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A
Latin American Regional Forum
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, 16 –
18 March 2000
Ending Exclusion And Eradicating Poverty
Representing more than 100
non-governmental organisations (NGOs), members of different networks
and associations from 17 countries of the Latin American region.
Meeting
in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, from 16 – 18 March 2000, brought together
by the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW), la Asociación
Latinoamericana de Oragnizaciones de Promoción (ALOP), el
Programa de Coordinación en Salud Integral (PROCOSI) and
el Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo Laboral y Agrario (CEDLA),
with the objective of following up on the implementation of the
agreements reached at the World Summit for Social Development in
1995 and presenting new recommendations on poverty, employment and
social integration to the Regional Meeting of the Economic Commission
for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) which will take place
in Santiago, Chile, from 15 – 17 May and the UN Special Session,
which will be held in Geneva in June 2000.
Conscious
of the growing inequality and socioeconomic exclusion for the majority
of citizens of our region, and the importance of our participation
as civil society organisations, with our governments and international
agencies, in the implementation and evaluation of international,
regional, national and local policies to achieve fair and sustainable
social development.
We
recommend
to Civil Society, to Governments and to International Organisations:
Enabling Environment
1. Ensure the restriction of excessive financial speculation
with the introduction of international financial regulatory frameworks,
such as the Tobin tax.
2.
Advocate for effective and fair national taxation systems to generate
resources for social development to be agreed in 2001, when the
United Nations Conference on Finance for Development meets.
3.
Promote reform of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
so that it can exercise leadership and act to benefit all countries,
not just the rich. Ensure better interaction between ECOSOC and
the UN Regional Commissions and other sub-regional intergovernmental
bodies, including the Bretton Woods institutions.
4.
Formulate and endorse just and transparent trade agreements to
benefit developing countries, which include social and environmental
clauses under the supervision of the UN.
5.
Seek the ratification of the International Convention on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights. Ensure that support is given to the
adoption of the Optional Protocol of the CESCR at the session
of the Commission of Human Rights that will be held in Geneva
from 20 March – 28 April 2000. This Protocol puts forward
the rights of individuals or groups to present claims of non-fulfillment
of the Agreement, as recommended by the World Conference on Human
Rights in Vienna. Ensure that this Optional Protocol is implemented
by 2003.
6. Promote peace, respect for law, strengthening of civil
society and fighting corruption as necessary conditions for social
development.
Eradicating
Poverty
7. Implement integrated national plans for human development,
equity and alleviation of poverty, with aim of halving the number
of people in extreme poverty and reversing the trend towards greater
inequality in the region by 2015. Ensure that these plans include
the participation of civil society.
8.
Set targets to achieve universal access to quality primary education
by 2005 and to secondary education by 2010.
9.
Promote the decentralization of national plans for human development
and fighting poverty to the local level, to increase the participation
of citizens in their development and implementation by 2005.
Productive
Employment
10. Ratify immediately ILO Convention 138 on the eradication
of child labour.
11.
Ratify the ILO Conventions referring to the core labour standards
by 2002.
12.
Promote micro-enterprise, particularly in rural areas, including
the generation of productive employment and local economic development,
and the financing of community groups and civil society organisations.
13.
Formulate and promote universal social protection policies by
2015.
Social
Integration
14. Design and promote special mechanisms to increase the
participation of women in society, ensuring fair access to land,
employment and education.
15.
Implement specific plans to combat all forms of discrimination
in employment, land access and education by 2002.
16.
Ratify immediately UN Convention 169 and the UN Universal Declaration
on Human rights and the OAS (Organisation of American States)
American Declaration on Indigenous Rights and promulgate corresponding
national policies.
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