“Rights undermined by system” – Rights for Sustainability

http://rio20.iboninternational.org/archives/341

Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, June 20, 2012 — International advocacy platform Rights for Sustainability (R4S) warns that the latest version of the Rio+20 outcome document ultimately falls short on rights.

The text, to be agreed to by heads of state over the next two days, reaffirms key rights and Rio Principles which were under threat of omission or watering down in previous drafts if not for the widespread opposition of civil society and some governments.

However, R4S believes this is not something to celebrate as it merely recognizes what governments should have been implementing all along in accordance with existing international obligations.  And on some fronts, people’s rights are undermined in the text.

Azra Sayeed, R4S delegate, co-chair of the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty, and director of Pakistan-based Roots for Equity, said: “Rio+20 should be moving us forward not taking us backwards from 1992.

“It is unforgiveable that the sexual and reproductive rights of women are watered down to the issue of ‘access’ to health services.”

R4S delegate Jiten Yumnam of the Philippines-based Cordillera People’s Alliance said: “There remains no reference anywhere in this document to food sovereignty. For many indigenous peoples, this is a critical issue and more importantly a right.

“The people are left with a right to food, but not the ability to determine their own food or agriculture systems. Once again, the rights of people are second to the rights of business.”

Demba Moussa Dembele, R4S delegate and coordinator of the Forum for African Alternatives, in Senegal, said, “The battle to subject the private sector to greater regulation was lost. No block of states supported greater regulation of the private sector, and in fact Rio+20 appears determined to expand the role of corporations in the so-called green economy.”

“The fight to win rights supposedly entrenched 20 years ago has been won, but what is their worth against the backdrop of global inequity, corporatisation and the maintenance of a political-economic system that ensures it?”

R4S delegate and IBON International director Antonio Tujan Jr said: “The draft outcome document for Rio+20 might as well be an empty coffin in which to bury the promises of Rio from 20 years ago. It does nothing to correct the unsustainable mode of production, consumption and distribution that profits a tiny elite while destroying millions of lives, devastates the environment and endangers humanity’s future.

Tujan, one of three NGO representatives selected to take part in dialogues at Rio+20 between heads of state, NGOs and civil society, went on: “While developing countries deserve credit for maintaining unity and resisting the prescriptive green economy roadmap aggressively pushed by the developed countries, this corporate-driven agenda remains a growing threat to people and nature.

“It is now incumbent upon the heads of state who will gather in Rio in the next three days to own up to their responsibility to the people.” # Rights for Sustainability Delegation at Rio+20 Summit

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