Five leading civil society international networks urged the European Union (EU) head of State and Government to “demonstrate a commitment” to ensure at Rio2012 “that policies and practices pursued” within and outside the bloc “are consistent with the principles of sustainable development”.

Photo: ANND

“The popular mobilization” in the Arab world “would not calm whatever the difficulties were until the achievement of the desired goals,” said Ziad Abdel Samad, Executive Director ofhe Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), after its most recent General Assembly, held on 29-30 May in Beirut.

by Roberto Bissio

Twenty years ago, the concept of “sustainable development” was adopted at the highest level in Rio de Janeiro to simultaneously aim at preserving the planet for future generations and promoting a sound development to meet the needs of the present ones. Twenty years after, the volume of international trade has multiplied by five and the per capita world income has doubled to around ten thousand dollars a year. And yet sustainable development is far from being achieved. Increased resources has not accelerated poverty reduction and instead social inequality is on the rise in most countries, North and South, while the unsustainable production and consumption patterns have already overstepped several “planetary boundaries.”

Photo: Chad Magiera/Flickr/CC

The international community must find new indicators to measure the performance of the countries and the world on economy, equity, well-being, human rights and sustainability, suggests the Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectives, made up of 18 leading activists and scholars from all over the planet.

“Human rights considerations have no place” in the discussions of the Group of 20 (G20), “nevertheless their actions have significant impacts on the realization and enjoyment of human rights,” and the members of the bloc “cannot disregard their human rights obligations in any forum, including multilateral economic institutions,” warned the initiative "A bottom up approach to righting financial regulation" in its fourth issue.