A World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) will take place from August 26 to September 4, 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is expected that some 50,000 official delegates and members of non-governmental organizations will attend. The WSSD process essentially tries to put sustainability at the center of the development agenda and views development as economic, social and environmental.
VIVAT International actively participated on its own in the Second PrepCom for WSSD held at the UN, New York, from January 28 to February 8, 2002, as it was granted accreditation to do this and to be at all the future PrepComs and the Summit itself.
The main agenda item of PrepCom II was a comprehensive review of progress achieved in the implementation of Agenda 21 and other Rio outcomes. The three main documents presented at the start of the PrepCom were: the Secretary General’s report on Implementing Agenda 21, nine presentations on the results of intergovernmental meetings and processes, and results of regional PrepComs. The Secretary General’s report was grouped under three broad themes: combating poverty and promoting sustainable livelihoods; realizing sustainable consumption and production; and protecting the integrity of life-supporting ecosystems. Basically this PrepCom concentrated on listening rather than negotiating. There was a first for the NGOs in this PrepCom too. The NGO statement was published as an official document and distributed to the delegates. This was a forward step for the NGOs.
During the PrepCom, many countries noted that poverty eradication had been a major theme during most of the regional preparatory meetings. A heightened poverty-eradication consciousness clearly emerged in this process.
PrepCom II has brought out three main documents: 1. ‘Chairman’s Summary’ containing discussions on the review & assessment (including achievements, lessons learnt, constraints, etc), which took place during the first week of the session (for record/information). 2.‘Chairman’s Summary’ of the Multi-stakeholder dialog segment, which took place during the first week of the session (for record/information). 3. ‘Chairman’s Report’, outlining the proposals made by participants in regard to ‘time-bound measures’ and ‘global implementation initiatives’ which would require negotiations by all States.
The process that started with PrepCom II mainly aimed at producing two types of documents: Type 1 would be a political document, the third one mentioned above, that will form the basis of negotiations till the Johannesburg Summit. Type 2 documents were based on partnership negotiations between NGOs, governments and labor organizations.
Unlike in other Conference preparation processes, the Rio Conference practice of categorizing non-governmental representatives as NGOs and other major groups was continued in this process. Those nine groups were: women; children and youth; indigenous people, non-governmental organizations; local authorities; workers; business and industry; scientific and technological community; and farmers. However, at the end of the PrepCom some Government delegates as well as non-governmental representatives felt that there is a need to restructure the major groups on the basis of issues.
Some of the NGOs felt that though education is very important for sustainable development, it was not taken up as an issue in the agenda of the WSSD process. A sizable number of NGOs noticed the absence of an ethical dimension, considered as the link between globalization and sustainable development. NGOs in general appreciated the role of partnership in the whole process, though they warned that this should not obscure clear political commitments from the governments, especially from the North. If one reads the summary of ‘NGO press conference on Sustainable Development’, dated February 8, 2002, she/he would get an idea of how the NGOs in general evaluated the emerging agenda for the summit, Governments’ commitments, its political status, the role of partnerships and the increasingly central issues of corporate accountability and globalization.
On February 5, 2002 VIVAT International endorsed the ‘Earth Charter’, a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. The Earth Charter is an initiative of civil society through a group of concerned persons who have since 1987 responded to the call of the UN World Commission on Environment for a creation of a new charter that would set forth fundamental principles for sustainable development. The draft of the Earth Charter was part of the unfinished business of the 1992 RIO SUMMIT. Therefore, the Earth Charter is the product of a decade long, worldwide and cross-cultural endeavor, having been shaped by both experts and representatives of grassroots communities. (Full text: www.vivatinternational.org, under ‘sustainable development’). VI members and others are encouraged to download it and propagate participation in the Earth Charter initiative.
As mentioned in the earlier issue, VI members, especially the ones involved or having expertise in the issues of WSSD, are highly encouraged to send their reports and views to Lawrence Correa (larry@vivatinternational.org) for advocacy work at the UN and reporting in the VI Newsletter.
All documents mentioned in this report are available in the section ‘Sustainable Development’ in VI website (www.vivatinternational.org).