Final declaration Euromed Civil Forum 2008 « Moving and Living together in the Euromed space » Date: 05-11-2008
Gathered in Marseille the 31 October, 1 and 2 November 2008, the 250 representatives of civil
society organizations from North and South Mediterranean strongly reassert their commitment
to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership proclaimed in Barcelona in 1995. The Mediterranean has
witnessed the emergence of the most significant hopes of humanity as well as of the worst
tragedies. More than a frontier, the Mediterranean has been transformed into a place of
exchanges that, since ages, men and women have crossed to circulate in several continents and
open to the rest of the world. In this sense civilizations born here offer to Humanity an
extraordinary experience, without giving lessons and without denying all the hopes or deceptions
they created and are still creating. The history of Mediterranean people concerns the World and
World's movements our people. Our associations, working in various fields, are part of this
history and, therefore, we recognize our right to be heard.
The creation of « Process of Barcelona: Union for the Mediterranean » aroused several debates
and questions that reflected participants’ perplexity and concerns regarding the goals, the
modalities of governance and the risks that can generate this new Partnership Instrument.
Anyway, the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, based on the willingness to share a common
destiny, respectful of the diversity of each partner country, shall also rely on the respect of values
and principles inscribed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 60th anniversary of
which we are celebrating this year. These values are universal norms that each people, all men
and women, have the right to benefit from. Ignoring or weakening these values, in the North and
the South Mediterranean alike, will reinforce dictatorships, the worst injustices and indiscriminate
violence.
Among these norms that nobody can ignore, freedom of association, and the existence and
recognition of an autonomous and independent civil society are essential conditions for the
democratic functioning of societies. Too often, particularly in South Mediterranean, civil society
is subject to an inacceptable mistrust and their members to an intolerable suppression. Moreover,
the participation of civil society representatives in the institutions of the Partnership is now
questioned.
As they have continuously underlined in previous civil fora, men and women participating in
Marseille's Civil Forum consider that this region of the world will not enjoy stability and
democracy if there is no peace. This implies that each State be recognised within its borders; that
all concerned countries renounce to the possession of nuclear weapons or stop to produce them.
The colonization and occupation of Palestine and Sheba farms, the annexation of East Jerusalem
and the Golan, the blockade imposed on Gaza and, more generally, the fate of the Palestinian
People, represent a denial of rights. We call on International Community and particularly on the
European Union to implement immediately UN resolutions.
Respect and effective promotion of equality between women and men, being part of universal
and indivisible rights, is also an obligation. Equality between women and men is the sine qua non
condition of democratization and development processes and imply a secularisation of right. No
society can keep half of itself under the bushel of sexist discrimination without regressing.
Cultural, religious or any other reason must not be used to justify inequality between women and
men or violence against women.
In this sense, cohesion and development of societies in the North and South Mediterranean
require to put in practice the elimination of all forms of discrimination based on origin, religion,
absence of religion, or sexual orientation.
Migrations have always had an important role in this part of the World. They represent a tangible
reality since men and women can move and are part of our societies' history. The globalisation of
exchanges, the expansion of means of transport and the faster circulation of information
increased this phenomenon. The impossibility to access basic social guarantees and a decent
employment enhances it too. The traditional route South/North is now paralleled by an equally
important route South/South. We notice that millions of persons are under house arrest and
prevented from moving while this should be considered and perceived as enrichment.
The European Union and its Member States are thus building a Europe fortress which does not
hesitate to lock up men, women and children. They are those dying in the desert or in the sea.
They are those deported, even when we know that their return might endanger their lives. The
countries of the South Mediterranean are requested to extend EU borders to their own ones and
they treat foreigners arriving there in an even more scandalous way that reflects their weak Rule
of Law.
In the sum, refugees are denied in the reality of their sufferings and are treated as cheats; migrants
don’t have the right to a regular work or they are defined as refugees, favouring a legalized
arbitrarity; establishing artistic ties, mixing cultures or simply visiting one’s family are aleatory
practices subject to the supreme will of States.
