“We believe that the governments of the world have failed women, future generations and our beautiful but fragile planet earth,” a statement from the organisation reads.
Sascha Gabizon, Executive Director of Women in Europe for a Common Future, a key coordinating group of Rio+20 Women, said, “Two years of negotiations have culminated in a Rio+20 outcome that makes almost no progress for women’s rights and rights of future generations in sustainable development.”
Anita Nayar, Executive Committee Member of Development Alternatives with Women for A New Era (DAWN) – a second major coordinating organisation of Rio+20 Women said,“The lack of recognition of reproductive rights as essential to sustainable development was especially disappointing.”
Gabizon said that at Rio+20, governments had a historic chance to take ‘bold steps’ to end poverty and environmental destruction, to protect the rights of the most vulnerable members of our societies, to take concrete measures to fully implement women’s rights and women’s leadership.
“We now risk increased poverty, inequities and irreversible environmental damage,” she said. On a more positive note, she said that the summit had brought the term ‘Buen Vivir’, meaning ‘To Live Well’, into common use in board rooms and ministries.
“Buen Vivir means to take a major turn away from “throw-away” societies in which nature and culture are only considered for their inherent monetary value, to sustainable societies where women’s rights, indigenous peoples rights and indeed, all human rights to live well in harmony with nature are seen as the Future we Really Want, which is also the Future We Need.”
Post published in: Environment