Commission on Sustainable Development

The UN World Summit on sustainable Development meets August 26 to September 9 in Johannesburg this year. WILPF US section is supporting this resolution in solidarity with our sisters in European WILPF who initiated this resolution. The resolution advocating inclusion of Peace, Gender Equity and Demilitarization on the agenda at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development and petition for Peace is a Prerequisite for Sustainable Development

CSD Web Sites:

http://www.un.org/esa/agenda21 - this web site contains information on the CSD work programmes, including the work of the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests, sustainable development indicators, reports and documents of the Commission.

http://www.unsystem.org/agenda21 - this web site contains country-and issue-specific information on sustainable development worldwide, based on national reports sent to CSD, with hyperlinks to relevant web sites throughout the United Nations System, the Secretariats of Conventions and official web sites of national Governments.

Earth Summit 1: The First World Conference on Enviroment and Development (UNCED) was held in Rio, Brazil in 1992. Despite a great deal of activism, the issue of militarism was not placed on the agenda of Rio + 5, despite the military being the largest source of toxic pollution on earth. 178 Governments agreed on three far-reaching plans: Agenda 21, a comprehensive strategy for global action on sustainable development; the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development which outlines the rights and responsibilities of Governments in this area; and a statement of principles to guide the sustainable development if forests world-wide.

Rio Declaration

Agenda 21

Statement of Principles on Forests

Earth Summit II: After the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was created to monitor progress of implementation of Agenda 21. he Commission on Sustainable Development consistently generates a high level of public interest. Over 50 ministers attend the CSD each year and more than one thousand non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are accredited to participate in the Commission's work. The Commission ensures the high visibility of sustainable development issues within the UN system and helps to improve the UN's coordination of environment and development activities. The CSD also encourages governments and international organizations to host workshops and conferences on different environmental and cross-sectoral issues. The results of these expert-level meetings enhance the work of CSD and help the Commission to work better with national governments and various non-governmental partners in promoting sustainable development worldwide.

The first 5-year review of the Rio Conference was held in June 1997: Outcome Document from Earth Summit II

The UN CSD has pioneered the concept of multi-stakeholder dialogues, based on the acknowledgement of the role stakeholders have in implementing the global agreements.

Earth Summit III: Rio+ 10, aconference to assess the implementation of the Rio conference will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, 2-11 September, 2002 iiii An enormous resouce for preparing for this conference can be found here.

Gender Perspectives for Earth Summit 3 - summary of a panel event held in March 2001

Click here for the NGO Women's Caucus at the Commission for Sustainable Development

Click here for a paper on Gender Equity and Sustainable Development.

Click here for the excellent Stakeholder Toolkit for Women