PRESS CONFERENCE ON LAUNCH OF SOCIAL WATCH 2004 REPORT

PRESS CONFERENCE ON LAUNCH OF SOCIAL WATCH 2004 REPORT

Social Watch launched its 2004 report at a Headquarters press conference today, with several representatives of the Social Watch coalition outlining the specific challenges to human security in their respective regions.

The 2004 report, entitled “Fear and Want: obstacles to human security”, was a compilation of more than 50 country case studies that sought to understand the gap between government rhetoric and the reality on the ground, Jagadananda of India told correspondents.  Established in 1995, Social Watch monitored the progress and regression in government commitments to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.  The overall picture presented by the report was not very bright, he said.

Highlighting several aspects of the report, Leonor Briones of the Philippines said that in her country, fear and want were two terrible realities haunting the people:  fear because of the country’s anti-terrorist activities, and want due to increasing poverty levels.  According the report, five out of 13 subregions in the Philippines would not be able to achieve the Millennium targets.

According to the quality of life index adopted in the 2004 report, income was not a major indicator of equality, she said.  A more important indicator was whether children were being fed and educated.  Adopted on a global scale, the report told an urgent story she said.  Poverty was rising and the quality of life as expressed by the lives of children and women were the real indicators of human security.

Simon Stocker of Belgium said that in preparation for the assessment of the Millennium Goals next year, Social Watch had felt it was important to assess how people perceived their level of human security.  According to the report’s findings, economic security was just as important in the North as it was in the South.  In developing countries, the overriding issue was the impact of poverty, including food security, health and access to education.

Technically and financially, the problems facing the developing countries could be resolved, but the key question was the political will to deliver, he said.  Breaking promises was not the way to achieve global security.  Addressing poverty was the only path to a more secure world.  Not daring to address the question of human security would lead to a perpetuation of human insecurity, ultimately threatening the credibility of world leaders.

Describing the report’s findings in the Arab region, Ziad Abdel Samad of Lebanon the common challenge facing the Arab world was foreign occupation.  The Middle East conflict was the main source of instability in the region and another common source of instability was the anger deriving from the double standard regarding the implementation of United Nations resolutions.  While some United Nations resolutions were being strictly implemented with record speed, others were still pending.  Internal dynamics, including socio-economic policies and undemocratic systems, were also factors of human insecurity in the Middle East.

Reporting on the Latin American region, Areli Sandoval Teran of Mexico said the main obstacles to human security in her region related to economic policy and structural adjustment programmes.  One of the region’s main problems was the issue of migration.  Many people from different Latin American countries were migrating to the United States, resulting in a vicious cycle of insecurity.  Obstacles to human security related not only to violence, but also to poverty as a violation of economic, social and cultural rights, she added.

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