|
Letter From Yoko Kitazawa |
|
|
|
The Role of NGOs
Yoko Kitazawa Introduction At the beginning of the 1990s, the Cold War structure between the United States and the Soviet Union, which formed the framework of post-war international politics, collapsed. As a result, various problems, which had previously been hidden by the confrontations between the two super-powers, surfaced in the form of increased poverty, internal strife, intensified armed conflicts, deterioration of the environment, greater numbers of refugees and immigrants, gross violations of human rights, and genocide. Starting with the Summit on Children in New York in 1990, the United Nations began to conduct large-scale world conferences on a series of global issues. These were the UN Summit of Environment and Development (Earth Summit) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the World Conference on Human rights held in Vienna in 1993, the World Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994, the World Summit for Social Development and the 4th World Conference on Women, held in Copenhagen and Beijing, respectively, in 1995, and HABITAT II held in Istanbul in 1996. Each of these conferences adopted a plan or programme of actions to be carried out by member-governments as well as international institutions. Five years later each of these conferences, the UN convened its review meeting of summit level or high-levels. Significantly, World Conferences such as "Children", "Environment and Development" and "Social Development" included summit level meetings with heads of states and governments of the member-nations. The first major feature of these World Conferences is their scale;
they are mammoth conferences with participants numbering in the several
tens of thousands. In particular, the participants at the World Conference
on Women in Beijing numbered 50,000, making it the largest conference
of the UN in the 20th Century. 1. The United Nations and Brief History of NGOs With the foundation of the United Nations in 1945, the UN has given NGOs observer status at the UN Conference. NGOs at that time, however, had several prerequisites, which had to be an international non-government organization with an active membership that conducted activities in a number of countries, as outlined in Chapter 10, Article 71 of the Charter of the United Nations. Therefore, NGOs were limited to international organizations such as the World Council of Churches, World YMCA, and International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. NGOs active on a domestic level were not qualified to participate in. International NGOs were given a consultative status in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and required the approval of all UN member countries. As a result, in the case of an international human rights group, the NGO might not be admitted, if the government of the country accused violating human rights disagreed with its accreditation. The number of NGOs at the end of the Cold War reached 1,500, but the NGOs supported by the former Soviet bloc, such as the World Council of Peace, were forced to terminate their activities. With the suspension of activities, the number of these NGOs is said to be approximately half. And since 1998, due to the recognition of an important role of NGOs in the international politics, which will be explained later in this article, the UN enlarged its interpretation of Article 71 of the UN Charter. Any NGO, either local, national or international, could be accredited to the UN and given a consultative status in ECOSOC. NGOs with a consultative status in ECOSC can now participate as observers at almost all UN conferences, including meetings of the General Assembly and other UN Conferences, with a few exceptions such as meeting of the UN Security Council. Furthermore, NGOs currently taking an active role at UN conferences are no longer limited to NGOs that have been granted observer status by ECOSOC, as mentioned above. Greater cooperation between the United Nations and NGOs began with the UN Conference on the Environment and Humans, which was held in Stockholm in 1972. Responding to an appeal by the then Sweden's Prime Minister, Mr. Olaf Palme, an NGO forum was organized in the same city. At this time, North and South countries at the United Nations were at loggerheads concerning the establishment of New International Economic Order(NIEO), in addition to the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. Even though the theme in Stockholm was the "environment" on a global scale, conflicts between the East and the West, as well as the North and the South, erupted and discussions were heated and came to a deadlock. Holding NGO Forum NGOs participating at an NGO forum are not required to be an international organization. For example, at the Conference on the Environment and Humans (Stockholm), many grass-root organizations opposing industrial pollution and environmental destruction, locally and nationally, participated in the NGO Forum along with community based organizations (CBOs) engaged in natural conservation and preservation of ecology. NGOs and CBOs, which are active both locally and nationally, participated in, according to the themes of the UN conferences such as environment, human rights, population and health, social development, women and habitat. At recent NGO forums, various gatherings and events have been conducted everyday, such as workshops, plenary sessions, photographic exhibitions, and performances. At the NGO forum held in conjunction with the 4th World Conference on Women in September 1995 in Huairou, just outside of Beijing, more than 30,000 NGO members participated, and the forum became the largest conference gathering in the 20th Century. NGO Lobbying Activities It was on entering the 1990s that NGOs began to directly influence UN conferences in ways other than holding NGO forums in conjunction with UN conferences. This happened at the Earth Summit held in Rio in 1992. For example, during the Preparatory Committee meeting held in New York in 1991, the women's NGOs such as Green Belt Movement in Kenya and Chipco Movement in India, found that the gender perspective was totally lacking in the draft " Agenda 21" presented to the meeting. It is Women who suffer from the environmental destruction and at the same time it is women who protect the environment. They thought that women's role has to be clearly mentioned in the draft. Shortly afterwards, approximately 1,000 women NGO activists from 70 countries met in Miami, Florida and produced the amendments to the Draft "Agenda 21". The Miami gathering set up international women's NGO network called the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) was also set up. Prominent women leaders such as late Bella Abzug of the US, Bandana Shiva of India, Wangari Mathai of Kenya, and Jocelyn Dow of Jamaica were among its co-chairs. The role played by WEDO at the Earth Summit in Rio was significant.
