CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY!

Speech by Mona Sahlin, Party Leader, Social Democratic Party of Sweden
XXIII Congress of the Socialist International, Athens
1st of July 2008

Dear Friends,

Let me first express my gratitude to the organizers of this congress. The work you have done has not only attracted hundreds of delegates from the world. It has inspired us to put the focus where it belongs in the progressive movement – on the future.

We work in a time, where global progress is a real possibility, and we have greater possibilities than our predecessors ever had.

The global wealth has never been greater;
Scientific advances in medicine and technology at top;
Information technology with a speed of light;
Political freedom and democracy are slowly becoming a norm;
Social liberation for women - still questioned – but we perceive progress;

 
There are great reasons for optimism. But our achievements should be measured where the democracy is at danger or how we manage to deal with the most complicated conflict or by the life that the most disadvantaged among us live. The point is that we do have the knowledge and resources to act.  That was a key message from the late SI-president Wily Brandt to the SI congress 1992 in Berlin read by Hans-Jochen Vogel.

"Whenever people are causes great suffering it concerns us all, don’t forget if injustices is permitted to continue for long, this is opening doors to future injustice."

It is a very important message that we progressives will never give up or let some part of the world rest with conflicts or poverty.

Our fight is global and lasting.

* * *

There are numerous of global challenges: The fight against poverty, world famine, oppression, regional conflicts, violation of human rights – and terrorism. The peace-efforts in the Middle East, in Sudan, in Afghanistan are huge tasks. To reconstruct societies and build lasting peace must be one of the key priorities.

We need political instruments and determination.
We need to join forces to prevent violent conflicts. We need to work against hatred and distrust between peoples, and to encourage a dialogue between and within cultures.

The only rational option is a radical paradigm shift from reaction to prevention.

Women and girls in conflict situations around the world have been subjected to widespread and deliberate acts of sexual violence. Rape is a crime that can never be accepted. On the 19th of June this year the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that demands all sides to armed conflicts to stop using violence against women as a tactic of war, calling it a war crime and a component of genocide.

Now it is up to all of us to make the resolution known and make sure it gets implemented.

I say this clear: women’s rights are Human Rights.

***
 
Dear Friends,

I hope the day will come when we do not have to talk about the Middle East only when we discuss conflicts in the world. The whole region is such wonderful, with places of great historical significance and amazing beauty.

But.

It is less than a week ago that the quartet demanded from Israel to immediately stop all construction of settlements in the West Bank and also evacuate all illegal settlements that has been build since March 2001.

Not only from the quartet, but also from us in the Socialist family, the message to Israel is clear:
Don’t make a two-state solution impossible;
Stop the settlements activities immediately!

We also welcome the latest agreement reached last Sunday between Israel and Hezbollah.

I visited Sderot in southern Israel less than a year ago, just on the north border of Gaza. I stayed in a kindergarten which received a Qassam rocket in the garden three days earlier.

The children were not allowed to go outside, because they wouldn’t reach a proper shelter within twenty seconds.

The afternoon nap was actually done in one of the build-in shelters.
The rockets are making the every day life of the citizens unbearable with the constant fear.

It is unfortunate that the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was violated after just five days when rockets from Gaza again hit a garden in Sderot. This has to come to an end.

In any peace agreement, the security concerns of both sides has to be taken very seriously. That is the least the people living in the area could demand.

The cooperation and the activities in the Middle East inside our own progressive family has never stopped and is always contributing to a little bit more respect and understanding.

 We should continue and strengthen that!
The courage to make a difference.

***

We often talk about security and development as independent from one another. Whereas we all know that deep poverty and huge inequalities increase the risk of conflicts and instability. And reverse - ongoing conflicts make development efforts extremely difficult.

It is time for the developed countries to deliver their promise of reaching a level of development assistance of 0.7% of the Gross Domestic Income.

Few countries have reached that goal and worse, the level of the total development assistance has declined the last years. We shouldn’t do more promises, but do what we promise.

* * *
 
The 10th of April 2003, the Swedish Foreign Minister and my very best friend, the late Anna Lindh wroth an article together with Georgiou Papandreou about disarmament and WMDs. The program they launched contained both old and new demands on how to prevent the spread and use of these weapons.

I would like to see the Socialist International raising new initiatives in this area of concern, in the spirit of Anna Lindh’s and Georgiou Papandreou’s ideas .

We must also underline clearly our standpoint on Iraq. Iraq was invaded in contravention of international law and without the clearance from the UN.

The USA must withdraw from Iraq in a way that is acceptable to the world community. That is our line on this issue

When Iraq enters a new phase, the demands for increased engagement will arise. We do not hesitate in our will to support international solidarity

The SI can play an important role to foster political dialogue and development in Iraq.

* * *

Dear Friends,

Resolving conflicts are not only a matter of solidarity, resolving conflicts is a global concern whether we like it or not. A conflict in one part of the world will have consequences for the rest.

Perhaps the most obvious consequence is those persons who are forced to leave their home to seek protection. The victims of war become our neighbors, colleagues and friends.

My relatively small country Sweden, has during the last decades received almost half a million refugees together with their families. One of them is today president of the Socialist International. Another one is the Secretary General.

The small town Södertälje, with 80 000 inhabitants, neighboring our capital Stockholm received more refugees from Iraq than the United States of America. And they, USA, started the war.

These are big numbers for a relatively rich country like Sweden, but small compared to amount of internally displaced persons in villages in for example Congo (DRC) or Sudan.

 
It is only one example of that we are all affected by conflicts in one way or another, but also that all countries can play a role in dealing with its consequences, and certainly that many should contribute more to achieve peace and stability.

I would like to end by sending my best regards from the Swedish Social Democratic Party to the Congress and support to the presented draft resolution.
 
Thank you.