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The social movements and citizens of the world gathered in Tiquipaya, Bolivia, on June 20 and 21, 2017, after hearing the testimonies of migrants and refugees, and collectively debated from our historic memory and the plurality of our identities, adopt the following Declaration, in order to state our vision and proposals before the States and the International Community regarding the so-called migratory crisis.

The peoples of the world are aware of the need to continue to push more strongly a new world order, whose characteristics are:

• The establishment of relations of complementarity, equity and solidarity between persons and peoples; the recognition and universalization of access to basic services as fundamental rights, which cannot be object of profit and speculation by private groups.
• The widest citizen participation in the elaboration and implementation of public policies transcending oligarchies, dynasties, monarchies and other forms of political hierarchies.
• A new international financial architecture, with no multilateral organizations at the service of transnational capital and to guarantee the social ownership of natural resources.
• Harmonious coexistence with Mother Earth and respect for her rights; assuming that nature can live without humans, but human beings cannot live apart from it, violating her rights and destroying the habitat.
• The construction of true peace, which is not only the absence of armed conflicts, but also the overcoming of structural violence that result in equitable access to wealth and development opportunities.

We have verified as the main causes of this crisis, war armed conflicts and military interventions, climate change and huge economic asymmetries between and within States. These destructive situations have their origin in the dominant world order, which in its excessive greed for profit and appropriation of the common goods generates violence, promotes inequalities and destroys Mother Earth. The migratory crisis is one of the manifestations of the integral crisis of neoliberal globalization.

Human mobility is a right rooted in the essential equality of human beings. However, in most cases, it does not respond to a voluntary decision of people but to situations of necessity that reach the extremes of forced migration. The pain associated to uprooting is accompanied by situations of injustice, exclusion, discrimination and exploitation suffered by people in transit and in receiving countries that violate their dignity, their basic human rights, and in many cases, endanger their own lives, are a plus.

Hegemonic discourses, fostered by transnational media corporations, promote a negative view of migrants, hiding the contributions they make to the host countries’ economy, demographics, society and culture. We see with concern the advance of neo-colonial, intolerant and xenophobic positions that undermine cooperation among the peoples and constitute a real threat to world peace.

Paradoxically, these positions are sustained from the centers of global powers, responsible for structural violence, planetary inequity and climate change, to the detriment of the creditors of social and environmental debt: the poor.

That is why, from the social grassroots, we promote the following Decalogue of proposals to tear down the walls that divide us and build a Universal Citizenship that enshrines the right of all to have and fully enjoy the same rights, for living- well of humanity.

• To overcome the hegemonic perspective on migration policy that proposes a “regular, orderly and safe” migration management with a humanist vision that allows to “welcome, protect, promote and integrate” migrants.
  To reject the criminalization of migration that covers up false approaches to security and control. In particular, we demand the elimination of “detention centers for migrants”.
• To demand the destruction of physical walls that separate peoples; invisible legal walls that persecute and criminalize; mental walls that use fear, discrimination and xenophobia to separate us between brothers and sisters. In the same way, we denounce the media walls that disqualify or stigmatize migrants, and we are committed to promoting the creation of alternative means of communication.
• To create a world ombudsman of the peoples for the rights of migrants, refugees, stateless and in political asylum persons, and victims of human trafficking and smuggling, that promotes free mobility and human rights.
• We ask the people and government of Bolivia to manage the creation of a coordination secretariat to enforce the resolutions of this declaration of the World People’s Conference for a World without Walls towards Universal Citizenship.
• To require that governments create and/or strengthen Regional Citizenships that may allow the intraregional mobility and full exercise of rights, as a bridge towards a universal citizenship.
  To demand that public expenditures destined to war and criminalization of migrants be used for the creation of integration programs that guarantee full exercise of the rights of migrants and their families.
  To promote local policies conducive to integrating cities and societies where the rights to housing, healthcare, education, and social security of migrants are made effective during their daily life, under the principles of complementarity, solidarity, brotherhood and diversity.
  To convene all governments of the world to fight in a jointly manner against criminal networks that smuggle human beings, and to declare human trafficking and smuggling as a crime against humanity.
  To update, strengthen and advance the multilateral system and its international instruments vis-à-vis migrants, refugees and their families, specially:

   

  • a) The “International Convention on the Protection of Rights of all migrant workers and members of their families” since it has not been ratified by any northern country receiving migrants;
  • b) The Convention relating to the Status of Refugees under UNHCR and add new conceptions referred to displaced persons and climate refugees.
  • c) To actively participate in the negotiation of the Global Compact that shall take place in 2018 at the United Nations;
  • d) To proclaim the International Decade for a World without Walls towards a Universal Citizenship at the General Assembly of United Nations;

• Overcome the approach of “rigid borders” with a vision that understands them as bridges of integration for the unity among peoples and the reception of migrants, and with a vision that addresses the fight against transnational organized crime in a framework of cooperation between States.
• Promote living well in the places of origin of migrants so that mobility is always voluntary and not forced, as an effect of poverty, violence and climate change; denounce the impact of the irresponsible actions of transnational corporations and apply sanctions to those that violate the stay of the families in their place of origin.
• Promote popular mobilization on a global scale so that the inalienable rights of people are recognized in intra and international instances to overcome the blockades, interventions and walls unilaterally raised by the powerful to perpetuate inequality and social injustice in the world.

URL:

https://fsmm2018.org/declaration-of-the-world-peoples-conference-for-a-world-without-walls-towards-universal-citizenship/?lang=en