KARACHI, March 10: The Sixth World Parliamentary Forum has reaffirmed the charter of principles adopted by the organizing committee of the World Social Forum on April 9, 2001 and appreciated its commitments guided by peoples’ fight to achieve dignity and respect for human, political, social, economic and cultural rights. It has also endorsed the belief that ‘another world is possible’ — a world which takes the principles of liberty, self-determination, integration, cooperation, solidarity, co-existence, peace and social justice as the indispensable basis for realizing the full potential of human beings. The World Parliamentary Forum spelt this out in a declaration adopted on the occasion of the polycentric WSF in Caracas within the framework of the Sixth World Social Forum.
The world parliamentarians considered the commitment to democracy to be a space in which the ideas and activities of various social movements can be debated in a pluralist and wide-ranging way and where civil and political rights of citizens — both men and women — labour associations and organizations can be fully exercised. In this regard, they stressed the need for encouraging all activities and mechanisms to foster and promote participative democracy in all spheres of power.
They supported the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, their right to the return of their land and to a sovereign independent state.
The parliamentarians also demanded immediate withdrawal of the forces of the US, the UK, Italy and other countries occupying Iraq and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the occupied Arab territories (the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Shebaa Farms area).
They rejected the arms race and advocated the universal elimination of and prohibition on nuclear weapons; supported the drafting of a treaty to regulate trade in light weapons and call for compliance with the Ottawa Convention on Anti-personnel Mines.
Besides, they demanded withdrawal of many North American and NATO bases, noting in particular the existence of the Guantánamo Base on Cuban national territory which was being used to humiliate and torture detainees.
Rejecting terrorism in all its forms, including state terrorism, they considered that the best way in which it could be combated was to bring an end to poverty, injustice, exclusion, illiteracy, unemployment, corruption and bureaucracy. “We condemn the doctrine of pre-emptive war as an aberration, as we do the pretext of the fight against terrorism to restrict freedoms, violate human rights and lash out at social movements.” They also rejected the idea whereby grass-roots resistance movements were labelled as terrorist groups.
The parliamentarians also reaffirmed that maintaining peace was the only way of achieving co-existence between people of the world and the peaceful resolution of international conflicts.
“We declare ourselves against the miniaturization of international relations, the devastating effects of which are being felt especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The fight for peace entails constructing another world based on social justice,” they stated.
They denounced any attempt at military, political or economic dominance by one state over another. They also highlighted the fundamental role played by women’s involvement in peace processes as set out in UN Resolution 1325 (2000) and in the parliamentary and social fight against imperialism and for democracy and social justice.
