Several UN member states delegations will participate in the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development.

However, the official agenda of this summit seems to reproduce the same formulas which are the deep cause of the financial instability, with impacts throughout the world: the expansion of trade liberalization, hegemonization of global policies through organizations with questionable legitimacy, etc.

The indifference from developed countries with reference to the Conference and its implications has been considered a boycott by the international media, and by the General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto himself.

“Particularly those in the North, increasingly resist reforms of the IMF and the World Bank, hoping that things will return to business as usual,” stated D´Escoto in a press conference on Tuesday.

But the conference will not be monotone. Hundreds of networks of social movements have been called to the US metropolis under the theme “People´s Voices on the Crisis” and demand the Heads of State and Presidents of their countries to participate in this conference, in order to substitute the G-20 as a global forum where the reforms of international financial structures are discussed.

It is also expected that some of the presidents use this international forum to demand the substitution of multilateral organizations like the World Trade Organization or the ICSID (International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes), a tribunal by the World Bank which has allowed several transnational corporations to put pressure on the countries to obtain greater benefits and profits.

For instance, Bolivian President, Evo Morales, has announced that he will raise in the conference the issues of poverty, social exclusion and the problems faced by the indigenous people in the continent. Morales and Rafael Correa, Ecuador´s President , will participate in an event demanding the abolition of the ICSID, this Thursday, according to an interview with Nick Buxton, member of the Transnational Institute (TNI, Amsterdam).

It seems that Correa, Morales and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will be the only high level representatives present in the conference.

The movements reject the conclusion of the “Doha Round” on world trade as a solution to the crisis. “On the contrary, pursuing the liberalization of the financial sector of national economies through FTAs will only worsen the crisis”.
Buxton stated that the summit is not being covered appropriately by the media, and it appears as a secret summit when in fact it is a space for the participation of all countries in the world.

Another demand by the social organizations is related to the rescue of the UN itself, since, according to Buxton, although it is lacking some elements, it still is the most representative forum for the discussion of global issues.

The demands of the alliance of social networks “Our World Is Not For Sale” include the cancellation of all the illegitimate Foreign Debt of the countries of the south, and the reparation of the Ecological Debt by the countries of the North to the South.

Buxton also talked about the claim to abolish the ICSID immediately, which is supported by the Bolivian and Ecuadorian Presidents.