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Civil Society Leaders Outline ‘The Rio+20 We Don’t Want’

June 28, 2012

Amid continuing criticism against the outline agreement that came out of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development last week in Rio de Janeiro, a group of civil society leaders have signed on to a statement titled “The Rio+20 We Don’t Want” addressed to the UN and the government delegates at Rio+20.

Among the leaders signed on to this statement are Goldman Prize winners Marina Silva (1996) and Beto Ricardo (1992), as well as Prize jury member and WWF International President Yolanda Kakabadse.

The letter calls out the 283 paragraphs of the negotiation document—titled “The Future We Want”—as “weak” and that it “falls far short of the spirit and the advances made over the years since Rio-92.” The full statement follows below:


The Rio+20 we don’t want

The Future We Want is not to be found in the document that bears this name. The Future We Want is not what resulted from the Rio +20 negotiation process.

The future that we want has commitment and action, not just promises. It has the urgency needed to reverse the social, environmental and economic crisis, not postpone it. It has cooperation and is in tune with civil society and its aspirations, and not just the comfortable position of governments.

None of these can be found in the 283 paragraphs of the official document that will be the legacy of this Conference. The document entitled The Future We Want is weak and falls far short of the spirit and the advances made over the years since Rio-92. It even falls far short of the importance and urgency of the issues addressed. Fragile and generic agendas for future negotiations do not guarantee results.

Rio +20 will go into History as the UN conference that offered global society a outcome marked by serious omissions. It endangers the preservation and social and environmental resilience of the planet, as well as any guarantee of acquired human rights for present and future generations.

For all these reasons, we, as many civil society groups and individuals, register our profound disappointment with the heads of State, under whose guidance and orders the negotiators worked, and we state that we do not condone or endorse this document.

Ailton Krenak

Ashok Khosla

Bill McKibben

Brittany Trifold

Camilla Toulmin

Carlos Alberto Ricardo

Carlos Eduardo Young

Carlos Ritti

Christina Robertson

Daniela da Fonseca Reis

Davi Kopenawa Yanomami

Ester Agbarakwe

Fabian Cousteau

Fabio Feldmann

Giulianna Tarlao

Hamouda Soubhi

Ignacy Sachs

Jim Leape

João Paulo Capobianco

José Eli da Veiga

José Goldemberg

Juan Carlos Jintiach

Kelly Rigg

Kumi Naidoo

Luís Flores

Manuel Rodrigues Becerra

Marcelo Furtado

Mariana Moreau

Marina Silva

Mario Mantovani

Marvin Nala

Mathis Wackernagel

Megaron Txucarramãe

Michel Lambert

Mohamed El-Ashry

Nay Htun

Nitin Desai

Oded Grajew

Pedro Ivo Souza Batista

Pedro Telles

Peter May

Pierre Calame

Raoni Metuktire

Ricardo Abramovay

Ricardo Young

Roberto Klabin

Rubens Born

Sara Svensson

Sharan Burrow

Sergio Mindlin

Severn Suzuki

Silvia Dias

Simon Ticehurst

Thomas Lovejoy

Vandana Shiva

Wael Hmaidan

William Rees

Yolanda Kakabadse

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