Elections & governance

Global: Peoples' agenda for parliamentarians

2008-11-07, Issue 405

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/51851

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Over 500 women and men, citizens, representing people’s organisations from 41 countries across Asia and Europe joined together in Beijing between the 13th and 15th October 2008 at the 7th Asia Europe People’s Forum to work ‘For Social and Ecological Justice.’ We focussed on developing strategies and recommendations to our elected representatives, and to ourselves, as active citizens, for ‘Peace and Security,’ ‘Social and Economic Rights, and Environmental Justice’ and ‘Participatory Democracy and Human Rights.’

People’s Agenda for Parliamentarians

Over 500 women and men, citizens, representing people’s organisations from 41 countries across Asia and Europe joined together in Beijing between the 13th and 15th October 2008 at the 7th Asia Europe People’s Forum to work ‘For Social and Ecological Justice.’ We focussed on developing strategies and recommendations to our elected representatives, and to ourselves, as active citizens, for ‘Peace and Security,’ ‘Social and Economic Rights, and Environmental Justice’ and ‘Participatory Democracy and Human Rights.’

We met at a moment of major historical importance that has brought into sharp focus the drastic inequalities, injustice and poverty experienced by people across Asia and Europe. What is currently being presented as a ‘financial crisis’ is in reality the latest in a series of interlinked crises - food, energy, climate, human security and environmental degradation - that are already devastating the lives, and compounding the poverty and exclusion faced on a daily basis by millions of women, men and children.

There is a strong consensus across Asia and Europe that the dominant approach over the last decades - based around the deregulation of markets, increasing power of multinational corporations, unaccountable multilateral institutions and trade liberalisation - has failed to meet the needs and rights of all citizens. We need to go beyond an analysis and response that focuses solely on short-term measures benefiting a few financial institutions.

Our governments and the citizens of Asia and Europe have a unique and historic opportunity to transform our social, economic and political futures so that all can live in peace, security and dignity. We all need to take responsibilities to work together to create and implement the radical and creative solutions needed for people centred recovery, change and a harmonious world - we will not have this opportunity again.

We recognise that the crisis has illuminated the deep links, connections and inter-dependence between people across Asia and Europe.

As Asian and European social movements, organisations, networks and citizens committed to working for a just and equal world, we call on our Asian and European parliamentarians and our governments to join with us in taking forward a People’s Agenda founded on four fundamental principles:


i) the promotion of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights as agreed in international human rights and humanitarian law;

ii) the promotion of environmentally, socially and economically sustainable patterns of development;

iii) greater economic and social equity and justice, including equality between women and men;

iv) the active participation of civil society organisations in democratic life and decision-making process of their countries.

We therefore call upon our parliamentarians and our governments to implement people centered responses to the current financial crisis, in an effective and responsible manner.

Urgent need must be given to poor, excluded and marginalised people. Governments must work with citizens to develop and implement policies that will lead to a just, equal and sustainable world, and more accountable and democratic institutions – based on respect for gender equality, our environment and fundamental human rights.

To do this, as citizens, we call upon parliamentarians and our governments to develop legislation and mobilise the resources for the following:

Social and Economic Rights

* Use the opportunity of the current financial and political crisis to put in place an alternative financial architecture and infrastructure that will promote and enable a more equitable, carbon neutral and just global economic system, reclaiming national development policy rights and empowering working people. Financial institutions and financial decision-making must become truly accountable and transparent.
* Implement social protection policies (employment guarantee schemes, living pensions, disability benefit, carer support etc) that have been shown to be affordable and essential in alleviating poverty. Acknowledge that social security for all without discrimination is a universal right.
* Cancel or stop payment of all illegitimate debt and end the use of loans and debt relief to impose conditionalities.
* Respect and fulfil the right and obligation of all countries and peoples to reverse the harmful policies that have led to the debt, food, and climate crises, such as Structural Adjustment Programmes, unjust Trade Agreements, Investment Protection Treaties and Infrastructure Integration Initiatives.
* Renegotiate existing and end current negotiations on all unjust and unfair free trade agreements (bilateral and multilateral).
* Promote agricultural strategies aimed at achieving food security, food sovereignty and sustainable farming.
* Respect the right to food and healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods-protecting biodiversity. Food producers and fisherfolk should have access to and control over the means of production (e.g. land, seeds, water, appropriate technology). There must be full recognition of the rights and roles of women in food production.
* Implement agrarian reform programmes, strengthening local food production and consumption, diversification, controls on agribusiness and decreasing dependence on international markets and which support small holder agriculture and sustain peasant farmers and indigenous communities
* Implement a moratorium on grain and food based agro-fuel production.
* Ensure decent working conditions for all workers and respect for core labour standards. Develop and implement legislation to recognise, protect and promote informal workers, migrant, domestic and homeworkers.
* Guarantee equal pay for equal work for women – as a basic principle and to help counter the coming recession by increasing workers’ capacity to consume.
* Protect the rights of migrant workers in the event of job losses, ensuring their safe return to and reintegration into their home countries. For those who cannot return, there should be no forced return, their security should be guaranteed, and they should be provided with employment or a basic minimum income.
* Ratify the UN Convention on the Protection of Rights and Well Being of Migrant Workers and members of their families and other relevant conventions as a minimum requirement for protecting the rights, decent work and well being of migrant workers. Recognise and protect the rights of migrant domestic workers and provide for the protection of their labour and human rights – in consultation with civil society and trade unions. Develop one standard for all countries in relation to recognising the skills and training of workers.
* Reaffirm that access to safe water and sanitation is a fundamental human right and to implement this right for all citizens. Transparency, accountability, ensuring public participation and good governance of water management, are all key to effective and democratic water delivery. All forms of water service delivery must be based on principles of affordable access, provision of quality water and based on consultation and participation.
* Prevent the future privatisation of public resources such as water, health and education and, where possible, reverse current privatisation policies by ensuring greater democratic public control and public financing.

