TWN Update on Sustainable Development Conference 2012 (Mar12/04)
23 March 2012
Third World Network

Rio+20 outcome must incorporate human rights norms
Published in SUNS #7335 dated 22 March 2012

Geneva, 21 Mar (Kanaga Raja) -- A group of 22 independent experts of the United Nations Human Rights Council has called on States to incorporate universally agreed international human rights norms and standards with strong accountability mechanisms in the outcome document of the upcoming Rio+20 summit, taking place in Rio de Janeiro in June.

This call came in an open letter sent by the human rights experts to governments negotiating the outcome document of the Rio+20 summit, whose first round of "informal-informal" negotiations began in New York on Monday.

The 22 independent experts are: Olivier De Schutter (right to food), Catarina de Alburquerque (water and sanitation), James Anaya (indigenous peoples), Chaloka Beyani (internally displaced persons), Kamala Chandrakirana (Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practice), Francois Crepeau (migrants), Virginia Dandan (international solidarity), Calin Georgescu (toxic waste), Anand Grover (health), Rita Izsak (minority issues), Margaret Jungk (Working Group on human rights and transnational corporations), Maina Kiai (freedom of peaceful assembly and of association), Frank La Rue (freedom of opinion and expression), Cephas Lumina (foreign debt), Rashida Manjoo (violence against women), Najat Maalla N'jid (sale of children), Raquel Rolnik (adequate housing), Magdalena Sepulveda (extreme poverty), Margaret Sekaggya (human rights defenders), Farida Shaheed (cultural rights), Gulnara Shahinian (contemporary forms of slavery), and Kishore Singh (education).

In their open letter, the independent experts said that the United Nations system "has been building progressively our collective understanding of human rights and development through a series of key historical moments of international cooperation, from the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in December 1948 to the Millennium Declaration in September 2000 that inspired the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] and to the World Summit Outcome Document in October 2005."

"Strategies based on the protection and realization of all human rights are vital for sustainable development and the practical effectiveness of our actions," they stressed, noting that a "real risk exists that commitments made in Rio will remain empty promises without effective monitoring and accountability."

In this context, the experts proposed how a double accountability mechanism can be established.

At the international level, they supported the proposal to establish a Sustainable Development Council to monitor progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be agreed by 2015.

The experts recommended building a mechanism based on the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council inaugurated in 2007 to provide a peer review of the human rights records of all 193 Member States of the United Nations every four years.

At the national level, they recommended establishing participatory accountability mechanisms through which people's voice can be reflected and independent monitoring can be conducted.

"Rio+20 should ground global commitments in human rights. It should enable citizens to monitor the commitments of their Governments. And it should put accountability, the foundation of a human rights-based approach to development, at the core of its commitments," the letter underlined.

"Because it is urgent to shift our development paths, because progress on sustainable development has been too slow and too modest, and because the diagnosis of what is required is agreed upon largely across the international community, one of the most important contributions of the Rio+20 Summit will be strengthening the institutional framework for sustainable development. Human rights norms should be integrated into this framework; and indeed, they will make the framework stronger," the experts added.

According to the letter, the scientists working on the issues discussed at the 1992 Rio Summit - climate change, the loss of biodiversity, the exhaustion of natural resources, the limits of the planet - are now calling for a "constitutional moment" similar to the post-World War II period when the United Nations and Bretton Woods institutions were created.

According to the International Council for Science that represents science bodies in 140 countries, "stark increases in natural disasters, food and water security problems and biodiversity loss are just part of the evidence that humanity may be crossing planetary boundaries and approaching dangerous tipping points. An effective environmental governance system needs to be instituted soon."

The independent experts said that these leading scientists "call for new institutions - for example, an environmental equivalent to the Security Council - endowed with sufficient powers to keep us from approaching undesirable tipping points."

"We share their concern that we are fast approaching these tipping points and that, in fact, some have been passed already. We are concerned that few States are ready to enter into new binding international legal agreements, when there is broad consensus among scientists that new enforceable international norms are required."

The UN experts said they support the proposal to establish a Sustainable Development Council to succeed the Commission for Sustainable Development and to monitor progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals to be agreed by 2015.

They believe, however, that a key set of principles and conditions should be established if this Council and these goals are to be effective.

Expanding on this theme, the independent experts highlighted three proposals for a more ambitious Rio+20 Summit.

