UNPO Backs UBUNTU’s Call For Greater Respect of Human Rights
Sixty years after the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNPO has joined with the UBUNTU Forum and others to call for greater observance of the right of all the world’s citizens to peace, development, and protection of the environment.
Below is a declaration issued by the UBUNTU Forum:
On the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Human life and dignity require the recognition and satisfaction of Human Rights to PEACE, to DEVELOPMENT (to food, to water...) and to the ENVIRONMENT, and they require that NOW!
On this 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and at the initiative of the World Forum of Civil Society Networks – UBUNTU, we, the undersigned, wish to emphasise that all Human Rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent, in full accordance with the Declaration of the World Conference on Human Rights made in
Hence this is what is required NOW!:
Though not yet explicitly regarded as a human right, it cannot be doubted that if this Human Right to Peace is not established, the other human rights cannot be realized. With the United Nations (“We, the peoples…”) being sidelined by the most prosperous countries (“We, the powerful…”) and with the democratic principles being replaced by the laws of the market (“We, the rich…”), our tragic inability to resolve conflicts peaceably is persisting. Resorting to force brings ignominious profits for industry's colossal war machine, fuelling war economies. We shall not desist from denouncing this, nor from endeavoring to build a world system of democratic governance precisely to put an end to this intolerable situation. We cannot refrain from demanding just solutions for the dramatic conflicts such as those raging in
The force of reason should always prevail over the reason of force. “If you want peace, prepare for war”: the conviction that being armed is the best assurance of security is one of the most tragic of our age-old irrational beliefs. It is evident that worldwide disarmament, under the control of the United Nations, is fundamental for scaling back violence and strengthening peace. If disarmament is a prerequisite for peace, and thus for life, then it too becomes another Human Right that must be recognized and adopted forthwith. Yet the fact is that now, after a ten-year period (1988-1998) in which world military spending had been decreasing, we are witnessing renewed escalation in arms spending, which is once more exceeding 2,700 million dollars a day...and this at a time when attaining the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 requires 500 million dollars a day!
Specifically, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is going through its bleakest, most contradictory period since the Cold War: some countries are given de facto authorization to produce nuclear weapons, while others are the object of sanctions on account of their nuclear-energy programmes... and, most alarming of all, the United States, with its anti-missile shield, is prompting the Russian Federation to threaten non-compliance with the Reykjavik agreements, with both countries in fact confirming the existence of programmes to renovate and modernize their nuclear arsenals, in violation of the NPT.
International civil society must make its voice heard to break the current deadlock of the Disarmament Conference and, in this context, transform the forthcoming NPT Review Conference (2010) into a definitive and irreversible turning point on the path to the Human Right to Disarmament as Freedom from War and Violence are essential for peace.
II.- The HUMAN RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT (INCLUDING FOOD, WATER, THE SATISFACTION OF BASIC NEEDS
The Right to Development is implicitly recognised in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (United Nations, 1966), which establishes among others the Human Right to “be free from hunger”, to “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health”, and so on, while this Human Right is explicitly recognised in the Declaration on the Right to Development (Assembly General of the United Nations, 1986, and confirmed at the Vienna Conference of the United Nations, 1993). The commitments reached at the Copenhagen World Summit for Social Development (United Nations, 1995) stress the importance of development being in all cases integrated, sustainable, endogenous and human. The implementation of all these rights would actually lead to the full realization of the article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Nevertheless, 50% of humanity is still living below the poverty line, and the problems over food for the world are worsening alarmingly. Sixty thousand people die of hunger and poverty every day. The Right to adequate food, the Right to drinking water and the Right to satisfy basic needs, including infrastructures, now clearly demonstrate the global urgency of something that morally can no longer be postponed. Only meeting those Human Rights effectively can ensure the right to human life. In this sense, it is particularly important to avoid that new sources of energy (bio fuel, etc.), which attract much investment, do not reduce the production of food, nor put up its price.
