Beyond WSSD+5

Go to www.geneva2000.org

World Summit for Social Development and Beyond:
Achieving Social Development for All in a Globalizing World

 

This page will trace the follow-up activities beyond Copenhagen+5 around the world

Upcoming issues*

*Visit the Stakeholder Toolkit for Women for documents from the cycle of UN Summits 
and Conferences held in the 1990s and their follow-up processes. 
Although these are separate processes, they are closely linked and overlapping.
It is important not to think in the "compartments" of the processes but look across the board. 

 

Stakeholders' views and follow-up activities
Socialwatch

http://www.socialwatch.org

  • Comparison Chart between the Benchmark document and the Geneva Summit outcome document

  • A preliminary report on the WSSD+5 conference by Ma. Victoria R. Raquiza

  • Section on NGO Hearings Week on Financing for Development, November 5-9 2000

 

Coalition for Global Solidarity and Social Development
www.globalsolidarity.npaid.org
a nucleus of a global movement working to link together groups and organisations from around the world working with and involved in the World Summit for Social Development+5 in Geneva 2000, or dealing with issues related to the 10 Commitments.
The aim is to promote grass-roots participation and involvement in the Social Summit, and to strengthen global solidarity, cooperation, and coordination.
Global Solidarity mailings are distributed to more than 87,000 people in 97 countries world-wide. The aim of this list-serve is to provide top-quality information and up-dates on issues related to globalisation, to link together organisations and individuals in the North and South involved in addressing issues of peacebuilding, development, human rights,
democracy, gender, debt, and other related issues, and to provide quality analysis and information on grass-roots initiatives and NGO, Government, and United Nations activities in these fields.
Generally, the Coalition will only send one mailing a week. Articles by such authors as Sonja Soto, Alejandro Bendana, Susan George, Yash Tandon, Johan Galtung, Noam Chomsky, Vandana Shiva, Ignacio Ramonet, and many, many others, are regularly sent out on the mailing-list and posted on the web-site.

 

ICFTU  http://www.icftu.org/focus.asp?Issue=ohse&Language=EN
activities on Health, Safety & Environment
Together with the employers, unions are breaking new ground in collective bargaining in the areas of health, safety and environmental protection, and forging new alliances with environmental NGOs. Governments at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) have proposed that core labour standards and a link to health and safety should become key features of Agenda 21, adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The next step is to insist that governments, together with employers, trade unions and NGO's translate these principles into concrete programmes of work.

 

CIDSE

http://www.cidse.org/pubs/prspbcon.htm

  • Background Paper on Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers

  • NGO Sign on Letter to EC commissioner Lamy on TRiPS (8 Sept 2000)

Jubilee 2000 Coalition http://www.jubilee2000uk.org/main.html
NGO coalition campaigning for:
• cancellation of the unpayable debt
• of the world's poorest countries
• by the year 2000
• under a fair and transparent process

 

Upcoming issues

 
UN CSD Secretariat

www.un.org/rio+10.htm
The Rio+10 review process will require significant personal involvement and commitment by thousands of people worldwide if it is to be useful, relevant  and comprehensive. The CSD Secretariat would like to hear from you about your work in promoting sustainable development in preparation for Rio +10. It will be printing regular reports in CSD UPDATE about the conference planning process and gatherings as they occur, and will post news continually on their website.
CSD Update August 2000 Special Update

For comments and inquiries, please contact:
Ms. Zehra Aydin-Sipos
Major Groups Focal Point
UN/DSD/DESA
Two U. N. Plaza, DC2-2262
New York, N. Y. 10017
U. S. A.
Tel:  (212) 963-8811
Fax:  (212) 963-1267
Email:  aydin@un.org 

 

UNED Forum Article on Preparations for CSD-9 by Felix Dodds

 

UNED Forum

Earth Summit 2002 - Building Partnerships for Sustainable Development

"Towards Earth Summit 2002" is UNED's multi-stakeholder project in preparation for Earth Summit 2002 - ten years after Rio. 

http://www.earthsummit2002.org
Central information resource for the Earth Summit 2002 project. The site features a range of online components designed to bring together the international community working on sustainable development issues, focusing efforts in preparation for 2002.
Visit this website for 

  • Network 2002 Newsletter, produced monthly in the lead up to the Summit, tracking the agenda and presenting the views and positions of all stakeholders, offering a centralised forum for joined-up thinking.
  • Briefing Papers addressing a range of major issues likely to be addressed at the Summit, targeted at key stakeholder groups. They facilitate a cross-sectoral approach, taking into account the two overarching themes of poverty elimination and sustainable production and consumption. Available at the moment:
    * Freshwater: A Global Crisis of Water Security and Basic Water Provision
    * Foreign Direct Investment: A Lead Driver For Sustainable Development
    * AIDS: The Undeclared War
  • Document Downloads produced by the UN (and others)
  • National Sustainable Development Strategies and National Reports linked to the site to allow monitoring of implementations and progress achieved
UNED Forum

Roadmap to 2002 

http://www.earthsummit2002.org/roadmap/
year by year representation of how the international agenda for sustainable development is progressing, provided under one common web-orientated forum. A tool designed to assist your participation and tracking of Sustainable Development issues, and preparations for work taking place on an international level. To provide a framework for this process, there are executive summaries on the major conferences and UN agencies in the Focus pages.

