Items tagged ‘Commissions 2010’
Reflections on CSD-18
Five of the members of the UNANIMA International delegation to the United Nations 18th session of the Commission on Sustainable prepared reflections on the themes discussed at this meeting held in New York in May 2010. Download the articles.
Commission on Sustainable Development
Be on the lookout for a supplement to our regular updates which deals only with this commission which occurred in the first two weeks of May 2010. Each UNANIMA delegate to the commission prepared an article to discuss her experiences more in depth. Just to whet your appetite, these are several of the topics you can look forward to hearing more about:
- JoAnn Showalter: Degradation caused by mining in Peru
- Claudette Bastien: The presence of toxic products
- Phyllis Douillard: Chemicals in textiles
- Sally Duffy: Towards sustainable production and consumption: A 21st century society in the making
CSD-18
18th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development
3-14 May 2010
UNANIMA International is actively preparing its participation in this commission which focuses on the issues of mining, chemicals, transport, waste management and sustainable patterns of consumption and production.
On May 4, from 6:15-7:45 pm we will present an educational event “Land Yes! Dams No! – Building Cycles of Mobilisation”. The event focuses on two cases of efforts to build dams to benefit mining industries. One took place in Guatemala and resulted in a massacre of an indigenous community. Mary Corbett, CND, will share the story and also explain how accompaniment of the remnant from the community enabled their story to have an impact in the fight for human rights of indigenous peoples throughout the world. The second case is taking place in the countryside outside of Sao Paulo, Brazil and the community there is still successfully resisting the building of a dam which will destroy their livelihoods for the benefit of an aluminium mine. The third element of the cycle will be presented by an environmental lawyer who will explain how international laws, treaties and conventions can be used as instruments to defend the rights of those whose lands and livelihoods are being threatened.
UNANIMA is also involved in organizing a second educational event “Mining in Peru, Indonesia, Philippines and Bolivia: Calling for Free, Prior and Informed Consent.” Mary Corbett, a member of the NGO working group on mining has also been working on this event.
We will have a delegation of ten persons from Canada and the United States participating in this session. We have prepared and will present an educational flyer for our nascent water campaign. The flyer emphasizes that “Access to life-giving water is an essential right for all life forms and the foundation for sustainable development in transport, chemicals, waste management, mining, and patterns of consumption and production.” Download the flyer.
For further information
For further information on the outcomes of the Commission on Social Development in February and the Commission on the Status of Women in March.
Summary of CSW 54
The outcomes of CSW 54 are now available on the Division for the Advancement of Women website.
The 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women
The 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women: 1-12 March 2010
UNANIMA International’s delegation of ten participants will commemorate the 15th anniversary of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women and the Beijing Platform for Action by joining more than 7,000 registered NGO members at the commission.
The 48th Session of the Commission for Social Development
The 48th session of the Commission for Social Development finished its deliberations on 19 February in an extended session which allowed them to reach consensus on four resolutions to be passed on to the General Assembly: on social integration, on the Madrid Plan of Action on Aging, on the New Economic Programme for Africa (NEPAD), and mainstreaming disability in the development agenda. This is the first time since the 1995 World Summit on Social Development that the commission has passed a resolution relating to social integration and it comes at a time of strong forces working for exclusion of peoples.
The NGO committee of which UNANIMA is a member made an important contribution to the deliberations through a survey taken from members around the world on good practices promoting social integration and inclusion. Louise Cleary was part of a small committee responsible for the collation and publication of this report. For survey and the results.
The outcomes of CSocD 48 can be found Division for Social Affairs website.
Upcoming Commissions
- The 48th Session of the Commission on Social Development begins for NGOs on 2 February 2010, with a civil society forum where NGOs will be briefed on the commission’s theme of social integration and finalize a civil society declaration to be delivered the first day of the commission. Louise Cleary worked with the collation of an NGO survey on good practices of social integration. The executive summary of this survey has been printed and will be distributed to the governments at the commission.Coalition Coordinator, Catherine Ferguson, will be one of the persons assisting with NGO orientation on the first day of the commission and will be speaking on a panel on 10 February to discuss how NGO grassroots projects have been affected by the global economic crisis.
- The54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place from 1–12 March 2010. Because the UNANIMA International board meeting occurs from 4-6 March many of the board members will also participate in part of the commission meetings. UNANIMA International is the lead sponsor of a panel discussion entitled “If there is no demand there would be no supply.” Catherine will be one of the speakers and will discuss UNANIMA’s STOP THE DEMAND campaign.
Commission on Social Development
From 2-12 February the 48th Session of the UN Commission on Social Development will take place in new York. As part of their lobbying efforts for the commission, Louise for UNANIMA International and representatives of three other NGOs collate and prepared for publication a grass roots study on social integration. Once this is available we will post it on our UNANIMA web site.
