COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE WEST AFRICAN HIGH LEVEL MEETING ON THE UNITED NATIONS REFORMS ORGANISED BY ACTIONAID INTERNATIONAL AT VALENCIA HOTEL ABUJA FROM 23-24 AUGUST, 2005.

Aug 23, 2005

PREAMBLE

ActionAid International organized a West African High Level Meeting on the United Nations Reform in Abuja to debate and raise awareness on the issues and concerns of Africa and its peoples within the proposed UN reform agenda and formulate messages for governments, sub-regional and regional institutions. The meeting was held ahead of the UN Millennium + 5 review summit next month when 191 world leaders will convene in New York to discuss reform of the UN.

The meeting was attended by delegates from the West African Sub-region made up of academics, government officials and representatives of New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies, and civil society organizations.

The meeting is the second in the series of High Level Meetings organized by ActionAid International. The first was held in Nairobi, Kenya on 19th august, 2005.

The meeting observed as follows:

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The meeting welcomed the idea of reforming the UN but argued that it should focus on redressing the imbalance in global power relations. This is crucial because an imbalance in power relations is at the core of poverty and injustice in the world.
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The Structures that the UN has identified for reform including the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and social Council, Human Rights Council, regional organizations and the Charter of the United Nations as well as issues such as security, human rights, trade, aid, debt and national strategies for poverty eradication are the key development challenges of our time.
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The allocation of two seats to Africa in the proposed reformed Security Council is not proportional to the membership of African countries in the UN, and this goes against the principle of equality of States as recognized in international human rights law. For instance, in the Security Council reform model A which is the preferred model by Africa, the proportionate share of Africa’s membership of 53 countries in the UN is 27.5 % but the allocated seat of two represent 18.18 %. But Europe with a membership of 47 countries representing 24.6 % is allocated four seats representing 33.36 %.
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The issue of a permanent seat in the United Nations for Africa has overshadowed other meaningful issues that the reform is addressing including the challenge of poverty eradication, security, human rights, democracy and good governance. In addition, the jostle for who occupies the seat has further divided Africa and shifted focus from the emerging good relationship among African governments.
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The full participation of women in all aspects of development is important in the promotion of women’s rights.
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The proposed UN reform places a lot of emphasis on aid rather than trade. Meanwhile, there is an unjust and unfair trade relationship between Africa and the developed countries.
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The international economic system and the high debt burden are directly implicated in the high degree of poverty in Africa.

The meeting made the following recommendations:

General Recommendations

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African should demand for three permanent seats based on its membership strength and the principles of equality of States.
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Accept model A for the restructuring of the UN Security Council which provides for six new permanent seats.

Africa and Poverty

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The proposed reform of the UN adopted the MDGs and their targets as the basis for a shared vision of development and eradication of poverty globally. This framework is too limited and there is the need to link the MDGs with other human rights framework including the UN recognized international human rights instruments and declarations, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
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The MDG’s framework especially Goal 8 which calls for further liberalization of global trading and financial system is not favourable to Africa. What Africa needs is fair and just trade.
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We reaffirm and endorse the AU position “requesting the Bretton Woods Institutions to streamline their policies and programmes in Africa to be more MDGs friendly” and to ensure “that multilateral trade rules provide adequate policy space for achieving MDGs”
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We reaffirm and endorse the position of the AU that the international community should “establish a fair and equitable trading system, and to facilitate Africa’s access to their market to among other things, eliminate tariff and non-tarrif barriers, trade distorting subsidies and domestic support especially in Agricultural sector”
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Debt cancellation for all African states without conditionalities.

Human Rights and Security in Africa

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Strengthened relationship between the United Nations and African regional institutions.
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There is the need to reconceptualise security in the reform process to take African concerns into consideration such as extreme poverty, trans-border crimes, mercenaries and HIV/AIDS.
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The proposed Peace Building Commission is an unnecessary bureaucratic addition to the already over bloated UN system.
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Accept the establishment of the United Nations Council on Human Rights and suggest that the membership should cut across geography, gender diversity and include CSOs.
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Economic, Cultural and Social rights should be entrenched in the Charter of the United Nations.
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All nations should have access to the technology and peaceful use of nuclear and biological weapons and their operations should be under the guidance of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
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The HIV/ADS pandemic constitutes a security threat to Africa and the whole world and the UN reform agenda should adequately take this on board.

Good Governance, Women’s Rights and Development

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Promotion of developmental regionalism where there is integration of the people (not just the leaders) of the African region.
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The UN reform should give more prominence to the role of women in development and put mechanism in place to deal with the problems of patriarchy manifested in the manipulation of culture and religion.
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Insert that women will be adequately and equitably represented in all UN agencies.

Africa and International Trade

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The reform should include that countries should exercise full sovereign rights over macro-economic policies and should be supported and encouraged to formulate and implement their own development policies.
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The reform should address the question of balanced development that places emphasis on economic growth that is beneficial to the poor, excluded and the vulnerable.
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The reform should include adherence to code of business ethics for investors that would hold them accountable for all aspects of their activities.
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The reform should include the need for investment in social provisioning, especially in health, education, housing and other social services.

Conclusion

The meeting commended ActionAid International for the initiative and called on African leaders to utilize the resolutions from the meeting to negotiate for reforms at UN Millennium + 5 review summit in New York in September, 2005 that would bring about eradication of poverty and injustice in the world.

Finally, the meeting called on the entire UN system to focus more on implementation and monitoring of international human rights instruments and declarations rather than on organizing conferences.

Signed
Dr. Sam Egwu Evelyn Ankumah
Convenor, CFCR, Nigeria Africa Legal Aid, Ghana
Ms. Rosemary Kaduru Prof. Emmanul Dankwa
Oxfam GB ACHPR, the Gambia
Prof. Adebayo Olukoshi Prof. W. O. Alli
CODESRIA, Dakar, Senegal NIIA, Lagos, Nigeria
The following organizations were present at the meeting:
ActionAid International /Nigeria/ The Gambia
Nigeria political science Association
Independent Policy Group
Africa Legal Aid, Ghana
CODESRIA
WACSOF
Oxfam GB
CDD
CASS
ECOWAS
ANEEJ
KAF