Draft NGO Dialogue Paper

Explanatory Note:

This draft NGO paper seeks to highlight some key issues and demands that cut across sectoral issues. These have emerged from the NGO inputs and consultations in the preparation for PrepCom II, the multi-stakeholder dialogue and numerous NGO discussions at PrepCom II, as well as preliminary inputs since PrepCom II.

The next MSD will be at PrepCom IV in Bali (27 May - 7 June) and the WSSD Secretariat has requested a short NGO paper by April 12. Our proposal therefore is to work with this draft NGO paper. Consultations with NGOs will be held at PrepCom 3, and on the Internet. Any imporant developments at PrepCom III need to be incorporated into the draft before the deadline. NGOs can continue to debate and modify this paper until the MSD at PrepCom IV, but for process reasons we must turn in a 'final' draft of this paper to the UN WSSD Secretariat by April 12.

Various NGO caucuses, task forces and working groups are working on specific issues and demands. Others are tracking the Chairman's Paper and preparing responses accordingly, drawing on the work of issues groups and those addressing cross-cutting issues (consumption and production patterns; technology; finance; trade; capacity-building; governance; etc). All these will feed into the collective NGO lobby activities towards and at Johannesburg.

The WSSD Chairman's paper for PrepCom III has nine substantive sections (see www.johannesburgsummit.org for the full text). The topic on Governance will be discussed at PrepCom III, and a Discussion Paper has been prepared by the two Vice-chairs of the WSSD responsible for this topic. This, and a number of other papers (including one from the WTO Secretariat), are also available on the WSSD website.

This paper is a very prelminary first draft, drafted by Third World Network and building on input from the Danish 92-Group and Environment Liason Centre International (ELCI). We look forward to reading your comments.

Yours sincerely,

Chee Yoke Ling, Third World Network, www.twnside.org.sg
Barbara Gemmil, Environment Liaison Centre International, www.elci.org
Torleif Jonasson, The Danish '92 Group, www.92grp.dk and www.rio10.dk

Introduction

The 1990s was the decade for historic UN Summits and treaties that sought to integrate environment, social and economic dimensions of development under the rubric of 'sustainable development'. The obligation to make a paradigm shift from business-as-usual was to be guided by the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. There was hope that the environmental crisis and vast socio-economic inequalities within and between nations would galvanise political will beyond rhetoric to legal commitments and action. Citizens groups, women's organisations, indigenous peoples and local communities also committed themselves to this goal.

Ten years later, governments and political leaders prepare to reconvene in open admission that there is a 'crisis of implementation'. Commitments at Rio and afterwards remain largely on paper. The ecological crisis is deepening, the global economic system is more uneven and already display  structural flaws, corporate scandals are increasing, while social injustices abound.  Political will, especially from industrialised countries, for sustainable development is absent. North-South cooperation is weak. The current trend of increasing militarism and threats to engage in nuclear warfare makes the sustainability agenda even more elusive.

The WSSD Chairman's Paper from PrepCom II contains at least 185 distinct calls for actions. These appear to be unmanageable on the one hand. On the other hand, they represent only a fraction of the total political and legal commitments that were excruciatingly negotiated over the past 10 years. Even then, most of the demands are couched in soft language - 'urging, promoting, encouraging' - when many of them are in fact clear commitments under legally binding treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Convention to Combat desertification. This is not enough. The paper also lacks an overall conceptual framework and context for sustainable development. With growing disillusionment over globalisation as the panacea for poverty, even at the governmental level, the WSSD must boldly move forward with the sustainable development paradigm.

We therefore call for the following outcomes of the WSSD:

Governments must not backtrack, dilute or re-write commitments as has been happening in many cases since 1992. The Millenium Declaration with specific targets, focusing on poverty reduction, provides a building block.

To reclaim and implement the sustainable development agenda, the WSSD has to launch work on the Governance for Sustainable Development, especially at the global level. This includes the building or strengthening of institutions at all levels to counter negative globalisation. WSSD needs to reverse negative trends from the Doha ministerial decisions and work programme of the WTO, and bridge the gaps in the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development, including reform of the international financial architecture.

A number of countries have supported the idea of a 'Global Deal'. Any such pact must be  between governments at the highest level, and not a tripartite agreement between government, industry and civil society.

Collaboration, cooperation or 'partnerships' can add to inter-governmental agreements, dedicated to sustainable development, but not pre-empt the role and responsibilities of the State.

1. Renew the North-South partnership and Vision that began at Rio

A Vision, based on the positive and forward-looking results from Rio (the environment-development link; the North-South partnership; the government - non-government dialogue; equity in and between countries and generations; expanding rights of community and people). Content/themes of this vision should include or build upon:

The realisation of many of the changes called by NGOs require sincere political commitment to global well being, and not just to the furtherance of the short-term economic goals of a few nations, or transnational corporations, or elites within a country. They need strong political leadership, particularly from industrialised countries, but also from Southern leaders. They will also need strong alliances with civil society. We hope that governments participating in the WSSD will show the strength, vision and commitment necessary to bring about these changes.

2. Governing Globalisation

The phenomenon and institutionalisation of globalisation dominate global, national and local spheres of life, while sustainable development remains an elusive goal. The United Nations itself, the institutional home of sustainable development that was expected to bring along the financial and trade arms of the global system, has been weakened. The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities has lost out to economic competition and the survival of the strongest.

