[asia-apec 22] Statement from 1995 NGO Forum on APEC

[daga]

KYOTO DECLARATION
Statement from the 1995 NGO Forum on APEC
          
As representatives of more than 100 non-government organizations and  trade
unions, advocating the interests of millions throughout the region  covered
by APEC, we fully support cooperation among countries and  their peoples.
However, we unanimously reject the basic philosophy, framework and
assumptions of the model of free market and trade liberalization embraced by
the APECagenda. This model does not lead to freedom;  it negates the
developmental and democratic aspirations of  the people.
 
Economic growth and promotion of trade are not ends in  themselves. Genuine
development must be centered on the needs of  people and nature, and deliver
real social and economic justice. The form of indiscriminate, unregulated
economic growth and trade which  APEC advocates delivers the opposite of
this-- its  consequences are socially unjust and ecologically unsustainable;
it imposes irreversible social and environmental costs; and it enables
governments to abdicate their responsibilities to their citizens and leave
them at the mercy of transnational corporations and international financial
institutions who are accountable to no one.
 
Genuine development must also affirm the fundamental, civic, political,
economic, social and cultural rights of individuals and peoples,  and the
obligations of states to promote and protect such rights. Governments who
are members of APEC, must, through cooperation,  ensure that people are
guaranteed basic rights to food, human dignity, integrity of communities,
environmental security and self-determination.  The APEC liberalization
agenda is irreconcilable with these goals.  Violations of political freedom,
rights of association, labour rights and freedom of speech accompany
economic liberalization in many parts of  the region.

We note with particular concern that member governments of APEC have
participated in inter-governmental conferences on the rights  of the child
(New York), the environment (Rio de Janeiro), human rights  (Vienna),
population and development (Cairo), social development (Copenhagen) and
women (Beijing). Despite their participation, none of  the commitments made
in those conferences is visible in the APEC process. Rather, the consequence
of this form of economic and trade liberalization violate the fundamental
rights to which they agreed.
 
The arguments employed within APEC reflect the self-interest of its most
powerful members. They deny the value of traditional agrarian production and
consumption patterns and their proven ability to  provide food security for
people. They further fail to acknowledge the hidden resource and financial
subsidies which underpin so-called free trade. Such trade is neither fair
nor free. While the United States and  Japanese governments argue about the
liberalization of agricultural trade, they ignore the plight of farmers,
fishers and forest people throughout the region whose food security,
fisheries, water and land  rights, communities, culture and environment are
already being  destroyed by liberalization. This kind of liberalization also
creates the  conditions which force people from their native lands and
become  migrant labourers.
 
While the APEC agenda claims to promote the interests of small and
medium-sized enterprises, liberalization of investment in fact promotes the
rapid expansion of transnational enterprises, destroys  small and medium
business, and deepens unemployment. The creation  of free trade zones
enables host governments to avoid their basic obligations to workers and
local communities under domestic and  international law. The rights of women
and children have been the most  systematically violated in this process.

Economic issues cannot be divorced from the complex realities of  people's
daily lives. Yet APEC is described as a community of economies which bears
no responsibility for the social, political or cultural consequences of the
decisions its members make. This artificial distinction allows the APEC
process to operate in a totally  anti-democratic, unaccountable and
untransparent way. We insist that all governments must be held responsible
for all aspects of all decisions which their officials, ministers and
leaders make.

We therefore call on governments who are members of APEC to:
  
> engage in regional cooperation which genuinely promotes socially and
ecologically sustainable  development;
  
> ensure effective people's participatory decision-making, transparency and
effective monitoring of all aspects of trade investments:
  
> reject unrestricted and unregulated liberalization of trade and investment;
 
> raise environmental standards and ensure effective implementation
throughout the region;
  
> take steps to eliminate the arms trade, alongside other measures to
promote peace and disarmament in the region;
  
> adopt a safe and ecologically sound approach to energy and infrastructure,
including the rejection of all measures which facilitate nuclear power and
mega- hydroelectric projects;
  
> ratify and effectively implement all major labour and human rights
instruments, including the basic ILO conventions, and guarantee the freedom
of movement for all  people within the region, especially refugees and
indigenous peoples;
   
> impose effective constraints, including a code of conduct, on the
operations of transnational corporations to ensure their accountability and
responsibility to the people of the region;
   
> recognize food security as a basic human right and accept responsibility
to ensure food security for all their citizens;
   
> take steps to protect farmers and the land rights and tenure of  women and
indigenous peoples;
   
> protect biodiversity, ban the plunder by transnational  corporations of
indigenous resources and knowledge systems and all attempts to patent life
forms, and reject intellectual property rights regimes which facilitates
such exploitation; and
   
> protect the rights of women and migrant labour, and defend children from
exploitation of all kinds.
   
We call on people's organizations within the region to:
   
> take our own initiatives to facilitate economic co-operation among  the
people;
   
> document the consequences of economic and trade liberalization on the
people; and
   
> strengthen solidarity networks for resisting injustice and promoting
positive economic and social change.
   
14 November 1995
Kansai Seminar House
Kyoto, Japan
 

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