The Sixth World Parliamentary Forum met in the city of Caracas within the framework of the Sixth World Social Forum from January 24 to 29 2006 and was attended by parliamentarians representing the five continents. This declaration results from the Forum at the end of the sessions of 26 and 27 January 2006.
Claimed to be in keeping with the World Social Forum Charter of Principles and with the commitments adopted in the forums of previous years in the firm belief that "another world is possible," the text states among others the need to engage in the promotion of participatory democracy at all levels, from the local to the global. Otherwise, achieving peace is considered the only way of achieving coexistence among the people of the world. Hence, it is necessary to promote mechanisms capable of resolving conflicts peacefully and to denounce any attempt at military, political, or economic dominance by one state over another. A few special demands were made in this sense, concerning among others the military withdrawal from Iraq and Palestine; the prohibition of nuclear weapons; and the military withdrawal from Guantánamo and other NATO and US bases.
The parliamentarians will also promote the right to an education that expands horizons and to health as social rights of a public nature. They recognize and support the opposition by social movements to discrimination and racism of all kinds and their efforts to achieve social justice. They welcome several initiatives to resist against neoliberalism, such as the rejection by France and the Netherlands of the draft of the European Constitution, and the European workers' resistance to attempt to liberalize public services.
They reject free-trade treaties such as those of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Round, the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), and the ACP-EU Economic Partnership Agreement. They reject the pressures exerted on developing countries to force them to open up their markets and liberalize their public services. They demand the removal of mechanisms subsidizing the export of agricultural products.
This declaration contains several other considerations on issues such as water as a human right, not to be subjected to privatization; integration as cooperation for reducing poverty, hunger and disease; the immediate review of the economic relations among the countries and bodies of the world system of governance; support to the Kyoto Protocol and a new model of sustainable economic, social, and cultural development; a strong presence of grassroots movements to be recognized; opposition to the construction of a wall along the border between Mexico and the United States; among others.
The signers reaffirm their commitment to consolidating the international parliamentary network as a forum for thinking and for the in-depth study of relations and the adoption of a common agenda, and for debating and identifying specific mechanisms set out in an action plan that reflects our peoples' views on imperialism and neoliberal globalization.
Source: The International Endowment For Democracy
_ www.iefd.org
