Tag Archives: UN

by | February 27, 2013 · 12:00 pm

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence seeks UN intervention

By Kristy Kirkup, February 25, 2013.  Source: Toronto Sun

attawapiskat-chief-theresa-spence-12-26Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence wants the United Nations to intervene on the federal First Nations file.

Spence, who ended a high-profile, 43-day personal protest in Ottawa in January, is now appealing to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

Spence, the International Indian Treaty Council and the Mushkegowuk People of Attawapiskat First Nation have filed an ‘urgent action’ submission with the CERD.

It makes six recommendations to the Canadian government, including a call for an “immediate meeting” with the Crown, federal government, provincial governments and all First Nations to discuss treaties.

Spence previously called for a joint meeting as part of her protest but feds agreed to meet with some First Nations leaders, including Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo.
Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Idle No More, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabs

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | September 6, 2012 · 9:00 am

Rio Earth Summit: tragedy, farce, and distraction

By Anne Petermann, September 2012.  Source: Z Magazine

As I flew to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 12 for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20)—the 20-year anniversary of the historic “Rio Earth Summit”—I read an article in the Financial Times titled “Showdown Looms at OPEC After Saudi Arabia Urges Higher Output.” The article explained that Saudi Arabia was urging OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) to increase their output of oil in order to ensure that the global price of oil would not exceed $100 per barrel in order to “mitigate the risks that high oil prices pose to the global economy.”

The article pointed out that ensuring the health of the global economy requires expanding oil production. This, as we know, will worsen the climate crisis. The takeaway message of the article, therefore, is that the global economy will only thrive by destroying the life support systems of the planet.

At the Rio Earth Summit, this was also the underlying logic of the so-called “green economy” proposals that have polarized and paralyzed the talks since the first preparatory meeting for Rio+20 in May 2010.

According to Jim Thomas of the ETC Group, who wrote about the Rio+20 summit’s preparatory meetings for the Guardian back in March 2011, “Far from cooking up a plan to save the Earth, what may come out of the summit could instead be a deal to surrender the living world to a small cabal of bankers and engineers. Tensions are already rising between northern countries and southern countries…and suspicions are running high that the…‘green economy’ is more likely to deliver a greenwash economy or the same old, same old ‘greed’ economy.”

At the Rio+20 summit, industrialized countries and multinational corporations, accompanied by institutions like the IMF and World Bank, led the push for development of the green economy—that is, to use the very ecological devastation caused by global capitalism to create markets in so-called “environmental services” by turning them into tradable commodities. These new markets would help prop up the global economy in a greenwashed version of business as usual.

“Environmental services,” provided by intact natural ecosystems—which include such things as the storage of carbon, the purification of air and water, and the maintenance of biodiversity—would be given a monetary value in the market, enabling them to be purchased and supposedly protected. In reality, however, it would allow companies to destroy a biodiverse ecosystem in one area, by purchasing the protection of an equivalent ecosystem.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under Climate Change, Commodification of Life, Corporate Globalization, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Events, False Solutions to Climate Change, Green Economy, Greenwashing, Land Grabs, Politics, Posts from Anne Petermann, REDD, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, Rio+20, The Greed Economy and the Future of Forests

Tagged as , , ,

by | August 21, 2012 · 5:08 pm

As UN’s Green Climate Fund finally meets, funding remains uncertain

By Carey L. Biron, Aug 21 2012. Source: IPS

WASHINGTON – Five months behind schedule, the board of the newest and largest international financing mechanism aimed at dealing with the effects of climate change, the Green Climate Fund, is finally slated to meet this week, just ahead of a late-summer deadline.

On Monday, however, insiders admitted that funding plans for the ambitious initiative – 100 billion dollars a year after 2020, in addition to dealing with a massive shortfall until then – remain unclear.

“We are expecting no serious discussion about the 100 billion dollars at this meeting,” Omar El-Arini, an Egyptian member of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board, told journalists Monday, speaking from Geneva.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Climate Change, Climate Justice, Green Economy, UNFCCC

Tagged as , , , ,

by | August 13, 2012 · 3:00 pm

Colombia: UN calls for dialogue with indigenous movement

08/09/2012. Source: World War 4 Report

The UN representative for indigenous rights, James Anaya, called on the Colombian government Aug. 9 to advance in dialogues with the indigenous movement in southwestern Cauca department that has been calling for the military to leave its territory. In a message commemorating the International Day of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Anaya highlighted “the rights of property and autonomy the indigenous peoples have over their own traditional territories,” while stressing that the Colombian state needed to consult the indigenous movements before establishing military presence on their territories. Anaya emphasized that “the presence of the army should not contribute to putting the indigenous in danger.”

Colombian Interior Minister Federico Renjifo arrived in Cauca that day to try to facilitate a renewed dialogue, following indigenous leaders’ demands for cabinet ministers to be present. Talks were suspended in late July when both Renjifo and Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón failed to attend a scheduled meeting.  (Colombia Reports, Aug. 9)

1 Comment

Filed under Indigenous Peoples, Latin America-Caribbean

Tagged as , , ,

by | June 20, 2012 · 9:00 am

Disempowering women through the “green economy”

By Clarissa Militante, Focus on the Global South 

“The Future We Want,” the text being discussed by governments for Rio+20, promotes rhetoric of empowering women but in reality it not only disempowers them further, it also gives more rights and access to corporations.

