2000 - Advocacy Guide to Women's World Demands

As we embark upon a new millenium, our planet's population is nearing 6 billion, but the overwhelming majority of humanity lives in poverty. Four billion people live below the relative poverty level, of whom the vast majority are women and children, and 1.3 billion live below the absolute poverty level, of whom 70% are women 1.

The gaps between countries has progressively increased over the past thirty years.

• Income for the richest countries is now 59 times the income of the poorest countries (versus 30 times in 1960)! The same is true for individuals: the gap between the richest 20% of the world's population and the poorest 20% has doubled.

• The world's wealth has multiplied by a factor of 5 whereas the proportion of poor people increased by the same ratio, from 3 to 1 to 15 to 1!

These gaps are all the more significant for women. Thus, women represent half of the world's population and toil 2/3 of world's working hours. However, they earn only 1/10 of the world's income and own less than 1/100 of the world's wealth.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

The president of Nike owns US$4.5 billion in assets, including an annual salary of $1 million. An Indonesian woman working for Nike in one of the many sub-contracting firms throughout the world (for a total of 75,000 workers, of whom 70% are women aged 17 to 21 years old) earns the equivalent of US$360 per year. She would have to work for 15 centuries to have the same salary as the president.

Human poverty is more than the absence of material goods necessary for one's well-being: it is the negation of the most essential opportunities and choices for human development - longevity, health, creativity - but also of decent living conditions, dignity, respect for one's self and for others, access to all that makes life worth living. 2

Poverty is a denial of fundamental human rights; it is a breech of citizenship. Poor people are thus relegated to the margins of humanity and, among them, women are pushed out even further. For women, poverty is a particularly heavy burden since they usually are responsible for feeding and caring for their children, often in very precarious conditions. Poverty thus makes them more vulnerable to discrimination and violence, of which they are the primary victims.

To put an end to poverty, the World March of Women intends to attack its structural causes, to mobilize the international community to ensure equality between women and men, and to demand that each State implement a plan to eliminate poverty.

COMBATING STRUCTURAL CAUSES OF POVERTY

The World March doesn't want to simply reduce poverty or mitigate the maddening consequences. On the eve of a new millenium, the World March is mobilizing women around the world so that humanity may rid itself at last of this poverty that ravages the lives of billions of individuals, particularly women.

While specific forms of poverty have existed at each epoch of humanity, this does not mean that it is a "natural" or inescapable phenomenon. If men and especially women have always lived in poverty, this does not mean that it is caused by a "genetic defect" or the result of "improper lifestyles", contrary to the prejudices often transmitted by society. Women were poorer than men long before the advent of neo-liberal capitalism. Over the past few centuries, and despite revolutionary popular liberation struggles, women have been relegated to the ranks of second-class citizens. Most of them were dependent on their husband's income. They did not have the right to possess land; in fact, they had no legal rights. Yet they have had to work hard to contribute to their family's subsistence while bearing the full burden of raising and educating their children. This description illustrates the patriarchal ideology that persists, even on the eve of the 21st century.

Certainly, owing to their efforts, women have progressed in the recognition of their rights, especially since the Second World War. Yet the majority of women are poor. This poverty can be explained by women's confinement to unstable and underpaid jobs, by the difficulty that millions of girls have in access to education, by the responsibility of children, and so on.

Poverty is a phenomenon that is created politically, economically, culturally and socially. It is up to us to put an end to it.

This is the reason why we must combat the structural causes of this phenomenon. In recent history, the results of this phenomenon have been manifested in policies based on neo-liberal capitalism paired with patriarchy and its various forms of discrimination against women.

Domination of a single economic system: neo-liberal capitalism

The emerging capitalism in the late 18th century was built on the free labour of women in the domestic sphere. It grew from the exploitation of all workers, including children and on colonization and imperialism of the peoples of Asia, Africa, Latin America and North America. It profited from the domination and the destruction of indigenous peoples in Australia and in the Americas in particular.

Economic growth did not go hand in hand with social progress. Although there was a definite explosion in the means of production, this production came with the catastrophic upheaval of people's lives.

The current neo-liberal thinking is an identical copy of the same old untamed capitalism of the turn of the century, but newly reformed to better suit the globalization of markets.

While globalization in itself could provide considerable leverage for solidarity and cooperation among peoples and cultures, it is perverted by the will of the world's powerful to dominate. As a result, the globalization of markets spawns the globalization of poverty and exclusion since inequalities are exacerbated. Rights are no longer promoted nor protected; they are subordinated to the dictates of the market and to profit. Women in particular are maintained in an endemic state of economic inferiority.

