by Uchita de Zoysa
The World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) that was held in Johannesburg from 26th August to 4th September ended as a historical failure. WSSD failed to achieve significant commitment to Sustainable Development goals as set in the agenda, it failed to obtain commitments from the developed nations, it failed to make specific financial commitment to the betterment of life on earth and failed to get support from heads of states, national governments and also civil society and other major groups. What is most sad is that WSSD failed the world.
The writer participated in the recently concluded World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg as a civil society representative invited by the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service. He was a Steering Committee Member of the International NGO Forum for the Earth Summit in Rio de Kaneiro in 1992 and presently is the Chairman of the Centre for Environment & Development based in Sri Lanka. A strong advocate of Sustainable Development and promoter for the creation of a Better World, Uchita shares his first hand experience of WSSD.
In the aftermath of the summit, this postmortem is done to make sure that certain aspects of the failure be recorded for historical purposes and also to make sure that the future directions of the world are corrected as fast as we can. It is widely believed that WSSD was the end to a series of World Summits since Rio Earth Summit in 1992. While UN officials were heard saying that this is the last UN summit at least for a long time to come, activists screamed out "No More Shameful Summits." Does this mean that no one believes anymore that spending a stupendous US$100 million on a global negotiation process is worthwhile? Well, certainly not the way WSSD was conducted.
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http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2002/09/15/fea09.html
Pl visit to read Article on:"Can a World Summit help achieve Global Sustainability? "by Uchita de Zoysa
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2002/06/02/fea09.html
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