By Robert E. Sullivan
Earth TimesSeptember 4, 2002
The organizers of the nongovernmental organizations' (NGOs) Global People's Forum Wednesday declared their meeting here "a success"--largely based on the efforts of the 500 or so activists to get to know each other and network.
The final documents from the People's Forum differ so fundamentally in their conclusions from the document emerging from the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) that it would appear that there were two summits in two separate locations--which there were.
The 17 separate but sometimes overlapping commission reports from the NGO meeting, reflecting the work of some 500 interested organizations over seven days of meetings, are much more direct than the diplomatically worded WSSD document.
In agriculture, for instance, the WSSD document calls for "phasing" out of only "harmful" subsidies. The NGO agriculture commission report read, "Northern governments should stop subsidizing their farmers in ways that undermine southern producers." The finance commission was even more direct: "Eliminate agricultural subsidies and other direct and indirect trade barriers in developed countries."
The NGO document contains language unlikely to appear in UN literature in the near future: "Processes of liberalization and globalization are failing to achieve food security. In recent years the World Trade Organization (WTO) has gained excessive power, and its policies further marginalize local livelihoods through biases against small producers."
Equally unlikely to interest the UN is the first recommendation from the Commission on Global Governance and Corruption: "The UN should be dissolved and restructured, and replace consultation with participation." That commission also found that, "Corruption originates from the North and the West (G8 countries)."
The 42-page presentation of the commission reports also calls for debt cancellation and the establishment of international debt arbitration; a banning of all genetic engineering products; a "ban on the patenting of life;" legally binding rules for corporations to be accountable for "the highest social, labor and environmental standards;" a campaign against the fossil fuel industry "as was done in the anti-tobacco campaign;" and strict timetables--specifically before the year 2015--for meeting targets on poverty reduction, infant mortality, halving poverty and achieving universal primary education and gender equality.
The reports include the following demands and statements: "No new issues, such as investment, competition, government procurement in the WTO." "Local communities and indigenous peoples are the custodians of biodiversity." "The principle of economic justice (i.e. distribution of land, exploitation of natural and human resources) should be integrated into peace processes and conflict interventions." "There should be an undertaking by all nations for a radical decline in military spending and support for violent instruments of change." "Take agriculture out of WTO--agriculture is not a commodity. It is a means of livelihood and survival for small-scale farmers." "Financial liberalization does not result in economic growth." "Laws of the WTO and rich countries protect business, not people." "We call for the formation of a new social movement to combat globalization and countries that promote it."
The NGOs agreed with the WSSD on several issues including: the need for transparency in good governance and transparency in corporate dealings with governments; the need for global corruption mechanisms; the need for education on the relationship between environment and health; and access to water and sanitation being a basic right of all people.
Gordon Bispham of Barbados, head of the International Steering Group (ISG), said at a final press conference, "I think we have been extremely successful in terms of building on social movement and social coordinators." But a written statement handed out by the ISG was less enthusiastic about the final declarations of the World Summit on Sustainable Development than ran parallel to the forum.
The statement said the forum had "serious concern" about: "The silence on issues of health, especially HIV/Aids; the ambiguity on the privatization of essential services like water and electricity; The lack of political will by powerful countries to commit towards set targets; The resistance by business and political leaders of the North to fair trade; The refusal of the leaders gathered S to commit measurable resources to drive sustainable development programs; The refusal of the United States to discuss pollution caused by industries through the use of fossil fuel." The statement continued, "We condemn the behavior of these countries. But civil society is not new to such disappointment.
The People's Forum, said that it had achieved success in its specified goals: "To build alliances based on Solidarity. To work out sustainable development programs to take us to the next ten years. To reduce the gap between civil society organizations in the north and the south; and to create a single platform from which we can henceforth speak with one voice."
The statement also said that, "in terms of the above objectives we believe we have achieved more than was realistically expected."
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