Movement to reform international institutions...

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DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE CALL TO REFORM GLOBAL BODIES FOR DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE

Hilmi Toros

 

NAIROBI - Fresh calls went out on the first working day of the World Social

Forum on Sunday for fundamental reforms of international institutions in favour

of " democratic governance of globalisation " and " the promotion of more equitable

development and respect for cultural, natural and gender diversity " .

 

 

In the Manifesto of the World Campaign for In-Depth Reform of the System of

International Institutions – a platform supported by a group that included

Danielle Mitterrand, wife of the former French President; Federico Mayor, former

UNESCO head; Samir Amin of Forum du Tiers Monde; Kumi Naidoo, Secretary-General

Civicus; Sara Longwe, African Women's Development and Communication Network; and

Hassen Lorgat, of SANGOCO (The South African NGO Coalition) and Transparency SA.

 

The push is also a call for the establishment of mechanisms to enable the

world's citizens and civil society organisations to achieve direct

representation and participation in global decision-making processes. Longwe

told a WSF gathering that the current UN system is run by " corporate

fundamentalists " and is under male domination. She added that recent changes

were a mere " mopping up " operation in the face of past errors rather than

genuine reforms.

 

Longwe told IPS TerraViva after her intervention that forums such as the WSF are

the right venue after being " isolated " in pushing the reform agenda.

 

" This is the right place to talk about reforms, " Mitterrand remarked to IPS

TerraViva.

 

As a sign that international institutions lack democratic governance, Lorgat

denounced the fact that the heads of some key institutions are basically

appointed by established powers – noting the role of the United States in

choosing the head of the Word Bank.

 

The group also aims to have global multilateral institutions - like the World

Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation - integrated

within the United Nations. The group stressed the need for " a stronger and more

democratic " United Nations to put an end to social imbalances.

 

The campaign to reform the system of international institutions, which began in

2006 and is to last until 2009, already has the support of, among others, writer

Noam Chomsky, Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, former UN High Commission

for Human Rights Mary Robinson; former President of Portugal Mario Soares and

former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali.

 

Reforms at the UN system have so far been confined to re-structuring of the

United Nations secretariat in New York and continuing changes in UN agencies,

but have shied away from drastic measures such as giving a formal role in

decision making to civil society groups or integrating World Bank and similar

international institutions into a more democratically governed United Nations

System.

 

Naidoo, secretary general of CIVICUS and well-known South African global justice

activist, called for an end to " the system of global economic apartheid " .

 

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, he said, were part of the

same international system with similar voting structures weighted in favour of

rich countries.

 

" Africa does not want anything special. What it wants is what ordinary people

everywhere want - whether in Asia, Africa or Latin America and even Europe - an

end to the system of global economic apartheid. "

 

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