We call upon the governments of the world to establish a fair and equitable framework for an integrated approach to global governance of sustainable development, based on the principles of democracy, equity and social justice; and on a clearly defined set of rights - not governance improvised to benefit corporations by freeing markets.

With reference to environmental governance we call for the establishment of institutional mechanisms at the global, national and local levels to ensure that all human beings have:

The rights of local communities and indigenous peoples to natural resources are also paramount.

Any such global governance framework will also need to establish democratic mechanisms to ensure compliance with global environmental rules, which are applicable to rich and poor nations alike, in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

The current tools of trade and aid are available only for the rich nations to use against the poor. Global rules and governance in trade and finance (not just aid, but also the global financial system and architecture) must thus be reformed or changed to meet the goal of sustainable development.

Frameworks have to be established and enforced to combat corruption at all levels.

3. Corporate Accountability

Rio paved the way for business as a 'partner in sustainable development' and the 1990s saw continuing deregulation and the supremacy of market forces in the policies and laws of almost all countries. This has increased concentration of wealth, power and undue influence in a small part of the world's business community, to the detriment of sustainable development and human rights.

As political and financial support from major developed countries for the UN system falls, moves have grown to embrace the private sector, especially transnational corporations as deliverers of sustainable development. However, global rules that have been shaped to turn natural resources and people into commodities and markets are resulting in major problems. From global warming to the financial crisis that hit Asia and now Argentina, the tip of the corporate scandals that is represented by Enron and Arthur Anderson - these and more are urgent signals for a reaffirmation of the sustainable development agenda and fundamental changes in governance at all levels.

The WSSD must endorse Corporate Accountability and Regulation. A legally binding framework/convention for corporate accountability and liability under the UN, with independent mechanisms for monitoring progress and enforcement, is needed. These should be determined in an open and transparent manner. Meanwhile, WSSD must decide to fundamentally review and reform the UN Global Compact to ensure transparency and accountability.

4. Stakeholders and Partnerships

There is a proliferation of the concept of 'stakeholders' evolving from the Agenda 21 characterisation of Major Groups. Multi-stakeholder processes, following the MS Dialogues initiated by the CSD, can be valuable but the term 'stakeholder' undermines those in society, especially communities and individuals, who are struggling for their rights. It also implies equality when the reality is the reverse.

The official WSSD process is now strongly promoting the notion of 'partnerships' in the face of the failure of governments to turn commitments to action. While collaboration and cooperation among different parts of society among themselves, and also with governments are not new, and have often produced positive results, the current emphasis is on private-public sector partnerships, especially involving transnational corporations.  The reality is that corporations are a major part of the problem: corporate accountability and regulation are needed, not the further expansion of corporate rights. Communities and citizens have rights that must be recognised and expanded as they are at the much weaker end of the scale of power relations. Thus, while the CSD and other international processes have increased civil society participation to some extent, there is a false assumption that society, compartmentalised into Major Groups and stakeholders, can sit at roundtables to reach consensus. Often, the interests of industry and communities (and their organisations) are diametrically opposed. Mechanisms are needed to deal with such conflicts, not diffuse or sideline them. Accordingly, governments have their due role to play.

WSSD must reaffirm the role and responsibility of governments to fulfil their obligations to implement sustainable development by acting on government commitments under the UN Summit Action Plans and multilateral environmental agreements. Governments have to be responsible to provide transparent and accountable frameworks for partnerships.

Such frameworks must extend to the global level as many UN agencies are already engaged in partnerships with transnational corporations. A review of such partnerships, as well as the UN Global Compact is needed.

5. Access to Information, Participation and Justice

The WSSD must adopt a rights-based approach to implement Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration: access to information, right to participate in planning and implementation of sustainable development, transparency, freedom of expression and association, justice. The Aarhus Convention is a significant achievement and should be implemented at the national level, while other countries and regions should move towards similar initiatives.

The multi-stakeholder approach, while positive in some ways, cannot substitute the rights approach to citizens' effective participation in decision-making at all levels. Any effective participatory process should take into account, inter alia: diversity of interests; capacity-building needed for public access to information and participation; timely access to information held by both governments and corporations; empowerment of the marginalized; transparency and accountability.

6. Institutions for sustainable development

UNEP should remain the primary global environmental body, operating within the framework of sustainable development. Other UN agencies and bodies that deal with social and economic dimensions should be strengthened and their policies directed towards sustainable development. The CSD can and should be the over-arching body to ensure integration of the 3 pillars of sustainable development at the policy and monitoring level. The CSD should thus be strengthened by making it more independent, with increased resources.

The WSSD has to initiate the reform, building or strengthening of institutions at all levels to counter negative globalisation. WSSD needs to redress the imbalances and reform the agreements of the WTO, as well as re-orientate the multilateral trade system (especially the WTO) towards sustainable development. Initiatives should also be started to bridge the gaps in the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development, including reform of the international financial architecture.

7. The role of States

Globalisation carries the risk of privatising the role of the State, a trend that is already happening. The strengthening of local and national governments; The importance of balance between the local and the international; Balanced Decentralisation; Good Governance at all levels; Combat corruption at all levels. Reverse negative globalisation trend where the shift of policy and law making to the global level undermines national options for sustainable development and violates human rights.  

8. Ratify Conventions, Integrate and Implement UN Summit decisions

We call on developed country governments to show commitment and support the multilateral environment conventions that have been concluded since 1992, and call on developing country governments to implement their commitments.

[Note: In this section, we will highlight the status of ratification of the conventions that have been negotiated since 1992]