Draft/7 March 1997

This draft list of priority issues was prepared by NGOs on the final day of the CSD intersessional meeting in New York (7 March 1997). It is drawn from a) the NGO issues statement that contains nearly 40 issues ("Recommendations for Actions and Commitments at the Earth Summit II, NGO Draft Background Paper") that was distributed to governments during the intersessional meeting, and b) discussions among NGOs (and with governments) during the intersessional with respect to key issues, as well as concrete targets and timetables. The number of issues is based on our feeling that a core group of priority issues should be substantially fewer than the total package of issues, e.g., from 5-10 at most.

As with the larger issues list, the authors of this draft priority list have no intention of speaking for all NGOs nor civil society at large. The list has been prepared by a number of the NGO organizational representatives participating in the CSD intersessional meeting, several of whom are recognized experts in their issue areas. To the extent this priority list is helpful, as is, or amended to address issues of special concern to your organization or geographical region, please use it as an aid in lobbying governments and in talking with media representatives and other NGOs/civil society groups in the lead-up to the CSD meeting from 7-25 April 1997, including the Ministerial, high-level segment of 7-9 April.

The actions called for in this list, which is not in any order of priority, is directed to heads-of-state and government delegations participating in the April CSD meeting and the UNGA's Special Session in late June - Earth Summit II:

SECTORAL ISSUES:

1. CO2/CLIMATE: Agree to a legally binding commitment to reduction of CO2 emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by the year 2000, and other appropriate reductions in greenhouse gases at Kyoto, Japan in December 1997, including special initiatives to protect and compensate small island developing states;

2. TOXIC CHEMICALS: Ensure that the legally binding, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) global instrument is concluded and opened for ratification by 2000, at the latest, and that industrialized countries make a concerted effort in the next 12 months to assist developing countries in preparing for the intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) that will meet beginning in early 1998, especially in relation to difficulties in acquiring substitutes and transferring technology for the development and/or production of such substitutes;

3. FORESTS: Commit to the continuation and enhancement of the intergovernmental policy dialogue on forests under the CSD, while also promoting (in a transparent, participatory manner) an action-oriented program to solve critical forest-related problems involving all types of forests, including a halt to further destruction of primary and old-growth forests around the world, and the establishment of networks of ecologically representative and socially appropriate forest protected areas (covering at least 10% of the world's forests) by 2000;

4. FRESHWATER: Initiate negotiations on a global agreement or arrangement on freshwater by 1998, with terms of reference that include a commitment to a catchment (watershed/airshed) approach as the basis for action on freshwater in national sustainable development strategies and any international plans or strategies;

5. MILITARY WEAPONS: Adopt a global, legally binding ban on anti-personnel land mines by 1999 - applicable both within and between countries; and conclude negotiations on a global, legally binding ban on the production and use of nuclear weapons by 2002;

CROSS-SECTORAL ISSUES:

6. FINANCE: Establish an Intergovernmental Panel on Finance at the Special Session, with terms of reference that include, inter alia, the need to create innovative mechanisms for NGO and civil society access to capital, credit and capacity building for community based sustainable and environmentally sound economic development projects; industrialized countries should provide substantial additional financial resources in support of sustainable development to the developing countries by 2000, including a 50% increase in the current replenishment of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF); they should undertake targeted debt reductions in twenty (20) of the most indebted least developed countries by the end of 1998, in exchange for significant initiatives to further sustainable development; industrialized countries should meet the 0.7% of GNP target for aid by 2002, and achieve one-half (0.35%) of that target by the end of 1998; and all countries should take steps to ensure, by no later that 1998, stricter scrutiny, including new laws or other measures, to prevent abuse of all funds and corrupt practices - in the public and private sector - at national and international levels;

7. TRADE: Adopt a clear, internationally agreed, understanding by 1998 that environmental conventions and other multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) shall not be bound by WTO-imposed requirements or restrictions (given that such WTO measures have, with few exceptions, undermined those important agreements); convene a trade and environment Ministers summit before the next Ministerial meeting of the WTO, which includes, inter alia, a discussion on fair trade versus free trade; and take steps to adopt measures, applicable to the next WTO Ministerial meeting, that ensure transparency and effective opportunities for NGOs and other major groups to observe and contribute to those deliberations;

8. CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY: Establish a Sub-Commission of the CSD at the Special Session enact internationally agreed, government-based mechanisms by no later than 1999 that are designed to ensure significantly greater accountability of business and industry, especially transnational corporations;

9. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: Establish at the Special Session a Permanent Forum for Indigenous Peoples within the UN System (under the CSD) to coordinate all international initiatives on indigenous peoples; and

10. NGO ACCESS: Ensure that the arrangements for the UN General Assembly Special Session are, at minimum, based on the newly revised Arrangements for Consultation with Non-Governmental Organizations - Part VII of Resolution 1996/31 - and that those arrangements apply to strengthening NGO access to and participation in the General Assembly and its Main Committees and other subsidiary bodies, including inter alia adequate representation by NGOs and other major groups from the South.