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afrol.com, 6 September - A damning new report from Oxfam warns that this week’s UN Millennium Summit is in danger of repeating the rhetoric of previous summits while, once again, failing to deliver on reality. Below are abstracts from ‘Millennium Summit: closing the credibility gap’: Conflict: "The international community should act urgently and effectively to prevent and resolve armed conflict…a "Culture of Prevention" should be promoted throughout the global community." (G8 Communiqué, 2000 Okinawa). The UN Security Council does not prioritise the areas of greatest insecurity for their action. Instead they prioritise the areas of greatest economic and political importance. At the same time the proportion of western countries’ wealth spent on humanitarian aid for the victims of conflicts and natural disasters has gone down by 30% in the past decade. Oxfam is calling for clear criteria for triggering peacekeeping action by the UN Security Council, more generous support for humanitarian crises, and international controls on the exports of arms to anywhere where they might be used to violate human rights, fuel aggression, or undermine development. Education: "On the subject of education, what makes sense for the industrialised world is imperative for the developing world….That is why I attach such importance to the targets of universal primary education by 2015." (Tony Blair, 2000 Davos World Economic Forum). Based on current trends there will 75 million children not in primary education by 2015 – and there will be actually millions more children in Sub-Saharan Africa out of school in 2015 than there are now. More resources must be raised through debt relief, aid, and unambiguous plans for the implementation of education programmes which are linked to further finance. Trade: "We can aggressively reform agricultural trade by…..substantially reducing trade distorting subsidies and other measures." Charlene Barshefsky (US Chair) 1999 Seattle World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference. Industrialised countries continue to subsidise and dump their agricultural exports. In the US farmers receive subsidies of around $20,000 to dump exports. This means they are competing, and destroying the livelihoods of, producers in developing countries many of whom are living on less than $1 per day. Tariff and quota free access for all exports from the 48 poorest countries must be established, subsidies for agricultural exports must be scrapped, and the WTO must be made more open and accountable. Oxfam International is calling on all governments taking part in the UN Millennium Summit to stop dealing in rhetoric and start dealing with the reality of the future. afrol.com is applauding this call for reality. Source: Oxfam
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