Democracy must to achieve MDGs: Experts
Experts have said democracy, rule of law and respect to human rights are must to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations five years ago.
Addressing a workshop on “MDGs: The Media Perspective” in Lalitpur on Friday, resource persons referred to Article V (24) of the UN Millennium Declaration, which read: “We will spare no effort to promote democracy and strengthen the rule of law, as well as respect for all internationally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development.”
The Declaration was adopted by UN member states, including Nepal, in September 2000. The eight Millennium Development Goals range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, by 2015.
The UN has also set indicators to see if the member states are on their way towards achieving what is now popularly known as MDGs.
Former member of the National Planning Commission, Dr. Yubaraj Khatiwada, said there was a tendency of adding some indicators by countries that did not have democracy with a view to subdue the democratic process. “Freedom, democracy and human rights are the basis of UN Millennium Declaration,” he added.
Dr. Khatiwada, however, said democracy was a necessary but not sufficient condition for human development. He said good governance and making locally elected bodies as well as members of consumer groups accountable was equally crucial.
Editor of Samay weekly, Yubaraj Ghimire, said MDGs as such was not a new concept, rather an aggregate of what various countries were trying to achieve over the past several decades. He said human rights, good governance and democracy were inter-linked to each other and that rule of law and right to development were also fundamental rights which could not be ignored.
Ghimire further said in today’s globalised world, if a country turns unsafe, it will add into security risks of other countries. He said MDGs should not be looked at in a dogmatic way and that media personnel should look into these issues beyond statistics. He said gap in the quality of education always led to conflict in the society. He warned that Nepal could come across a situation when tomorrow’s leadership will have to be taken by displaced and deprived children of today.
President of Sancharika Samuha, Nepal, Mrs. Bandana Rana, said there was a need to make the process of monitoring progress of MDGs participatory in nature. Citing experiences of Africa, she, however, cautioned that there was a need to advocate implementing development programs from gender perspective whether there was democracy in a country or not.
Over two dozen media personnel attended the workshop organized jointly by the United Nations Development Programme in Nepal (UNDP) and Nepal Press Institute (NPI).
nepalnews.com by Dec 30 05
