i New York – og ikke mindst på, hvordan fokus på udvikling, sikkerhed, menneskerettigheder og en reform af den nuværende FN-struktur kan fastholdes efter topmødet, fremgår det af en pressemelding fredag aften.
Mødet blev afsluttet med vedtagelsen af en fælles erklæring “Frihed til alle”, der udtrykker de deltagende organisationers bekymringer, overvejelser og forslag.
Den multilaterale tilgang til verdens problemer, som FN repræsenterer, er i fare. Hvis ikke der gives multilaterale svar på de globale problemer og udfordringer, vil disse brede sig og blive større. Resultatet vil være voksende globale og menneskelige katastrofer.
Deltagerne understreger behovet for globale løsninger og bindende aftaler. Formuleringen og opfyldelsen af realistiske målsætninger og en styrket multilateral struktur er en nødvendighed.
Verden skal være besluttet på at nå ambitiøse men også realistiske mål inden for en fastlagt tidsramme. Den væsentligste hindring for at kunne sikre dette er manglende politisk vilje og handling.
Stater er blot er én af mange aktører. Aktiv involvering af civilsamfundet i formuleringen af handlingsplaner er en helt afgørende forudsætning for relevante og bæredygtige løsninger.
– Den virkelige succes ved mødet er ikke mindst, at de deltagende organisationer kan arbejde videre hen imod FN-topmødet i september, og i tiden derefter, med en bredere forståelse og praksis, siger Torleif Jonasson, næstformand i FN-forbundet og moderator på konferencen.
FREEDOM FOR ALL
1. Time is of the Essence
WE the Civil Society Participants from 37 countries meeting in Copenhagen, June 2005;
Conscious that our world has enough to provide for all peoples basic needs, where a few powerful individuals, groups and nations have unlimited access to and control over most of the resources, and that their excessive ways of life continue to deprive billions of the worlds population of the most basic necessities of human life.
And further that this pervasive model of development has of necessity occasioned unacceptable destruction and depletion of the worlds natural and cultural heritage.
Aware that the transnational corporations and a group of powerful nations continue to amass, monopolize and control instruments of power to the detriment of other nations of the world and their citizenry.
Recognising that the enormous role of Civil Society Organisations in addressing and solving global challenges is largely acknowledged and
Reaffirming our demand that Civil Society Organisations involvement and participation be institutionalized in all governance processes and structures at all levels,
Assert we can no longer bear this senselessness abuse of power, denial of peoples fundamental human rights and the spread of militaristic and imperialistic designs.
Therefore we emphasise the need for immediate action to establish a comprehensive democratic and inclusive multilateral governance framework to address this situation.
2. Freedom from want and excess
Poverty as well as excess are results of inequalities. More than “just” unequal distribution of income, poverty has its source in an unequal distribution of assets, affordable access to social services and opportunities; furthermore, marginalisation due to ethnicity, gender and class, lack of political participation and information.
The accumulation of wealth and power by a few individuals, strong nations and multinational corporations leads to poverty. The rapid non transparent transfer of power from governments to corporations requires global governance with binding and enforceable rules.
Economic growth is consequently not in itself the solution to poverty, as the understanding and promotion of growth prioritizes growth over equity, rights and sustainable development. Nor is the surplus created through growth distributed equally.
Redistribution of not just income but other resources can be part of the solution, but the present hopelessly inadequate national taxation-systems in many countries cannot even remotely remedy this inequality. External financial support cannot substitute anti-poverty strategies such as employment, land reform, and policies to promote the position of women.
The Millennium Development Goals do focus the world’s attention on a set of key targets that must be achieved by 2015.This is vital in sub-Saharan Africa which is the furthest away from reaching the targets.
The Presidents Draft Resolution rightly points out that the development challenge is far more complex and requires addressing many more issues. One core issue is that gender, ethnic, racial and cultural equality and womens empowerment must be mainstreamed into the MDGs and the outcome of the Summit.
Reproductive and sexual rights, health and services should be included in the MDGs, and should be added as a new target under MDG 5 because this issue area is necessary to combat poverty, violence against women, HIVAIDS and other infectious diseases.
Also omitted from the MDGs is the crucial importance of gender equality, womens empowerment as a crosscutting issue for achieving sustainable development, the protection of human rights, peace and security. The ICPD Program of Action (1994), Beijing Program for Action (1995), the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and other UN plans of action must be used as baseline for the work.
Special emphasis should be put on the integration of the ICPD goals of universal access to reproductive health by 2015 into strategies to attain the MDGs.
