SI UNESCO Representaive, Rina Dupriet, attended the January meeting of the NGO Joint Programmatic Commisson for Sustainable Development. Severals proposals were forwarded for consideration by Rio+20, closely matching the priorities of Soroptimist International:
– Poverty eradication
– Creation of safe water supplies
– Empowerment of people through education and
leadership for women
– Improvement of cultural life to eradicate violence and respect human rights
The group forwarded a number of proposals which will be presented at the Rio 20 Meeting next June. The following items were identified as crucial:
- Recognition of the fragility and vulnerabily of people who
live in a country with severe climatic change; - An increase in liberty and human rights;
- Support for the movement of populations who have
to leave their area due to food and water insecurity and climate change; - The empowerment of women and girls through
education and leadership; - Improving the access of women and girls
to schools and universities, recognising that quality of education matters; - Improving access to information to improve disaster risk management and to help mitigate the impact of climate volatility;
- A ban on child labour and support for education programmes;
- The abolition of seed
confiscation currently practiced to the detriment of farmers; - The recognition of local pratical
experience concerning the environment.
Rina Dupriet
SI UNESCO Representative
