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A Commonwealth People's Forum Symposium on the Global Call to Action Against Poverty today (November 22) called on Commonwealth governments to take decisive action to place job creation and decent work at the heart of
their poverty-reduction agenda.

A Commonwealth People's Forum Symposium on the Global Call to Action
Against Poverty today (November 22) called on Commonwealth governments to take decisive action to place job creation and decent work at the heart of
their poverty-reduction agenda.

Meeting just days ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting,
scheduled to take place between November 25 and 27, the symposium
focused on the importance of ensuring transparent governance and respect
for human rights in achieving the UN's Millennium Development goals.

"Achieving economic prosperity means investing in people. And this,
first and foremost, means respecting fundamental human rights, amongst
them, workers' rights," Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Trade Unions (ICFTU) said today.

"With major trade union rights violations occurring in countries such as
Nigeria, Swaziland, Nepal and Uganda, it is more urgent now than ever
for CHOGM to take the lead and establish a timeline for ensuring that
its members have ratified all core ILO conventions by 2010. The citizens
of Commonwealth countries deserve nothing less than freedom from slavery
and child labour and freedom of association, as a minimum," he
continued.

"Without these basic rights, the shackles of poverty will keep millions
of Commonwealth citizens without a hope of a decent education, job or
health system."

The symposium called on CHOGM to establish a tri-partite annual forum of
Commonwealth Labour Ministers which would engage citizens through their
democratically elected trade unions, along with employers, in dialogue
surrounding the challenges posed by globalization and the changes it
brings.

"The many challenges that commonwealth countries face, from HIV/AIDS
through to corruption and conflict must be met by a determination on
behalf of these governments to act. It is only by linking aid,
investment, good governance, the creation of decent jobs, reduced arms
spending and the fight against corruption that these challenges can be
meaningfully met," Ryder concluded.

Sponsored by the ICFTU's Commonwealth Trade Union Group (CTUG) the forum
heard from representatives of Maltese trade unions and civil society
organisations.

The CTUG represents over 30 million workers throughout the Commonwealth.

The ICFTU is a founding partner of the Global Call to Action against
Poverty, the world's largest ever campaign for poverty eradication.

http://www.icftu.org.