The basic step towards achieving women empowerment is for women to have access rights to resources such as land and water, two resources that are rapidly being privatized and corporatized. How can green economy alleviate women and children from poverty situations, if their access to such resources has been curtailed and is currently controlled by transnational corporations and landlords? Green economy might create profits for some, but definitely not for women who face these realities: less than two percent of lands in the world are owned by women; in Asia, only five percent of agricultural activities performed by women are under their control and ownership; while the number of women employed in the rural sector in Asia has decreased significantly — 41 percent in 2007 from 51 percent (1998) in East and Southeast Asia; 65 percent in 2007 from a high of 74 percent (1998) in South Asia. (Action Aid, 2010)
Continue reading →

Leave a Comment

Filed under Green Economy, Rio+20, Women

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | June 19, 2012 · 10:00 am

New report to expose how corporations ‘capture’ the U.N.

From Friends of the Earth International

June 19, 2012, Rio de Janeiro – On June 19, 2012, on the eve of a key United Nations Summit due to take place June 20-22 in Rio De Janeiro [1], Friends of the Earth International will launch a new report exposing the increasing influence of major corporations and business lobby groups within the UN. [2]

“Governmental positions have been increasingly hijacked by narrow corporate interests linked to polluting industries and business sectors seeking to profit from the environment, the climate and the financial crises,” said Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International.
Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under BREAKING NEWS from Rio+20, Corporate Globalization, Rio+20

Tagged as , , , ,

by | June 12, 2012 · 11:24 am

Drought ravages Brazil’s northeast

Cross-posted from Al Jazeera

Upcoming Rio+20 environmental summit is little solace for people in the grips of possibly the worst drought in decades.

A persistent drought in northeastern Brazil is ravaging crops and killing livestock [Gabriel Elizondo/Al Jazeera]


Picos, Brazil -  Even a nonagenarian like Jose Vincente da Rocha is stunned by its severity. “For a long time I never experienced a drought like this one,” he said. “The last one I remember like this was in 1932.”

That is saying a lot, given that he is 95 years old.

In a couple of weeks, more than 100 heads of state and thousands of environmentalists from all over the world will be in Rio de Janeiro for the UN Rio+20 environmental summit, billed as the biggest and most important meeting of its kind. Most participants will meet in air-conditioned hotels and conference centres discussing how to save the planet. Part of the talks, for sure, will be about access to water.

Jose Vicente da Rocha says this is the worst drought he remembers since 1932 [Gabriel Elizondo/Al Jazeera]

Instead, he will be where he spends most of his days: sitting on a wooden bench on his front porch, in the shade to stay cool, in his modest brick home in a dusty village of a few hundred people about a half-hour’s drive from the town of Picos (population: 74,966) in Brazil’s semi-arid northeast state of Piaui.Da Rocha hasn’t received an invitation to Rio+20, doesn’t even know what it is, and has no interest in finding out.

Da Rocha doesn’t have the luxury of simply deliberating the theoretical scenarios of access to water. He is living it. And so are millions of other Brazilians right now: the northeast of this country is suffering through the worst drought in four decades. More than 900 municipalities have declared a state of emergency.
Continue reading →

Leave a Comment

Filed under Climate Change, Forests and Climate Change, Latin America-Caribbean, Rio+20, The Greed Economy and the Future of Forests, Water

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | May 10, 2012 · 12:33 pm

Land grabbing: La Via Campesina urges States to act

Rome, May 10th, 2012–This week, the United Nations Committee on World Food Security is convening for a special session to formally adopt the recently concluded Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the context of National Food Security. These new guidelines could prove to be one small but important step towards reforming the policies at the root cause of the food crisis.

La Via Campesina reminds governments that the guidelines have been built on a foundation of agreed upon human rights principles that cannot be negotiated. It is therefore the responsibility of states to support the implementation of these guidelines and to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of their citizens.

In this regard, La Via Campesina urgently requests all governments to condemn the practise of land grabbing that is currently displacing millions of peasants and small-scale producers around the world. Land grabbing is causing massive violations of human rights, whilst destroying land, society, environment and food sovereignty.

Even in the past few weeks, farmers have been violently evicted from their land in countries such as Mali, Honduras and Spain. Every week bears witness to new cases of evictions and violence against rural communities due to the rising value of agricultural land.

“Now it is urgent for governments to use the guidelines to adopt some compulsory legislation to protect small farmers from this blatant violation of their rights” – said Angel Strapazzon in Rome.

Small-scale producers play a critical role in feeding the world’s population and it is imperative that national policies prioritize their secure access to and control over productive resources. The Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Land, Fisheries and Forests should be used first and foremost as a tool for protecting the tenure rights of small-scale food producer groups.

