Rio+20 informals and prep-comms

Bottoms up

COA Admin March 22, 2012 0 Comments

by Ana Puhac After witnessing the process of negotiations on the Zero Order draft compilation document for only three days, disappointment in the spaces of the UN Headquarters is laughably apparent. Disappointment is not an unforeseen ingredient when dealing with the global political scene and UN. However, when it is implied in mordant remarks of Staffan Tillander, Ambassador for Rio+20 while...

Education for Sustainable Development and Shifting the Paradigms

aodell March 22, 2012 0 Comments

by Anna Odell One of the issues when dealing with “sustainable development” is the lack of clarity around the term itself. We have spent an entire term working, studying, and understanding text such as the “The Future We Really Want” in depth and grasping the general issues that are relevant for Rio+20. But at times, I feel as though we need to take a step back and look at what we expect...

The Green Economy Will Inspire All Nations with Positive Light?

jvelez March 22, 2012 0 Comments

By Julian Velez The EU again steps forward to propose the idea of a roadmap for the Green Economy. They are testing the waters, looking at the reactions of the different groups in order to come up with a proposal of how that roadmap should look like. Their position on how to implement this roadmap is quite visible. Their roadmap plan demonstrates their lack of inclusion of the developing world,...

The Complexities of a Human Rights-Based Approach

Lara Shirley March 22, 2012 0 Comments

by Lara Shirley 1. The demand for a human rights-based approach In various side-events and negotiations, the concept of a human rights-based approach has come up several times, especially with regard to indigenous peoples, food security, and water. This is essentially to ensure justice and effectiveness in the agreements that come out of these negotiations, and is particularly relevant within the...

Jean-Pierre Thebault and France/EU at Side Events

Bohdan Zymka March 21, 2012 0 Comments

By Bogdan Zymka (Drawing by Ana Puhac) Side events at the Informal-Informals in New York provide insight into what civil society is up to while the formal informal negotiations go on inside the ECOSOC conference room. Major Groups and NGOs are hosting discussions outside of the negotiations in order to open dialogue with civil society for input into the importance of their messages...