Oxfam Ireland Press Release.
June 1st 2005
Irish Campaign Welcomes Live 8
MAKE POVERTY HISTORY Irish Campaign welcomes the news that Live 8 concerts are being organised in support of the MAKE POVERTY HISTORY campaign. We believe the awareness raising capacity of the worlds top entertainers will create the critical mass needed to get the leaders of the world to deal with fundamental systems that are keeping millions of people in absolute poverty. There is a massive consensus among Civil Society groups that the economic heavyweight nations need to Drop the Debt, give More and Better Aid and to allow Trade Justice for economically underdeveloped economies.
50,000 people in Ireland are wearing the White Bands as an expression this political demand. While some Irish people will also have a chance to go to Live 8 or to the Make Poverty History Edinburgh Rally on July 2 nd, for most the Make Poverty History Dublin Rally on June 30 th 1830hrs at Spire of Dublin will be their opportunity to demand change both from the G8 and from our own Government. Ireland must play its part by using our role in World Bank and IMF to get total cancellation of unpayable debt, to set a date and timetable to increase our Aid contribution to 0.7% of national income and to demand that the EU treat develop nations fairly in our trade agreements.
There are very complex set of reasons who a billion people live is absolute poverty. Some seem impossible to resolve. However, three of the main reasons are in the gift of the G8 leaders to resolve and the Make Poverty History / Live 8 focus is on these issues.
The G8 will only do this if there is massive public pressure. We saw this with the Jubilee 2000 campaign. The Make Poverty History Edinburgh Rally, with the Live 8 concerts and mass public interest generated this year, is putting the G8 in a strong spotlight. Billions of people will be saying to G8, 'it is in your power to make decisions, on our behalf, to end what Mandela called "such a terrible scourge of our time" and we are watching you'. Politicians hold the key; politicians do respond to positive pressure; there is an much greater chance that they will now open the door to vaults of world wealth to allow a small amount of our excess to resolve massive level of absolute poverty.
For further information
please visit www.makepovertyhistory.ie
or contact :
Eamon Stack, Debt & Development Coalition Ireland - tel. 01 - 857 1828 / 087 - 7847325
Hans Zomer, Dóchas - tel. 01 - 405 3801 / 085 - 728 3258
David Joyce, ICTU - tel. 01 - 889 7746 / 087 - 226 0213
Notes for Editors:
MAKE POVERTY HISTORY Irish Campaign is part of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, a world-wide alliance committed to forcing world leaders to live up to their promises, and to make a breakthrough on poverty in 2005.
See www.whiteband.org
A 2-page document setting out the key concerns of the MAKE POVERTY HISTORY Irish Campaign is available from www.makepovertyhistory.ie or the participating organisations.
MAKE POVERTY HISTORY Irish Campaign aims to ensure that Ireland plays its part in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
These goals were agreed by world leaders in September 2000, to bring about a world in which sustaining development and eliminating poverty would have the highest priority. The goals were based on agreements and resolutions of world conferences organised by the United Nations in the 1990s.
All 191 UN member countries have pledged to achieve these goals by the year 2015.
The following organisations have thus far signed on to the campaign:
Make Poverty History Irish Campaign
ActionAid Ireland, AfriAidLink, Children In Crossfire, Christian Aid, Church of Ireland Bishops' Appeal, Comhlámh, Concern, CORI Justice Commission, Cultivate Centre, Debt & Development Coalition Ireland, Dóchas, EAPN Ireland, Fairtrade Mark Ireland, Friends of the Earth Ireland, Health & Development Network, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, IDEA, IFPA, IMU, KADE, Sisters of Mercy, Oxfam Ireland, Ocras International, Presentation Justice Network, The Rose Project, Skillshare International Ireland,Trócaire, UCD Development Studies Centre, WorldVision Ireland, Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice.