International

Statement on the United Nations

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Statement on the United Nations Conference  On Sustainable Development (Rio+20) 20 - 22 June 2012 , Brazil

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development will take place in Brazil on 20-22 June 2012 to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, in Rio de Janeiro, and the 10th anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg.

The Conference will focus on two themes: (a) a green economy in the context of sustainable development including poverty eradication; and (b) the institutional framework for sustainable development.

The first Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro and adopted an agenda for environment and development in the 21st Century and a program of action which recognizes each nation’s right to pursue social and economic progress and assigned to States the responsibility of adopting a model of sustainable development suitable to their status .

In 2002, ten years after the Rio Declaration, a follow-up conference, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was convened in Johannesburg to renew the global commitment to sustainable development. The conference agreed on the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) and further tasked the CSD to follow-up on the implementation of sustainable development.
The urgency of a deep changes in consumption and production patterns was expressly and broadly acknowledged by State leaders. Agenda 21 further reaffirmed that sustainable development was delimited by the integration of the economic, social and environmental pillars.

Twenty years after the first global environment conference, the UN sought to help Governments rethink economic development and find ways to halt the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources and pollution of the planet
Alternative sources of energy are being sought to replace the use of fossil fuels which are linked to global climate change. In addition there is much greater awareness of and concern over the growing scarcity of water.
Attempts made by some countries in tapping wind power and solar power have been successful. What is needed is to expand this process providing cheaper technology to developing countries.
Some developed countries believe that the green economy is a new important concept that can lead to changes in the ways economies are organized. Some countries in Europe wanted Rio to endorse a UN green economy roadmap with environmental goals and deadlines.

During the past four years , green economy provided 10 million jobs. Half of them in renewable energy and the other half on recycling and agriculture. This summit is considered a historical opportunity to create a more just , safety ,greener and less polluted world to the benefit of all. And it is also an opportunity to look for ways to combat poverty and environmental degradation.
Afro-Asian Peoples' solidarity Organization urges all the stakeholders to achieve green economy activities that is based on existing programs and a concrete framework for action at the regional and national levels. Also to identify new and emerging challenges affecting progress towards sustainable development in the world.

The Earth Summit influenced all subsequent UN conferences, which have examined the relationship between human rights, population, social development, women and human settlements — and the need for environmentally sustainable development. The World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in 1993, for example, underscored the right of people to a healthy environment and the right to development.

Therefore, the Afro- Asian Peoples' solidarity Organization hopes that the Summit will ensure that the business and corporate responsibilities is to respect human rights where they are working, and to prevent and mitigate the impact of acts negatively on the human rights and the environment, and provide compensation easier to obtain in the event of abuse. Also to re-emphasis the full participation of women is essential to achieve sustainable development.

Finally, AAPSO hopes that the conference will meet the needs of the developing countries which are concerned that "green economy" will replace " sustainable development". They have been reluctant to give high status to the green economy term, insisting it is one of several concepts and tools that could be used to achieve sustainable development, and that it should not be used as a new international policy framework. In addition we urge the developed countries to reaffirm the 1992 commitments to provide technology transfer to developing countries by using moderate means or mutually agreed terms which will not add high expenses among developing countries. In addition, AAPSO urges the developed countries to abide by the commitments of supporting the developing countries with financial aids as promised in previous conferences.