Regarding trade, the negative impacts of economic liberalisation in developing countries are not addressed in the proposed Presidents Draft Resolution. Nor is the existence of one billion dollar a day subsidies to products in the developed countries creating an extremely uneven playing field.
To solve this and other imbalances, thorough reformation of the decision-making structures in trade negotiations and International Financial Institutions towards open structures that permit developing countries to participate on for them reasonable terms, is necessary. Emphasis must be put on stopping IFI’s from imposing certain macroeconomic policies like privatization of public services.
Reciprocity should not be required for increase in market access from developing countries either through bilateral or regional negotiations like EPAs, nor through the WTO or the IFIs.
There should be no pressure for developing countries to liberalize services. The right of developing countries to protect their markets to ensure domestic food security is vital. As well as thorough reviews and revisions of the WTO trade agreements to assess their impacts on poverty, gender equality, environment and human rights.
The redefinition of debt sustainability should not be left at just achieving the MDGs but at total cancellation of the debt.
The proposals of increasing ODA to developing countries should only be based on the development needs and aim at poverty eradication of these countries. The debt sustainability framework should be participatory taking on board developing countries and not only the multilateral institutions.
Growth connected with the notion of a “green revolution” is also not a solution in itself, as it seems neither sustainable nor in accordance with traditional knowledge and culture.
The struggle against poverty will be in vain if the present course of over-utilisation of natural resources and man-made climate change continues; the global society has a collective responsibility to protect the environment and promote gender equality.
To achieve a sustainable world and a higher quality of life for all people, states should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption.
We believe that one of the greatest threats to the world comes from climate change and we call on all governments to work together to set new drastic targets for greenhouse gas production while recognizing common and differential responsibilities.
We call for the GA (General Assembly) to set up the process to negotiate a framework convention on corporate accountability and the UNGA to start the process on setting up a UNEO.
Formulation of MDG 7 should be improved and its implementation should be mainstreamed across all MDGs by
a) expanding targets with the MDG plus; and
b) establishing the link between national poverty reduction plans, budgeting processes with all MDG’s and MDG 7 plus targets and implementation . …
The Aarhus Convention on access to information must also be fully implemented.
The 20th and early part of the 21th century has seen enormous change with the acceleration of new technologies being developed and absorbed into society without proper societal consultation. We have seen this with GMOs (Genmodificerede Organismer) and are now seeing this with nanotechnology.
We believe that the UN should negotiate a framework convention to deal with new technologies to ensure that they are done in the best interests of all the people and are accessible to all the people.
The destruction of the environment impacts most on the poor, including women and children, who are most vulnerable, and impacts cause more death than through terrorism.
We believe that security has to do with human and environmental concerns primarily and not terrorism. We therefore call for a world summit on human and environmental security in 2010.
Peace, development, human rights and environmental protection are interdependent and indivisible, warfare is destructive and wrong.
Education must be seen in a broader sense, looking further than being implicitly content with teaching the basic skills. Learning for life starts after being taught the basics and includes quality and relevance of, equality and access to and full participation in education for women, men, girls and boys.
We must remember the decade for education for sustainable development (ESD) and the inclusion of ESD in any relevant curriculum. Thus learning can contribute to the creation of an active citizenship, an indispensable component of democratic society.
3. Freedom from fear and threats
Development is the indispensable foundation of a broader, more comprehensive concept of common security, but only if the development is sustainable and leads to poverty reduction, ensuring peace, human rights and protection of environment.
We call for a drastic reduction in the levels of military budgets and other military related spending and the funds saved, used to finance peace building and the global development.
The global arms trade is also an area of concern, especially as the key members of the Security Council also are prominent members of the arms dealers club. Small arms trade must be regulated by a binding agreement.
An independent non-political mechanism should be established to quality audit and monitor production, consumption and access to arms in order to ensure that arm trade does not contribute, initiate and fuel armed conflicts. Strengthen a proper registration of arm manufactories and arm suppliers, which should be publicly available.
We call for the abolition of biological, chemical, nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, the implementation of relevant conventions and a strengthening of the IAEA and other related agencies and treaties to enable the agency to prevent the use of nuclear, biological and chemical materials for weapons production.
The proposed Peace Building Commission must be supplemented by an independent, permanent expert panel or similar capacity to effectively prevent conflicts and any levels of war from breaking out by continuously monitoring conflicts and establishing an early warning system.
The transition from a culture of reaction to a culture of prevention must be expedited
The UN and the international community should support national governments, and local, national and regional organization and initiatives in their efforts to build Programs for conflict prevention should also include principles of the UN monitoring of countries use of heavily armed forces internally, national, regional and local capacities for conflict prevention.
