Celebrities turn up the heat on G8 leaders

Celebrities turn up the heat on G8 leaders

3rd June 2005: In the week in which anti-poverty campaigners launched Live8 (*) and ahead of next week’s crucial G8 Finance Ministers meeting in London, a series of open letters from global celebrities to the G8 Finance Ministers are being published in some of the most influential newspapers in the world, calling for decisive action by world leaders to tackle poverty once and for all.

With only 9 days to go until the Ministers meet in London, and under 4 weeks to go until the world focuses its attention on the G8 summit in Scotland, campaigners, religious leaders, musicians, film stars and the general public alike are backing the demands of the Global Call to Action against Poverty for more and better aid, trade justice and debt cancellation.

“This is not the time for indifference. Between now and next week’s meeting, a staggering 450,000 people will die from extreme poverty. On Saturday 11th June, Finance Ministers have the chance to put a stop to this,” said GCAP spokesperson Kumi Naidoo.

Letters signed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Claudia Schiffer, Bob Geldof, Mary Robinson, Bono, author Margaret Atwood, actors George Clooney and Brad Pitt and Nobel Prize Winners John Polanyi and James Orbinski, will appear in publications including France’s Le Monde, Britain’s The Guardian, Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the US’s Washington Times in the coming 7 days.

“A child dies every 3 seconds from extreme poverty. The world’s highest moral authorities agree that this is wrong in our world of prosperity. The world’s greatest minds have shown that we can stop this. Ordinary people across the world are demanding action” say the stars in the letters which urge G8 Finance Ministers to act on trade, aid and debt.

People from across the G8 countries will be able to join moral leaders and celebrities in expressing their demands to world leaders. The publication of the open letters is being accompanied by the launch of email campaigns in several of the G8 countries, allowing everyone to add their voice to the high profile signatories who are demanding action.

The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is the world’s largest ever anti-poverty coalition, spanning charities, faith groups, trade unions and grassroots movements across the world. Launched in January 2005, the coalition, which includes Make Poverty History in the UK and Plus d’Excuses in France, is pressing on world leaders to make a breakthrough on poverty in 2005 in order to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals and alleviate startling suffering in the world’s poorest countries. The global symbol of the coalition’s demands is a white band. Campaigners and celebrities in 72 countries, including in all G8 countries, are turning up the heat on leaders in the run-up to Live8 and a week of global action before the G8 summit in July.

“The public and celebrities alike are piling on the pressure in a way that politicians cannot afford to ignore. The G8 is the opportunity for leaders to demonstrate – in actions not words - their commitment to fighting poverty. We will be reminding leaders that anything less than this will be a failure” said GCAP spokesperson Coumba Toure, speaking from Mali.

“With Live8 just a few weeks away, the public is taking every opportunity to say enough is enough. Now is the time to act on poverty. Wouldn’t it be fitting for world leaders to mark our generation as the one who made their lasting contribution to tackling poverty?” said the Global Call to Action against Poverty.

Last week’s announcement that the EU would increase aid was welcomed by GCAP but the coalition is calling for more to be done. The extra 20 - 40 billion euros in aid that it is estimated this deal will release will make a difference, but the anti-poverty alliance is still chasing the 0.7% target of national wealth in aid. EU increases were announced following GCAP’s event in Brussels at which Development Ministers signed a large white band to demonstrate their commitment to 0.7%. GCAP is now looking for all 15 old EU member states which have now agreed to meet the 0.7% target to announce concrete timetables to reach this goal at the EU’s Finance Ministers meeting on 7th June. GCAP is also looking to the US, Canada and Japan to step up to the mark and make similar pledges at the G8 Finance Ministers gathering on 11th June. Furthermore, this gathering needs to make some key decisions on the use of International Monetary Fund gold reserves to fund debt cancellation.

For more information, please contact:
Kate Norgrove: +44 1483 733 335 or +44 7813 164 160 - [email protected]
Barbara Kwateng: +32 222 402 06 or +32 476 621 018 - [email protected]

For more information on national campaigns please see the country pages of the GCAP website (www.whiteband.org).

* For more information on Live8, go to:
http://www.live8live.com/

Note to Editors

- The Global Call to Action against Poverty (www. whiteband.org) is a fast growing worldwide alliance committed to pushing world leaders to live up to their promises, and to make a breakthrough on poverty in 2005. The campaign is calling on world leaders to fulfil their commitments on trade justice, more and better aid and full debt cancellation. It is also demanding transparency and accountability from all governments in their plans to eliminate poverty and reach the Millennium Development Goals.
- Letters, appearing in several newspapers, have been signed by
Bono- Bob Geldof - Brad Pitt - Claudia Schiffer - His Grace The Archbishop Desmond Tutu - Dido - Colin Firth- REM - George Clooney - Juliette Binoche - Scarlett Johansen - Mary Robinson - Dr. William Vendley, World Conference of Religions for Peace – singer Sarah McLachalan - Nobel Prize winner John Polanyi - Nobel Prize recipient for Médecins sans frontiers James Orbinski – author Margaret Atwood – author June Callwood - former Canadian Minister for External Affairs Flora McDonald - UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis.
Germany: singer Herbert Grönemeyer - actress Franka Potente – presenter Alfred Biolek – actress Nina Hoss - singer Xavier Naidoo – model Claudia Schiffer - Writer and journalist Roger Willemsen.
France: Juliette Binoche - Elie Semoun
Letters will also appear in Austria and in Greece signed by three times Olympic gold medalist Purros Dimas, actor Lakis Lazopoulos, choreographer and Athens Olympics Art Director, Dimitris Papaioannou, and singer George Dalaras.

