XXII Congress of the Socialist International

São Paulo, 27-29 October 2003

Declaration of São Paulo

1. The Socialist International, the global movement of
social democratic, socialist and labour parties, holding
its XXII Congress in São Paulo at the invitation of the
Partido dos Trabalhadores, calls on all socially and
politically progressive people and organisations to come
together in a global coalition to promote a new world
order based on a new multilateralism for peace,
security, sustainable development, social justice,
democracy, respect for human rights and gender equality.

2. The intense globalisation process, of markets and
economies as well as technology, communications and
cultural exchange, has accelerated for some the creation
of wealth and increases in productivity and trade - but
at an unacceptable cost: the widening of the gap between
rich and poor countries, and between rich people and
poor people in countries of both the North and the
South.

At the same time, the world is witnessing ever greater
threats to peace, the emergence and deepening of
regional conflicts, the possible connection of terrorism
and the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the
revival of religious fundamentalism, exacerbated
nationalism, increasing racist and xenophobic attitudes
and all forms of discrimination.

3. The current system of global governance, established
in the aftermath of the World War II, needs reform to be
able to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Neoconservatives are attempting to exploit the situation
to dismantle all forms of global governance, to minimise
the role of the United Nations, to undermine
multilateral institutions, to promote unilateralism and
the consecration of the market, and to impose the will
of the powerful to decide the future of mankind.

We need to improve the work of the international
community, to modernise and strengthen multilateral
institutions to further our collective interests. The
International is steadfastly working to mobilise all the
world’s progressives to define and implement a
comprehensive strategy for sustainable development and
reform of the global system of governance. The goal is
to shape globalisation so that it provides opportunity
for all, making world markets work for everyone and to
establish an effective system of multilateral
governance, based on the rule of law and a more
balanced, more just architecture of international
relations, with a reformed and modernised United Nations
as its cornerstone.

As was the case after World War II, a new vision is
needed based on the enforcement of international law,
more effective regulation of world markets and more
democratic, accountable and efficient global
institutions to formulate and carry out policies on
behalf of people everywhere.

4. The international community must be able to act to
preserve and enforce peace, promote security and
guarantee respect for fundamental human rights,
including their full enjoyment by women and girls,
wherever they are threatened or under attack.
Intervention, however, must be based on clear evidence
and criteria, as well as adherence to international law
that combine respect for both the sovereignty of nations
and the sovereignty of their citizens, and must be
carried out in accordance with the decisions of the
United Nations.

The International therefore believes that reform of the
United Nations cannot be delayed any longer and will
continue to be strongly engaged in the process.
Achieving lasting peace and security requires that the
United Nations Charter be updated to meet today’s new
challenges, and that the Security Council be reformed to
make it more representative, democratic and responsive.

5. Peace is not simply the absence of war, but the
result of international relations that are well managed
and coordinated on the basis of fairness, justice and a
commitment to the common good. This is particularly
important when addressing the growing threat of
terrorism.

The condemnation of terrorism must be unconditional.
There can be no excuses, for nothing, not even the
poverty and injustice endured by so many people today,
can justify terrorist acts.

However, confronting terrorism cannot come at the cost
of sacrificing freedom and human rights, or through the
double standard of supporting so-called friendly
dictatorships. It must also be remembered that justice,
social cohesion and cultural and religious tolerance
remain important factors in promoting peace and
stability at the local, national and global levels, and
for making it more difficult for terrorists to recruit
desperate people into their groups.

6. The global divide between poverty and wealth has
reached intolerable proportions and the mounting
pressure on natural resources makes the current model of
globalisation unsustainable. Social inequality is
worsening and undermining the stability of societies in
more and more countries. And while the percentage of the
world’s population living in absolute poverty is
declining, the number of people struggling to survive in
such poverty has never been higher, as nearly three
billion people now live on less than two dollars per
day, most of them being women.

At the same time, the benefits of expanding global trade
and foreign direct investment remain mostly in the
North. For hundreds of millions of workers, basic labour
and social rights remain a distant dream and a privilege
of those in wealthy nations. Most people in the world
lack any form of social protection, while a small
minority in many poorer countries enjoy enormous wealth.

The Socialist International therefore believes that a
central challenge for our world today is to make it
possible for developing countries to catch up, but
without endangering the global ecological balance. This
must be the basis of a global program for sustainable
development in three dimensions - economic, social and
environmental.