A majority of WEDO's proposal related to gender were incorporated into
agreed " Agenda 21". The Women's Caucus was then organized
by women's NGOs that have obtained observer status under the initiative
of WEDO at almost all the UN conferences addressing global issues. The
World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993 unanimously
adopted the women's rights as the Human Rights. At the World Conference
on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994, it was agreed upon
that women's reproductive health/rights were to be respected in the
formation of population policy at the inter-governmental meeting. This
represents remarkable progress as population issue was conventionally
recognized only in the framework of food and security. At the UN Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo, NGOs were included in government delegation of each country. Although their numbers differed, at least three NGOs representatives from each country participated. At Beijing, taking Spain as an example, a female NGO representative was the head of the Spanish delegation. Spain was also the chair country for the EU during the same year, and she made a presentation on behalf of the 21 EU countries. In other word, 15-countries of the EU were represented by an NGO activist. At the HABITAT II in Istanbul NGOs representatives were permitted to join in the discussions in the working Group meetings of member-governments. NGO Partnership with Government At the UN World Summit for Social Development held in Copenhagen in March 1995, heads of states and governments adopted a Plan of Action to be achieved by the year 2000. And the UN launched " Decade of Poverty Eradication" starting from 1996. Although leaders believe that the implementation of this Plan of Action is duty of governments, government alone cannot accomplish it. Government leaders admitted that most part of items contained in this Plan of Action have already been undertaken by NGOs, and they recognized that without the participation of NGOs, the Plan would not be fulfilled. The Plan of Action calls that NGOs are equal partners with government in implementing the programmes of eradication of poverty, creating productive employment, and social integration. What does mean an equal partnership? It is not merely an NGO consultation
with government, nor a simple participation of NGOs in certain process
of implementation of government programme. Real meaning of an equal
partnership is that NGOs are to be invited in drafting a National Plan
of Action jointly with government, first of all. NGOs are to be invited
in designing actual projects and programmes for social development,
monitoring and evaluating them afterwards. At the same time, public
information disclosure is prerequisite for equal partnership of NGOs
with government. In the 1960s, former colonies became independent. However, their independence The mainstream economists of the World Bank proposed to industrialize the South in order to remedy the widening gap. Mainstream economists drew their prescription. It was a project of export-oriented industrialization with foreign investments. Corporations in the North invest capital and set up manufacturing factories in the South. When the corporation invest across the national boundaries, they become Transnational Corporations (TNCs). And products of these factories would be exported abroad in order to get foreign currency. Thus economic growth would be achieved in developing countries, as mainstream economists had previously prescribed. However, TNCs demand certain preconditions, when they invest their capital in developing countries. In order to set up factories, it is necessary to have previously built infrastructures such as modern port, road, and water/electricity supply by the governments of developing countries. The Northern governments provide Official Development Assistance (ODA) and the World Bank provided loans to the governments in the South with the purpose to construct these industrial infrastructures. In the 1960s and 1970s, TNCs massively invested in developing countries. Nevertheless, with a few exceptions such as Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, most of the developing countries could not " take off" as the mainstream economists had prescribed, and large-scale poverty was created within developing countries. In 1980, the World Bank said that 500 million people lived under absolute poverty, i.e., people who live with less than one dollar a day. The failure of this development model, which mainstream economists had prescribed, could be attributed to the fact that TNCs invested their capital with the purpose of getting maximum profits and control of natural resources. They set up factories where they could obtain cheap labour and control raw materials. The TNCs do not invest their capital for the economic development of the South. The mainstream economists did not give ample attention to the power relationship between TNCs and government of developing countries. The capital of TNCs could move freely in developing countries. The governments of developing countries were forced to offer at most favourable conditions and environments in order to attract foreign direct investments. TNCs never bring their capital from home. They acquire their capital in the local financial market or by