June 28, 2000
Meanwhile, several nongovernmental organizations and civil society groups yesterday held a parallel meeting to the Copenhagen+5 summit, criticizing UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's A Better World for All report
Annan's report, released Monday, came under attack for the collaboration of multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in its preparation. Civil society groups voted yesterday to draft a declaration criticizing the report. According to Malaysian activist Meena Raman, who heads the committee composing the draft, Annan had shared the document with "the perpetrators of the problems of poverty and inequality in the world."
NGO representatives also questioned Annan's right to sign the document without consulting other sectors. "There must be a voice of the South, a voice of the developing countries must be present there," said Raman. She pointed out that an IMF official said the report was originally drafted for a meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized nations. But Chilean diplomat Cristian Maquieira, chair of Copenhagen+5's preparatory committee, said the secretary-general is not required to consult with others before submitting such reports. Still, NGO leaders said there are portions of the A Better World for All report that contradict commitments made at the first Copenhagen summit in 1995. "The report is highly unbalanced and controversial," Raman said (Gustavo Capdevila, Inter Press Service/TerraViva, 28 Jun).
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