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UPDATE June 2006
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Registration Deadline for the 59th Annual UN Department of Public Information/NGO Conference - 6-8 September 2006- has been extended to June 10. The title for this year’s conference is Unfinished Business:Effective Partnerships for Human Security and Sustainable Development. Please let Catherine know if you are interested in attending this session at fergcf@earthlink.net.
In addition to Thandiwe, two other UNANIMA International delegates shared their expertise in a panel entitled Children and HIV/AIDS – Good practices and challenges in comprehensive care in Africa: Diane Dalle Molle, MSC, and Linda Fuselier, SNJM. Reflections by Linda can also be found on the UNANIMA International web site. UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues- May 15-26. For two weeks, around 1,200 leaders of Indigenous communities gathered at the UN the 5th Session of the Forum and the first one of the second Decade on Indigenous Issues 2005-20015, a Decade for Action and Dignity. The main theme for this year’s session was Millennium Development Goals and Indigenous Peoples: redefining the Goals. The mere concept of development has a very different meaning for indigenous communities. To “initiate large-scale development initiatives like construction roads, oil pipelines, mining, etc.” causes suffering and the destruction of the resources needed for their survival. Hence, they proposed a Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which calls for the international community to recognize indigenous people's right to self determination and respect the principle of "prior, informed consent" with regard to development activities on aboriginal lands. While almost all governments have signaled their support for the Declaration, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand rejected the text, arguing that it violates individual property rights. The Declaration asserts indigenous peoples' collective rights to their lands and resources. They urged the UN Human Rights Council to ensure that indigenous issues will be an integral part of its mandate and the General Assembly to adopt the proposed Declaration during its next session. For more information: www.un.org/esa/socdev/PFII Commission on Sustainable Development-1 -12 May. Four made up the central themes for discussion during this session of the Commission: energy for sustainable development, industrial development, atmosphere and air pollution, and climate change. The issue of energy became the central theme. Positive views indicated that “The world is gradually shifting to cleaner forms of energy” acknowledging that “developed countries remain the world's largest industrial producers, but the centre of gravity has begun to shift towards the developing world. Developing countries account for roughly one-third of global manufactured exports, up from 18% in 1980”. Greenhouse emissions from the transport sector show a substantial growth, especially from international aviation which has grown twice as fast as overall emissions. Not much was proposed to reduce or save energy or to find means of giving access to electricity to more than 1.6 billion people in the world who lack it. The presence of the business and industry were very visible in these meetings and the main concern expressed by this sector was the need for reliable and clean energy for industrial and economic development. The use of nuclear energy was proposed although this is opposed strongly by many of the NGOs present. For more information: http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev Ursuline Sister Mary Louise Knott attended the entire CSD-14 session . Read the reflection by Mary Louise Knott, OSU. |
