I.
Peace and Disarmament
II. The
State of the World Economy
Trade and protectionism
Debt crisis and
management
III. Development,
Population and Environment
Development
Population
Environment
IV. Terrorism and Drug-trafficking
V. South
Africa and the Policy of Apartheid
VI. Multilateralism
1. In the final years of the twentieth century, humanity is confronted by the greatest set
of crises in history. Yet measures adequate to meet them have not been adopted.
Without effective and correct responses by political, scientific, spiritual and
cultural leaders at global and national levels, based on a common ethical basis, there can
be no enduring future.
2. To this end, the InterAction Council intends to follow its March 1987 meeting with
spiritual leaders by convening further such consultative meetings to explore, on an
interdisciplinary basis, possible solutions to some of the grave issues which threaten
humankind. The Council recognizes that universities, as places for leadership
training, have a special responsibility to equip future generations for the demands of
global interdependence.
3. Peace has lost its true meaning in a world which since World War II has not seen a
single day without war, conflict, poverty and wide scale human and environmental
degradation. Genuine peace can only be accomplished through an ongoing process of dialogue
and receptive understanding permeating all areas of society and international contacts.
4. The InterAction Council again urges that all States and especially the superpowers make
all efforts to bring about effective arms control, disarmament and reduction of military
budgets. The Council specifically calls for the following action:
a) The United States and the Soviet
Union should honor their treaty commitments to achieve cuts in strategic weapon levels and
continue negotiations aimed at even further reductions.
b) President Reagan and General
Secretary Gorbachev have a grave moral obligation to humanity to pursue actively their
search for mutually acceptable solutions to prevent an arms race in space, to stop the
arms race on earth and to agree on concrete measures to reduce drastically nuclear,
chemical and conventional arms.
c) A substantive summit meeting should
be convened in 1987 in view of the progress made in the Geneva discussions since Reykjavik
and the Council renews its suggestion that a dialogue at the highest levels be
institutionalized on an annual basis.
d) While maintaining their long-term
vision of a world free from nuclear weapons, the two leaders should devote their energies
to reach tangible agreements this very year 1987.
e) The first priority is to conclude
without delay an agreement on balanced, gradual and eventual elimination of medium-range
missiles (intermediate-range nuclear forces/INF) starting on the basis of the Reykjavik
formula and immediately to enter into negotiations for the reduction and eventual
elimination of short-range missiles in Europe.
f) The United States and the Soviet
Union should conclude a 50 per cent reduction of strategic nuclear forces as agreed at the
Geneva and Reykjavik summits while setting the stage for further reductions.
g) The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM)
Treaty must be strictly observed and both powers concerned should agree on a joint
interpretation of the Treaty. All steps possible must
be taken to prevent an arms race in outer space, which should exclusively be preserved for
peaceful purposes.
h) East and West should prepare and
initiate new negotiations on conventional forces, addressing confidence and
security-building measures and the mutual reduction, acceptable to both sides, of the
conventional forces in armaments from the Atlantic to the Urals, and to establish, in the
process, an equilibrium in this area. These measures should be extended as soon as
possible to Asia and other parts of the world.
i) Chemical weapons should be banned and
eliminated under reliable safeguards for non-renewal of production and strict verification
measures to be agreed by the parties.
5. These steps could lead
to the curtailment of the arms race and of the huge expenditures it requires, achieving
meaningful arms reductions and diminishing the danger of war while improving the security
for other countries. The Council urges movement towards a comprehensive test ban as
agreed in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) perhaps through agreements on lower threshold
levels, limits on quantity of tests and ratification of existing treaties.
6. The United States and the Soviet Union should take other specific steps including the
establishment of mechanisms for the prevention of a nuclear conflict by accident or error.
The InterAction Council strongly encourages wider debate and discussion among all nations
on the perceptions and realities involved in arms reduction issues which are of concern to
all humankind. The Council believes that the allies of the United States and the Soviet
Union and all other nations can make a substantial contribution in this regard.
7. For moral, political and economic reasons, humanity must strive towards a more
equitable economic structure reversing the present appalling poverty which afflicts vast
numbers of human beings throughout the world. Change can only be accomplished
through a series of decisions and dialogue predicated on enlightened self-interest on the
part of the industrialized and mutually supportive policies on the part of the developing
countries.