Finance

* Create people-based banking institutions and strengthen existing popular forms of lending based on mutuality and solidarity.
* Institutionalise full transparency within the financial system through the opening of the books to the public, to be facilitated by citizen and worker organisations.
* Introduce parliamentary and citizens’ oversight of the existing banking system
* Apply social ( including conditions of labour) and environmental criteria to all lending, including for business purposes
* Prioritise lending, at minimum rates of interest, to meet social and environmental needs and to expand the already growing social economy

Taxation

* Close all tax havens
* End tax breaks for fossil fuel and nuclear energy companies
* Apply stringent progressive tax systems
* Introduce a levy on nationalised bank profits with which to establish citizen investment funds
* Impose stringent progressive carbon taxes on those with the biggest carbon footprints
* Adopt controls, such as Tobin taxes, on the movements of speculative capital
* Work with other governments to prevent transfer pricing and tax evasion

Public Spending and Investment

* Redirect government spending from bailing out bankers to guaranteeing basic incomes and social security, and providing universally accessible basic social services such as housing, water, electricity, health, education and child care
* Improve the performance of public enterprises through democratizing management - encourage public service managers, staff, unions and consumer organisations to collaborate to this end
* Invest massively in improved energy efficiency, low carbon emitting public transport, renewable energy and environmental repair
* Introduce incentives for products produced for sale closest to the local market

Environment

* Develop decentralised, renewable energy sources to combat climate change and contribute to sustainable development. Implement legislation that will support all citizens in reducing their energy consumption.
* Whilst fulfilling the Kyoto Protocol work, work with other governments to ensure far reaching and binding agreements in Copenhagen in December 2009 including the firm and binding commitment by OECD countries to reduce emissions by at least 80% within an agreed time period.
* Substantially cut global emissions based on common yet differentiated responsibilities and support and finance adaptation and mitigation initiatives across the world.
* Introduce a global system of compensation for countries which do not exploit fossil fuel reserves in the global interests of limiting effects on the climate,
* Strictly implement the “precautionary principle” of the UN Declaration on the Right to Development as a condition for all developmental and environmental projects.
* Stop the development of carbon trading and other environmentally counter-productive techno-fixes, such as carbon capture and sequestration, agrofuels, nuclear power and ‘clean coal’ technology.
* Adopt strategies to radically reduce consumption in the rich countries, while promoting sustainable development in poorer countries
* Introduce democratic management of all international funding mechanisms for climate change mitigation, with strong participation from Southern countries and civil society.

Participatory Democracy and Human Rights

* Eliminate the stigma, discrimination and human rights violations experienced by millions of people due to their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, caste, HIV status and ethnicity.
* Ensure that existing consultations and mechanisms mandated by governments for consultation with their citizens are truly representative and inclusive.
* Recognise that people’s organizations, social movements, trade unions, NGOs and other citizens’ groups as independent development actors, contributing to democratic processes.
* Implement quotas for women candidates and elected representatives at all levels (including within political parties), with sanctions for non-adherence.
* Include indicators and strategies for increasing women’s political participation in all national economic and social development plans.
* Take concrete steps to tackle the violence that is a major barrier preventing women from participating in political life – enact legislation to make it illegal for men to hold office if they have been convicted of violence against women.
* Protect and ensure optimum expression and freedom to information and transparency.
* Support initiatives that promote local participatory democracy, in addition to strengthening accountability within local governance.
* Ratify and fully implement UN Conventions on the Rights of Disabled People. Realise that this will not happen without the meaningful participation of disabled people at all levels.
* Mainstream disability concerns into local and national economic and social development
* To empower people with disabilities and their organisations for their equal participation and full inclusion in all respects of life, through partnerships amongst stakeholders including civil society and government.
* Protect the rights of people living with HIV from stigma, exclusion, discrimination and human rights violations, and to ensure access to free treatment, care and support – exempting lifesaving medications from global trade agreements. To give special support to children who have lost their parents to HIV.
* Ensure those responsible and complicit are brought to justice for those missing and disappeared and that there is legally agreed compensation for their families.
* Release all political prisoners and asylum seekers
* Develop multi-pronged and adequately financed regional anti-human trafficking policies.
* People who are recipients of development aid should define what they need and participate in development of their projects.

Peace and Security

- Develop long term solutions to promote peace, human security and sustainable development that prioritise non-violent means of conflict resolution, people-to-people interactions, use of international conventions and regional co-operation.

- Abolish the anti-terrorist laws that have been developed as a response to the ‘war on terror’ and that are being used on a daily basis to impose restrictions on citizens, and to criminalise peaceful organisations and minorities. Ensure any additional security measures, whether national, regional or international, are subject to democratic scrutiny by citizens, parliaments and respect internationally agreed legislation.

- Enact national legislation to guarantee full and public disclosure of government defence, arms exports and security budgets.

- Cut military expenditure and transfer funds to health and education programmes.

- Work with other Governments to use the Non-Proliferation Treaty as the basis of regional co-operation and take steps to denuclearise Europe and Asia while striving for a nuclear free world.

- Take primary responsibility to control the trade and proliferation of arms. Work with other Governments to develop and agree transparent and binding mechanisms, overseen by the UN, to control arms imports and exports.

Beijing 19th October 2008

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