7. For the Socialist International a comprehensive and
balanced strategy for sustainable development must be
based on a New Global Deal, which would require that:

developing countries improve their integration in the
global economy, build their national capacity in
institutional, economic, technological and educational
terms, fight against poverty, improve working conditions
as well as the access of women to the labour market, and
control major ecological imbalances.

developed countries open their markets to exports from
developing countries, encourage good investment in
poorer parts of the World to enhance more balanced
development, strengthen cooperation and increase
financial aid to developing countries and move toward
sustainable consumption and production patterns in ways
that preserve social cohesion.

The Socialist International recognises that positive
elements for a new global agenda already partially exist
in:

the Millennium Development goals adopted by the UN
General Assembly in 2000

the Monterrey Consensus that agreed in early 2002 a
commitment to improve financial instruments for
development

the Plan for Sustainable Development adopted at the
World Summit in Johannesburg in 2002

the Development Round of negotiations in international
trade launched in Doha in 2001, with a commitment to
focus more on developing countries.

These positive elements should be fully supported.
Nonetheless, efforts to fulfil the these commitments
have been frustrated because:

development goals have been pushed aside with the
argument that security concerns must be given priority

narrow self-interest continues to undermine the Doha
Development Round, most recently in Cancún, where egoism
and the drive to protect markets in developed countries,
particularly for agriculture, led to a collapse of
negotiations

not enough progress has been made on changing the so-
called Washington Consensus, and developing countries
have not yet been given a powerful enough voice in the
Bretton Woods institutions that remain unable to
adequately respond to development challenges or manage
financial crises and economic downturns.

The Socialist International recognises that the
obstacles to more balanced global economy and a more
just world are more political than technical and
therefore must be overcome through political efforts.
The International therefore embraces a global agenda for
sustainable development that includes the following ten
points, all crucial for guaranteeing that globalisation
works for all:

i) International trade as an engine for growth and
employment must include unhindered access to markets in
the developed world for exports from developing
countries, especially agricultural and other labour-
intensive products, also taking into account that most
of farmers are women.

ii) The current digital divide must be turned into
international digital opportunities for all, men and
women. Knowledge is becoming the main source of wealth,
but can also be the main source of inequalities.
Developing countries therefore must leapfrog into the
digital economy and the North should help them by
launching an inclusion plan for the developing world
involving public-private partnerships and technological
transfers.

iii) Turning sustainable development into growth
opportunities, by fostering ongoing and undertaking new
initiatives to promote environmentally sustainable
development in agriculture, energy and transport, and
tapping into the employment opportunities this would
create.

iv) Adopting a fresh approach to development policies
that would combine new trade opportunities, incentives
for foreign investment, promoting entrepreneurship,
building national productive capacity and social
infrastructure and increasing accountability. In
developing countries, the stabilisation policies should
allow greater fiscal flexibility for investment and
enhanced spending, particularly on education, health and
social development. At the same time, debt relief must
be accelerated and development aid expanded, as decided
in the UN (0.7% of GNP), in connection with a concerted
poverty reduction strategy.

v) Instituting better regulation, accountability and
supervision of financial systems to enhance the
prospects for sustainable growth and development.

vi) Investing in people by raising educational levels
and providing training for all and incorporating
advanced teaching techniques to guarantee the most
skilled work force possible. Information technologies
should play a key role in improving the quality of
education and creating new employment opportunities.

vii) Providing adequate and efficient quality healthcare
for all with special attention to women and women’s
reproductive rights which should be protected from any
kind of intimidation. Access to life-saving and
essential medicines must be a priority in order to
combat contagious diseases worldwide.

viii) Fostering employability and a more skilled and
versatile work force through active labour market
policies that would include efforts against all forms of
discrimination and providing greater assistance and
training for the working poor to upgrade their skill
levels. A safety net for social protection has proved to
be crucial for people struggling to adapt to change.
Specific strategies are needed for the informal economy.
Better integration policies and better cooperation
between host and origin countries are necessary to
humanise migration flows.

ix) Tackling drug related crime and money laundering by
strengthening international cooperation with shared
responsibility, reducing both supply and demand,
involving civil society in preventing and treating drug
use and providing technological and trade support to
alternative productions in poor countries.

x) Placing greater emphasis on the provision of global
public services, especially with regard to sanitation,
health care, child care facilities, education,
employment promotion and environmental protection. The
principle of public service cannot be sacrificed to the
consecration of the market. Tax systems should also be
adapted to promote better public services and a new
global tax should be created to fund the global public
goods.

8. For the Socialist International, the following
mandates represent a clear test of the political will to
ensure a fairer and more just global economy and where
the gender perspective should also be included.