takeover of local corporations. The surveys, published in 1973 by the US Congress on foreign investments in the Philippines, Mexico, and Brazil showed that TNCs had brought from home a mere 12 -15% of total capital needed for investment. The rests of the capital were acquired from local market. In addition, TNCs were exempted from paying corporate tax during initial years after setting up factories in developing countries. TNCs could send 100% of their profits to home, without reinvesting in the hosting countries. TNCs were free to determine the price of their products, even though the price could not even cover the cost of production. Local workers in the factories of foreign capital were prohibited to organize trade unions and deprived from basic labour rights. The developing countries could only benefit from foreign investments by obtaining lowly paid wages. At the same time, the governments of developing countries began to
accumulate their external debts caused by the bilateral ODA loans, the
World Bank borrowings, and loans of private banks. Those borrowings
have been spent for construction of industrial infrastructure such as
huge dams, highways and modern port facilities in order to supply water,
electricity, transportation facilities mostly for foreign owned factories
rather than to be used for local people. NGOs can display their capacity at the UN not only because of the rapidly increasing number of NGOs in developing countries, but also because the maturity has grown to a level where they now compete with governments. Where does such dynamism of NGOs come from? In the 1980s, or what is called the "Lost Decade", the failure of the previous economic development model in developing countries became clear, and famine, poverty, environmental destruction, and human rights violations increased dramatically. The governments of developing countries lost their capacity to resolve these problems. Only NGOs could deal effectively with these deepening crisis as there were no other solution than the alternative proposed by the NGOs, that is, the Sustainable Development Model, which focused on the poor, especially poor women and indigenous people. Why did this economic crisis occur in developing countries? And why did their governments lose the capacity to resolve their economic difficulties? Everything dates back to the external debt crisis which took place in developing countries in the early 1980s. Beginning with Mexico in 1982, the debt crisis expanded to South American countries such as Brazil and Venezuela; Asian countries including the Philippines and Indonesia; and African countries such as Nigeria, Algeria and Zaire. This meant the virtual bankruptcy of these governments, as they could no longer repay their debts. Legally speaking, individuals and corporations can go bankrupt, but
sovereign states are not allowed to. When governments cannot repay their
debts, banks and corporations throughout the world suspend business
activities with such governments. This places a bankrupted government
in a situation equivalent to facing economic sanctions, making it impossible
for a government to maintain it viability as a sovereign state. For government suffering under the burden of overwhelming debts, only the International Monetary Fund (IMF) can provide loans for their rescue. The IMF provides short-term loans, which act as a guarantee, therefore, banks and corporations can resume business. However, there are conditions attached to an IMF loan. When a debtor government accepts these conditions, the government must implement a " Structural Adjustment Programmes" (SAPs). The sole purpose of SAPs is to facilitate the repayment of debts. This is initially accomplished by implementing a national austerity programme, which means salary cuts or the layoff of public workers, the abolishment of government food and gasoline subsidies, and the privatization of state-owned corporations and social services. As a result, the budget for social development, including welfare for the poor, primary education, primary health care, sanitation, and development of rural and remote villages, is cut back, pushing the poor further poorer. Although SAPs were first introduced more than two decade ago, 40% of the national budgets in the Philippines is allotted to debt repayment, and this ratio exceeds 50% in many countries in sub-Sahara Africa. Moreover, debts must be repaid in foreign currencies, such as dollars or yen, rather than in local currency. Therefore, imports must be restricted and exports increased, which often results in a government being unable to meet basic human needs such as vaccination for children. In order to increase their exports, farmers are forced to increase the acreage of cash crops such as coffee and bananas, and as a consequence, the food grown for the nation's poor is often insufficient and high in price. SAPs include currency devaluation, domestic deregulation, and liberalization of foreign trade. While currency devaluation promotes the exports of developing countries, the prices of primary products, such as coffee, can plummet in the international market as exports increase from many countries. At the same time, the prices of imported products necessary for developing countries increase. Domestic industries in developing countries are left unprotected due to deregulation, and