Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Dave Dalton
Oxfam
UK and Ireland
Our common humanity transcends the oceans
and all national boundaries ... Let it never be asked
of any of us: what did we do when we knew another
was oppressed?
Nelson Mandela,
President, Republic of South Africa
CAMPAIGN
together FOR
Dights for all?
Most of us in the rich countries of 'the Haiti scavenging on rubbish tips when
North' (Europe, North America, Japan, they should be in school? Nearly 50
and Australasia) can expect a long and years after the UN Universal Declar-
healthy life, security, and opportunity. ation of Human Rights, why are so
Our children will be educated. Most of many people still poor and powerless?
us need never be cold, or hungry, or
frightened. We have a say in how our This booklet explains why. It shows
countries are run. Most of the time we that the world could afford to abolish
take these things for granted. We regard poverty. It shows what people in the
them as rights. South are doing about their problems,
and what Northern governments can
Over one billion people in the poor do. And we'll see how we as citizens
countries of 'the South' (Africa, Asia, and consumers can help. We can
the Middle East, Latin America, and the work for a future for all of us, North
Caribbean) are denied most of the rights and South.
which we enjoy. Why are children in
s tories behind the statistics
Your child comes to you in the evening They say free trade is good for our
carrying an empty milk pot and crying, country: they say it will bring more
'Where is my cow?' You say, 'Why are opportunity. But we can't compete
you asking? Didn't it get ill and die?' with this American maize. How can
But he keeps crying, 'Dada, give me they produce it so cheap? What are we
some milk. Mama, give me some milk.' to do? Our only opportunity is to leave
Hearing this can make a person our land and move to the city.
commit suicide. (Miguel, a maize farmer in Mexico)
(Ulikoro, a cattle-herder in a drought-
stricken area of Ethiopia) I take my children to the building site
at 7.30. They play while I mix cement.
The lorries rush by all day. You always
wonder if your children will end up
under a wheel.
(Palu, a 22-year-old woman in Bangalore,
South India)
Trade
Poor countries are under pressure to
open their markets to goods from the
North. But our markets are often closed
to goods from the South. We pay low
prices for commodities produced in the
South, like coffee and copper; and we
dump heavily subsidised food exports,
like surplus beef from the European
Union, on Southern markets, under-
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cutting local producers. What hope do
poor people have for the right to a Armaments
livelihood?
Powerful groups in the South
squander money on armaments.
Environment For just 16 per cent of what they
currently spend on weapons, the
The impact of the average US citizen on world's poorest countries could
the environment is 250 times that of the give all children a basic education,
average African. If everyone on the reduce child deaths by one third,
planet were to achieve Northern levels and provide clean water supplies
of consumption, two extra planet Earths for everyone.
would be needed. Northern lifestyles
are fundamentally unsustainable.
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into the supermarkets, where most
people do their shopping. Now con- Guarantees
sumers everywhere can buy Cafedirect a better deal
a high-quality coffee, made from
beans bought at a fair price, direct from for Third World
small-scale producers. Cafedirect sold Producers
its millionth pack of ground coffee in Fairtrade
March 1994. Instant Cafedirect came
out in the summer of 1994.
Fair Trade campaign is a good example
More Fair Trade products, like tea and of how campaigning works. It's easy to
chocolate, are arriving. The indepe- join in. If you buy Fair Trade goods,
ndent Fairtrade Mark helps shoppers to you are giving direct support to the
identify products which give a better people who produce them in the
deal to Third World producers and South. As these products sell, more
respect the local environment. supermarkets will make more prod-
ucts available. So buy Fair Trade
Since 1992, Oxfam's campaigning products, and tell your friends about
supporters have been writing letters to Fair Trade. Use your voice and your
supermarkets and organising coffee choice.
tastings to promote Fair Trade. The
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active
In June 1995 Oxfam launched The People in this country can join the
Oxfam Campaign: Together For Rights, Oxfam Campaign by:
Together Against Poverty. Thousands of
ordinary people in this country are raising money to help support
joining people in the South in their Oxfam's work, including its
struggle for their rights. We can press lobbying work;
for basic rights to be respected, for raising awareness among the wider
resources to be switched to making public;
those rights a reality to create the raising issues with the relevant
political will for change by showing decision-makers, whether MPs,
our anger at the daily reality of poverty Ministers, the European Union, or
and suffering. the United Nations.