Yet the system continues to maintain that only a market free of all constraints can ensure both maximum production of wealth and equitable distribution...! This is the source of the enormous pressure brought to bear at the national and international levels for privatization, deregulation and the free circulation of assets. The world is becoming a vast supermarket... for the better off. Economic liberalism takes on a new face: free-trade zones, free-trade agreements, speculation, and so on.

Free-trade zones

Free-trade zones are territorial enclaves set up within countries, with the complicity of governments, whose activities are not subject to any national legislation or control. Multinationals use this means to process their products at production costs that are below competitive rates. Wages and working conditions closely resemble slavery. Investors can avoid all the minimum rules concerning worker safety, health standards and environmental protection. The situation of women is particularly dramatic.

Free-trade agreements

The integration of markets and the opening of borders to commercial trade have accelerated since the end of the Second World War. These exchanges are regulated by free-trade agreements, which have as their common base:

• to negotiate behind closed doors, far from democratic forums;
• to abolish policies based on protectionism 3;
• to entrench new rights for investors.

For example, a company may sue a government for compensation if it believes that a policy impairs its profits. These are unilateral rights since States have no recourse against companies.

Free trade exacerbates unbridled competition. The laws of the market provoke a downgrading of working conditions and social policies: the lowest common denominator prevails.

Unions and grassroots organizations as well as the women's movement, the environmental movement and rights advocacy groups are exerting political pressure so that these agreements respect the rights of all workers, women and indigenous peoples and that they take environmental protection into account. So far the results are rather feeble: two parallel agreements to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on working conditions and the environment. These results are more symbolic in nature since there is no mechanism for sanctions.

The MAI and similar projects are eloquent examples of the orientation of capitalist investors.

The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) was concocted in secret within the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). It aims to adopt a Bill of Rights for investors in order to allow unhindered circulation of assets over and above State powers. Following significant public outcry, the proposal was withdrawn, but it has reappeared recently under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) 4 and is being implemented in several separate treaties. These treaties all have the same objective: unconditional access to all markets, in all sectors. Free-trade zones constitute another example of the preponderance of investor rights.

WE ARE MARCHING FOR:
P-2 f) The rejection of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI).

Speculation

We have entered the age of the virtual economy, one which is highly speculative. 5

For the entire year 1995, $4,300 billion in goods and services were traded on the planet, whereas each day, currency transactions amounted to $1,300 billion.

This market is so big and so volatile that States are no longer able to protect their national currency. In a fraction of a second, it is possible to withdraw hundreds of billions of dollars from a country, to empty its central bank of its reserves and thus put its economy in peril and provoke serious social crises. Most recently, Mexico, Brazil, Russia and the countries Southeast Asia had a taste of the bitter medicine of money markets.

This financial system produces instability, insecurity and inequality. It is urgent that control systems be set up - even if they are very rudimentary - and later that speculation be eliminated. It is therefore urgent to experiment with various forms of capital taxation on a worldwide scale.

Acting on speculation through the Tobin Tax

In 1972, to stem rising speculation, James Tobin, economist and advisor to President Kennedy, proposed that a small tax of 0.1% to 0.5% be imposed on each speculative transaction.

We can differentiate speculative transactions from capital transactions for investing in goods and services by their rapidity and repetition. Speculative transactions on currency happen repeatedly, thousands of times per day. Investment transactions occur once and remain immobilized for years and allow national economies to prosper. The Tobin Tax would control speculative transactions through a fee for every time currency changes hands or accounts.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates that US$40 billion per annum are required to eliminate extreme poverty and to allow universal access to safe water and essential services (specifically health and education). However, a tax rate as low as 0.1% based on US$1000 billion per day would generate revenues of US$72 billion per year... nearly enough to eliminate extreme poverty twice over! With a tax rate of 1%, UNCTAD calculated revenues at US$720 billion per year, a colossal sum which is technically enough to put an end to poverty.

Of course, the Tobin Tax alone cannot definitively solve the problem of speculation, and is even less able to resolve the rising inequalities. But it can help throw a bit of sand in the well-oiled gears of financial speculation. It is part of a new wave of proposals for taxing capital.

The World March has chosen to target the Tobin Tax in particular, both for its immediate impact on speculation and because this tax would generate a significant world fund. The Tobin Tax is an attainable objective in the short term. There are already many citizens' movements around the world that are actively demanding that their governments adopt this plan.