Today, over 400 million small-scale food producers are suffering from hunger and malnutrition caused by over half a century of ill-conceived land and rural development policies. La Via Campesina, the global movement that brings together millions of peasants, landless people, women farmers, indigenous people and agricultural workers from around the world, calls upon states to reform current land policies that are exacerbating hunger, and opening the door to land grabbing around the world.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Food Sovereignty, Forests and Climate Change, Industrial agriculture, Land Grabs

Tagged as , ,

by | April 17, 2012 · 3:00 pm

Indigenous Peoples from around the World agree on solidarity: RIO+20

Note: Rio+20 is the twenty-year anniversary of the historic Rio Earth Summit where the world’s leaders came together to address the growing interlinked crises of environmental degradation and unjust development models–at least in theory.  They emerged from the 1992 summit with new commitments to tackle the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis, the desertification crisis and to promote sustainable development.  Twenty years on and things are worse than ever.  As a result, organizations, social movements, Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and others are mobilizing for Rio+20–not just to demand real action to address the roots of these crises, but to hold an alternative summit where people can start coming up with the real solutions on their own.  This approach is critical since it is clear that many corporate controlled governments are heavily invested in business-as-usual and have no intention of doing anything but spooning out some greenwashed PR nonsense in the form of the so-called “green economy,” or as some are calling it, the “greed economy.”

This Climate Connections blog will be offering daily coverage of the Rio+20 summit–both the inner machinations of the official negotiations and the highlights of the alternative summit.  Stay tuned for articles, photo essays, videos and interviews as well as scathing critiques of the attempts by the “1%” to maintain their power and privilege at all costs.

–The GJEP Team

Indigenous Peoples Caucus

3rd Intersessional Meeting of the Preparatory Process for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD)

March 26-27, 2012

New York

 We, indigenous peoples representatives meeting together as an indigenous peoples caucus during the 3rdIntersessional meeting of the UNCSD, after a thorough discussion of urgent issues and concerns affecting indigenous peoples activities related to the Rio+20 process, resolve and agree to the following points:

1. We will take efforts to build solidarity among the different Brazilian IP organizations and regional networks in Latin America in the spirit of reconciliation, and seek the help of some of our brothers and sisters in this effort [Tom Goldtooth (IEN), Vicky Tauli-Corpuz (Tebtebba) and Miguel Palacin (CAOI);]

2. We uphold and support the messages and agreements of the Manaus Declaration “INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN ROUTE TO THE RIO + 20 CONFERENCE” made during the Global preparatory meeting of Indigenous Peoples on Rio + 20 and Kari-Oca 2 on August 22- 24, 2011 in Manaus, Brazil. This declaration includes the agreement to “organize Kari-Oca 2 as a global conference of Indigenous Peoples where we will share our efforts to implement development with identity and culture or our self- determined development, … and endeavour to reach a consensus on themes and issues of Rio +20.”

3. We appreciate the ongoing efforts and hard work of the Inter-Tribal Council to prepare a site for Kari-Oca 2 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in accordance with the agreements reached during the Manaus meeting. We therefore urge the Global IP Steering Committee to support this effort and maximize the site being prepared for the Kari-Oca 2 Global Conference of indigenous peoples.

4. We further urge the Global IP Steering Committee to coordinate and harmonize the various indigenous peoples’ initiatives in Rio and come up with a common, unified calendar of activities for indigenous peoples during Rio+20 and Kari-Oca 2.

This will ensure that indigenous peoples will project a strong and united voice on the themes and issues related to Rio +20.

Agreed by the Indigenous Peoples Caucus with representatives from Latin America, North America, Africa and Asia on May 27, 2012, New York.

3 Comments

Filed under Biodiversity, Climate Change, Forests and Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Rio+20

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | April 9, 2012 · 2:00 pm

Critical Information Collective Offers Resources for Advancing Movement for Justice

Note: The following post regards a new organization, Critical information Collective, set up by our friends Joe Zacune and Ronnie Hall (both ex-campaign coordinators with Friends of the Earth International).  This initiative will be a very useful and powerful resource and clearinghouse for our collective struggle for social and ecological justice.  Check it out!

–The GJEP Team

From Critical Information Collective:

We really hope that you have time to read this short message introducing a new organisation, Critical Information Collective (CIC). It’s been set up by the two of us, Ronnie Hall and Joseph Zacune (ex-campaign coordinators with Friends of the Earth International), although we hope to expand it to include more researchers and advisors soon.

 CIC aims to be a resource for you all, providing social movements, NGOs and communities campaigning against corporate globalisation with a single ‘one stop shop’ of incisive, political and campaign-oriented analysis, images and tools – as well as more visibility for our collective effort to challenge the prevailing economic paradigm.

We aim to cover a broad range of critical issues related to corporate-led globalisation, including agrofuels, climate change, deforestation, food, GMOs, land, mining, poverty, rights, and trade and investment.

If you want to find the key documents on any one topic, from a range of different organisations (including your own), or easily find relevant and free/cheap images for your publications, or point your members to additional information resources and campaign tools, we hope you will visit/link to us.”

1 Comment

Filed under Bioenergy / Agrofuels, Carbon Trading, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Corporate Globalization, False Solutions to Climate Change, Green Economy, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, REDD, Rio+20, UNFCCC, World Bank

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,