Alliance for a responsible, plural and united world

World citizens assembly
Lille – December 2-10, 2001

Regional Group

NORTH AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

Strategy line 1 : 

The Liberation of the occupied Arab territories and the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people of return, the self determination and the establishment of a Palestinian State, Jerusalem as its capital are the basis for peace in the region.
Israeli occupation of Arab land does not merely threaten peace in the region but raises serious obstacles  to sustainable development of human rights and all aspects of life.

Strategies to confront the situation (priorities) :

1/ Designating one day (02/01/2002) as a day of solidarity with the Palestinian people and all the people who are under occupation by launching a boycott campaign to Israeli products and settlements and holding other activities ;

2/ Disseminating this appeal to members of the Alliance and friends everywhere.

3/ Strengthening relations with NGOs all over the world, solidarity groups through visits, cultural exchanges and partnerships.

4/ Announcing the initiative of the GIPP. International grassroots protection for the Palestinian people and urging Alliance members to send delegations to Palestine.

5/Appealing to students to visit Palestine witness and support.

6/ Working  with the media by inviting journalists and reporters, to visit, testify and report.

7/ Monitoring negative terminology and emphasizing rights of Palestinians including the right to resist occupation.

Strategy line 2 : Democracy

Priorities :

1/ The most important crisis in the Arab world today is the one of the political regions, the absence of a democracy and the denial of Human Rights. The Arab citizens are denied the right to any form of expression and cannot speak about his/her day to day life, his/her lifestyle, work, and cannot take part at all in decision taking  about his/her future. Authorities control all the activity fields and all the means of expression, indeed. No one can found an association or militate in an independent organism liable to protect or defend his/her rights if it is not authorized by the exercising authority and if it does not submit itself to its orders.
In those conditions, the Arab citizen is deprived of his/her political conscience and finds himself/herself as a stranger in his/her own country, which notably causes massive youth immigration.

2/ To escape from the present dead end, the intellectuals of any field should be urged to take their historical responsibilities for the benefit of their peoples so as to expose even more the disastrous present situation.

3/ To urge young people to seriously defend their rights as well as the fundamental principles of Human Rights.

4/ To urge the participants of the World Citizens Assembly to come to the Arab democrats’ assistance and help them in their struggle, and put pressure on their own governments.

Strategy line 3 : Sustainable development

Priorities :  

1/ To satisfy the essential needs of human communities. To better the general level of life while preserving natural resources through sustainable and rational managing of human resources for future generations.

2/ To encourage local development

3/ To valorise local knowledge and technologies by encouraging the exchanges between users. 

4/ To struggle against illiteracy and cultural impoverishment.

5/ To improve the situation of the young, children protection and man and woman equality in all fields.

6/ Mobilization of the civil society and its participation to decision taking.

7/ To create the economic conditions that could permit to limit the drift from the land.

Strategy line 4 : Civil society, associations and regional cooperation

Priorities :  

1/ The role of associations and civil society is important in the fields of cultural and social cooperation in the region.

2/ The role of associations is independent from the role of governments and they must not be hampered in their actions.

3/ The setting up of the agendas of the associations’ activities must be autonomous and in direct relation with the  civil society preoccupations.

4/ The setting up of a web site that include the associations of the region for a better knowledge and exchange of information and actions in relation with the region.

5/ The setting up of cooperation networks between the associations in the same field for exchanges and solidarity.

6/ The associations must act side by side with the population so that they take part in their own development.

Strategy line 5 : Cultural diversity and identity.

Priorities :  

1/ Democracy :
The Constitution : recognition of the languages other than Arab as the official language.
Implementation of that recognition in the different institutions = curricula, medias and public services.
To benefit from social managing systems (examples, knowledge, solidarity)

2/ Identity and culture 
To put an end to the historical and civilisation heritage denaturation and distortion into the form of a folklore destined to tourist exploitation.
To revalorise this heritage through its recording and have it acknowledged as whole humanity knowledge.

3/ Human and democratic development

To make less isolated the regions and to give them their wholeness and their part in the democracy (girls’ education, women literacy campaign.)
The right of the populations of those regions in the sustainable management of their natural resources (water, forests, land,…)
To encourage the use of local knowledge and practice (agriculture, breeding,…)
To look for other fields for local development, to remove the obstacles that prevent the populations to undertake development projects in an international cooperation and solidarity framework.
To give the priority to the teaching of local technologies in the training courses.
To encourage local consumption.
To remove the obstacles that hamper development and solidarity economics.
To give the priority to the projects for women.