8. Dangerous signs characterize the world
economy:
The present unsustainable budget and
trade deficits of the United States and the huge current account surpluses of Japan and
major West European economies create an environment of economic tension and danger;
Protectionist pressures are
clearly on the rise and are taking dangerous courses;
The debt crisis is reaching unimaginable
proportions and solutions are as remote as they ever were;
Conditions of life of the majority of
people in most developing countries, especially the lower income countries, continue to
deteriorate rapidly;
Falling commodity prices further
aggravate the desperate economic condition of a large number of countries;
Real interest rates, although much lower
than before, are at too high a level;
The volatility of the dollar exchange
rate is a source of acute instability for the fabric of the world's trade and financial
structure and activities;
Overall, failure to response to the
realities of an interdependent world economy is producing a state of anarchy in many
areas, with severe implications for human welfare.
9. The InterAction Council
reiterates that without immediate and co-ordinated measures to tackle these problems the
future well-being of all countries will be at stake.
Trade
and protectionism
10. The InterAction Council sees a real
danger that in the present conditions of foreign exchange and financial markets a wave of
increasing protectionism in its various forms could trigger a global recession.
11. For these reasons, the strict observance of GATT principles and the new GATT round are
of special importance. It is necessary to halt and reverse the move towards greater
protectionist measures and to develop an open, viable and durable multilateral trading
system. In particular, the InterAction Council urges the elimination of bilateral
deals between major States and emphasizes the dangers inherent in current disputes between
those States. The Council urges them to solve present disputes without resort to
increasing protectionism.
12. The United States, the European
Community and Japan subsidize agricultural production to an unacceptable extent, thereby
jeopardizing the development prospects and debt repayment capability of numerous debtor
countries. Fundamental changes in agricultural policies in a market-oriented
direction are required. Any delay will have grave repercussions.
13. Anti-dumping restrictions should apply
to all goods, including agricultural products.
Debt crisis and management
14. The debt crisis with its ominous consequences must be resolved with a sense of
urgency. b Debt servicing cannot be met at the price of suffocating a country's economy
and no government can morally demand of its people privations incompatible with human
dignity. All parties involved must make a tangible contribution and honor the moral
principle of burden-sharing.
15. Debtor countries are unlikely in the short term to generate trade surpluses of a
magnitude required to service their debts. Adjustment leading to growth and
increasing exports is essential, yet in most cases this requires considerable time. The
international community must be aware that unless urgent support is given to debtor
countries to preserve their economic and social fabric and to promote development, we may
see the destruction of the painful and successful efforts made in recent years to
re-establish democracy and economic freedom.
16. The Baker initiative sought to stimulate growth-oriented adjustment based on a
substantial increase in new financial flows from international commercial banks, but for a
variety of reasons it has not to date achieved its desired effect.
17. The InterAction Council therefore urges the industrialized countries to consider the
debt issue on a priority basis and as a separate agenda item at their next summit in
Venice. All the participants should support and promote without delay measures to
provide the necessary conditions and resources for growth-oriented adjustment in debtor
countries.
18. We believe that such measures must include, among others:
b) Additional official lending through a
substantial World Bank General Capital Increase (GCI);
c) Improved mechanisms to cover external
economic shocks arising from export earnings and interest rate fluctuations through
appropriate compensatory financing arrangements;
d) Greater IMF soft loan reflows under
the structural adjustment facility to avoid negative transfers to the IMF;
e) Increased concessional ODA flows,
bilateral and multilateral, to low-income countries, with wider and more comprehensive
retroactive terms adjustment in respect of past ODA, and longer term and more concessional
rescheduling at the Paris Club;
f) Debt relief for those debtor
countries that pursue appropriate adjustment policies and where debt relief appears to be
a necessary supplement to export oriented growth.
19. The principle of joint responsibility
demands that all parties - debtors, creditors, commercial banks and international
financial institutions - contribute concretely to an alleviation of the debt problem:
Debtor countries should adopt adjustment
programmes reconciling debt service with domestic requirements, providing for sustainable
development, reversing capital flight and establishing appropriate monitoring mechanisms.
Supervisory banking authorities in
creditor countries should facilitate more flexible write-offs of developing country debt,
especially in the United States
Increased opportunities of trade for
debtor countries, coupled with a roll-back of protectionism in areas where they enjoy
comparative advantages, will enable them to expand their export revenues.
