What’s New, Webby?
Women on the Road to Rio+20
Nearly 20 years ago, the Earth Summit was held in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It led to the formulation of Agenda 21, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Rio Declaration. Chapter 24 of Agenda 21 had a specific focus on global action for women towards sustainable and equitable development. It urged the active involvement of women in economic and political decisionmaking for the successful implementation of Agenda 21. Now, 20 years later, another summit, Rio+20, is being organized by the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) to assess progress and make future plans.
An online community space for women around the world to discuss Rio+20 has been hosted at http://women-rio20. ning.com/page/about. This site has a questionnaire designed to gather opinions on Rio+20 from a gender perspective. This, together with various regional and organizational statements, will help frame the Women’s Major Group submission to the official UNCSD/Rio+20 process in early November. The website hosts region-specific pages, and allows you to post events, statements and videos, as well as participate in online discussions.
It offers links to key documents such as the Women’s Major Group publications and the position papers of women’s groups and facilitates networking on the emerging green economy’. The site also carries the proceedings of the regional preparatory meeting on Rio+20 in Latin American and Caribbean countries.