Take the issue of anti-personnel mines. The continuing work on Fair Trade
There are up to 110 million such mines shows how effective ordinary people,
scattered across 60 countries. Every acting together, can be. The Oxfam
day more than 20 civilians are killed by Campaign will last five years, so
them, and more than double that specific issues, targets, and actions will
number are severely injured. And that develop over that time. The first action
means pain and trauma for the victims, is to get as many signatures as possible
and families plunged into poverty. on a Global Charter for Basic Rights
Oxfam works to help rehabilitate the the rights listed on pages 6 and 7. The
victims; to clear mines, and to make Charter will demonstrate to govern-
people aware of their dangers; and to ments and other powerful bodies that
press for a total ban on their there is a widespread popular desire to
manufacture, stockpiling, export, and defend basic rights, and a demand for
use. Oxfam is actively lobbying action to bring an end to poverty.
governments, and has published a
book on the scourge of mines. Oxfam This is a global campaign. Campaign-
campaigners' letters to the relevant ing for rights is happening in the North
Minister resulted in our government and South.
banning all anti-personnel mines
except those that self-destruct or self- In Brazil, the Hunger Campaign aims
neutralise. But this is still not enough. to motivate citizens to tackle the
The campaign for a total ban continues. poverty in their own country. Brazil is
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the world's second largest agricultural The letters 15,000 of them were
exporter; but in 1994 32 million people taken by Lucy Muyoyeta, Oxfam's
out of a total population of 154 million Zambia Representative, to Kenneth
were living in absolute poverty. One Clarke MP, Chancellor of the
third of all Brazilians do not have Exchequer, at the September 1993
enough to eat, and the Hunger meeting of the IMF. There Mr Clarke
Campaign aims to put poverty high on backed Oxfam's call for debt relief for
the political agenda. Africa, and in 1994 the leaders of the
seven largest industrialised nations
In Zambia, Oxfam encouraged ordi- agreed better terms for spreading
nary people to write letters to world repayments and writing off debts.
leaders, describing how their lives had
been affected by the country's policies Together North and South, lobbyists
on debt and structural adjustment, and campaigners, citizens and
prescribed by the World Bank and IMF. consumers we can make a difference.
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A n agenda for change
A world in which rights can become a
reality must provide opportunity, parti-
Participation
cipation, a fairer distribution of wealth Democratic institutions need to be
and power, peace and security, and a created and strengthened, from village
safe and sustainable environmentfor associations to an independent judic-
all people. iary, to give people the right to a voice.
14
Consumers can help poor producers to providing the resources which they
get a fair price for their labour by: pledged;
reducing their own energy use, with
buying Fair Trade goods wherever tougher energy-efficiency standards,
possible; building-insulation schemes, invest-
putting pressure on retailers and ment in renewable energy sources
suppliers to make more Fair Trade such as solar or wind power, and tax
goods available. penalties for over-exploitation of
natural resources;
committing themselves to reduce
Peace and security carbon dioxide emissions by 30 per
Governments should strengthen the cent from 1989 levels by 2005.
UN's capacity to prevent and resolve
conflict, quickly and effectively. They Individuals can act locally to protect
should set up a permanent rapid- their environment, by saving energy and
deployment force, ready to be sent recycling resources wherever possible.
instantly to conflict zones, together
with human-rights monitors. They
should invest in preventive diplomacy
and reducing poverty.
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Find out more
Knowledge is power A Buyer's Market: Global Trade, Southern
Poverty, and Northern Action
You could make yourself a more by Dave Dalton
effective campaigner for rights by
doing some more reading. All the A Case for Reform: 50 Years of the IMF
books listed below are published by and the World Bank
Oxfam (UK and Ireland); they are by Oxfam Policy Department
available from local bookshops or by
ringing 01202 715555.
Together for rights,
Words Into Action: Basic Rights and the
Campaign against World Poverty
together against
by Pat Simmons poverty
Get together with like-minded people
The Oxfam Poverty Report
to campaign more effectively. To join
by Kevin Watkins
the Oxfam Campaign, just write to:
No Time to Waste: Poverty and the Global
The Operations Centre, Oxfam House
Environment
274 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7DZ
by Joan Davidson and Dorothy Myers
Telephone: 01865 312456
One Earth, Two Worlds
Together we can defeat poverty. Join
by John Barraclough and Dave Dalton
the Campaign and start making a
The Trade Trap: Poverty and the Global difference.
Commodity Markets
by Belinda Coote