Mot de bienvenue / Introductory Remarks

Chers amis, dear friends,

Thank you to each and every one of you for being with us here today and participating in Rights & Democracy's annual conference.

You have come from all parts of the world, from all parts of Canada .

Je vous souhaite à tous la plus chaleureuse bienvenue. Je me réjouis notamment de la présence parmi nous de Délégations d'étudiants de 15 universités canadiennes venue de huit provinces, de représentants de l'Assemblée des premières nations, des églises, de tous les parties politiques fédéraux, d'un grand nombre de ministères, des syndicats et du milieu des affaires et des organisations de la société civile canadienne. Je salue nos partenaires venus des quatre coins du monde, les ambassadeurs de 37 pays qui ont repondu favorablement à notre appel.

As we meet in the richest part of the world, hundreds of millions will spend their time and energy today fighting extreme poverty, searching for food, water and sanitation, as well as access to health services and drugs. Some will survive the day, thousands will not. All of them will experience discrimination, based on gender and otherwise. All of them will be deprived of their basic social and economic rights.

No food, no water, no health services, no drugs, no school, no housing, no jobs, no recognition, no respect, no rights.

Little girls will be raped in the Sudan, desperate people will watch as their shelters burn in Zimbabwe, young children will see their mothers or fathers, or both, die from HIV/AIDS.

La pauvreté a doublé en Afrique au cours des 20 dernières années. Elle affecte aujourd'hui 314 millions de personnes, soit quasiment la moitié du continent.

We are gathered together today to give answers and account to these people. Were we serious at the 2000 United Nations Millennium Summit or were we not? Do we believe that each and all of them share our common dignity or not? Do we believe that all of them have social and economic rights or not?

These are questions for us all, for governments and civil society, labour movements and transnational corporations, for multilateral institutions and international actors. All of us can refer to a mountain of reports. No one here can plead ignorance. The abiding challenge for this new century—extreme poverty and poverty—has been documented countless times. Extreme poverty is a violation of human rights. A year ago, at Columbia University, Bertrand Ramcharan was right when he said: “the fight against extreme poverty should concern the 21 st century movement for human rights and freedoms in the same way as the fight against slavery did in the 19 th century.”

We are here together to propose action, urgent action. We are here together to press the Canadian government to lead in the full realization of the Millennium Development Goals that contribute to human rights, human security and human development now.

Our world is facing an acute development crisis. Two billion people will be born in the next 20 years in Africa, South and Central Asia and Latin America . Are we heading towards a world where 2.5 billion people will live in absolute poverty?

The 2005 Global Monitoring Report on the MDGs concludes that overall, “progress has been slower than envisaged”, and that several other goals will not be met at the current rate of progress, even on a global level, unless substantial additional resources are made available. The predicted shortfalls concern most notably the goals of universal primary education, gender equality in education, improved basic health care, control of major diseases including HIV/AIDS, and improved access to water and sanitation.

The Canadian government should re-commit to the MDGs by adopting a plan of action to reach the United Nation's target established some 36 years ago of 0.7% of our GNP by 2010. It has been estimated that to achieve the MDGs, foreign aid must increase by at least 50 billion per year until 2015. The current aid level, including Canada 's contribution, is far off this target.

The Canadian government should abolish all public debt for underdeveloped countries as we did for Iraq and all countries affected by the Tsunami. The members of the G8 should stop playing with words, concepts and formulas. For obvious reasons, the G8 was unable, in the last decade, to agree on the cancellation of African debts. Canada should act now, independently and decisively.

Our government should lead in the search for fair commercial rules and make it the number one objective of the last segment of the Doha round of negotiations. Faut-il rappeler que les subventions au secteur agricole en Europe et aux États-Unis se représentent six fois l'aide publique au développement, 300 milliards de dollars contre 50 milliards?

Our government should also lead in the building of major investments funds where they are drastically lacking. It was reported recently that the total international private investment in the metropolis of Shanghai was, last year, ten times the total private investment for the whole continent of Africa . We are referring here to investment in basic infrastructure, as well as in social development including education, health, housing and urban planning.

Enfin, notre engagement dans les institutions multilatérales aux quelles nous confions, année après année, des sommes considérables, doit s'accompagner d'une reprise de contrôle sur ces arrogantes organisations. Leurs travaux doivent être recentré sur des objectifs concrets, utiles et mesurables, leurs résultats évalués, leurs coûts de gestion ramenés à des propositions acceptables. Notre Parlement fédéral devrait se saisir de cette question, donner des mandats à nos délégations dans ces institutions et en mesurer les résultats.

If we do not invest now, if we fail to reach the Millennium Development Goals, adopted five years ago by 189 States, we have to be prepared to invest huge amounts in the near future to contain the spread of incivility, to rebuild large fragments of Africa, South and Central Asia, to try and protect ourselves from the despair and desperation of millions of educated young men and women who believe that they have no future.

Mes amis, on ne fera pas l'économie des droits sociaux et économiques sans lesquels les droits politiques sont sans assise et sans avenir. Il n'y a pas d'espace public, il n'y a pas de biens publics sans construction des droits sociaux et économiques. Il n'y aura pas de sécurité sur la planète si nous ne réalisons pas les Objectifs de Développement du Millénaire.

Permettez-moi de remercier chaleureusement, fraternellement, Stephen Lewis pour sa présence parmi nous ce matin. Je le sais allergique aux éloges trop appuyés. Je dirai simplement que sa voix est aujourd'hui l'une des plus respectées dans le monde.

So n message est puissant et juste: First get the basic rights, never forget hope in the midst of despair.

We all know about his mission: to get the rest of the world to pay attention to the more than 25 million in Sub-Saharan Africa who have HIV/AIDS, a majority of them women, to the people dying of AIDS, four million one hundred thousand of them in Africa.

It is the ultimate self-deception to believe that the MDGs will be reached while the pandemic spreads unchecked. Stephen Lewis brings to this paramount task the same humanity he developed as a political leader, as our Ambassador to the United Nations or as Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF.

He has come to us from Malawi or Rwanda, from Lesotho or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a witness to the suffering and the hopes of millions who live in the other world, who live in his heart.