foreign luxury goods are imported. The World Bank, meanwhile, finances to SAPs. This type of loan represents 40% of the World Bank's total financing. Main function of the World Bank is to collect financial capital by issuing World Bank bonds in the major financial markets to lend governments of developing countries of large-scale infrastructure development projects, which are to attract the foreign investment. However, the financing of SAPs is considered to be "policy loan" to intervene in developing countries, and in this respect, NGOs throughout the world have criticized this type of lending. Nevertheless, Structural Adjustment Lending ( SAL) by the World Bank still continues today. NGO Criticism of SAPs SAPs bring disadvantages to many people in developing countries, except for a portion of their elite. The people who suffer the most from SAPs tend to be the poor, especially the socially weak such as women, children, and indigenous people. These people are completely abandoned because of the introduction and implementation of SAPs. This is the first criticism of SAPs by NGOs. The second criticism of SAPs is that the World Bank's economists emphasize GNP growth and macro-economy. This means that SAPs tend to ignore the different conditions in developing countries by imposing the same measures upon them. Debt repayment is being initiated due to the introduction of SAPs in debter nations. However, the layer of poor people in developing countries continues to expand, and the total amount of debt has increased two-fold. Total debt of developing countries at the time of debt crisis in 1982 was $ 980 billion, but today the amount has reached $ 1.7 trillion. Furthermore, private debts from commercial banks in developed countries are rapidly decreasing, and bilateral debts of governments in developed countries and multilateral debts such as the IMF or World Bank are increasing. The governments of developing countries cannot deal with the number of poor increasing under the introduction of SAPs. Indirect Causes of the Debt Crisis Indirect causes of the debts generated by developing countries date
back to the 1960s. During the 1960s, developed countries such as Japan,
the US, and Europe achieved rapid economic growth, accompanied by the
expansion and construction of factories, office buildings, and infrastructures.
The demand for capital also increased accordingly, and as a result,
financial institutions such as banks grew rapidly. However, because
of the oil crisis in 1973, the economies of developed countries went
into recession, and investment for production in manufacturing sector
rapidly decreased. Oil-dollar flowing into oil-producing Gulf countries
was then deposited in the financial institutions of developed countries.
Banks with enormous amounts of dollars, therefore, sought new opportunities
for investment in developing countries. Large banks in Japan, the US,
and Europe created consortiums to share the risk of investment, and
offered to finance large-scale development projects as large as $ 1
billion. Generally speaking, when a large amount of money is borrowed from
a commercial bank, collateral is required. However, collateral in developing
countries is often scarce. When financial consortiums extend loans to
governments of developing countries, collateral include rich natural
resources and large population. This is clear when looking at the list
of countries suffering under the debt crisis in 1982. Ten years have passed since the introduction of SAPs, and developing countries have already repaid their originally borrowed capital. The G7 Summit in Cologne in June 1999 agreed to cancel $ 70 billion of debt for 41 heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs), among which sub-Sahara Africa has majority share. After three years since the Cologne Initiative, the G7 and multilateral institutions such as the IMF and World Bank announced that 26 countries within 41 HIPCs have been granted the reduction of their debt repayments by one third of the total debts for the period of 20 years. The international campaign of Jubilee 2000 called for immediate and total cancellation of the debt of the HIPCs and the resource created from this cancellation should be used for primary education, basic health care, and reduction of poverty. 4. Role of NGOs As mentioned above, the accumulation of debts and introduction of SAPs have made it impossible for governments of developing countries to eradicate poverty. In addition to scarce budgets for welfare, low, delayed or decreased salaries of public workers means that governments cannot attract qualified employees. During the 1990s, the number of people living in absolute poverty, as categorized by the UN and according to the statistics of the World Bank's May 2001 World Poverty Report, exceeded 1.5 billion people. But at the beginning of the 1980s when the debt crisis occurred, this number was estimated at 500 million people, reflecting a 200% increase in absolute poverty during the "Lost Decade". What is Absolute Poverty? Absolute poverty refers to the layer of people who are starving and living below the poverty line. In other words, people who cannot eat three meals a day or whose intake of calorie per day is less than 1,200 kcal. These people do not have clothes or adequate shelter, and needless to say, they include the homeless as