Disarmament to Combat Poverty

An International Campaign

Dear  

We would like to invite you to the Delhi Consultation on Disarmament, being organized on the 10 ^th November in New Delhi at the India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi (Time: 4 pm – 6.30 pm). Kindly enter from Gate Number 03 of the India Habitat Center.   

The Delhi consultation is being organized to discuss the contours of an International Campaign on 'Disarmament to Combat Poverty' being initiated jointly by Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research - PILER (Pakistan) / Ekta Parishad (India) and Freres des Hommes (France). A similar such consultation was held earlier in March 2006 on the occasion of the Polycentric World Social Forum, held in Karachi . The Campaign is planned as a participatory process open all actors involved in the peace and justice agenda.

Attached along is the Concept Note on the Campaign.   

We truly look forward to your presence.

Yours sincerely,

Please Note: Kindly confirm in advance your presence by sending an e-mail: to ektaparishad@yahoo.com , info@nccl.in

Delhi Coordination: 14/185-186, 2^nd Floor, Shivalik Main Road , Malviya Nagar

New Delhi 110017 India Tel: +91 11 418 30 381 / 82, Mob: +91 99 101 645 12 - 14

The Concept Note

Disarmament to Combat Poverty:  A Global Challenge

Poverty, huge social inequalities, harsh denial of the rights and dignity of the majority of human beings and world citizens, repression and despising neglect of poor peoples' voice are nourishing a desperate and violent rejection of democratic values and enlarging support to chauvinistic and totalitarian forces.

Increasing demand for oil (energy resources) in a context of declining resources is fuelling aggressive postures of confrontation: more conflicts are likely to happen for control over natural resources: oil, gas, water . . .

The proliferation of Nuclear weapons, the steady expansion of the arms business, arms race, militarization of states and societies are putting at stake human security and democracy;

The prevalent economic development policies and competing military strategies all over the world cannot claim to serve human security; they are in fact leading to the development and persistence of poverty. It is high time to promote the rational and realistic approach which claims that sustainable human security calls for scuttling out national chauvinism's and conflict and developing social security and solidarity.

The South-Asian context with a focus on Pakistan and India :

The South Asia region contains nearly one-fifth of the inhabitants of the planet. Nearly half of the world's illiterate and forty percent of the world's poor and impoverished live here: some 500 million people live in absolute poverty; 350 million do not have access to safe drinking water; 830 million people have no access to basic sanitation. People live sandwiched between a context of deep inequality and deprivation on one hand, and conflict and social tension and on the other.

Despite massive deprivation, the governments in the region have been spending excessively high amounts on military and 'national security' needs. After long years of conflict in Sri Lanka, the country that had the best social indicators in the region, has paid a heavy price for conflict, and has vastly increased its military budget instead of more vital social funding to heal its wounds. Vast social inequality in Nepal fuelled an armed rebellion against the monarchy that shrank democratic political space. A extremist political fringe has been gaining ground in Bangladesh, leading to growing violence in society. Conflict of interest over control of river waters, frequent tensions on the border fencing, and a messy conflict on 'menace' of 'illegal' migration have poisoned relations between Bangladesh and India . A long history of war and suspicion have marked the relations between Pakistan and India and hampered regional peace. These two dominant states of South Asia , Pakistan and India have a dismal ranking on the Human Development Index: India being 127 and Pakistan 135. . . , but that has not prevented them from keeping some of the world's largest armies. Since 1998 India and Pakistan have embarked on nuclear arms race making the region extremely volatile and dangerous. India has become one biggest defense spenders in the world.

The huge amounts of money that India is wasting on the combat aircrafts and submarines, is pushing Pakistan to compete in this tit for tat expensive weapons acquisition race. Such militarization is jeopardizing health, education, environment, food security, access to resources, etc. It is vital to challenge the misuse of resources and re-directing them to provide for the very basic people's needs based development. South Asia 's states need to focus on security not in military terms but in terms of the people's security, respect human rights, freedom for the right to migrate across borders and for safer and decent livelihood.

The European context with a focus on France :

An estimated 10% of the European population is affected by poverty, with an increasingly large number of "labouring poor". The trend is towards privatization of basic services and reduction of social security while the mobilization of more resources (both human and financial) would be required to fight poverty, social exclusion and isolation.

Fighting poverty in the South ranks among the priorities of the cooperation policies of the European Union. Public aid channels have proved more adequate to   increase corruption than to reduce poverty so far. The issue of reforming public aid mechanisms to bring them under people's control and towards people needs' response is crucial   for strengthening the campaign led by NGOs   asking for more public aid from North to South.

In this context the reduction of military budgets would provide readily available new financial resources to fight poverty in Europe and in the South. In order to initiate such a move, France should play a major role, in proportion with its international responsibilities as:

- As a rich country committed to the Millennium Objectives which cannot afford to deceive the poor and at the same time claim to promote the universal relevance of "liberte, egalite, fraternite";

- as a major nuclear power, member of the UN Security Council, it cannot seriously pretend to take care of global human security   by falling in line with the so called anti-rogue States and antiterrorism strategies and by continuing to maintain nuclear weapons and make juicy business out of arms sales.

