Monday, June 9, 2008

Civil Society Caucus - addendum

A call has just come from the floor for a Civil Society political declaration to come out of the meeting. Particularly to focus in the issues raised below, and others being discussed (empowering women, human rights, tackling discrimination, etc, etc.). This was something that came up in 2006 - at the very least it encourages Civil Society internationally to reach some kind of unanimity and consensus to put pressure on governments.

The trouble is it that is not always possible for all of us to sign up to everything in these statements. Many faith based groups come from a quite different starting point from the human rights based groups, and while we agree with each other on many issues, there are fundamental points of departure. So we either produce a statement that not all of us can sign up to, or we end up with just as bland a statement as comes from the official consensus achieved between governments.

It looks as if this will be taken forward - more on that as things become clear.

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