In this year of 2008, the international community will devote much effort in many directions to reviewing what is known as the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development (United Nations, 2002). Civil Society must mobilise so that measures enabling progress to be made once and for all on meeting those rights may be adopted at the
III.- THE HUMAN RIGHT TO THE ENVIRONMENT.
Equally urgent and undeferrable is the need to put an end to the destruction of the environment that the current economic model has been causing at a particularly speedy rate since the Industrial Revolution. Life in general and human life in particular may find themselves having to inhabit the earth under increasingly difficult conditions.
However, the document approved at the recent Bali Conference on Climate Change (to replace the Kyoto Convention in 2012) is geared more towards adapting to climate change (essential in developing countries in the South) than to countering it. Humanity seems to be in the process of condemning itself to suffer, instead of dealing with or palliating the causes behind this situation.
The fundamental commitment of all generations is to assure sustainable development: Meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In effect, since
The great challenge is thus to decouple once and for all the notion of sustainable human development from the notion of economic growth in the form of increased production and consumption. As was established at the
It is thus imperative that civil society brings a decisive influence to bear in the forthcoming Conferences in
For all the reasons set out above, the UBUNTU Forum calls upon all representatives of society to claim these Human Rights without further delay and in a spirit of urgency, and will continue to promote its “World Campaign for in-depth Reform of the System of International Institutions”, out of the conviction that only a new world democratic governance can take the decisions for halting the most negative global trends, while also providing for the universal satisfaction of Human Rights, beginning with the rights most closely bound up with the Right to human life.
Signed:
Federico Mayor
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Mario Soares
Susan George
Noam Chomsky
Nawal El Saadawi
Ramesh Singh
Action Aid International
Aminata Traoré
African Social Forum
Right Livelihood Award & Brazilian Commission Justice and Peace
Roberto Savio
Inter Press Service
William Pace
World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy
Cândido Grzybowski
Instituto Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicas
Andrei Grache
World Political Forum
Tomas Magnusson
International Peace Bureau
Colin Archer;
International Peace Bureau
Ricardo Díez Hochleitner
Honorary President Club of
Shula Koenig
People's Movement for Human Rights Learning
ICAE
International Council for Adult Education
Herman Spanjaard
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
Cornelio Sommaruga
Président honoraire de Initiatives et Changement International, Caux
Sara Longwe
African Women’s Development and Communication Network
Fatma Alloo
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era
Alice M.Abok
African Women's Economic Policy Network
Anselmo Lee
Forum
Conny Reuter
SOLIDAR
Lois Barber
EarthAction
Paul Ortega
Pax Romana ICMICA/MIIC
Sean O Siochru
Communication Rights in Information Society Campaign
Marino Busdachin
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
Ernesto Lamas
Asoc. Mundial Radios Comunitarias - América Latina Caribe
Carlos Tünnermann
Instituto Latinoamericano de Educación para el Desarrollo
Roberto Papini
Instituto Internazionale Jacques Maritain
Francine Mestrum
Agence européenne pour la défense des droits de l'homme
Arcadi Oliveras
Justice and Peace
Jorge Nieto
Centro Internacional para la Cultura Democrática
Fernando A. Iglesias
Democracia Global, Movimiento por la Unión Sudamericana y el Parlamento Mundial
Patrice Barrat
Bridge Initiative International
Fèlix Martí
Honorary President Linguapax Institute
John Foster
North-South Institute
Hasen Lorgat
Transparency International
Carlos Villán
Asociación Española para el Desarrollo y la Aplicación del Derecho Internacional de los DDHH
Markus Brun
FASTENOPFER
UPC
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Antoni Giró
Rector, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Mary Racelis
Richard A. Falk
Hall
Professor American University of Paris
Josep Ferrer
Professor Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Antonio Papisca
Ferran Requejo
Professor Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Josep Xercavins
Secretariat Fòrum UBUNTU; Professor Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya