Swimming Against The Tide: Casa Alianza At The World Economic Forum

Covenant House
Thursday, 31 January 2002

Casa Alianza/Covenant House Latin America is one of just 70 civil society organizations from around the world which has been invited to participate in the World Economic Forum -- the foremost gathering of more than 3,000 of the world's business and political leaders -- starting today in New York City.

The World Economic Forum is an "independent foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland, committed to improving the state of the world," according to the agency's literature. Founded in 1971 by investor Klaus Schuab, the Forum has become a focus of international influence in its annual conferences, held for the past 32 years in Davos, Switzerland.

This year, as a sign of support for terrorist hit New York City, the Forum will be held in the market capital of the United States. Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is one of the Co-chairs of the five day meeting, described as a place of "important synergies between business, government and civil society interests in the Global Agenda."

Casa Alianza will be represented by its Executive Director for Latin American Programs, Bruce Harris, who will participate in two panels: "The Media Made Me Do It" -- a look at the role of the media within a democratic paradigm; and "Balancing National Sovereignty with Minority Rights: Will this Century be Different?" Other panelists on these two themes include Archbishop Desmond Tutu from South Africa; former US President Bill Clinton; Abdullah Abdullah, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan; Gerry Adams, President of the Sinn Fein Party, United Kingdom; Jose Ramos-Horta, Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of East Timor; Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, USA and Jack Straw, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom.

"When we are talking about up to 40 million street children in Latin America alone, we can hardly talk about a minority group," insisted Casa Alianza's Harris. "We cannot marginalize such an enormous group of children wasting such tremendous human potential. Government and society must bring these homeless children back into the mainstream of civilization in our countries and invest in them."

Casa Alianza was invited to participate in this global meeting by Jose Maria Figueres, former President of Costa Rica and now Managing Director of the World Economic Forum. "The Annual Meeting of the Forum plays an important role as the only international event that brings together business and political leaders with key figures from civil society, academia and the media to address issues of common concern," commented Figueres.

The media has been a key partner for Casa Alianza in its efforts over the years to protect street children from the most repressive actions by many of Central America's state security forces and private vigilante groups. Featured in the world's major publications and broadcasts, Casa Alianza has moved international public and political opinion to bring pressure to bear on governments which implement -- or at best condone -- actions of "social cleansing", or murder, of homeless children.

Of the more than 3,000 participants from business, government and civil society from 106 countries around the world, there are only 150 participants from Latin America, less than a dozen of whom are non governmental organizations. The World Economic Forum finishes on Monday, February 4th.

For more information, or to contact Covenant House, see their website at: www.covenanthouse.org