MAKE POVERTY HISTORY - 2005

News Release

For immediate release: Wednesday August 31, 2005

Poverty may be off the agenda at the United Nations Summit

Ottawa - Less than three weeks away from the United Nations Summit, the world’s largest ever anti-poverty campaign is gravely concerned that countries including the United States are undermining the Summit outcome, and ensuring its failure.

Make Poverty History Canada, as part of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), warns that by cutting agreed wording designed to end poverty, governments are trying to edit away the future of the world’s poorest people.

The current draft of the Summit outcome declaration contains statements on fighting poverty. However, the United States has proposed deleting key wording on tackling global poverty and disease. The proposed US changes include cutting all references to the Millennium Development Goals, the internationally agreed targets for halving world poverty. The Summit was originally schedule to review progress made on these goals. The US also wants to cut all references to small arms controls and weaken wording on all governments’ responsibility to protect civilians in cases of mass killing such as the Rwandan genocide. Canada has been a strong supporter of the responsibility to protect language.

“With the United States apparently suggesting 750 changes to the 36-page outcome document, it looks like the poverty focus of the Summit is most definitely in jeopardy,” said Gerry Barr President and CEO of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation and the co-chair of Make Poverty History. “Prime Minster Paul Martin needs to declare his support for the Millennium Development Goals.”

If the Summit declaration is so substantially weakened, the largest gathering of world leaders in history will result in failure.

Currently, 1.2 billion people around the globe live on less than one dollar a day and half the world's population - three billion people - live on less than two dollars every day.

“The World Summit could go down in history as the meeting where the most powerful people in the world turned their backs on the poorest,” said Kumi Naidoo, chair of the Global Call to Action against Poverty. “If leaders refuse to even mention the commitments they made at the millennium summit, they will leave no doubt about their intentions towards the world’s poor.”

“Importantly,” Naidoo continued, “a growing number of citizens in these rich countries are showing greater commitment to fighting global poverty than their governments, who are, in fact, betraying their citizens’ sense of a common global humanity.”

Canadians are joining millions of people across the world calling on their leaders to honor their commitments to end poverty.

Background on the 2005 World Summit

For more information contact:

Katia Gianneschi
Make Poverty History
(613) 241-7007 ext. 311
media@makepovertyhistory.ca

Notes to editors:

The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is the world’s largest anti-poverty coalition, whose organizations together represent more than 150 million people globally. The campaign is aiming to make a breakthrough on poverty in 2005 and is calling for world leaders to take concrete steps at the United Nations to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The coalition is made up of national campaigns across 74 countries, including Make Poverty History in Canada, ‘Wakati Ni Sasa’ (The time to act is now) in Kenya and ‘Sin Excusas contra la Pobreza’ in Paraguay amongst many more. The global symbol of the campaign is a white band.