International financial institutions
must provide new resources, so as to underpin commercial lending.
20. The InterAction Council suggests that
a more intensive dialogue on these questions involving all parties be initiated and that
this should be done as a matter or urgency.
21. The InterAction Council will itself contribute to the urgent search for solutions
through, for example, exploring practical proposals for debt relief.
22. Regional conflicts and wars accelerate underdevelopment and exacerbate, in the
process, the level of indebtedness. There is a waste of massive sums on military
expenditures by developing countries which are not necessarily for defensive purposes.
Substantial reductions in these expenditures, the cost of which exceeds the official
development aid very substantially and sometimes takes the form of aid, must be
accomplished as an important measure for development to succeed. At the same time,
industrial countries must cease to be vigorous arms exporters and assist more in the
avoidance and dampening of regional conflicts.
23. The InterAction Council recommends that steps be taken to resolve existing or
potential regional conflicts through peaceful settlements, the use of regional instruments
and a regime of international collective security strictly observing the principle of
self-determination. Emphasis should be given to the establishment and strengthening of
regional non-aggression pacts.
24. The solution of such conflicts should be based on strict application of established
principles of international law, in particular the withdrawal of foreign troops from all
occupied territories.
Development
25. Increased development assistance flows to developing countries become even more
imperative in the face of adverse global economic conditions. Japan, the United States and
several countries of Western Europe should provide expanded development assistance,
encourage equity investments and human resource development.
26. The potential of the private sector can and should be used to promote indigenous
development and the efficient use of scarce resources, for instance thorough joint
ventures with State and other enterprises and through the transfer of technology.
27. Emergency assistance programmes are indispensable to ensure the survival of many
people and communities currently enduring object poverty. There is a paramount need for
fostering a sense of global solidarity for survival.
28. As a matter of urgency, the international community should speedily implement the
Special Programme of Recovery for Africa adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in
May 1986.
Population
29. Adherence to moral values for the family and recognition of the common responsibility
of women and men are indispensable in dealing with issues related to population policies.
Rapid population growth in many developing countries vitiates any advance in development.
This fuels the vicious cycle between underdevelopment, population growth and the erosion
of human life-support systems. Responsible public policies require systematic projections
of population, environmental and economic trends with particular attention to their
interaction.
30. Cognizant of the different approaches of religions towards family planning policies
and methods, the Council agreed that present trends make the pursuit of effective family
planning inevitable. The Council is convinced that all the major religions and
philosophies on earth allow family planning. The positive experience of several
countries and religions should be shared and scientific research into family planning
should be accelerated.
Environment
31. The development of
alternative energy resources, such as solar energy and hydrogen, and new relevant
transportation systems and technologies to mitigate the effects of impending climatic
changes should be pursued; the decay of the ozone layer further explored; a continued
decline in the number of biological species prevented; and the threats to the biosphere
should be countered. In
this context, the InterAction Council looks forward to the early publication of the report
of the World Commission on Environment and Development.
32. The InterAction Council recommends to Governments that they adopt stronger national
and international measures and collaborate and co-ordinate the combat of terrorism and
illegal drug-trafficking as matters affecting international peace and security.
33. Terrorism and drug-trafficking are frequently and intimately interlinked and call for
more effective multilateral co-operation.
34. A new attitude, aimed at curbing and ultimately eliminating both supply and demand for
illegal use of narcotic drugs, through education and international co-operation must be
fostered.
35. The InterAction Council has consistently called for the abolition of the system of
apartheid. To that end, the Council urged South Africa to take a number of specific
domestic measures so as to create the conditions for the commencement of negotiations with
black leaders.
36. Regrettably, the South African Government opted for a policy which aggravates tension
inside South Africa and endangers neighboring African nations desperately seeking to
preserve their independence and striving to realize basic economic and social improvement.
The increased levels of international condemnation of apartheid and the evolving
international sanctions programme have contributed to growing disaffection within the
white community with the Pretoria regime's response of defiance and heightened repression
- and this despite the rather modest sanctions adopted by some key industrialized
countries.
37. There is a growing trend in the business community towards disinvestment of
subsidiaries and operations in South Africa, reflecting the concern of the private sector
over counter-productive situations created by continued apartheid. In their response, business leaders should be guided not only by
the letter but also by the spirit and intent of existing voluntary or mandatory
disinvestment policies. The vision and judgment of business leaders will ultimately
be judged by the measures adopted now.