With respect to the first proposal on framing Rio+20 in all human rights, the experts called on States to integrate in the Rio+20 Outcome Document the second recommendation of the report of the Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Global Sustainability that "Governments should respect, protect and provide for [or fulfil] human rights."

"The Rio+20 Outcome document should integrate specific references to all human rights, which are interdependent and mutually reinforcing, complementing the two existing references to the right to food and the right to safe and clean drinking water," the experts said, further calling on States to integrate a gender perspective in the Rio+20 process to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action.

This, they added, would ensure that Member States commit to full coherence between Rio+20 commitments on the one hand, and their solemn human rights obligations on the other.

On the second proposal on defining commitments and measures of success in a participatory way, in the context of the proposed Sustainable Development Goals that should complement and strengthen the MDGs in the post- 2015 development (para. 108 of the Zero Draft outcome document), the experts called on States to define the indicators and measures to evaluate implementation of the commitments emanating from the Rio+20 Summit through an inclusive, transparent and participatory process with all relevant stakeholders, including civil society.

The experts' letter to governments noted that some groups, particularly the poorest in the global South and those whose livelihoods depend on access to natural resources, including local communities, subsistence farmers and indigenous peoples, are most severely affected by current global crises (e. g., climate shocks, price volatility of food and energy, desertification, loss of biodiversity) and their consequences.

"Often, these individuals know which solutions will work best for them. Only by listening to them and by accepting accountability and implementation responsibilities will we be able to make significant progress towards more sustainable modes of production and consumption."

The third proposal highlighted by the experts is on accountability mechanisms for Rio+20 commitments. Given the nature of the issues at stake, many of which have an international dimension, the experts proposed that accountability should be established at both international and domestic levels.

At the international level, the experts called on the proposed Sustainable Development Council to monitor, on the basis of agreed indicators, progress on the Sustainable Development Goals in a similar process to the Universal Periodic Review inaugurated by the Human Rights Council.

They explained that the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a process involving a peer review of the human rights records of each United Nations Member State every four years. This State-driven process conducted within the Human Rights Council provides an opportunity for States to explain how they are working to improve the human rights situation in their countries.

The success of the UPR largely rests on the fact that, beyond "national reports" prepared by the State concerned, the Human Rights Council considers as well "compilations of United Nations information" prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, drawing from information emanating from the United Nations human rights monitoring mechanisms and other United Nations entities, and "summaries of stakeholders' information" based on information provided by non-governmental organizations, national human rights institutions and other actors (e. g., regional organizations, research institutions).

In other terms, the UPR is a peer review process grounded in State reporting and in independent monitoring, which helps to ensure equality of treatment between States and quality of the process of review.

The UPR has provided a framework for exchange and dialogue at the national level across State structures as well as between the State and civil society. It also provides an opportunity for States to share best practices and has stimulated bilateral cooperation and exchanges, the letter noted.

The rights experts encouraged States to consider creating a similar mechanism for the commitments to be made in Rio. "Given the many international dimensions of sustainable development, specific focus should be placed on the duty of international assistance and cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character and on the extraterritorial human rights obligations of States."

At the national level, the independent experts called on States to establish national-level accountability mechanisms to ensure commitments made in Rio+20 are fulfilled. These mechanisms should include independent monitoring that enables civil society participation not only in defining the indicators to measure progress, but also in providing information to evaluate implementation.

They emphasized that countries that have established independent bodies to assess the enjoyment of human rights (e. g., the South African Human Rights Commission) or national institutions with balanced representation that includes both government officials and representatives of civil society to address other major issues (e. g., the Brazilian National Council on Food and Nutrition Security) have seen the concrete benefits of enabling people to hold public authorities accountable for failure to take action.

In countries where such mechanisms already exist, the experts called on States to provide authority and resources for these bodies to monitor the implementation of the Rio+20 commitments. "While some States may be wary of such mechanisms, viewing them as creating additional burdens, the reality of our experience is that empowering people contributes to lasting success."

They elaborated that national accountability mechanisms would enable a structured dialogue at national level between governments and their constituencies, which would coordinate with the international human rights system and feed into the international review mechanism. Collective learning and the dissemination of best practices would be encouraged at domestic and international levels.

Finally, they called on States to capitalize on the remaining months of the "Race to Rio" to agree on the above-mentioned proposals.

"We need action now. We stand ready to assist States to take the necessary steps towards a world that each human being deserves - and more accountable governance, we believe, is key to achieving that objective," the experts' letter to governments concluded. +