In South-Asia , France is involved in sizable arms selling to both India and Pakistan, making short-term profit by fueling a risky and counter-productive arms race and military competition in the region, putting at stake the more sustainable strategic, economic and cultural gains. France , Europe at large and South Asia , could reap a harvest in the long run by contributing to disarmament, social development and regional cooperation.

DISARMENT TO COMBAT POVERTY: An international campaign

1. Rationale

Converting military budgets to finance human security and social development. Huge amounts of money are available both in North and South which could be and should be reallocated to combat poverty and build democracy from below in order to achieve the goals of the Millennium Development Goals.

To increase the financial resources devoted to human development

- The economic weight (share) of armaments purchases in the public budgets;

- Disarmament as a means of releasing resources to finance social development.

To develop an economy based on solidarity:

- The weight (share) of industries of death in the economies

- Disarmament as a means of re-orienting economic activities towards the vital needs of the population.

To re-inforce democratic assertion of civil and social rights

- The heavy impact of militarization on the political institutions and on the actors of the civil society

- Disarmament as a dynamics of de-militarization, supporting the reduction and prevention of wars and of terrorist violence, the activation of civil rights, and the assertion of economic and social rights.

2. Special focus and specific objectives

Focusing on South Asia and Europe and as a first step on India , Pakistan and France , with the following specific objectives:

To demand from the Governments of India, Pakistan and France :

- a commitment to engage into a steady policy of gradual reduction of the public defense budgets and reallocation of the entire amounts spared into human security and social development programmes at national, regional and international level.

- a commitment to set up in each country a special disarmament-development fund and a national committee dedicated to orientating and monitoring the conversion process.

- a commitment to associate within the committee and other required technical bodies the various competent authorities and all relevant social organizations and citizens movements.

3. Initial demands

As a starting point, the campaign intends to mobilize around the following demands:

- The immediate and total freeze of the respective defense budgets in India , Pakistan and France (zero increase from 2006 onwards);

- A commitment to effective 10% reduction and conversion by 2010;

- the immediate initiation of contacts, consultations, dialogue, independent studies and public debates in order to engage into the reflection and planning process required to set up the disarmament-development funds.

4. Resources and initial organization of the campaign

In order to finance the campaign and give some support to innovative projects contributing to fighting poverty and building democracy and peace, it is proposed to set up an international citizen fund.

The international citizen fund would be composed of regional funds:

- The South-Asia citizen fund, with initial location in Pakistan (hosted by PILER) and India (hosted by Ekta Parishad)

- The European citizen fund, with initial location in France (hosted by FDH)

The resources of the campaign would be collected via public donations as a means for building up people's support. Special attention shall be devoted to involvement of low income sectors by accepting one Rupee or one Euro contributions.

It is proposed that 50% of the contributions should be dedicated to financing campaign activities and structural expenses.

50% would be reserved for financing innovative micro projects with special attention to projects incorporating a dimension of regional cooperation (between India and Pakistan for instance) and projects linking up local-national issues and international issues (fighting poverty in France and in the countries of the South for instance). Initial funding could be orientated towards studies, debates and publications to explore the feasibility of innovative macro schemes which could be eventually financed via the disarmament for social development process, such as:

- Social security for vulnerable workers; including the taking into account of environmental issues to enable vulnerable workers to avail both rights and responsibilities via participatory mechanisms

- Civil service with a social dimension (solidarity, social exposure and involvement within NGOs and local municipalities, vocational training, environmental programs such as tree planting . . .) for all male and female youth.

- Conversion of arms and other lethal industries into sustainable human safety orientated production.

Basic programme of Action:

Youth Camps:

-         In rural and urban areas concerning problems of poverty and violence

-         Conceived as training grounds for non violent actions to affirm fundamental human rights

-         To conduct local enquiries, and to mobilize local participation

Citizens' Collective Funds:

-    are conceived as tools of mobilization of human and financial means, adapted to enlarge the social base of the campaign by participation of people with modest earnings

-     Organized as local funds for local resistance and solidarity to challenge poverty and precariousness.

Citizens Committees:

-      in each country at the local and national levels as poles of initiative

-     are meant to bring together informal groups of resource persons and organizations who can concretely contribute to the development of the campaign dynamic;

Public campaigning:

- to help stimulate public debate on disarmament to combat poverty and for re-conversion of defence tied funds towards social useful investment

-  to help popularize, the themes, and objectives by helping credible documentation and information

The management of the funds and the overall orientation of the campaign call for the setting up in each country of a national coalition of civil society organizations and peoples' movements.

Such a coalition is seen as a concrete way of bringing together groups, movements and resource people focusing on disarmament issues on the one hand and on social justice issues on the other hand.

Each initiator organization is in charge of leading the process of organizing such a national coalition in its country.

The initial steering committee is composed of the representatives of the three initiator organizations and in charge of coordinating the campaign, its activities and mutual sharing of financial resources, skills and contacts.