The cancellation of the debt of the poorest countries,
subject to minimum conditions of good governance and
going further than the ineffective HIPC programme.

The unilateral opening of markets in the developed world
to exports from the poorest countries.

The establishment of a Committee and a Fund against
Hunger, within the United Nations System, as proposed by
President Lula.

A radical change of policy on agricultural subsidies in
Europe, the United States and Japan, putting an end to
this unacceptable distortion of markets that remains one
of the principle obstacles to development in the South.

The abolition of offshore tax havens, which constitute
not only a fiscal injustice but are also - through lack
of regulation, transparency and accountability - a key
factor in the financing and proliferation of terrorism,
drug trafficking, trafficking in women and organised
crime, and provide shelter for non-democratic regimes to
escape from punishment for their corrupt behaviour.

A substantial increase in public development assistance,
which continues to fall unacceptably short of previously
agreed targets. The support to the World Fund for
Solidarity which was recently adopted by the United
Nations General Assembly.

A sustained international commitment to rectifying the
great scandal of our time - the situation in Sub-Saharan
Africa. That region is not only the principle victim of
the adverse effects of globalisation, but it also
remains excluded from the benefits, while being
abandoned to war, poverty, hunger, debt and death. The
NEPAD initiative begun by a number of African countries,
which links development to respect for democracy and
good governance, deserves much stronger support than it
has received thus far.

9. Critical to the prospects for worldwide sustainable
development is a deep transformation of governance at
all levels - international, regional, national and local
– including:

Better governance through greater transparency and
accountability and a higher quality of political
decision-making and policy formulation, including
stronger women participation. At least one third should
be female politicians.

Enhanced participation of the various stakeholders of
the civil society.

More extensive interaction between national and
international levels of governance, particularly through
the process of regional integration

10. With regard to reform of governance at the global
level, the Socialist International is deeply committed
to working for:

The establishment of a UN Security Council on the
Economy, Society and the Environment - in effect, a
Council for Sustainable Development - that would
coordinate sustainable development on a global scale,
push forward effective responses to inequality and
financial volatility and promote economic growth and job
expansion. This Council, composed in much more
representative terms than the current Security Council,
should be entitled to make the main choices regarding
the coordination of the multilateral organisations in
the financial, economic, social and environmental areas.
This Council would hold meetings at different levels,
including annual summits of heads of state and
government together with the top managers of
international agencies and organisations.

Reform of the Bretton Woods system and revision of the
Washington consensus to include greater democratic
control of international institutions, better
representation of the developing world and rules of
conditionality that take into account not only financial
stability and market liberalisation, which should be
applied more leniently, but also the economic and social
needs of national populations. A world financial
authority should have real supervisory and regulatory
powers, enabling it to guarantee the transparency of
financial markets through compliance with effective
codes of conduct.

The strengthening of international environmental
governance, building on existing institutions, the
United Nations Environment Programme, and establishing a
World Environment Organisation, WEO, to promote the
implementation of existing agreements and treaties such
as the Kyoto Protocol, draft new ones, formulate policy
and compile reliable information on the actual state of
the world’s environment.

A greater role and stronger intervention capability for
the International Labour Organisation.

A new equilibrium in the way economic, social and
environmental issues are addressed by international
institutions, rooted in a more democratic, transparent
and balanced process. The WTO, the ILO and the new WEO
should work together to ensure that trade is both free
and fair, to reject new forms of protectionism, to
preserve cultural identity and diversity and to enforce
core labour standards and promote sustainable
development policies worldwide.

11. The Socialist International views regional
integration as a key instrument to promote sustainable
development, combine social cohesion with
competitiveness and shape a better architecture of
international relations. As the experience of the
European Union indicates, regional integration cannot be
limited simply to free trade. It must integrate
political, social, economic and environmental
dimensions, so that open inter-regionalism can become a
powerful tool for achieving better global governance. In
this context, the SI fully supports the efforts to
promote integration in Latin America in all the referred
dimensions, also as an instrument to consolidate
democracy and overcome conflict.

12. Humanity has reached a crossroads. The present world
order, marked by unilateralism, disrespect for human
rights, social injustice and unequal development is
reaching its limit. Building a New World Order based on
multilateralism, democracy, respect for human rights and
sustainable development is therefore necessary and
increasingly demanded by citizens of nations both women
and men, throughout both the North and South. The
Socialist International is committed to the enormous
political work required to build a better world and
calls on all progressive and democratic women and men to
join in the effort through a truly global alliance.

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