HYDERABAD, April 14: The governments in Asia have failed to fulfil commitments pledged at the Copenhagen Social Summit and the Beijing Women Conference in 1995 and the Millennium Summit five years ago to ameliorate the lot of people, especially women. The observation was made at a three-day meeting of the Social Watch Asia held recently in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Representatives of the Social Watch from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Tanzania attended the meeting.

The Social Watch on Thursday issued the “Angkor Wat Declaration”, a copy of which was obtained by Dawn.

The meeting discussed ways of addressing new challenges confronting the region, build solidarity and renew commitment to pursue social justice and sustainable development.

The declaration noted that the region remained home to two-third of world’s poor — more than half of them women — whose deprivation and vulnerability were further underscored in the recent tsunami tragedy. It said there was no justification why these people should continue to be deprived of their right to get food, shelter, education and health and pursuit of happiness.

The meeting rejected the rosy reports coming from official quarters about progress made in poverty reduction in the region.

It demanded that the United Nations as well as signatory countries to the above covenants should improve the system of governance by enforcing democratic values and changing bureaucratic culture.

It called for increase in health, education and other basic entitlements by curtailing spending on security and defence.

The declaration called upon the countries of the region to introduce gender budgeting and auditing systems to ensure that public expenditure responded to different needs of women and men.

It also stressed the need for recuperating gender parity in education and ensuring women’s access to health and employment and their due representation in business, government and civil society.

It invited the attention of the governments to women’s exploitation, which undermined the dignity and survival of women, such as trafficking of women and children, dowry killings in India, honour killings in Pakistan and high suicide rate in China.

It emphasized the need for political freedom because these restrictions limit the potential for human development and undermines progress.

The declaration pointed out that Asia was to some of the world’s poorest and heavily indebted countries where a substantial portion of their budgets went to the debt servicing.

It called upon governments of developed countries to provide a debt relief package to Asian countries and increase aid to 0.7 per cent of their GDP.

Expressing concern over environmental issues, the declaration demanded effective enforcement of environmental laws and joint approach to address trans-boundary environmental degradation.

It called for greater attention to removal of injustices and inequality in the world in terms of resource distribution and human rights violations.