Peace building process should include gender perspectives and strong civil society participation and be continued until a sustainable settlement has been achieved. Peace building Commission should promote non-violence education, peoples reconciliation and mediation initiatives.
Regarding common security matters access to Information, Public Participation in decision making and access to justice, should be provided.
Time and again superpowers break UN agreements and for the first time in the UN history one country, namely the USA ignored the Security Council, breaking the agreement as established in the UN charter, and went to war.
The war in Iraq again exposed the vulnerability of the UN to the wills of strong members.
Therefore the proposal of defining the principles for application of force is of greatest importance; but leaving it to the Security Council to define the principles is not acceptable, it must be a decision taken by the General Assembly. Neutrality must be a key concept of any and all UN peace creating, peace keeping, and peace building mission.
Manipulation and utilization of the fear has not only used to legitimise the wars against Afghanistan and Irak, but also the “so-called “war on terrorism” as well as other undesirable effects such as militarization of the International discourse and narrowing of civil rights and fundamental freedoms.
The report proposes a definition of terrorism that we are welcoming; but we need further protection from the so-called “war on terrorism” as we described above it has been widely used in violating human rights. Causes of terrorism must be dealt with by civilian means.
Life of all species in general, including human beings, are at stake due to the depletion of natural resources, global warming and other processes that causes environmental degradation.
Planetary environmental security must be ensured by respecting ecosystems natural services and environmental rights. Citizens, individually or collectively, states and the UN should act accordingly to protect environmental security.
Many conflicts are triggered, fuelled or sustained by the exploitation and misuse of and the fight for control over natural resources. It is important that the Peace Building Commission develops mechanisms to monitor the effects of this and devise means to monitor and control it e.g. through a certification system in line with what is being done with the diamonds.
4. Freedom to live in dignity and in mutual respect
We affirm that development, security, and human rights form indispensable foundations and are pillars of the United Nations system.
Human rights are indivisible and we commit to enforcing human rights standards equally-economic, social, cultural, civil and political for all women and men, children and vulnerable groups. We affirm the right to development, and it has to be sustainable.
We call on all governments to ratify all human rights treaties and their protocols, including CEDAW, without reservations, and existing reservations to be vaiwed. Where such reservations already exist they should be waived.
Under no circumstances, neither the war on terrorism nor the war on poverty, can states deviate from the rights of humans.
We strongly support strengthening the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, providing substantially more resources to this work, and we fully endorse elevating the Commission on Human Rights to the level of a Council on Human Rights with real authority.
The rights of civil society organizations must be extended to the new Human Rights Council including strengthening their right to actively monitor the performance of States in implementing universal human rights. The Council must have the authority to compel States to implement international human rights law into national law and to protect human rights defenders.
Without the end of impunity, it is not possible for justice, peace, and human rights to be inextricable components of the democratic rule of law.
Therefore, we strongly support the prosecution of all who commit the most serious violations of international law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. We fully support the International Criminal Court and call on all nations to ratify the Rome Statute and to adopt comprehensive national implementing legislation.
All individuals and States must be equal before the law, none should have immunity who commit these horrendous crimes.
International law must apply equally to both the most powerful and weakest States. We further support strengthening the International Court of Justice and call on governments to agree that all States should accept the jurisdiction of the World Court in the 21st century.
We fully endorse the strengthening of the United Nations commitment to promoting democracy as proposed in the “In Larger Freedom” report of the Secretary-General, in its diverse and multiple forms.
We support the most participatory forms of democracy and believe strongly that every individual has the right to be involved in decision-making on both national and international levels. This includes freedom of expression and association.
We strongly urge the UN to engage more profoundly with civil society and dedicate greater resources towards building civil society capacity to enhance democratic practices.
It is unacceptable that the worlds most powerful national democracies are the primary opponents of international democratic governance. All nations should abide by democratic principles in the governance of international organizations.
The Security Council Resolutions must apply to all parties without any exception. No nation should have the “right” to appoint leaders of particular international organizations, whose leaders should submit to democratic electoral procedures.
We thus, call for a fundamentally strengthened and more democratic United Nations in the reforms of the UN General Assembly, Security Council, and in the International Financial Institutions.
The development of greater international democracy must be undergirded by greater democracy at the local and regional levels, in consonance with the principle of subsidiarity.
We endorse the new norm of the responsibility inherent in national sovereignty to protect civilian populations. When a State is unable or unwilling to protect its civilians, the international community then has a responsibility to protect vulnerable populations.
Where such interventions are called for, they must be guided by internationally agreed mechanisms and criteria that must conform to existing international law. We recommend that the UN strengthens capacity for local and regional organizations to provide more immediate responses and interventions.
