Civil society Rio+20 declaration promotes universal reproductive health for sustainability

9 September 2011

Source: UN-NGLS & PSN

A civil society declaration for Rio+20 was adopted this week, highlighting the significance of population dynamics to sustainable development and calling for increased efforts to ensure universal reproductive health.

UN DPI/NGO Conference

From 3-5 September, over 1,500 participants from civil society, international organisations, governments and other actors gathered in Bonn, Germany, for the 64th Annual United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI)/NGOs Conference to develop proposals to influence the upcoming negotiations on the agenda of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) to take place in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Conference's various plenary sessions, roundtables and workshops covered a broad spectrum of issues related to Rio+20. This included ensuring that the "green economy" theme for Rio+20 does not become a "greenwash" for business as usual, but is instead grounded in a truly transformational agenda that not only stops and reverses environmental degradation, but also reduces inequalities, creates decent employment opportunities for all, and restores the social and economic fabric of local communities and societies.

Outcome proposals to inform upcoming negotiations

Under the responsibility of the Chair of the Conference, Felix Dodds from Stakeholder Forum, a drafting committee composed of civil society representatives from North and South, gathered a very wide gamut of inputs from NGO participants. These were consolidated into a declaration adopted by the conference delegates, to be formally presented to the President of the General Assembly by the German government. The content of the Declaration will also be submitted as input to the "zero draft" outcome document for Rio+20.

Under the  conference theme Sustainable Societies - Responsive Citizens, the declaration takes stock of the alarming state of the global environment, poverty and inequalities worldwide, and expresses its disappointment with the widely perceived failure of governments to live up to the commitments taken at the 1992 Rio Conference.

To change course, it makes a series of recommendations around the two themes of Rio+20:

• Green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication; and
• Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development.
  

The declaration then addresses other issues to be considered, and proposes a collection of "Sustainable Development Goals" to be adopted at Rio+20.

Links between population, sustainability and reproductive health

The declaration adopted at the conference calls for a holistic and integrated approach to sustainable development that fully acknowledges "the interrelationships between population, resources the environment and development". In response to these connections the document calls on States to promote a range of appropriate policies, including those relating to population, in order to meet the needs of current and future generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Advocating the use of population data and projections and data to anticipate and plan for population dynamics, the document recommends that;

"Recognizing human rights and freedoms, governments should enlarge individual choices and opportunities by ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health and family planning, empowerment of women, and investment in education, particularly of disadvantaged children and youth, and girls and women".

To help achieve these aims the declaration reaffirms the importance of attaining the goals set at the International Conference on Population and Development and the UN Millennium Development Goals.

The importance of sustainable lifestyles is another strong message emerging from the statement, which calls for the elimination of the wealth inequalities and unsustainable consumption and production patterns which contribute to both environmental degradation and poverty.

Draft Sustainable Development Goals for Rio+20

The Declaration outlines a range of ambitious, time-bound "Draft Sustainable Development Goals" to be adopted at Rio+20. This first set of suggestions is in response to a recent proposal by the government of Columbia, backed by Guatemala, to include Sustainable Development Goals on the Rio+20 agenda. According to the NGO Declaration, these goals would be framed in accordance with human rights, and principles of common but differentiated responsibilities, and respective capabilities.

Within different target dates for implementation, the goals cover the following areas:

• Sustainable Consumption and Production
• Sustainable Livelihoods, Youth and Education
• Climate Sustainability
• Clean Energy
• Biodiversity
• Water
• Healthy Seas and Oceans (Blue Economy)
• Healthy Forests
• Sustainable Agriculture
• Green Cities
• Subsidies and Investment
• New Indicators of Progress
• Access to Information
• Public Participation
• Access to Redress and Remedy
• Environmental Justice for the Poor and Marginalized
• Basic Health
  

The final sustainable development goal, on basic health, includes ensuring universal access the health care and services, and specifies that wherever feasible, these services should be provided free to women and children, including sexual and reproductive health services. The declaration also acknowledges the role that access to health care services can play in strengthening resilience to climate change and environmental degradation.

Further information

Further background information about the UN DPI NGO conference and declaration is available from the UN Non-Governmental liaison service website.

To read about PSN's work to influence the Rio+20 agenda, we submitted a response to a parliamentary inquiry, calling on the UK government to ensure that population issues are have also been working alongside the UNFPA and other NGOs in preparation for the summit.

This article credits a UN-NGLs article, sections of which have been reproduced by PSN with additional commentary from PSN.