The President of the United Nations General Assembly Miguel d’Escoto Brockman is convening a critical United Nations conference on ‘the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development’ on Wednesday June 24 to Friday June 26 at the UN headquarters in New York City.
As noted on the president’s website, “The aim (of the conference) is to identify emergency and long-term responses to mitigate the impact of the crisis, especially on vulnerable populations, and initiate a needed dialogue on the transformation of the international financial architecture, taking into account the needs and concerns of all Member States.”
Father Miguel has said this summit “must speak to the hundreds of millions across the globe who have no other forum in which they can express their unique and often divergent perspectives.”
The draft outcome for this G-192 summit calls for “prompt and decisive action” in four areas: making the stimulus work for all; containing the effects of the crisis and improving resilience for the future; improved regulation and monitoring; and reforming the international financial and economic governance. It also calls for the creation of a new Global Economic Council under the United Nations to provide coordination and oversight of responses to address the global challenges.
TAKE ACTION
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Trade Minister Stockwell Day should attend this conference.
But rather than mistakenly continuing to promote free trade as the answer to this global economic recession, they should support the G-192 draft declaration and actions that will address unemployment and poverty both around the world and here in Canada.
You can send your message to pm@pm.gc.ca, and be sure to cc flaherty.j@parl.gc.ca and DayS@parl.gc.ca.
You may also want to add your name to the International Action Center web-petition calling on all G20 leaders – including Prime Minister Stephen Harper – to attend the G-192 conference.
To do so, please go to http://www.iacenter.org/uneconconf/.
You can read more about this summit on the website of the President of the United Nations 63rd General Assembly at http://www.un.org/ga/president/63/