[WSF-Discuss] Final Declaration:TOWARDS PEOPLES ALTERNATIVES IN AFRICA AND EUROPE, Lisbon, 7-9 december 2007

[CACIM]

 12.14.2007 Final
Declaration<http://africa-europa-alternativas.blogspot.com/2007/12/final-declaration.html>

*AFRICA – EUROPE ALTERNATIVES, Lisbon, 7-9 december 2007**
TOWARDS PEOPLES ALTERNATIVES IN AFRICA AND EUROPE*


@
http://africa-europa-alternativas.blogspot.com/2007/12/final-declaration.html



We, civil society activists engaged in a wide range of peoples' movements
and organisations in Africa and Europe met in Lisbon from 7-9 December 2007
to express our opposition and resistance to the neoliberal free trade and
investment policies that European and African governments are implementing
in our countries, and which they propose as a framework for the "Africa- EU
Strategic Partnership". While the leaders of two continents gathered in
Lisbon to decide the future of Africa, we came together to further the
social and political dialogue among our peoples because we defend our right
to resist concretely and to propose alternatives, and we are confident of
our capacity to put them into practice.

Both African and European participants noted the historical and contemporary
role of European governments and corporations in Africa, and stressed that
Europe constitutes the most direct source of threats and pressures on the
peoples of Africa. We consider that the EU-AU Strategic Partnership
represents a consistent and immediate threat for Africa and reject its
principles and action plan.

We also denounce the European visa policies which prevented many men and
women involved in African social movements from being present in Lisbon to
participate in our discussions about alternatives. We dedicate this
statement to them.

During our wide-ranging exchanges of information and intense discussions on
the four main areas of common concern we identified many crucial issues in
the respective areas amongst which we prioritised the following key
proposals.

*On Economic development*


Taking advantage of the external indebtedness of most African countries,
European governments - acting in the IMF, the WB and more recently the WTO -
have imposed radical structural adjustment programs on them. After more than
two decades of trade liberalisation and the determined promotion of
export-oriented economies, the liberalization of capital markets, the
promotion of foreign investment, and the privatisation of public services in
African countries, the negative effects are clearly evident and underpin our
opposition to such policies and institutions. Most recently African (and
Caribbean and Pacific) countries have been confronted with the reinforcement
of such policies through the European Union's proposed Economic Partnership
Agreements (EPAs).
In this context, we demand that

   - European governments end their imposition of destructive economic
   policies on African countries through the institutions of the IMF, WB, WTO
   and bilateral trade agreements
   - European governments and banks immediately cancel the external
   African debt, and recognize their ecological and social debt towards Africa
   - The European Commission stops exerting pressure on African
   governments and withdraws their EPAs demands
   - The African governments resist these pressures by refusing to sign
   EPAs
   - European transnational corporations stop their predatory extraction
   of Africa's resources, destruction of the environment and ecological
   equilibrium and the exploitation of her peoples

We call upon European citizens to reject the so-called Reform Treaty which
reinforces the power of the European Commission in matters of trade and
development and further reduces the capacity of citizens to influence
democratically its policies.


*On Food Sovereignty, agriculture and natural resources*


We embrace the principle of food sovereignty which peoples' movements
throughout the world are building as an alternative to the neo-liberal model
of corporate-controlled industrial agriculture and food production.
Among the threats to communities' rights to food and to produce food we
denounce the following above all and we commit ourselves to fight jointly
against them:

   - Liberalization of agriculture and trade through instruments such as
   structural adjustment, the neoliberal reform of CAP, EPAs and the WTO
   Agreement on Agriculture
   - The annulment of African states' policy space to support their
   agricultures and protect their regional markets
   - Policies that promote the privatization of seeds and biodiversity,
   propagate GMOs and the concept of intellectual property rights promoted by
   European and other corporations
   - The creation of a global market of agrofuels pushed by measures like
   the EU biofuel targets and subsidies for their production
   - Land use policies that favour corporations over farmers and future
   generations and
   - Strategies for African agricultural development dominated by donors
   acting in arenas like the EU and the OECD
   - We defend the right of both African and European countries to
   support small scale farmers with public funds, provided that this support
   does not negatively affect other farmers outside their respective countries
   and regions.