• The Canadian parliament has adopted the Tobin Tax proposal.
• In Germany, the government party is getting ready to propose the adoption of a Tobin Tax to its parliament in the fall of 1999.
• Ministers and members of the parliament in France, Belgium, Finland and Brazil propose the adoption of speculation control measures in the same vein as the Tobin Tax.

ATTAC-Québec (Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions for the benefit of Citizens)

The World March of Women in the Year 2000 is demanding the Tobin Tax yet is also demanding that the specific nature of women's poverty as well as the necessary equal representation of men and women in the management of a world fund be taken into account in its orientation and application.

WE ARE MARCHING FOR:
P-2a) The urgent implementation of measures such as the Tobin Tax.

To stem speculation and to create a special fund:

• earmarked for social development;
• managed democratically by the international community as a whole;
• according to criteria respecting fundamental human rights and democracy;
• with equal representation of women and men;
• to which women would have preferred access.

The weight of economics over politics and state capitulation to the market

The current imbalance between the world's supranational financial powers and States can be seen particularly in a growing loss of States' ability to levy taxes, in the imposition of deficit-reduction measures, and in draconian measures such as SAPs. At the same time, international aid is stagnating or diminishing.

The erosion of States' tax base

Globalization erodes States' tax base through the opening of borders, the volatility of capital and through tax breaks granted to attract investors. For example, States cannot tax profits on financial speculation nor on goods consumed through the Internet where there are no borders or taxes paid.

Deficit reduction

In order to comply with the standards dictated by the major financiers, countries in the North have set deficit-reduction objectives. The consequences of these budget cutbacks have been detrimental to all social measures, including the quality of and access to health services and education. Cutbacks in social programs (unemployment insurance, welfare, low-income housing) have gravely affected the living conditions of women and children. Services that are no longer provided by public authorities now generally fall on the shoulders of women who work many unpaid and unrecognized hours in the private sphere.

Structural adjustment programs (SAP)

The World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 6 have imposed structural adjustment programs (SAP) on developing countries to pressure them into paying back their international debts by stabilizing and restructuring their economy. SAPs affect:

• monetary policies: currency devaluation, increased interest rates;
• budgetary policies: tax increases, cutbacks in public services and privatization of public companies;
• market policies: lifting of price and wage controls and suppression of subsidies;
• trade policies: lifting of trade obstacles, promotion of growth in exports and in attracting foreign investments.

SAPs have disastrous effect on: public services, employment, through layoffs in the public sector; standard of living, through social spending cutbacks; balance of trade, the debt rate and the environment. For example, sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing public school closures and the resurgence of contagious diseases as a result of the scarcity of resources granted to the most basic hygiene in health services.

These programs also carry heavier consequences for women: drop in income, cuts in essential services, suppression of food aid. Women and girls are too often deprived of education, food and health care for the benefit of boys and men in their family.

The IMF is clearly imposing measures that punish States, elected officials and especially citizens.

Cause for celebration?

In an interview granted to the daily newspaper Le Monde, the World Bank president James Wolfensohn, who works closely with the president of the IMF, commented that the bank's mistakes arise from the fact that their analyses and expectations are too highly focussed on financial criteria. He suggested that the bank must also take into account the social situation of a country, the provisions of a social safety net, for example, that would attenuate the shocks. Up to now, debate has always been reserved for finance ministers and financial institutions 7.

The World March wants structural changes rather than structural adjustments.

WE ARE MARCHING FOR:
P-2d) and e) An end to structural adjustment programs and to cutbacks in social budgets and public services.

Downward spiral of debt

Starting in the 1970s, several factors led to the increase in the debt of Third World countries.

The 1970s:

• Oil crisis. The price of petroleum quadrupled in 1972 then rose again in 1979. This made costs rise for all countries with the most disastrous consequences for poor countries.
• Commercial bank loans to Third World countries.

The 1980s:

• Major rise in interest rates. Rates had been at 1% since 1944, but rose to 5% and 6% at the beginning of the 1970s, then to 20% and 22% in the 1980s, skyrocketing the costs of debt repayment.
• Drop in the price of raw materials on world markets (fell by 30% on average). Third World revenues plummeted, slowing foreign debt repayment.
• Implementation of SAPs.

The 1990s:

• Intensification of foreign debt load and liberalization of economies of borrowing countries.