The UN institutions and processes should be the last resort when it comes to intervention.
Humanitarian intervention must always conform to international law and the UN Charter. Further more all international responses and interventions must be backed by specific UN resolutions.
The responsibility to protect applies not only to situations of large-scale violence, but also to natural and other human catastrophes. The responsibility to protect requires first and foremost, the responsibility to prevent. There is also the responsibility to react and to rebuild.
We recognize the right of people to basic human rights – individual and collective – freedom and security. We commit ourselves to the concept that human security is fundamental to state security and we commit to take all measures to ensure the security of all people from war and conflict, from hunger and poverty.
These measures being to provide people with quality health, education, essential public services and employment that abide by core labour standards.
5. Strengthening the global solutions through the UN
Review and update the UN Charter.
The world has changed profoundly since the founding of the United Nations. A view based solely on the primacy of the state must yield in the face of the realities of the modern world: a world where problems and challenges does not respect nor know of any national borders, and where the solutions must be found across borders.
– The principles and ideals in the Charter should be reaffirmed
– The organs decision processes and internal procedures of the UN should be democratized to improve transparency and accountability.
– Strengthening the role of the International Court of Justice and incorporate the International Criminal Court in the Charter.
– Abolish permanent membership of the security council, including veto powers.
Institutionalise the role of Civil Society Organisations
The state no longer has the capacity to address all challenges and must increasingly rely on non-governmental actors. Civil society has risen to the call and wishes to live up to the responsibilities demanded.
One of the more important and hence debated global issues is corporate power and its implications for international politics. Numerous initiatives for regulating the responsibilities of multinational corporations have been developed.
Nevertheless, the issue of corporate accountability is absent form the report. We do not believe that it is possible to effectively address the challenges ahead without addressing the role and responsibilities of transnational corporations and their investments. Against this background, it is indisputable that solutions cannot be found without the involvement of CSOs.
– Effective problem identification and effective tackling requires institutionalizing the role of CSOs at all levels of the UN
– The democratization of the UN demands involvement and participation of CSOs.
Coherence within the UN system
The unprecedented expansion of the of the UN since it was established has seen a major increase in membership and mandates and created a significant challenge for better coordination and coherence between and within the UN agencies and organs.
This has resulted in lack of effective coordination and coherence within the UN system. To face theses challenges, the UN system should be reformed to enhance coordination and modernise its policies in the light of new mandates.
The relation between the UN and the IFIs
The world cannot maintain a sustainable growth if nation-states and the UN continue to lose out to the ever emerging international economic associations such as the IFIs (including the Worlds bank, IMF), GEF and WTO.
These IFIs must be integrated and brought under the direct control of the UN through a functioning, strong, and effective ECOSOC.
Elevation of the Human Rights Commission
The ever expanding obsession with global security and anti-terrosim continue to replace the over arching imperative to respond to and address wide spread abuses of peoples most basic human rights. Indeed, human rigthts continue to be sacrified in pursuit of more of more secure world.
The UN must put in place more elaborate and binding framework fore safeguarding the right to protect the world from abuses of fundamemtal human rights. This will require the elevation of current UNHRC to the level of a HR Council with an expanded mandate.
All participants in Copenhagen did not put emphasise on the same issues and points raised in this paper. The strength of the global civil society is our ability to complement each others work.
This paper presents however briefly the complexity of our work and focus, and aims to bridge our different views. In Copenhagen we had the opportunity to exchange views and learn from each others experiences.
The real success of the gathering lies in our ability to continue our work with a more holistic perspective towards and beyond the UN Summit in September 2005.