well as those living in slums, as seen in the large cities in developing countries. Slum dwellers are always subject to evacuation as "illegal squatters" by government authorities. And these people are unable to receive at least six years of compulsory primary education, which means that they tend to be illiterate, depriving them of their political, economic, social, and cultural rights. They cannot receive medical care, even if sick, or purchase medicine. Furthermore, clean water is difficult to obtain and there are few toilets or sewerage facilities. As a result, infant mortality is high and women continue to give birth every year. The minimum requirements for human beings to live, including clothes, food, shelter, education, health, and sanitation, are called "Basic Human Needs" (BHNs) by the United Nations. The UN has defined people who lack BHNs as living in absolute poverty. With the collapse of socialism in the 1990s, the UN has recognized that the poor must also enjoy " freedom of expression and democracy " and be empowered in order to eliminate absolute poverty, in addition to the five conventional requirements of BHNs. SAPs were introduced when the debt crisis occurred in developing countries. Because of this situation, governmental administrative functions and services began to deteriorate in 1980s, and NGO programmes aiming at sustainable development, the protection of human rights, and environmental recovery became active. These NGOs consist of specialists and activists in each field, and are registered as non-profit organizations in many countries. In return, they receive benefits such as tax exemptions. NGOs Fight for Poverty Reduction NGOs implement various programmes among the poor, such as people living in mountainous regions, remote agricultural and fishing villages, and city slums. Programmes include the organization of women, sustainable agricultural development, micro-credit to livelihood project, training women on health and sanitation, and natural resource management, and preservation of environment. Taken an example of women's programme in development. NGO activists assist poor women to organize themselves into a group and support them with expertise and resources, and aim at undertaking sustainable development programmes by themselves as quick as possible. In this case, NGOs and women's organization acts as equal partners. To accomplish these tasks, NGOs operate as a " service" function for the poor, as mentioned above. These development activities of NGOs were originally the responsibility of governments. Therefore, the question could be asked. Are NGOs only a substitute for the work that governments can no longer perform due to insufficient budgets and human resources? The answer is No, as NGOs are not a supplement to government. NGOs aim to empower the poor as well as to implement sustainable development programmes. At the same time NGOs make policy proposals to central and local governments, the United Nations, the IMF, and the World Bank, on people-centered sustainable development. NGOs also conduct advocacy/lobbying activities. This is their second function. The third function of NGOs is local, national, regional, and international netwoking. NGOs conduct workshops for training for activists and leaders on a local, national, regional and international level, and promote communication among NGOs in developing countries, and exchange and share their experiences and expertise's. These workshops are held almost everyday at various locations around the world. Recently, NGOs on the environment, human rights, and social development in developing countries have established an international NGO organization related to each theme. The international NGO network with the goal of debt reduction has also been established in developed countries. As well, global NGO organizations, such as OXFAM International or Friends of the Earth International, are taking an active role in advocacy and lobblying the World Bank. As a result of persistent NGO lobbying/advocacy activities directed at the World Bank, and Independent Inspection Panel was set up at the World Bank for the first time in 1995. Through this Inspection Panel, local residents and NGOs could channel their voice addressed to development projects financed by the World Bank. The first action of the Inspection Panel was the Arun dam construction projects in Nepal. Construction of this large-scale dam should have strained Nepal financially, as well as caused environmental destruction in fragile Himalayan geology. Local residents and NGOs voiced their concerns at the Panel, which examined these opinions and recommended changes at the meeting of the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank. Subsequently, the Bank loans for Arun dam project was cancelled. Anti-Personnel Land Mine Ban Treaty In the early 1990s, NGOs activists who had been working on clearing anti-personnel land mines in the post-conflict countries such as Cambodia, Angola, and Mozambique. They found that when they cleared one land mine, costing them more than 100 dollars, at the same time more than 100 land mines were buried in the ground somewhere else in the developing countries in armed conflict with the cost of less than 10 dollars. It was only 6 NGOs clearing land mines in the post-conflict countries that felt the need to address