- Open letters will appear in:
Germany: Die ZEIT - Frankfurter Rundschau - die taz - Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung – der Stern – der Spiegel
France: Le Monde - Le Figaro
UK: The Independent – The Guardian
US: Washington Times

G8 campaigns at a glance
GCAP national campaigns from G8 countries are demanding more and better aid, debt cancellation and trade justice when G8 leaders meet in Gleneagles in July.

UK
Campaign name: Make Poverty History
Website: www.makepovertyhistory.org
Notes: Launched by Nelson Mandela in Trafalgar Square in February 2005 before 22,000 people, thousands of people are expected to come to Edinburgh before the G8 on 2 July to wrap a human-chain white band around the city

Canada
Campaign name: Make Poverty History / Abolissons la Pauvrete
Website: www.makepovertyhistory.ca / www.abolissonslapauvrete.ca
Notes: As a result of the recent EU commitment to increase aid, Make Poverty History in Canada challenged the government to re-establish itself as a global leader for development and set a timetable to meet the target of 0.7% of GNI in aid. Bono boosted the campaign recently in a spectacular U2 concert where he urged 20,000 fans to ‘call Paul’

USA
Campaign name: The ONE Campaign
Website: www.one.org
Notes: Musicians, artists and young people will mobilise in 20 states at the start of June 2005, launching a month of events to mobilise an unprecedented number of Americans calling on Bush to deliver a historic deal for the world's poor at the G8

France
Campaign name: 2005: Plus D’Excuses (2005: No more excuses)
Website: www.2005plusdexcuses.org
Notes: Famous film director Patrice Lecote shot the actors’ version of the French ‘click ad’. Actors from Juliette Binoche to Johnny Halliday are in this advert, clicking their fingers every three seconds to symbolise the death of a child; in the developing world a child dies every three seconds from extreme poverty. On 1 July cities across France will wrap monuments in white bands and make human white band chains

Italy
Campaign name: Coalizione italiana contro la povertà (Italian Voice against Poverty)
Website: http://www.nientescuse.it/
Notes: Plans for 1 July include wrapping the Colosseum in a white band of light. In Rome some 100,000 people took part in Italia Africa, a cultural festival with an African focus, where the Italian version of the GCAP ‘click ad’ was shown

Germany
Campaign name: Dein Stimme Gegen Armut (Your Voice against Poverty)
Website: www.deine-stimme-gegen-armut.de
Notes: Following the success of the actors’ and singers’ German ‘click ad’, which included Claudia Schiffer and Bono, famous footballers launched their own version of the advert, together with German rock star Herbert Grönemeyer

Japan
Campaign name: Hottokenai, Sekai no Mazushia (Don’t let it be: World Poverty)
Website: www.hottokenai.jp
Notes: This is Japan’s broadest ever anti-poverty campaign coalition, including support from many sectors and covering a wide spectrum of issues

Russia
A GCAP campaign is taking shape in Russia – see www.whiteband.org.

Other GCAP campaigns – a taster
Over 50 GCAP campaigns in other, non-G8 countries, will be keen observers of the decisions that are made in Gleneagles. As well as calling for more aid, cancellation of debt and trade justice, these campaigns are calling for transparent and accountable policies to tackle poverty.

In Kenya, where the GCAP campaign is called Wakati Ni Sasa (The time to act is now), national radio will be running a ‘spot the white band’ radio competition. Plans for 1 July include wrapping the Times Tower in Nairobi

In Sierra Leone a massive cotton tree in Freetown will be wrapped in a white band on 1 July, symbolic of the history of slavery in West Africa and of GCAP’s demands for trade justice on the continent today

In Peru, a public event will be held in the Plaza San Martin in Lima on 8 June. The campaign in Peru is called La pobreza al 2015 ¡ya fue!

In Australia, plans for 1 July include hanging a GCAP white banner on Sydney Harbour Bridge

In Zambia a march past all the G8 embassies on 1 July will make Zambia’s demands to the G8 clear; the march will end with a huge free concert attended by Zambian celebrities

In Georgia, the first lady will attend a GCAP white band event on 1 July and launch the Georgian version of the ‘click ad’

GCAP campaigns in Africa are organising joint actions on 16 June, the Day of the African Child. On the day set aside by Africa to remember the 1976 massacre of Soweto children by the apartheid regime, children and adults will come to Soweto to demand action by African leaders on orphans and vulnerable children. Loise Bwambale, member of the pan-African parliament, will lead proceedings

The ‘Get on board bus’, a small ‘matatu’ bus typical of many in Africa, started its journey in Jo’burg and has travelled through Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, collecting the messages of thousands of people in Africa to take to the G8, where it will finish its journey.