Transparency South Africa (T-SA) is seeking your support for the campaign in support of the in-depth reform of international institutions. Recently the media, went crazy about the UN, unfortunately it focused on the demagoguery of both Mugabe and Bush and ignored other more pertinent inputs. This campaign is supported by SANGOCO and contributes to our activities of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), which will pick up steam during the Month of Action against Poverty and Inequality – October. We aim to reach a high point  on 17 October – the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

The international campaign manifesto has been endorsed by some of the leading international institutions and movements, academics and activists worldwide. These include personalities and intellectuals like Norm Chomsky, Rigoberta Menchu, Leonardo Boff (liberation theologist), Nawal Elsaadawi (writer); organisations such as Advocacy for Women in Africa, Grameen Bank and others.

The Manifesto for In-Depth Reform of the System of International Institutions is a call to action by citizens and world leaders to deal with poverty, injustice, environmental degradation and global abuses of power by the powerful countries. We believe that one course of action is the establishment of mechanisms which will give space for direct voice and participation for citizens and civil society organisations in the global decision-making processes.

What we ask is simple:

a) We want you to sign up as individual and/or organisation to this campaign by filling in the attached form, beneath the manifesto and returning it to us by email or fax.

b) We are keen that you share this information with others by getting them to sign up to the manifesto and by visiting www.reformcampaign.net

c) If you agree, Transparency SA would love to have you as an integrity working group member interested in working on this type of issues. The integrity network concept aims to organize like minded persons into a group to work consistently on agreed upon issues. Getting such a group to look at in-dept reform of international organisations will be great!

d) Indicate whether you would like to receive more information from the Campaign Secretariat and ourselves on the campaign, mostly via email.

If as a South African citizen cannot see why – due to different reasons, such as the remoteness of these organisations – you should care to make these international bodies more transparent, participatory and accountable to the worlds citizens, I want to submit that our history with the UN and its agencies is a long one and significant one.

We all remember the more recent involvement of the UN through its convening of UN conferences over the years in particular post 1990s onwards such as the World Conference against Racism (2001) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002) held in RSA, or the World Summit for Social Development held in Copenhagen (1995) was also significant.

But the UN involvement goes far back. Our anti apartheid struggles, especially after the banning of our political organisations in the 1960s and later after 1976 unrests, resulted in liberation movements receiving support from the world's peoples and their governments. This also translated in support from the United Nations.

Many scholars and older citizens may remember with fondness that on 6 November 1962, through the passing of Resolution 1761, the United Nations General Assembly condemned South African apartheid policies. This resolution was followed by the United Nations Security Council on 7 August 1963 imposing a voluntary arms embargo against South Africa. Later on 4 November 1977 – after the repression of 1976 revolts – the UN Security Council's mandatory arms embargo kick started the international campaign to isolate Apartheid's South Africa . As the resistance to the repression continued, many of our people were displaced and became refugees ably assisted by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

As for its agencies, a number of South Africans in exile participated and worked in UNESCO, WHO, etc. Yet our involvement with the World Bank and the IMF as well as with the WTO has not been fully discussed and assessed in the public domain. It may have to do with the promoted ideology of these institutions, which seek to promote free market policies while often trying to present themselves as being natural laws/acts like breathing, that is, as inevitable, immutable and not subject to interrogation and subject to alternatives and change. Nothing can be farther from the truth. It is for this reason that I write to you seeking your support in a campaign for the fundamental transformation of international organisations.

By signing up to the Manifesto, you are taking a small step towards taking control of the democratic process as it affects us albeit seemingly indirectly.

You can write back to us after filling in the forms below and emailing it to :  rsa.reformcampaign@gmail.com or   faxing it to: (011) 403 4966

Download Reform campaign forms

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