Such policies build and legitimize walls, literally and figuratively, and more specifically, they lock
up societies in a particular attitude that considers Foreigner as the source of evilness. It is not rare
to hear politicians addressing speeches expressly xenophobic and even racists, in the name of an
identity devoid of any external enrichment. The risk is thus to freeze societies and that their
relations become nothing but confrontation. The risk is also to establish, within each society,
processes of confrontation between those defined as undesirables or descendants of undesirables
and the “nationals”.
It is an illusion to imagine that the creation of an economic space could substitute the need for
democracy, respect of civil and political liberties and economic, social and cultural rights. The
willingness of promoting the development of this region, particularly in the economic field, shall
be supported but the mobility of human actors is an essential condition for it.
Migrants and refugees are not a danger. States sovereignty is not threatened by the arrival of
persons who have always represented an enrichment at social, economic, cultural and
demographic levels. We claim therefore for a different policy that could take into consideration a
reality non reducible only to police treatments but integrating circulation of people as the
corollary of a common development and exchange between societies. We urge States to make
free circulation of people a priority for social progress in this region of the World.
Therefore, we formulate the following proposals:
1. We urge the end of short-stay visas which impede family ties and human exchanges and
endanger artistic, scientific and educational exchanges.
2. We claim that all countries of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership ratify all international
conventions, especially Geneva Convention on the right of asylum and the Convention on
the Rights of Migrants, allowing the protection and reinforcement of civil and political
freedoms as well as economic, social and cultural rights. All reservations, especially those
to CEDAW, shall be withdrawn and the protocol added to CEDAW shall be ratified. All
States shall respect the Convention on the prevention against torture and the exclusion or
expulsion of a foreigner shall be forbidden if he or she risks being subject to mistreatment
or torture.
3. We claim that all the Euro-Mediterranean partner countries recognize and respect the
freedom of association, the freedom to form syndicates, the independence and autonomy
of civil society. We ask for the reinforcement of its means, namely of its role in protecting
refugees and migrants. We call for all States members of the Partnership to support civil
society in all instances of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, including its new
declination represented by the Union for the Mediterranean.
4. We urge the organization in 2009 of the Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference for
the follow-up of the Istanbul Action Plan, the establishment of independent follow-up
mechanisms and evaluation indicators to strengthen gender equality in this Plan, as well
as in all Euro-Mediterranean Partnership policies and European Neighborhood Policy.
We ask for the elimination in bilateral agreements of all provisions that are contrary to
gender equality. We ask States to guarantee all universal rights of women migrants,
mainly an autonomous juridical status, as well as the right to family reunion and to
protection against all forms of violence and trafficking.
5. We claim that all Euro-Mediterranean partner countries implement educational policy
acting against discriminations, sexism, xenophobia and racism. We claim that policies in
the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership integrate, in particular, the
mobility of young people, in order to reinforce, according to Millennium Development
Goals, educational systems that benefit everybody.
6. We claim that environmental and natural resources preservation in the Mediterranean be
considered by States as the highest priority since we believe that degradation of
ecosystems impair sustainable development and worsen phenomena of forced migration.
In particular, Euro-Mediterranean countries need to invest adequate efforts to prevent
and cope with climate change effects that, as a growing body of scientific data show, are
important factors for migration through and to the region.
7. While this region of the World is suffering from the current world crisis, we call upon the
Euro-Med community to revise the social and economic agenda from an approach that
addresses poverty eradication, decent employment, and comprehensive migrations
policies based on human rights. Migration should be introduced as one main indicator in
assessing the impact of social and economic policy-making in the Euro-Med area
including trade agreements. Current negotiations on services and agricultures should
take into consideration the recommendation of the EMFTA Sustainability Impact
Assessment. Aid within the economic partnership should not be a condition used to
promote economic liberalization or security measures on migrations or terrorism. In
achieving that, spaces for civil society full participation should be assured and promoted.
8. We call for the support, protection and assistance of independent and alternative Medias
in the context of a new regional plan to be created. Nowadays, while the circulation of
men and women is being impeded, distorted and biased pictures are circulating freely.
However, thanks to alternative Medias and their networks Mediterranean people, in their
cultural diversity, will be able to create their own image and writings.
We call upon all civil society organizations, through the recommendations adopted by the Forum,
to make of free circulation and mobility of men and women of our countries their working
program and a real priority for the coming years.
Marseille, 2nd of November, 2008
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