Pax
Romana
International
Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs
ICMICA/MIIC
CONCEPT
PAPER
Global
Governance, Global Justice:
Concept
paper
One
of the main features of the globalized world is the increasingly important
role that global institutions play in providing answers to world issues
including sustainable development, trade, environmental degradation, armed
conflicts, economic crisis and reconstruction efforts, peace among
civilizations and religions, human rights and culture, etc. Institutions such
as the United Nations (UN), World Trade Organization (WTO), International
Monetary Funds (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) were established to ensure that
world issues are addressed collectively as national actors establish local
mechanisms to deal with internal factors such as governance, corruption, and
visionary resource allocation. This is necessary to efficiently take care of
questions that cannot be resolved at the national or regional[1]
level.
The
process of interdependency is not new; it is a characteristic of modernity,
from colonialism to imperialism, but in the last decades the economic,
cultural and environment interdependency has grown to a proportion unseen
before. It becomes a prerequisite to be compromised in a new joint effort to
reduce world poverty and environment risks.
However,
there has been growing concerns regarding the effectiveness of global
institutions in managing issues such as poverty eradication, fair trade, peace
among and within nations, and global warming. IMF and the World Bank for
instance have been over criticized for their Structural Adjustment Programs
(SAP) seen as a new route for savage capitalism unable to alleviate poverty in
the global south. Growing poverty and inequalities remain the world’s
greatest challenges. As the World Bank recognizes it, widening global
disparities have increased the sense of deprivation and injustice for many[2].
What went wrong? How will global economic and political institutions reduce
social and economic inequalities among people and nations? This requires the
re-examination of the mandates of the existing international organizations in
order to identify gaps and challenges preventing them from achieving a common
good for all. The reform of the United Nations system indicates that peace,
security and protection of human rights remain a human need and factor for
global prosperity. Would the new Human Rights Council deliver global justice
for all without the politization of human rights that characterized the then
UN Human Rights Commission?
The
search for global common good is the critical challenge for and a
responsibility shared by all: individuals, families and businesses, as well as
by the States and their leaders. To this moment, many of these actors have
been moved mainly by specific interests. In the globalized world, Humanity
will need to accept new values in order to alleviate the sufferings of the
poor. Among others: human dignity, responsibility, solidarity, subsidiarity,
transparency, etc. Moreover, all these values should be understood in the
framework of a democratic system where international human rights set up the
basic standards of the coexistence of communities. The churches, civil
society, and NGOs play a crucial role in this change of values.
Elsewhere,
the flux of financial capital has been accepted as one of the drivers of
economic globalization. However, the world is failing to recognize the place
of human capital in economic development. Migration is about the movement of
men and women, mostly with skills and knowledge, from one corner of the world
to another. The history of humanity is also a history of migration. National
and regional migration policies are short of frameworks offering solutions to
the causes of the problem in a way that respect human dignity and prevent the
current brain drain from developing to western countries. African
professionals for instance leave
Last
but not least, religions and cultures play a crucial role in the world search
for peace and social justice. Interreligious and inter-cultural dialogue is an
urgent need to challenge violence among communities and nations. Needless to
say, civil society organizations should continue to reflect and promote
universal values and principles that allow peaceful day-to-day interactions
among people of different civilizations.
The
main focus of Pax Romana’s congress in July 2008 is on Africa, the forgotten
continent for the consensus of
As
Pax Romana moves towards the preparation of the 2008 congress, the
organization reiterates the message of thousands of those who gathered in
Porte Allegre in the 2002 World Social Forum:
Another and just world is
possible and necessary[4];
a world that considers extreme poverty as an urgent scandal to deal with.
Objectives
of the congress
The
congress will draw young professionals, scholars, experts in the world
governance system, and members of the civil society to:
Methodology
The
case study will be the methodology of this conference to build from the rich
and varied experience of Pax Romana membership throughout the world. This will
illuminate the plenary sessions around the following topics:
Simultaneous
workshops will be organized and animated by some experts on the following
sub-themes:
Please
send comments and suggestions to the
Scientific
committee of the congress:
Jean
Lokenga (lokenga@yahoo.fr)
+ 249 91 57 33 157
Paul
Ortega ( paulortega@paxromanaint.ch)
+ 34 94 410 00 52
C.P.
374, 15 Rue du Grand –Bureau Geneva 4, CH-1211, Switzerland
[1]
The term region is used
here to mean: continent
[2]
World Bank, World
Development Report 2002/2001,
[3]
[4]