Comments on the new Post 2015 text bis
Well who would have expected me to be writing
another blog about another final text? Governments return at 11am Sunday to try
and finish the negotiations on the Post 2015 Development Agenda. I myself left
on Friday assuming it would finish then and went to see Mission Impossible last
night. The best MI film ever!!!! If the text is finished today, tomorrow, next
week then this is a great distressing event to go to.
The title has changed from just transforming our World to Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
It is great that the term doesn’t include poverty eradication but accepts it as
part of sustainable development. So much better and I will talk more about this
when we have a final final text.
The new preamble
is much better than the longer version and doesn’t try to cluster the goals
which were looking like a laundry list and incoherent. This marks a clear
defeat for the UK and its attempt for a small number of goals. The introduction
to the 5 Ps has the following text.
“They
seek to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the
empowerment of all women and girls. They are integrated and indivisible and
balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social
and environmental.”
The inclusion of ‘women and girls has been a
campaign by UN Women behind the scenes – sometimes useful other times unhelpful.
To those David Cassidy fans who were hoping that cherish would remain in the text you
will be sorely disappointed. It has been replaced by much more correct language
of ‘invest’ as I had suggested in a previous blog.
The family hasn’t come back into the text beyond the
mention in the last draft in para 25 where it doesn’t define it in anyway –
which is good. .
The wording around water, hygiene and sanitation did
suffer from position by the US, UK and Canada but we do have them all in in the
end: “we reaffirm our commitments regarding
the human right relating to safe drinking water and sanitation and
where there is
improved
hygiene.”
On CBDR it
has come down to one inclusion “We
reaffirm all the principles of the Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development, including, inter alia, the principle of common but differentiated
responsibilities, as set out in principle 7 thereof.” This means that
developed countries have succeeded in framing CBDR as only covering environmental
issues. This is a great disappointment and shows selective memory as far as
CBDR is concerned it applied to all of Agenda 21 which included chapters on
education and health.
Climate
change has been one of the controversial areas and the new text
is a combination of para the alt para
which I thought was good, some of the original language and also some of the
language on what we would like to see in the outcome from COP21.
30. We acknowledge that the
UNFCCC is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the
global response to climate change. We are determined towill
address decisively the threat
posed by climate change and environmental degradation. The global nature of
climate change calls
for the widest possible international cooperation aimed at accelerating the
reduction of global
greenhouse gas emissions and addressing adaptation to the adverse impacts of
climate change. We note with grave concern the
significant gap between the aggregate effect of UNFCCC
Parties’ mitigation pledges in terms of
global annual emissions of greenhouse gases by 2020 and aggregate emission pathways consistent with having a
likely chance of holding the increase in global average temperature below 2 °C or 1.5 °C above pre-industrial
levels. Further to the Lima Call to Climate Action, we will work for a
comprehensive, ambitious agreement at COP21 in Paris applicable to all Parties and
reflecting the
principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective
capabilities, in light of different
national circumstances.]
19. Looking
ahead to the COP21 conference in Paris in December, we underscore the
commitment of
all States to work for an ambitious and universal climate agreement. We
reaffirm that the protocol,
another legal instrument or agreed outcome with legal force under the
Convention applicable
to all Parties shall address in a balanced manner, inter alia, mitigation,
adaptation, finance,
technology development and transfer, and capacity-building, and transparency of
action and support.
On the issue of Financing
for Development the Addis text is NOT annexed to the present text which is
a victory for the developing countries, as is the paragraphs included on the Technology
Facilitation Mechanism.
In the Means of Implementation there has been an emphasis
on the need to revitalise ‘global
partnership for sustainable development.’ A number of additional paras have been added
from the Addis outcome on debt relief, trade, domestic mobilisation and on
private sector. The last focuses on : ‘We
will foster a dynamic and well-functioning business sector, while protecting
labour rights and environmental and health standards in accordance with
relevant international standards and agreements and other on-going initiatives
in this regard, such as the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and
the labour standards of ILO, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and key
multilateral environmental agreements, for parties to those agreements.
On the issue of human
rights the probable over ‘international human right’ is out and the present
presentation of human rights is very good. -"We
reaffirm the importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well
as other international instruments relating to human rights and international
law. We emphasize the responsibilities of all States, in conformity with the
Charter of the United Nations, to respect, protect and promote human rights and
fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind as to race,
colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social
origin, property, birth, disability or other status"
The push by Brazil to have people living with HIV/Aids
in the vulnerable people section has succeeded. Para 23 now says; People who are vulnerable must be empowered.
Those whose needs are reflected in the Agenda include all children, youth,
persons with disabilities (of whom more than 80% live in poverty), people
living with HIV/AIDS, older persons, indigenous peoples, refugees and
internally displaced persons and migrants.it has also
removed the word ‘all’ infront of migrants and the same in subsequent mentions of
migrants - which is not good.
In the SDG section
no major changes the targets 11.5 and 11.b is now aligned with the Sendai
Framework. 14.c has ended up as: Enhance the conservation and
sustainable use of oceans and their resources by implementing international law
as reflected in UNCLOS, which provides the legal framework for the conservation
and sustainable use of oceans and their resources, as recalled in paragraph 158
of The Future We Want.
One sad addition is that in the follow up section
where additions to the text on data are not helpful. ‘As national ownership is key to achieving sustainable development, the
outcome from national level processes will be the foundation for reviews at
regional and global levels, given that the global review will be primarily based on national official data sources. Hopefully
the better language passed by the Statistical Commission on a more open
approach to data input will stand.
The final bad part in where the role of the HLPF
might be seen to be reduced where as in the previous version it had the HLPF
overseeing a network of follow-up and review processes it now has been replace
by The HLPF will have a central role in overseeing a network…..’ I hope
this is replaced by the original version.
Lets see what happens now……
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