38. The Government of South Africa is engaged in political, economic and military
destabilization of its neighboring states in southern Africa, in particular Mozambique.
The real danger exists that the economic collapse of any African country, most
conspicuously Mozambique, might trigger a domino effect jeopardizing the stability and
viability of other states, ultimately resulting in the emergence of a cordon sanitaire for
South Africa. Obviously, the South African regime cynically calculates that concern
for these new acute trouble spots will divert international attention and energies from
the present preoccupation with apartheid easing the immediate international pressure.
Under such circumstances, South Africa could portray itself as the only stable
element in the southern African region.
39. This situation can neither be sustained nor tolerated. In an interdependent
world, leaders of all countries cannot escape their responsibility and moral duty to work
towards a peaceful transition and to do so with strength, determination, effectiveness and
imagination until a peaceful, just and democratic and multiracial society has taken root
in South Africa.
40. The InterAction Council, therefore, advocates the following measures:
All industrialized countries should
adopt, at a minimum, a sanctions package in line with the measures adopted by the United
States Congress in the context of increasing the economic pressure on the South African
regime, thus raising the price of apartheid and providing incentives for good faith
negotiations.
Countries having adopted mandatory
national sanctions should seek purposefully to ensure that their allies or countries
enjoying considerable benefits from bilateral trade relations, as a minimum, do not
undercut such sanctions by providing the goods affected by sanctions.
The United States, the United Kingdom,
the Federal Republic of Germany, other countries and the European Community which, for
different reasons, may wield influence with the Government of South Africa should
intensify their efforts to convince it of the necessity to adopt urgent measures for the
ending of apartheid and the establishment of a genuine democracy in a united and
non-fragmented South Africa. More specifically, those
efforts should be directed to seeking immediately:
a) The release of Nelson Mandela and other political detainees;
b) An end to the state of emergency and the widespread repression of opponents of
apartheid,
including children, and the removal of troops from the townships;
c) The unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC) and other political organizations;
d) The earliest possible
negotiations with true representatives of the black community on the
establishment of political freedom;
e) The repeal of the Population Registration Act, the Native Land's Act and the Group
Areas Act; and
f)
The granting of universal and equal citizenship to all South Africa.
41. In the context of such responses, the
international community should look to the lifting of sanctions in the post apartheid
situation and to a major multilateral effort to accelerate development and the emerging of
a free non-racial South Africa.
The Government of South Africa should
cease forthwith its policy of destabilization of neighboring countries, in particular the
creation and sustained financial supply of proxy forces. Other governments should equally desist from encouraging and
financing rebel groups in the southern African subregion as such support ultimately
benefits South Africa and its outlawed policies. What
has happened in Angola demonstrably shows how such policies lead to escalation of South
Africa military involvement in Angola. Its support of
UNITA has led directly to other involvement which otherwise would not have occurred.
The international community should
speedily act to counter South Africa's designs and to foster economic development of the
countries most affected:
a) To prevent a further
deterioration in the security situation the United Nations should urge all countries to
extend such assistance to Mozambique and other countries which would enable them to repel
more effectively military attacks by South Africa-supported forces, so as to enable them
to establish internal stability for purposes of devoting more resources to economic and
social development.
b) Governments, in particular the traditional donors countries, should substantially
increase economic assistance to the frontline states to free their economies from the
stranglehold of South Africa. By the same token, international organizations should
allocate, without delay, available emergency and standby funds and launch special
mobilization campaigns to assist these states.
c) As one of the means of providing assistance, governments should give support to the
Africa Fund recently established by the Non-aligned Movement.
d) The international business community should be encouraged to contribute to economic
development in the frontline States.
42. The United Nations and its system of specialized agencies is the centrepiece of the
indispensable machinery for the maintenance of peace and the promotion of co-operation
among nations.
43. Forty years have undeniably created some inertia and exposed bureaucratic rigidities.
We encourage Member States to re-evaluate and re-adapt the United Nations system to
meet growing and changing world problems. The Council urges all governments to
resist any further erosion of the multilateral system, including structures outside the
United Nations. The realities of interdependence leave no alternative to the
solution of problems on a multilateral basis, e.g., environmental issues, epidemic health
problems, terrorism, trade, management of currencies, debt and agricultural production.
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