Participating in the discussions were:
First Name Last Name Organization Name Country
Ziad Abdel Samad Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) Lebanon
Somorin Adejare Taofeek Peace Initiative International for Africa (PIIA) Nigeria
Rashida Al-Hamdani Women National Committee Yemen
Chernor Amadu Jalloh Bajito-Onda-Atrira Gambia
Nur Amalia Indonesia Peoples Forum Indonesia
Murad Amro PD
Lars Anderskouv MS Denmark
Dante B. Arienza PSLINK The Philippines
Hoda Badran Alliance for Arab Women Egypt
Richard Baguma UNA Uganda Uganda
Vagn Berthelsen Ibis Denmark
Mette Bloch Hansen KULU Denmark
Rubens Born Vitae Civilis Inst. for Dev., Env. and Peace Brazil
Mohammed Boukheddar FOREM Algeria
Victor Campos Centro Humboldt Nicaragua
Frescia Carasco Latin American and Carribbean Health Network
Achim Chiaji Civil Society Campaign on MDGs Kenya
Gregory Chikwanka CSPR Network Zambia
Annie Chimphango Sustainability Watch Malawi
Nguyen Dac Hy The Ecology and Environment Institute Vietnam
Hans Peter Dejgaard Sustainability Watch & Danish 92 Group Denmark
Arjun Dhakal Sustainability Watch Nepal
Felix Dodds Stakeholder Forum UK
Simon E. Omoding Sustainability Watch Uganda
Annelise Ebbe Kvindernes Int. Liga for Fred og Frihed Denmark
Signe Ejerskov KULU Denmark
Haythem El Maleh Human Rights Association in Syria Syria
Jakob Erle IAED Denmark
Ahmad Fayez Fawaz HRAS Syria
Mathilda Felthaus Kvinder i Dialog Denmark
Teresa Flores Bedregal Environmental Defence League (LIDEMA) Bolivia
Gitte Gammelgaard Red Cross Denmark
Mónica Garrido MS Denmark
Cissa Gaston Wa Numbe UNA Congo DR Congo
Daniel Ghebrelul Eritreanske Støtteforening i Danmark Denmark
Boudjema Ghechir Algerian League for Human Rights Algeria
Bonian Golmohaddi UNA-Sweden Sweden
Janice Goodson Førde KULU Denmark
Niels Groth DHC Denmark
Henny Hansen Sex & Samfund Denmark
Sonja Haugaard Christensen Dansk russisk Forening Denmark
Murad I.H. Amro Palestinian Councelling Center Palestine
Roy J. Cabonegro Sustainability Watch The Philippines
Torleif Jonasson FN-forbundet Denmark
Lars Josephsen MS Denmark
Niels Johan Juhl-Nielsen MS Denmark
Josephine Kamel Youssef AWEPON Egypt
Ghania Kebir FOREM Algeria
Mostafa Khiati FOREM Algeria
Chemist Khumalo Ceasefire Campaign South Africa
Richard Kimbowa Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development (UCSD Uganda
Douglas Kivumbi SEATINI Uganda
Mama Koite Doumbia FEMNET Mali
Esther Kostøl FN-sambandet, Norge Norway
Corinne Kumar El Taller Tunisia
Birgit La Cour Madsen Action Aid England England
Lone Lai Danish UNA Denmark
Lise Loft Human Rights March Denmark
Birgit Lundbak Save the Children Denmark
Vibeke Lynge Danmarks Lærerforening Denmark
Abdulkadir M. Kadia Jubbaland Humanitarian Society in Somalia Somalia
Joy Mabenge Zimbabwe Social Forum Zimbabwe
Prince Mashele Institute for Security Studies South Africa
Rosendo Mauricio Sermeño Palacios Unidad Ecologica Salvadoreña (UNES) El Salvador
Reda Mehigueni African Youth Network Algeria
Yadollah Mohammadi UNA Iran Iran
Nieues Molina IRCT
Jacob Montgomery Bahá’í-samfundet Denmark
Hanne Müller DGI Denmark
Richard Navarro CESTA El Salvador
Haggag Nayel Arab Program for Human Rights Activitists (APHRA) Egypt
Bente Nielsen UNA Denmark Denmark
Helle Nielsen KULU Denmark
John Nordbo 92-gruppen Denmark
Patrick Ochieng Ujamaa Center, Kenya Kenya
Elkanah Odembo UFADHILI TRUST Kenya
Gunhild Ørstavik Forum Syd Norway
Bill Pace World Federalist Movement USA
Ana Quirós Viquez CISAS Nicaragua
Isagani R. Serrano PRRM The Philippines
Anne Lise Rasmussen Kvinderådets Styrelse Denmark
Lene Schumacher WFM USA
Muborak Sharipova WECF & Open Asia Denmark Denmark
Salil Shetty MDGs Campaign
Kari Solholm UNA Norway Norway
Stephen Stedman Special Advisor to the Secretary-General
Mikkel Stenbæk Hansen 92-gruppen Denmark
Eeva Suhonen UNA-Finland Finland
Viriato Tamele The Economic Justice Coalition in Mozambique Mozambique
Jerker Thorsell Forum Syd Sweden
Linda Nordin Thorslund UNA Sweden Sweden
Beatriz Torres GBIF Denmark
Happy James Tumwebaze Sustainability Watch Network Uganda
Francis Valverde UNA Chile Chile
Dominic Walubengo Forest Action Network Kenya
Christine Wiik FOKUS Norway
M.M. Zawahir UNA Sri Lanka Sri Lanka
Yderligere oplysninger hos Torleif Jonasson, tlf. 28 87 45 02.
