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What happened at Rio+20

COA Admin June 23, 2012 0 Comments
A few important proposals, and what happened to them By Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler Most of us from the team spent yesterday recovering from a six hour-long action at the RioCentro that included a People’s Plenary and walkout. There is a lot to be said about that process of protest, catharsis, and democracy in its rawest form, but I’ll leave it to someone else. For some reason I’m...

United by Frustration

COA Admin June 23, 2012 1 Comment
By Nimisha Bastedo Throughout the entire Rio process, it seemed as though divisions within and between the different sectors of civil society were too wide to bridge. Attempts to create a major group common statement continued to fail. The most radical youth clashed with those who pushed for smaller ‘victories’ within the same old framework. Sofia Garcia, organizing partner (OP) for...

Rio plus zero

Nathan Thanki June 22, 2012 0 Comments
by nathan thanki For a "once in a generation" event, Rio+20 felt an awful lot like déjà-vu all over again. For those of us enough to enter the lion's den of global multilateralism at the UN, the fact that governments could have ended last week’s “third Preparatory Committee to the Conference on Sustainable Development” (the pre-game to the big...

[Closing Statement to Rio+20]

Nathan Thanki June 22, 2012 0 Comments
  The following is a a statement that was drafted by a group of people in the Major Group for Children and Youth. It was supposed to be delivered to the closing plenary of Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development tonight (Friday 22nd June 2012). The UN decided initially that ALL of civil society (represented by 9 Major Groups) would have 2 minutes total in which to addredd world...

The doughnut model of development

COA Admin June 22, 2012 0 Comments
by khristian méndez // Two words seem to be hanging with strings from the clouds over Rio de Janeiro these days, making their way into everyone's mouth: Sustainable Development. They are in there because they have been placed as the center concern for both Rio+20 and its alternative forum. Known as Cupula dos Povos or People's Summit, the counter part to Rio+20 is taking place next to the...