Consequences of the debt:

• Every year, the Third World reimburses more than $200 billion. Governments of sub-Saharan Africa spend four times more on debt repayment than they do on health and education for their population. Africa now owes three times more than was initially borrowed.

• Poor countries with heavy debt loads demonstrate higher rates for infant mortality, disease, illiteracy and malnutrition than other developing countries.

• For every dollar of public aid to development that a poor country receives, $3 are spent in foreign debt repayment.

• Countries that cannot repay their debts must turn to the IMF, which offers additional loans according to strict conditions, Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP).

• Tropical forests are being destroyed, fish stocks are being depleted and the land is being stripped to increase exports in order to pay the foreign debt.

WE ARE MARCHING FOR:
P-3: Cancellation of the debt of all Third World countries, taking into account the principles of responsibility, transparency of information and accountability.

• We demand the immediate cancellation of the debt (approximately US$341 billion) of the 53 poorest countries on the planet, in support of the objectives of the Jubilee 2000 campaign.

The Jubilee 2000 Coalition has gathered 12 million signatures around the world as part of its "Jubilee 2000" campaign. The 12 million signatures were tabled in Cologne, Germany where the G8 Summit met from June 18 to 20, 1999.

• In the longer term, we demand cancellation of the debt of all Third World countries and the setting up of a mechanism to monitor debt write-off, ensuring that this money is employed to eliminate poverty and further the well-being of people most affected by structural adjustment programs, the majority of whom are women and girls.

Constant cutbacks in international aid

Public aid to development is financial assistance provided by taxpayers through official public bodies, including the State and local public bodies, to developing countries or to multilateral institutions, as donations or low-interest loans. Aid for purchasing military supplies is excluded.

Proposed for the first time in 1992, the 20/20 formula sets out the guiding principles for universal access to basic social services. In this scheme, 20% of sums paid by donor countries must be earmarked for social development and 20% of the receiving State's expenses must be reserved for social programs.

The Oslo Formula (1996) defines basic social services as basic education, primary health care, in particular gynecological and obstetric care and population programs, nutrition programs, access to safe water and to sanitation, as well as institutional means to provide these services. For the World March, it is not a simply question of "needs" but rather of fundamental "rights".

At the end of a century that has witnessed economic growth at exponential rates, to continue speaking of "aid" toward certain countries demonstrates the failure of neo-liberal capitalism and its unavoidable inequalities. Only "fair trade" would have allowed the equitable development of all. However, we are still far from that goal.

Furthermore, public aid to development continues to decrease. As a percentage of the gross national product (GNP) of donor countries, this aid has declined to an average of 0.25% in 1996, compared with 0.34% in 1990. It is the lowest rate on record since 1970, the year when the target was set at 0.7% of the GNP. Public aid to development provided by industrialized countries as a whole has decreased for the fifth year in a row. Only Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark have maintained their aid at a rate of at least 0.7% of their GNP.

According to the UN, at this rate, there will be no more aid in the year 2015.

WE ARE MARCHING FOR:
P-4: The implementation of the 20/20 formula between donor countries and the recipients of international aid.
P-2b) The investment of 0.7% of the rich countries' gross national product (GNP) in aid for developing countries

RALLYING THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

Change through mobilization

The World March of Women is part of a long line of organizations where people have strived to rally together and organize the international community in order to guarantee justice and equality among all inhabitants of the planet. The World March is an autonomous grassroots initiative of the women's movement. It is trying to influence the economic and political powers to act on the "decision-makers" of States and the United Nations.

The international meeting held last October 1998 was only one of countless initiatives from civil society where women reaffirmed their determination to eradicate poverty and violence against women, with the conviction that this change must come from a large-scale mobilization of women around the world.

Obviously, the primary objective of this international meeting was not to carry out a systematic analysis of the United Nations. However, several participants shared their doubts about the UN and their hope that substantial changes will allow this international organization to intervene efficiently and structurally to combat poverty and violence against women.

The UN: an organization to call into question

From the first conference in The Hague in 1898 until the creation of the UN in 1945, many political leaders have attempted to set up an international structure that can guarantee peace and security and settle differences between nations peacefully while abandoning the use of weapons (conventional or nuclear). They have sought to develop the means to achieve cooperation between countries citizens, and to provide the world with international instruments (declarations, covenants, conventions, protocols, courts of justice) to guarantee the protection of the fundamental rights of all human beings.