the root-cause of land mine issue. Who did produce and sell these land mines to the developing countries in conflict? They were corporations and governments of the developed countries. The 6 NGOs agreed the need to stipulate an international treaty to ban the production, sales, and use of land mines. At the beginning, they had a great difficulty to be known in the international community of their campaign. Mass media were indifferent, and 6 NGOs had no means to communicate their proposal to the public at large. Firstly, they kept sending one out of a pair of used shoes to the Defense Ministers of developed countries. And finally, they succeeded to get support of Princess Diana of the UK. Princess of Wales visited the land mine field in Angola with more than 300 foreign journalists and TV cameras and also talked with children who lost their leg by explosion of land mines. This was a great appeal to the public opinion, and the campaign of NGOs became visible to the world. Meanwhile, in Geneva, the UN Disarmament Commission had taken up the issue to ban the small arms including anti-personnel land mines. NGO activists thought that if their proposal of treaty to ban land mines had been presented to the UN Disarmament Commission, it would not be adopted for long time to come due to the opposition of the big powers such as the US, China and Russia. They drew a strategy to lobby to the governments of middle power countries in the North, namely, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, by avoiding the big powers. This strategy worked well. And in 1997, in Ottawa, Canada, the International Treaty to Ban the Anti-Personnel Land Mines was signed by the majority of the UN member-countries including Japan. The NGO that had led the campaign was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998. And it was being felt that NGOs fill a solid and undeniable presence in the international politics and without them, international community could not achieve its stated goals. Jubilee 2000 International Campaign Following the successful NGO campaign to ban land mines, an international campaign of Jubilee 2000 started firstly in the UK in 1998. The idea of Jubilee 2000 was that by the year 2000, i.e. Jubilee year, the unpayable debt of poorest countries in the South should be cancelled. Contrary to the anti-land mine movement, Jubilee 2000 campaign targeted the G7 governments. The G7 governments have the biggest share of the debts of the poorest countries. They control the international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the IMF and the World Bank that imposed SAPs and lend the governments of developing countries of large-scale construction projects such as huge dams, power plants, mines, which often created the external debts in the recipient countries. Contrary to the land mine movement, Jubilee 2000 campaign found many supporters internationally. The Pope of Vatican said in 1994 in his mission statement that the debts of the poor countries were to be forgiven by the Jubilee year. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which have 120 million memberships, adopted the resolution to cancel the debt of the poorest countries in 1997. In 1998 the World Medicines Association also adopted the similar resolution in its annual assembly in The Hague. Anglican Churches, the World Council of Churches also supported the Jubilee campaign. International NGOs such as OXFAM International, Friends of the Earth International, World Vision joined in the campaign. It was not only NGOs but also other actors within the civil society. Thus Jubilee 2000 campaign became the largest international manifestation in the 20th Century of global civil society. At the Cologne G7 Summit in June 1999, 35,000 Jubilee 2000 campaigners from around the world gathered and surrounded the G7 Summit meeting with huge Human Chain. And more than 20 million signature demanding "Drop the Debt" were presented to the Prime Minister of Germany, the then chair of the G7 Summit meeting, by Irish Pop star Bono and others as the Jubilee representatives. As mentioned previously, human chain formed by 35,000 Jubilee campaigners
at Cologne forced the G7 leaders to make their pledge to cancel $ 70
billion of the debt of 41 HIPCs by the end of the year 2000. It is no
more exclusively NGO activities, but a very impressive gain by the global
civil society movement, which includes mass organizations of religious
people, labour, women, consumers, as well as NGOs of sustainable development,
environment, human rights, and international development cooperation.
At the WSSD, the UN stipulated a new category called nine stakeholders
instead of traditional category of NGO. Stakeholders were farmers, labour/trade
unions, women, youth, business sectors, indigenous people, scientists/engineers,
local governments and lastly NGOs. In this case, the new categories
of NGOs were confined to the development, environment, human rights
and peace NGOs. And outside the official WSSD, 60,000 civil society participants held the Global Forum in the slum area of Johannesburg. During the WSSD, Forum organized a mass demonstration, opposing neo-liberal globalization, and demanding the heads of the states and governments attending the WSSD to fulfill the basic human needs for the world poor and truly sustainable development. |
|
|
|
|