The first conference was held on the 17–19 December 2002, at the Conrad Hotel on the banks of the Nile. Four hundred attended. Speakers included former United Nations (UN) humanitarian coordinator for Iraq Dr Hans von Sponeck. Former Algerian president Ahmed Ben Bella chaired the conference. One outcome of the conference was the production of the 'Cairo Declaration', which took a stance against the then-looming Iraq War; it also noted the negative effects of capitalist globalisation and U.S. hegemony on the peoples of the world (including European and American citizens). In addition, it noted that "In the absence of democracy, and with widespread corruption and oppression constituting significant obstacles along the path of the Arab peoples' movement towards economic, social, and intellectual progress, adverse consequences are further aggravated within the framework of the existing world order of neoliberal globalisation", while firmly rejecting the 'advance of democracy' justification for attacking Iraq.