Organisation of a Conference on Europe's contribution towards improvement of North-South relations and better preservation of the earth's resources
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 26 and 27 April 1982 (1st and 2nd Sittings) (see Doc. Doc. 4882, report of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development). Text adopted by the Assembly on 27 April 1982 (2nd Sitting).
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
1. Having regard to its
Resolution 747 (1981), on global prospects- human needs and the Earth's resources ;
2. Fully conscious that the interlinked problems of rapid desertification, large-scale deforestation, energy shortages, water deterioration and atmospheric pollution are steadily worsening, and have already reached unacceptable proportions, thus threatening the existence of hundreds of millions of people ;
3. Considering that these developments call for firm political decisions and effective action on the part of the industrialised countries, in close co-operation with the developing countries, as the preservation of essential global resources fundamentally affects the future of mankind ;
4. Recalling the manifesto appealing against death by starvation, issued on 24 June 1981 by more than fifty Nobel Prize laureates ;
5. Emphasising the urgency of the need for increased participation by Council of Europe member states in international efforts to create the essential conditions for a more balanced relationship between population growth and the availability of food and other physical resources, so as to eradicate hunger and poverty in the world ;
6. Noting that the heads of state and government participating in the International Meeting on Co-operation and Development held in October 1981 in Cancun (Mexico) confirmed "the desirability of supporting at the United Nations, with a sense of urgency, a consensus to launch global negotiations" ;
7. Confirming the interlinkage of the solution of European problems, such as unemployment, economic stagnation and declining trade, with the degree of success which the nations of the South can achieve in the fields of economic, industrial and social development ;
8. Stressing the need for an independent European role in reaching real and positive results in the North-South dialogue ;
9. Pointing out that in the next few years it will be determined whether the nations of the North and the South will succeed in preventing global over-population and desperate scarcity of resources by the end of this century ;
10. Noting the dangers which will result if the present stalemate in the international dialogue on these urgent issues continues,
11. Resolves to hold in 1983 a "Conference on Europe's contribution towards improvement of North-South relations and better preservation of the Earth's physical resources", to discuss the following main subjects :
11.1 the world food situation ;
11.2 the interlinked problems of population growth and the rapid depletion of resources essential for human survival ;
11.3 the proposed global negotiations as well as other avenues for international economic reforms;
12. Instructs its Committee on Economic Affairs and Development, in close co-operation with its Committees on Agriculture, on Science and Technology, and, on Migration, Refugees and Demography, to organise this conference on the lines set out in
Doc. 4882, with the aim of bringing together representatives of European governments and parliaments and of the intergovernmental and international non-governmental organisations concerned.
