CSD-16: ECYI Joins Hands Against Food and Climate Crisis (2 of 4)
Thanks to Didier Gleyzes (at right), Youth Leadership Team (YLT) Representative for Europe and Central Asia, for submitting this report about the first week at CSD-16.
The 16th session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, which started on 5 May 2008, focuses on the burning thematic issues of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land, Drought, Desertification, and Africa.
As the sessions are going on, representatives of the Earth Charter Youth Initiative from Morroco (Hind Ottmani, YLT Chair and Representative for Africa and the Middle East), Italy (Selene Biffi, Youth Caucus Coordinator) and France (Didier Gleyzes, YLT Representative for Europe and Central Asia) are mobilized within the Youth Caucus, one of the most active Major Groups at CSD. Young people from different countries and backgrounds thus get the opportunity to raise their voices through different statements presented during the many sessions that tackle the thematic issues. Youth and Children statements for CSD meetings, past and present.
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The CSD is organized around plenary sessions that gather representatives from the 192 countries of the UN, Major Groups (Women, Youth and Children, NGOs, Local Authorities, Workers and Trade Unions, Business and Industry, Scientific and Technological Communities, Farmers) and observers. In parallel, side events, a learning center, and a partnership fair are organized all along the week, forecasting the incentives and projects linked to the CSD-16 main themes.
Together with governmental representatives, an important number of civil society organizations are present at CSD, which represents a wonderful opportunity for networking and partnership building. To take a couple of examples, organizations such as SustainUS and the IUCN have already declared or renewed their willingness to use the Earth Charter as an ethical framework in their work toward sustainability.
In addition to developing partnerships, the main projects that the YLT has been promoting at CSD are linked to our Plan of Action’s priorities: the Earth Charter global book project on individuals' experience of “oneness” in the world, youth-led project towards achieving sustainable development, and the planned Earth Charter radio campaign. We were also active in writing statements made during the European regional meetings on GMOs, biofuels and organic farming.
Furthermore, as a follow-up to a workshop organized at the 4th International Conference for Environmental Education in Ahmedabad, India in November 2007, Dominic Stucker, Earth Charter’s International Youth Coordinator, took the lead in facilitating a workshop on Intergenerational Partnership for Sustainability (IPS). Attended by 25 people from 21 different countries, the workshop provided an opportunity to collaboratively review and elaborate upon the Ahmedabad Draft of the Framework for Forming IPS. In October, this CSD-16 Draft will be presented at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain, accompanying a draft Resolution on IPS. Up-to-date information about the Campaign for Intergenerational Partnership for Sustainability.
Stay tuned and offer your comments, below!