The Ang Khang Declaration Apr 23 2008
A draft version of the symposium declaration was developed with the help of the organizers’ technical advisors. This was then finalized in a special closed session at Ang Khang. The text of the Ang Khang Declaration follows. The text may also be downloaded in Microsoft Word or plain text format.
We, the participants of the International Symposium on Sustainable Highland Development and Networking: Lessons Learned from the Royal Project (hereafter, “The Highland Symposium”), recognizing the achievement of the Royal Project in poverty elimination, opium replacement and environmental conservation, do hold and cherish the following values:
- That the dwellers of upland, highland and illicit drug-crop producing regions have the right to live free of poverty in its broad sense, meaning that they have the right to an acceptable standard of living, to receive respect for their cultural and social practices, to enjoy fair representation in political processes, to live free of all forms of discrimination, including but not limited to discrimination on the basis of gender or ethnicity, and to have options concerning the conduct of their lives and lifestyles
- That the production of illicit drug-crops has historically tended to be environmentally destructive, and, moreover, is socially destructive
- That the eradication of poverty and illicit drug-crop production cannot be achieved at the cost of unacceptable depletion of environmental resources, nor at the expense of an indefinite financial and organization commitment from development agencies and donor agencies
- That the control of illicit drug-crop production can and should take place within the framework provided by existing international treaties and law