 

UN Financing for Development

www.un.org/esa/ffd/index.html
Homepage

Report by Secretary General, 31 July, 2000

Advanced unedited version of Financing for Development

UK Department for International Development

http://www.devinit.org/findev/index.htm
A Finance and Development Research Program to identify effective financial sector policies for promoting poverty-reducing economic growth in low income countries. Development Initiatives/England.

Institute for Development Policy and Management

http://www.devinit.org/findev/institutes.htm
FfD Research Program of the University of Manchester.

 

Institute of Development Studies

http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/global
The international Globalisation team (UK, Brazil, South Africa, Botswana, Germany) undertakes research work e.g. in the fields of financial architecture or the global trading system and trade policy.

Publication of the Globalization Challenge Initiative http://www.globalarchitects.org/News___Notices_/news___notices_.html
News and notices for IMF and World Bank watchers. This quarterly publication provides timely and in-depth analysis of the organizational structure, the policies and the lending operations of the IMF and the World Bank. News and Notices demystifies the role of the two institutions in the globalization process. In addition to critical analysis, News and Notices offers concrete proposals for changing the IMF and the World Bank and ensuring greater accountability, transparency, and citizen participation.
World Trade Net

Guide to World Trading System. Intended to help firms to better understand how the multilateral trade system works and how it affects the business of export and import.

Asian Development Bank

Asian Development Outlook 2000. Looks at the social challenge facing developing Asia as it enters the new millennium: improving the quality of life of the hundreds of  millions who still live in abject poverty.

Third World Network

Globalization and The South: some critical issues, by Martin Khor. UNCTAD discussion paper No. 147, April 2000. Examines the implications of some of the main features of the globalization process for developing countries.

Socialwatch

U.N. Event on Financing for Development, by Sophia Murphy, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, September 2000.

Study of the South Center

Financing Development: Issues for a South Agenda,
tackles FfD key issues from the angle of the South.

Harvard University, Cambridge

Financing for Development: current trends and issues for the future, paper prepared by Kwesi Botchwey. UNCTAD X - High-level Round Table on Trade and Development: Directions for the Twenty-first Century

*material adapted from the SocialWatch website

 

Background
The World Social Forum will be a new international arena for the creation and exchange of social and economic projects that promote human rights, social justice and sustainable development. It will take place every year in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, during the same period as the World Economic Forum, which happens in Davos, Switzerland, at the end of January.  Since 1971, The World Economic Forum has played a key role in formulating economic policies throughout the world. It's sponsored by a Swiss organization that serves as a consultant to the United Nations and it's financed by more than one thousand corporations. The World Social Forum will provide a space for building economic alternatives, for exchanging experiences and for strengthening South- North alliances between NGOs, unions and social movements. It will also be an opportunity for developing concrete projects, to educate the public, and to mobilize civil society internationally. The World Social Forum developed as a consequence of a growing international movement that advocates for greater participation of civil societies in international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). For decades, these institutions have been making decisions that affect the lives of people all over the world, without a clear system for accountability and democratic participation.

Brazil is one of the countries that have been greatly affected by global economic policies. At the same time, different sectors of Brazilian society are creating economic alternatives in rural and urban areas, in shantytowns, factories, churches, schools, etc. The richness of Brazilian grassroots organizations represents a source of inspiration for the development of the World Social Forum.  The Brazilian Organizing Committee is building alliances with organizations in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe to develop the World Social Forum. This will be a broad coalition of organizations working on issues such as human rights, sustainable development, education, and environmental protection.  The World Social Forum will discuss topics such as:

- Building economic policies that promote human development;

- creating international strategies for grassroots organizing;

- building proposals to democratize international institutions, such as the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank.

- the influence of multinational corporations in local communities;

- creating sustainable development proposals to eradicate poverty and hunger, and to protect the environment;

- organizing against gender and racial discrimination;

- the protection and preservation of indigenous land and culture.

 

Organizational Issues Regarding the World Social Forum
1) The World Social Forum (WSF) will take place in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, between January 25-30, 2001, the same period in which the World Economic Forum occurs in Davos, Switzerland.

2) It will take place in the Events Center of the Catholic University of Porto Alegre (Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Porto Alegre, PUC), with the capacity for 2,500 people in a single auditorium. The PUC Events Center is a modern facility with up-to-date technological resources. The Center also has several smaller auditoriums.

3) The WSF will consist of three types of activities:
a) A series of daily plenary sessions with several invited speakers;
b) presentations of current initiatives and exchange of experiences;
c) meetings to develop networks and to strengthen ties among groups
that engage in similar forms of organization. 
The plenary sessions will be scheduled by the organizers of the WSF in accordance with suggestions by participants. The other meetings will be organized based on the interests and requests of the participants.

To get involved or to receive further information, please write to:
Email: fsm2001@uol.com.br
http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br or www.worldsocialforum.org

*taken and adapted from the Global Solidarity Special Newsletter
Coalition for Global Solidarity and Social Development

 

 

 

 

 

Go to http://www.unhchr.ch/html/racism/index.htm for general Information on racism and racial discrimination,  access to data on the preparatory committees, seminars, agendas for upcoming events etc., press releases and statements relevant to the World Conference. New documents are added as soon as they are available.

Contact: 
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

World Conference Secretariat
United Nations
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Tel: (41-22) 917-9290
Fax: (41-22) 917-9022
E-mail: husbands@un.org or
E-mail: rhusbands.hchr@unog.ch

 

 

 

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