*On human rights*

We denounce the support provided by EU to authoritarian and dictatorial
regimes in Africa and the violations of human rights and the breaches of
democracy that are frequent in Africa as well as in Europe. Conventions and
guidelines exist but remain on paper. We call on all states of Africa and
Europe and their regional organisations to serve democracy and human rights
especially through the following commitments:

   - Support the development of a democratic culture particularly through
   transparent and credible electoral processes, with strong participation of
   civil society at all stages, from civic education up to the supervision of
   elections; in this perspective we condemn the responsibility of European
   Member states in international arms trade
   - Regulate, by implementing legally binding laws, transnational
   corporations (TNCs), particularly those active in the extractive industries,
   to end violations of human rights and involvement in local and regional
   conflicts and to make all TNCs accountable in their home countries for their
   criminal misconduct abroad
   - Give more space to countervailing powers like civil society
   organisations and alternative media, for example by involving them in
   mediation of peace processes
   - Strengthen democratization, through reinforcing the role of the
   Parliaments, including the European Parliament, and promote transparent and
   coherent policy making, and make political institutions, including the EU
   institutions, accountable to citizens
   - Advance the human rights agenda especially the rights of women and
   their sexual and reproductive rights ; we reject gender violence, forced
   marriages and other practises that are violations of human rights and are
   killing thousands of women and girls every year
   - Promote freedom of expression and media; promote the African Human
   Rights Court and other institutions like human rights commissions at the
   national and regional level and the access of civil society to them
   - Reclaim the right to food, education, health and other basic
   services from the IFIs, WTO and bilateral or regional free trade agreement
   agendas

*On Migration*

Considering that:

   - the current migration policies are driven by security concerns and
   the exploitation of human beings, criminalize migrants and threaten their
   human and social rights both in Europe and Africa
   - Mass emigration is largely the result of European policies which
   close off all other opportunities for Africans, denying them economic,
   social and cultural rights, especially the right to food
   - That the actual racist migration policies do not take in account the
   real needs of European and African societies and undermine the sustainable
   development perspectives in both Europe and Africa

We reject:

   - The externalization of borders policy of the European Union which is
   imposed on the African governments for implementation
   - The policy of detention, expulsion and deportation and the
   readmission agreements
   - The Frontex Program, which represents a huge investment in the
   militarization of borders control creating the basis for direct
   interventions in African countries and represents a real declaration of war
   against migrants
   - All the measures and policies which promote exclusively temporary
   migration but systematize brain drain
   - All the economic policies and free trade agreements restructuring
   local economies, increasing social inequalities and destroying livelihoods
   and jobs

We demand that:

   - All migration policies be based on the recognition of the
   fundamental human rights and labour rights guaranteed in UN and ILO
   instruments and protocols, including the freedom of movement, and
   recognition, with asylum rights, of hunger and environmental refugees
   - All the European governments ratify and implement the International
   Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and
   Members of Their Families and fully implement the right to asylum
   - The recognition of the fundamental rights, including health,
   education, housing etc. for "sanspapiers" in both Europe and Africa, and
   their unconditional regularization

These concerns and aspirations bring us together in Lisbon. We commit
ourselves to strengthen interregional solidarity and cooperation among our
social movements and organisations from Africa and Europe. We commit
ourselves to joint resistance against neoliberal policies and to build
people centred alternatives. In particular we continue to campaign together
to

   - Stop the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)
   - Stop the Global Europe Strategy
   - Support the Moratorium on Agrofuels
   - Achieve freedom of movement for all people


We will work towards new strategies for economic development based on
solidarity, complementarity, peace and the realization of all human rights
for peoples in Africa and Europe. We will use moments in the political
calendar of African and European movements such as

   - The Global Day of Action of the World Social Forum on 26 January
   2008
   - The UNCTAD XII meeting (Accra, April 2008)
   - The proposed conference on Global Europe and the EU FTAs (Brussels,
   April 2008)
   - The 5th European Social Forum (Malmo, September 2008)
   - The Migration WSF (Madrid, September 2008)

to link our initiatives, build our alliances and create the conditions for a
just world and for the ecological stability of our common global home.
Lisbon

December 9th 2007
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