Rio+20 Peoples’ Summit closes with Declaration and points of struggle

June 25, 2012. One of the opening paragraphs of the Declaration produced at the close of the Peoples’ Summit states:

“The Peoples Summit is a symbolic moment of the beginning of a new cycle in the course of global struggles, which produced a new convergence of the movements of women, Indigenous Peoples, people of African descent, youth, family and peasant farmers, workers, the poor, and traditional communities such as quilombos, those who fight for the right to the city, and religious groups world wide.”

80, 000 people attended the Peoples’ Summit and at least 30,000 mobilized daily in different activities.

The full Declaration has yet to be translated into English (and Climate Connections will publish or link to it when it is), but it closes with these consensus points of struggle going forward:

We are:

• Opposed to militarization of territories and states.
• Opposed to criminalization of social movement organizations.
• Opposed to violence against women.
• Opposed to violence against LGBT people.
• Opposed to large corporations.
• Opposed to imposing payments of unjust financial debt and for popular hearings on them.
• For guaranteeing the right of the people to land and territory, urban and rural.
• For free informed and prior consultation and consent, based in the principle of good faith as per Convention 169 of the ILO.
• For food sovereignty and healthy food, against agrochemicals and transgenics.
• For the conquest and guarantee of rights.
• For the solidarity of peoples and countries, chiefly those threatened by military or institutional coups (like the recent one in Paraguay).
• For the sovereignty of the people over ownership of the commons, against attempts to privatize and commodify.
• For changing the current energy grid and system.
• For democratization of the communications media.
• For a recognition of the historic social and ecological debt.
• For building towards a worldwide GENERAL STRIKE.