On
Sunday 24 June 2012, the Women’s Major Group (WMG), representing 200 civil
society women’s organizations from all around the world issued a
statement to express great disappointment with the results of the Rio+20
conference. Soroptimist
International is a member of the Women’s Major Group and an active participant
in the process of negotiation and lobbying of Governments via the WMG for the past
10 months, and in Rio de
Janeiro this past week.
Women’s Rights Roll Back
Two years of negotiations have
culminated in a Rio+20 outcome that makes little progress for women’s rights
and rights of future generations in sustainable development. In
particular, women worldwide are outraged that governments failed to recognize
women’s reproductive rights as a central aspect of gender equality and
sustainable development in the Rio+20 Outcome Document. Reproductive rights are recognized as human rights. The
linkage between sustainable development and reproductive rights was recognized
in Agenda 21 and subsequently in the 1994 International Conference on
Population and Development (ICPD) Program of Action.
The fact that the Rio +20 Conference
was not a bilateral process but a multilateral one, opened up room for debate
and renegotiation of long upheld rights. Consequently, women’s reproductive
rights agreed upon nearly 20 years ago were not reaffirmed in
the final outcome document. However, Governments reaffirmed the ICPD and the
Beijing Platform for Action as well as their subsequent review outcomes. As we
prepare for ICPD +20, Beijing + 20, the MDGs +15, the
post-2015 development agenda, the WMG has urged Governments worldwide to
reaffirm these commitments to gender equality, and in particular, sexual and
reproductive health and rights, so that all women and men, adolescents and
youth can live their lives to their fullest potential.
Women’s
organisations were disappointed that there were no strong commitments to women’s rights to land, property
and inheritance.Several heads of state also criticized
these grave omissions in the text, and the Prime Minister of Norway commented
that in the case of Norway, the share of GDP generated by women exceeds
national income from oil revenue.
No Right to a
Healthy Environment.
WMG
expressed alarm that there is no reference to radioactive pollution
and its devastating impact on our health and our environment, including rivers,
aquifers, food and air. The Rio+20 outcome document
failed to recognize the unacceptable risk of nuclear pollution and the high
cost of nuclear energy.
Another
serious concern is the lack of critical connection between climate change and
gender in the Outcome Document. Women, children,
indigenous peoples and the poor (the majority of whom are women) are the most heavily
impacted by increasingly dire consequences of climate change. Equally critical
is the huge potential contribution to climate mitigation and adaptation that
could be made by women, yet their essential role in leading and participating
in desperately needed climate solutions is not mentioned.
Halting Land-grabbing, Ensuring Women’s
Control and Access to Natural Resources.
In many countries of the world women
produce up to 80% of the food, cultivating lands that they do not own as well
as gathering food from forests to which they have no entitlements. The great push for resources to fuel unsustainable
development with minerals and biofuels has resulted in the mass eviction and
displacement of thousands of women from the lands they have cultivated, often over many generations.
Women’s
organisations have called for an immediate halt to land grabbing that
ultimately puts women’s food production in competition with biofuels,
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the giant agro-industrial
corporations.
Green Economy
or Green Washing?
Women’s
organisations are disappointed that the Rio+20 outcome document does not
clearly ensure free, prior and informed consent for all communities impacted by
“Green Economy” investments.
WMG has demanded “no-go zones” for mining, agro-fuel and
forestry companies. In order to ensure that
women, indigenous peoples and local communities have access and control over
water resources, WMG resisted calls to privatize water sources. Overall,
women’s organisations remain wary of how “green economy” will be implemented by
Governments and fear that this will be no more than “green washing” unless
there is legally binding implementation of the precautionary principle.
Financing Sustainable Development
The Rio+20 outcome document does not
give governments the urgently necessary framework to shift financial resources
away from unsustainable and inequitable energy systems to necessary investments
in decentralized renewable energy systems.
In the Global South, investments should be prioritized for access to safe and
clean energy in rural areas with a focus on women and household energy
consumption. The WMG expressed regret that there are no clear commitments
on this matter.
Women’s organisations are also very concerned about the increased focus on
private financing, and the decrease of public revenue for sustainable
development. WMG expressed regret that there is
no commitment for new financial mechanisms such as the Financial Transaction
Tax. The WMG has called for the elimination
of subsidies, including indirect subsidies that harm ecosystems and local
communities, within, for example, the nuclear and fossil fuel industries.
The good news is that Governments have
agreed to address illicit financial flows. It is hoped that the billions of
dollars that lie in tax havens will be regulated so that a portion of these
monies can contribute to sustainable development and poverty eradication.
New Intergovernmental Processes – Ensure Women’s
Voices are Heard
One
of the best outcomes of Rio+20 is the decision to establish two new
intergovernmental processes, one on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and
another on Financial Mechanisms. A committee of 33 experts will
be created for the SDG process. Women’s organisations have called for a seat
for a representative of civil society’s women’s organizations on the expert
panel for the SDGs. In addition, women’s organisations called on the Secretary
General to assure gender balance in the composition of the panel.
Rio+20 missed several golden
opportunities to establish stronger governance for sustainable development, in
particular the deletion of the proposed high commissioner for future
generations.
The WMG has concluded that “At Rio+20, governments had a historic chance to
take bold steps to end poverty and environmental destruction, to protect the
rights of the most vulnerable members of our societies, to take concrete
measures to fully implement women’s rights and women’s leadership. We now risk
increased poverty, inequities and irreversible environmental damage. This is
not the future we want, nor the future we need”.
Reported
by Anusha Santhirasthipam
International
Assistant Programme Director