DEVELOPMENT: 'Poverty an Issue in Europe Too'

from IPS

By Sabina Zaccaro

Civil society groups in Central and Eastern Europe want to remind their governments Oct. 17 that poverty exists in their own countries, and not just in those usually considered developing countries.

People around the world are asked to "stand up and speak out" on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty Oct. 17 against poverty and in support of the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight goals agreed in 2000 to reduce poverty and to improve health and education.

The 'Stand Up and Speak Out Against Poverty' initiative is a part of the campaign organised by the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) alliance and the UN Millennium Campaign to get people into public spaces for 24 hours from 9pm GMT Oct. 16 to demand more urgent political response to the growing global poverty crisis.

On this date last year an estimated 23.5 million people stood up to demand an end to poverty, setting what organisers claimed to be a world record. This year they want to "send an even louder message which politicians cannot ignore."

The global mobilisation represents a chance for civil society groups seeking more participation in the current debate on aid, debt cancellation, trade negotiations and public accountability monitoring to have their say, but it is also an opportunity to strengthen communication on domestic problems with governments in Central and Eastern Europe.

"This year's key issue is to make the public understand that GCAP is not only a coalition of people looking at developing countries but also looking at poverty and inequality in the north," Julien Vaissier of the GCAP Europe Secretariat told IPS.

"If we look at countries like Romania, there is a huge domestic problem with poverty. GCAP is a way to open people's minds and make them understand that through its global echo they can try to bring about a change in their countries."

Some increase in people's participation in such moves has been recorded in Hungary, which joined GCAP in 2005.

"I wouldn't say that peoples' participation is big enough, but it is growing year by year," Balazs Frida of the Hungarian coalition told IPS. "First it was quite hard to mobilise people because the case of Central Europe is a particular one...people consider themselves not exactly poor, but still needing help from outside."

At the same time, he says, "we are committed with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, a grouping of 30 wealthy nations) and the UN to support foreign countries that are in a tricky situation."

According to Frida, "sensitising people is a challenging mission; you must help them understand that they are not poor any more, they are normal European Union members." At the same time, he said, they need to understand "there are poorer people outside Europe, and we don't have to concentrate only on domestic poverty or homelessness and underdeveloped rural regions."

The Hungarian coalition will organise conferences, street demonstrations and a full day programme with films, public discussions and a seminar on aid policies on Oct. 17.

The Czech Republic also joined the global group in 2005. "Each year it's an effort to reach out to new groups, new cities, and engage other groups like students, who had never been approached before," Petr Lebeda of the Czech Republic national coalition told IPS.

"Though it is difficult to monitor people's involvement, we collected around 527,000 signatures under the statement to be delivered to the Prime Minister and to the UN General Assembly.

"Peoples' capacity to speak out for rights is improving," he said. "It doesn't reach the usual standard of the European Union (EU) 15 countries; still I think it's a bit better than others member states, and perhaps on the level of Hungary or Poland.

"There's quite a tradition of human rights activism in the Czech Republic that goes back to the dissident movements under the Communist regime; human rights were a part of the resistance that resulted in the regime eject. There was a strong focus on that, both in official circles and in civil society, though it was largely focused on political rights, free speech, religion, freedom of assembly and this sort of rights."

Now, he said there is also "a lot of activity in terms of defending dissidents in Cuba, in North Korea, and the other problematic regime in Belarus."

Activists are now discovering another generation of human rights, like food rights, "which is still a concept, I would say, not very familiar to civil society and to the public as rights," Lebeda said.

The government's attitude towards poverty issues "is getting more responsible," he said. "The Czech Republic is realising its global responsibilities, acknowledging the fact that it has become part of one of the most elite groups in the world, the EU."