Thirty years ago - on 16 November 1989 - in an inspiring moment of the World History where walls were falling down, the Lisbon Declaration[1] and the Madrid Appeal[2], that followed the European Public Campaign on North-South Interdependence and Global Survival under the slogan “North-South: One future – a Common task”, paved the way for the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers to decide on the creation of a European Centre for Global Interdependence and Solidarity as a response to the urgent need for solidarity on a global scale, and with the aim to spread the universal values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law beyond Europe. Few months later – in May 1990 – the enlarged partial agreement – also known as the North-South Centre - opened its doors in Lisbon as a Council of Europe’s window to the world.
Since then, the North-South Centre has been an instrument for multilateral cooperation of the Council of Europe beyond Europe, fostering cooperation between governments, parliamentarians, local and regional authorities and civil society from diverse nationalities and backgrounds, always working towards more peaceful and inclusive societies, privileging a bottom-up approach and the partnership with relevant multipliers in civil society, in particular with the young generations and women agents, fostering critical awareness on global challenges and contributing to an active global citizenship for a sustainable world and a better future for all.
But how effective were all these years of work? How far did we go in the path a global citizenship and solidarity?
Three decades after, it seems that we are back to a similar climate in which the Centre was originally established. Our present world still faces difficult and dangerous global challenges that are testing the stability and peaceful development of our societies, different but not less frightening walls dividing and threatening us all, such as the growth of inequalities or the rising of extremism, radicalism, populism, racism, xenophobia, harassment and hate speech, that jeopardise human dignity and the respect for justice.
This global order and its consequences remind us that the standards and values that underpin the existence of a North-South Centre back then are today even more relevant than thirty years ago. Yet, in a similar climate but in different times, a reflection process was carried out to define the Centre’s strategic axes and forthcoming orientations which resulted in the approval of a Vision Paper[3] that, in the framework of its 30th anniversary, provides a future vision for the Centre.
mark this anniversary, relying on the experience of personalities closely related to its work, the North-South Centre recalls its main achievements while reflecting on the vision in which its mission -– more relevant than ever - could be achieved more effectively in the challenging years to come.
[3] The Vision Paper is accessible at the North- South Centre 30th Anniversary webpage.
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