This report was written based on interviews with experts on the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) conducted during and after the fourth substantive session of the CSD in April and May of 1996 in New York. The experts are representatives of Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) including major groups, governmental delegates, and United Nations staff and officials. There are many other experts whom we would have liked to interview, but we believe our sample to be a broad representation. In addition to these interviews, this report incorporates papers by both NGOs and governments, addresses held at CSD-4, statements to ECOSOC in July 1996 and to the Second Committee meetings in late 1996, quotes from articles in the EarthTimes, and reports and recommendations of several formal and informal meetings.
The report is divided into seven sections. Each section includes chapters on specific issues. Most chapters conclude by presenting a number of proposals and INTGLIM recommendations. The proposals are ideas that were suggested by our sources, either from the interviews or from published reports. We have included the proposals without attribution, for some came from single sources, some from several. Recommendations, on the other hand, are the ideas of the authors, taking into consideration the results of the survey, interviews, and other background information. The recommendations are solely those of the authors', not the participants. Chapters vary in structure because some subjects not mentioned in the survey were raised in the interviews and subsequently added. In presenting the comments of the experts interviewed, we have attempted to reference the relevent questions. If there is no question number referenced, their remarks were made during a general discussion, not as part of an answer to a particular question.
The Earth Summit, the historic United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during the first two weeks of June 1992. UNCED was the largest summit in history, addressing the broadest array of issues ever by a summit, and involving the greatest number of citizens ever in a global intergovernmental meeting. Delegations consisting of heads of states and foreign ministers from 178 countries, thousands of representatives of UN agencies, programmes, and treaty bodies. More than 35,000 citizens from non-governmental organizations and "major groups" attended the Rio Summit.
The Earth Summit was the first of a historic series of major world conferences convened after the end of the Cold War. And in many ways Rio set new precedents for the extraordinary involvement of citizen experts, NGOs and representatives of major groups in international intergovernmental policy-making, not only in the conferences, but in the two to four years of preparatory meetings leading to the conferences.
In Rio, three major agreements were signed:
Two major global treaties were opened for signature:
UNCED also set into motion several important processes which have concluded their work or are in various stages of progress, including the UN Conference on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stock, the UN Conference on Small Island Developing States, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests. Of these agreements, this survey and report concentrate on the progress towards implementation of Agenda 21.
Agenda 21 called for the creation of the Commission on Sustainable Development to ensure effective follow-up to UNCED, enhance international cooperation, rationalize the intergovernmental decision-making capacity and examine progress in the implementation of Agenda 21. In 1992, the 47th session of the UN General Assembly set out (in resolution 47/191) the terms of reference for the Commission on Sustainable Development, its composition, guidelines for the participation of NGOs, the organization of work, the CSD's relationship with other UN bodies and Secretariat arrangements.
The CSD was given a place within the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) as a sub-commission. At its first session in June 1993 in New York, it was decided to adopt a multi-year thematic program of work. This implied that Agenda 21 was to be divided into different clusters, which were all to be discussed in the next five years. Concluding these five years, a review was scheduled to assess successes and failures of the CSD.
On June 23-27, 1997 the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly to Review and Appraise the Implementation of Agenda 21 will be convened at UN Headquarters in New York.
This will be the first of several similar reviews to be conducted by the General Assembly on each of the world conferences. Thus, the CSD, whose fifth session will serve as the preparatory meeting for the GA Special Session, will once again be under pressure not only to address its own mandate, but also to potentially set precedents for the next five years of reviews. Unfortunately, at the time of the writing of this report in early 1997, there were ominous signs that, in a reversal of years of precedents and commitments, governments were opposing allowing any formal participation of NGOs and representatives of Major Groups in the Special Session. Especially disappointing was the observation that the United States and the European Union, who helped pave the way for greater openness and participation in UNCED, are leading this retreat.