Global Policy Forum

By Felicity Hill

September 6-9, 2000, all world leaders are invited to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City for the Millennium Summit.

The People's Summit insists that the founding goals of the United Nations and the results of the World Conferences on the Environment, Children, Women, Housing, Social Development, and Sustainable Development can and must be achieved. No more empty rethoric!

The Millennium Summit of World Leaders must democratize political structures and the international political economy to elevate the quality of life of all the world's people.

Building on the mobilizations in Seattle and Washington D.C. and grassroots initiatives in the United States and internationally, a coalition of organizations has formed an interim Steering Committee to convene a People's Summit to demand:

Democratization not Corporatization

- No UN/corporate partnerships
- No corporate influence of the UN
- Abolish the IMF & WTO/No New Round
- Reign in the World Bank
- Resist corporate globalization/Fair Trade not Free Trade

Eradicate Poverty

- Cancel "Third World" Debt
- Achieve the 2015 Human Development Goals
- Respect and protect the Sovereignty of the nations of the Global South
- Protect and expand global spending on health and education
- Promote food self-sufficiency for every society
- Freedom from want, Freedom from fear

Human Security

- Radically reduce global military spending
- Eliminate nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction
- Ban the use of landmines; remove existing landmines
- Demobilize, de-militarize and reintegrate child soldiers
- Democratize the Security Council: abolish the veto power of the Nuclear 5
- Women at every peace table
- Eradicate privatized military forces
- Move from a global culture of war to a global culture of peace

Human Rights

- Implement and enforce all human rights treaties & instruments
- Hold corporations accountable to these treaties & instruments
- Protect the land rights and dignity of Indigenous Peoples
- Eliminate trafficking in women and children
- End the militarization of police and the abuse of the incarcerated

Labor Rights

- Implement and enforce fair international labor standards
- End child labor
- Eliminate sweatshops and Maquliadoras ("Free Trade Zones")
- Empower national and international trade unions
- Recognise domestic and other forms of non-wage labor
- Equal pay for women and men

Rule of Law

- Rule of law not rule of force
- Rule of law for corporations, countries and individuals

Ecological Protection

- Stop all unsustainable development
- Radically reduce use of fossil fuels
- Promote sustainable energy, agriculture & industry
- Stop polluting and destroying water, land, air, habitat and wildlife

The coalition employs democratic, non-hierarchical, consensus-based decision making processes such as those used at WTO demonstrations in Seattle and WTO/IMF in Washington DC.

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Interim Steering Committee: Corporate Watch, Free Burma Coalition, 50 Years is Enough, Jubilee 2000 Global South, Economic Justice for Africa Now, Coalition for Dignity & Amnesty for Undocumented Immigrants

ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS are welcome to promote initiatives and instruments -- the International Criminal Court, the Tobin Tax, the Vaccine Fund, HIV/AIDS prevention, ending the economic isolation of Cuba, ending the sanctions against Iraq, getting the US military out of Vieques -- that they feel will serve the goals listed above.

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