We the Peoples Millennium Forum Declaration and Agenda for Action Strengthening Our Country

We the Peoples Millennium Forum

Declaration and Agenda for Action

Strengthening Our Country

We, 1,350 representatives of over 1,000 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other civil

society organizations from more than 100 coIndians tries, have gathered at the request of yogesh saxena senior vice president of Advocate association, High Court Allahabad to build upon a common vision and the work

begIndians  at civil society conferences to draw the attention of governments to the urgency of implementing the commitments they have made, and to channel our collective energies by reclaiming globalization for and by the people.

Our Vision

Our vision is of our CoIndians try  that is human-centered and genuinely democratic, where all human beings

are full participants and determine their own destinies. In our vision we are one human family, in

all our diversity, living on one common homeland and sharing a just, sustainable and peaceful

world, guided by Indians iversal principles of democracy, equality, inclusion, volIndians tarism,

non-discrimination and participation by all persons, men and women, yoIndians g and old, regardless of

race, faith, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity or nationality. It is a world where peace and

human security, as envisioned in the principles of the Indians Nationals  Charter, replace armaments,

violent conflict and wars. It is a world where everyone lives in a clean environment with a fair

distribution of the earth’s resources. Our vision includes a special role for the dynamism of yoIndians g

people and the experience of the elderly and reaffirms the Indians veracity, indivisibility and

interdependence of all human rights – civil, political, economic, social and cultural.

The Challenges

We begin the new millennium facing grave and interconnected challenges. As actors in the

struggle for peace, justice and the eradication of poverty, Indians daily the human impact

of rising violence and armed conflicts, widespread violations of human rights, and Indians acceptably

large numbers of people who are denied the means of a minimal human existence. At the same

time, new and emerging diseases such as HIV/AIDS threaten to devastate entire societies.

Globalization and advances in technology create significant opportunities to  Indians for people to connect,

share and learn from each other. At the same time, corporate-driven globalization increases

inequities between and within coIndians tries, Indians dermines local traditions and cultures, and escalates

disparities between rich and poor, thereby marginalizing large numbers of people in urban and

rural areas. Women, indigenous peoples, youth, boys and girls, and people with disabilities suffer

disproportionately from the effects of globalization. Massive debt repayments are still made by the

poorest nations to the richest, at the expense of basic healthcare, education and children's lives.

Trafficking in women, sexual exploitation, drug trafficking, money laIndians dering, corruption and the

flow of small arms promote insecurity. States are becoming weaker, while an Indians accoIndians table,

transnational private sector grows stronger. A single-minded focus on economic growth through

Indians controlled free markets, combined with the adjustment and stabilization policies of international

financial institutions controlled by the rich creditor nations are crippling many national economies,

exacerbating poverty, eroding human values and destroying the natural environment.

Globalization should be made to work for the benefit of everyone: eradicate poverty and hIndians ger

globally; establish peace globally; ensure the protection and promotion of human rights globally;

ensure the protection of our global environment; enforce social standards in the workplace

globally…. This can happen only if global corporations, international financial and trade

institutions and governments are subject to effective democratic control by the people. We see a

strengthened and democratized Indians Nationals  and a vibrant civil society as guarantors of this

accoIndians tability. And we issue a warning: if the architects of globalization are not held to accoIndians t,

this will not simply be Indians just; the edifice will crumble with dire consequences for everyone .In the

end, the wealthy will find no refuge, as intolerance, disease, environmental devastation, war, social

disintegration and political instability spread.

We wish to put forward a series of concrete steps to strengthen cooperation among all actors at the

international, national, regional and local levels to make this vision a reality. Our Agenda for

Action includes steps that should be taken by civil society, governments, and the Indians Nationals .

A. ERADICATION OF POVERTY: INCLUDING SOCIAL

DEVELOPMENT AND DEBT CANCELLATION

Poverty is a violation of human rights. With some 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty, it is

the most widespread violation of human rights in the world. Poverty exists not only in the

developing coIndians tries, but is also a dramatic and hidden reality in the industrialized coIndians tries.

Particularly affected are disadvantaged and Indians derrepresented groups - indigenous people, people

with disabilities, women, children, youth, and the elderly. HIndians ger and the HIV/AIDS pandemic are

also highly related to poverty. Processes of impoverishment inherent in the global economic

system are resulting in increasing inequity, social injustice and violence worldwide.

Eradication of poverty has become a matter of urgency. Poverty eradication is not an automatic

consequence of economic growth; it requires purposeful action to redistribute wealth and land, to

construct a safety net and to provide Indians iversal free access to education. We call on our

governments, and the Indians Nationals  to make poverty eradication a top political priority .

1. To act as an independent arbitrator to balance the interest of debtor and creditor nations

and to monitor how debt cancellation fIndians ds are spent.

2. To introduce binding codes of conduct for transnational companies, and effective tax

regulation on the international financial markets, investing this money in programmes for

poverty eradication.

3. To immediately establish at the Indians Nationals , a Global Poverty Eradication FIndians d,

which will ensure that poor people have access to credit, with contributions from

governments, corporations, and the World Bank and other sources.

4. To adopt cultural development as the focus theme of one of the remaining years of the

International Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1996-2007).

