The World Today

As adopted by the Congress of Liberal International, Dakar, Senegal 23-25 October 2003

The Liberal International Congress meeting in Dakar, Senegal, on 23-25 October 2003, re-affirming its task to build bridges between cultures, societies and religions and its responsibility to safeguard freedom, democracy and human rights across the world;

• Recognises that global inequalities continue and that poverty, conflict, ill health and disease cause many peoples to have unacceptable suffering and poor quality of life;

• Recognises that in many countries democracy has advanced but expresses its concern about the deteriorating political and security situation in many countries;

• Re-emphasizes the importance of the promotion of a culture that respects human rights, promotes democracy, good governance and the empowerment of regional and global institutions not only to monitor developments but also to intervene when necessary;

• Warns of the danger of conflicts including those relating to the destruction of natural resources such as water, rain forests and fish;

• Remains deeply concerned with the continuation of forced, bonded and slave labour in various parts of the world, with trafficking in people for sexual and other exploitation and with the use of children in a military capacity;

• Underlines the need for further trade liberalisations that would have doubtlessly given important positive impulses for the weak world economies and expresses disappointment over the lost chance at the WTO-Summit in Cancun, Mexico to define new rules for a freer world trade and demands that the EU and US cease agricultural subsidies on production and export within a sharply defined time frame;

• Emphasizes that the way to combat terrorism as an increasing global problem that threatens the lives many innocent civilians is not only to be seen through security and military partnerships, but also through closer cooperation among all the nations in the issues of development, education and eradication of poverty.