Despite considerable progress, we must acknowledge the great difficulties that lie in the UN's path. This international organization frequently cannot act or is powerlessness in the face of the multiple conflicts that have ravaged our century and that continue to disturb the peace and security of the world: two world wars, Nazi concentration camps, and the persistence of armed conflict with States and between nations.

The UN remains by and large dominated by Western countries, their values and their vision of modernity, to the detriment of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Its economic institutions(the IMF and the World Bank in particular(possess a greater power than the UN itself in the economic sphere and promote neo-liberal policies everywhere, which is the main source of growing inequalities. Technocracy and bureaucracy often constitute obstacles to full and mindful democratic participation.

Up to now, despite its considerable aid and development programs that have helped avoid many catastrophes, the UN has demonstrated its inability to contribute to combating and eliminating the growing gap between countries and citizens, between rich and poor, between women and men.

The UN: future in need of nurturing

This is the challenge that the UN faces as we enter the third millenium. A plethora of proposals are forthcoming from civil society. They appeal for true democratization of the UN (including a full reform of the Security Council and the suppression of veto rights), the creation of a world annual meeting of non-governmental participants (a type of permanent assembly of NGOs), and a substantial reform of international financial institutions.

Clearly, the World March cannot take a position on every one of these proposals. However, the World March has put forth a demand that, although far from fully addressing the issue, indicates the general direction that we want the UN to take. It also shows women's commitment to strengthen international political legitimacy.

IN A MORE IMMEDIATE FUTURE,
WE ARE MARCHING FOR: P-2c) The adequate financing and democratization of United Nations programs that are essential to defend women's and children's fundamental rights, UNIFEM (UN Women's Programme), UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and UNICEF (UN children's fund).

P-5: A non-monolithic world political organization, with authority over the economy and egalitarian and democratic representation of all countries on earth (ensuring parity between poor countries and rich countries) and equal representation of women and men.

ECONOMIC ISSUES

The World March expects to contribute to setting up a world economic system that is fair, participatory and socially cohesive. It puts forth a more structural demand for a Council for Economic and Financial Security 8 to take charge of:

• redefining the rules of a new world financial system geared toward a fair and equitable sharing of the planet's wealth, toward social justice and the improved well-being of the world population, specifically for women who make up more than half of this population;
• exercising political control over financial markets;
• "disarming" markets, preventing them from damaging societies and systematically creating instability, insecurity and inequality;
• ensuring diligent regulation and monitoring of economic, financial and commercial organizations;
• exercising democratic control over commercial trade or, in other terms, applying "zero tolerance" on the criminal tendencies of the economy.

The Council's membership is not yet defined and must be debated at the international level. We do, however, put forth a few general guidelines in the Council's makeup that are part of the strict minimum: the Council's membership must include representatives from civil society (NGOs, unions, etc.), ensure parity between men and women and reflect parity between countries from the North and South.

Among the conditions for achieving this goal, the World March's demands for the immediate future are:

• the elimination of all tax havens (there are about forty havens including Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands, Liechtenstein, etc.) whose very existence constitutes a form of legalized theft by allowing financiers, companies, political leaders, etc. to hide "their" money and to avoid paying taxes and obeying the laws and regulations of States;
• the end of banking secrecy, an anti-democratic practice that constitutes another form of legalized theft;
• the redistribution of wealth currently monopolized by the seven richest industrialized countries.

LEGAL ISSUES

• The World March considers that the elimination of poverty is not merely a goal to reach but a right that must be implemented immediately. This is the source of our demand for a protocol for the application of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

STATE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF POVERTY, ESPECIALLY WOMEN'S POVERTY

Patriarchy exerts discrimination on the living conditions of women. Since the dawn of time, and in all dominant economic systems, patriarchy has put women at a disadvantage: no right to own property and no right to the range of natural resources, restricted access to well-paid jobs, used as cheap labour in free-trade zones, layoffs, inequality, wage freezes or cutbacks. Women are always at the end of the line when it comes to enjoying the benefits of economic growth.

Traditionally, women have greater responsibility for their close relatives, children, the elderly or the ill. They bear the brunt even more so when there are cutbacks in social programs, endangering their own health and their jobs. As those primarily responsible for the well-being of their children, women are the ones who look for water, food and shelter for themselves and their families in a world where sharing of resources, even vital ones, is out of step with economic growth.

These conditions of poverty constitute an obstacle to women's right to the enjoyment of all of their human rights and to benefit from the effects of equitable economic development. These conditions lead to social exclusion and are a breach of their right to equality. These breaches are in conflict with the commitments adopted by States at:

• THE VIENNA CONFERENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS (1993);
• THE COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT (1995);
• THE BEIJING CONFERENCE (1995). 9

States must take responsibility for redistributing the wealth and resources. They must clearly state their political will to put an end to poverty and in particular to end women's poverty. This is why States must include the promotion and implementation of concrete measures for eliminating women's poverty, in their political program, and they must guarantee that women can exercise their rights.

This demand of the World March is related to the call for action issued by the UN special rapporteur who recommended the development of national programs to fight poverty that should be normative in nature in the form of a legal framework with provisions for application mechanisms 10.

WE ARE MARCHING FOR:
P-1 That all States adopt a legal framework and strategies aimed at eliminating poverty.

A legal framework is an "umbrella" law with a broad scope that provides general guidelines, affirms principles and sets goals. This legal framework must be the basis for other laws that a government would want to put forth on the same subject, specifically the elimination of poverty. The term "legal framework" may vary according to the country. In some Latin American countries, for example, the term "national agenda" is used.

This legal framework must include measures to guarantee the economic and social autonomy of women through the exercise of their rights. It must include provisions for adopting laws, programs, action plans, and national projects specifically to ensure that women suffer no discrimination in their rights, and that they have access to the following:

BASIC RESOURCES
Safe water
Production and distribution of food to ensure food security for the population
Decent housing
Basic and reproductive health services
Social protection
Life-long income security

CULTURE
An the end to the process of homogenization of cultures

CITIZENSHIP
Recognition of citizenship through access to relevant documents (identity card)
Equal participation in political decision-making bodies

NATURAL AND ECONOMIC RESOURCES
Ownership of family assets and the equitable distribution of inheritances
Credit

EDUCATION RESOURCES
Literacy
Vocational training
Scientific and technological knowledge

EQUALITY IN THE WORKPLACE
Pay equity and equality at the national and international levels
A minimum wage
Statutory protection for work in the home and in the informal sectors of the economy
Unionization and freedom of association
Decision-making positions
The respect of labour standards (in all workplaces including free-trade zones) as adopted by the International Labour Office

EQUALITY IN TASK SHARING
States must develop incentives to promote the sharing of family responsibilities (education and care of children and domestic tasks) and must provide concrete support to families such as daycare adapted to parents' work schedules, community kitchens, programs to assist children with their schoolwork, and so on. States must therefore take all possible steps to end patriarchal values and sensitize the society towards democratization of the family structure.

Women also demand that there be an end to the process of homogenization of culture and the marketing and commercialization of women in the media to suit the needs of the market. They insist that States and international organizations take measures to counter and prevent corruption.

• All acts, legislation, regulations and positions taken by governments will be assessed in the light of indicators such as:
  
• Human Poverty Index (HPI) 11, put forth in the Human Development Report (1997)
• Human Development Index, put forth by the United Nations Development Programme;
• Gender-related development index (including an indicator on the representation of women in positions of power), proposed in the Human Development Report (1995)
• Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization concerning rights of Indigenous peoples

NOTES

1. To determine who is poor, "poverty levels" are generally used. The absolute poverty levels are defined in relation to a fixed set of goods and services considered necessary to meet one's essential needs. The monetary cost of these items per country is used to determine the absolute poverty level. International bodies have arbitrarily established this absolute poverty level at less than US$370 per annum. Anyone earning less than this amount is considered "poor"! However, relative poverty levels are measured in relation to the average standard of living of a country's population.
2. Human Development Report, UNDP, 1998.
3. Protectionism is a set of trade policies whose purpose is to protect the prices of certain goods or materials sectors in a given country in order to maintain the local economy and jobs.
4. See the appendix for more information on the OECD and the WTO.
5. At present, there is much speculation as regards financial transactions, which is the buying and selling currency (money) in order to make a considerable profit in a short period.
6. See the appendix for more information on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
7. Serge Truffaut. La démocratie violée. Le Devoir, February 5, 1999.
8. The idea for a World Council for Economic and Financial Security was put forth by Ricardo Petrella in his book Le bien commun: éloge de la soldarité, Édition Travail, Brussels, 1996. This idea had already been the subject of discussion within politically progressive segments of the European Parliament.
9. See the appendix for more information on these three conferences.
10. Leandro Despouy. Final Report on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty, Human Rights Commission, UNO, June 1996.
11. See the appendix for more information on these indicators and indices.