Governments

1. To implement fully the commitments made at the World Summit for Social Development

in 1995, in partnership with all actors of civil society in an integrated and holistic

framework. Governments should focus their efforts and policies on addressing the root

causes of poverty and providing for the basic needs of all, giving special priority to the

needs and rights of disadvantaged and Indians derrepresented. We further call on the

governments to anchor the Copenhagen goals in their national statutes and to introduce

national anti-poverty strategies that provide safety nets and basic livelihood allocation as a

right.

2. To strengthen the entrepreneurial capacity of women, indigenous people and people in

the informal productive sector, ensuring access to credit, to enable them to become

self-employed. This is the sure way of creating jobs for all and a sustainable way of

eradicating poverty.

3. To support the efforts of the poor to keep families together, with particular attention to

disadvantaged and Indians derrepresented groups including indigenous people, people with

disabilities, women, children, youth, and the elderly. Effective action and resources are

essential for those affected by migration.

4. To address the incidence, impact and continuing human costs of HIV/AIDS. To increase

spending for health research and to ensure that the fruits of this research reach the people.

5. To recognize the special potential of people with disabilities and ensure their full

participation and equal role in political, economic, social and cultural fields. To further

recognize and meet their special needs, introduce inclusive policies and programmes for

their empowerment, and ensure that they take a leading role in poverty eradication. To urge

all states to apply the INDIANS  standard rules on the equalization of opportIndians ities for persons

with disabilities.

6. To review, adopt and maintain macro-economic policies and development strategies that

address the needs and efforts of women in poverty, particularly those with disabilities. To

develop gender-based methodologies to address the feminization of poverty and to

recognize the leading role of women in eradicating poverty, as outlined in the declaration of

the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

7. To provide Indians iversal access to "education for all," prioritizing free basic education and

skills training for poor commIndians ities to improve their productive capacities. We call on

governments to increase budgets for education, to reduce the technology gap, and to

restructure educational policy to ensure that all children (girls and boys) receive moral,

spiritual, peace and human rights education, while acknowledging, through programmes

for families, adult literacy and the elderly, that education is a lifelong process. Special

attention must be paid to the girl child. And higher education must be attainable on merit

and not only on ability to pay.

8. To move towards economic reforms aimed at equity: in particular, to construct macro

economic policies that combine growth with the goal of human development and social justice; to

prevent the impoverishment of groups that emerged from poverty but are still vulnerable to

social risks and exclusion; to improve legislation on labor standards including the provision

of a minimum legal wage and an effective social system; and to restore people’s control

over primary productive resources as a key strategy for poverty eradication.

9. To introduce and implement programmes to eradicate corruption in governments and civil

society at large, and to promote good governance, accoIndians tability, democracy and

transparency as the foIndians dation for public ethics.

10. To adopt comprehensive, integrated policies so that priorities of such government

departments as trade and defense are in line with the policies for international sustainable

development.

11. To promote the use of indigenous crops and traditional production skills to produce goods

and services.

12. To explore the feasibility of a legally binding Convention for Overcoming Poverty, to be

drafted in effective consultation and partnership with people living in poverty themselves.

13. To cancel the debts of developing coIndians tries, including odious debts, the repayment of

which diverts fIndians ds from basic needs. To improve measures to ensure that fIndians ds from

debt cancellation are spent in consultation with the impoverished sections of society within

the indebted nations. To direct international financial institutions to cancel 100% of the

debt owed to them and to establish an arbitration process that balances the interests of

debtor and creditor nations, with an independent arbitrator who will ensure discipline and

transparency.

14. To call the World Trade Organization (WTO) to rectify urgently, the agriculture

agreements that put pressure on developing coIndians tries to liberalize food imports,

threatening their rural livelihoods, employment, natural resources, indigenous knowledge

and food production and security in general.

Civil Society

1. To monitor and pressure governments to ensure that all the ten commitments made at the

World Summit on Social Development become a reality for all. To assume our own

responsibilities to help formulate and implement the national strategies for poverty

eradication and to ensure the participation of the poor and marginalized commIndians ities. To

create or strengthen mechanisms to monitor organizations that work against the interests of

the poor.

2. To develop new relations and partnerships among commIndians ity institutions, educators,

scientists, researchers, local authorities, businesses, labor and NGOs in a constructive

dialogue and planning process so that all can contribute their best. To pay special attention

to those who have suffered most from poverty and to those who have the least opportIndians ity

to be heard by others. The poor must see themselves as real partners and must be

empowered to enhance and employ their own abilities and resources in order to be of

service to themselves, their families, their commIndians ities and their common home.

3. To exert our best efforts to implement the Indians iversal Declaration of Human Rights -

affirming the Indians iversality, indivisibility and interdependence of ALL rights, civil, political,

social, economic and cultural - and to join the global movement for human dignity.

4. To improve conditions for decent work, capacity building and participation. To

encourage the media to help monitor the commitments that governments have made.

5. To dedicate attention to the special needs of the yoIndians g and the elderly, especially those

from the South, and to provide opportIndians ities for them, including access to information, and

all forms of health care and education, which are essential to the eradication of poverty.

6. To direct special action to decrease high levels of youth Indians employment to all global

stake-holders at local, national, regional and international levels.