The Bandung Declaration

© K.Eng

During the UNEP Tunza Children and Youth Conference 2011, participants worked on forging a strong, concrete global youth statement to be taken to world leaders at Rio+20. In the weeks leading up to the conference, a youth steering committee of Tunza Youth Advisory Council members and leaders of youth organizations around the world gathered ideas and statements to create a draft of the Bandung Declaration. Over three days participants read, discussed and amended the draft, and at the closing plenary, the delegates put the finishing touches to the declaration. Here are a few of the highlights.

We … are united in calling upon world leaders to move to a sustainable development pathway that safeguards the Earth and its people for our generation and generations to come.

Rio+20 … marks a generation since the 1992 Earth Summit – the first effective global recognition of the environmental, social and economic costs of unrestrained development. Our governments … promised to reduce poverty, stem environmental degradation and enhance equity. Businesses and multi-national corporations have pledged to respect the environment, green their production and compensate for their pollution. Yet, our planet’s future – our future – is in peril. We cannot wait another generation, until a Rio+40, before we act.

We pledge the following commitments to make the Rio+20 Earth Summit a milestone for change:

• lobby our governments to make the Rio+20 Earth Summit a top priority;
• adopt more sustainable lifestyles and educate our local communities, including indigenous communities, sharing knowledge at the same level.

We urge the Rio+20 Earth Summit to agree that all green economies should:

• protect and value natural resources and ecosystems, on which all life depends, and recognize the traditional knowledge and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities;
• invest in education and social entrepreneurship which engenders sustainable development values;
• engage citizens to protect the environment in their everyday lives…

We call upon world leaders to come to Rio to collectively reinvest political will in:

• developing national green economy transition plans and agendas for action;
• responsibly phasing out subsidies that are harmful to the environment;
• incorporating environmental and social considerations in economic policy formation and adopt alternative measures of development to gross domestic product …

We call upon business leaders to collectively commit to:

• implementing effective corporate social and environmental responsibility through a new economic model that ensures sustainable resource use;
• [being] accountable for the sustainability of their supply chain and production patterns;
• [increasing] investment in environmentally beneficial scientific research and development …

We need to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the established international institutions and assess new institutional structures that guide us toward a sustainable green and fair economy. We believe such structures should:

• focus on implementing existing international agreements and plans of action;
• hold governments, corporations and civil society organizations accountable to their promises and obligations on sustainable development;
• further the implementation of the precautionary principle and demand reparations of damages, such as applied to new technologies and practices;

and

We believe that good governance at the country, state, province and city levels should:

• meaningfully engage all stakeholders in the decision-making process, considering the views and opinions of minorities, the underprivileged, illiterate, and the unemployed;
• protect and defend the rights of young and future generations.

To read the full text: http://www.tunza2011.org/index.php/agenda/bandung-declaration

This post is also available in: French, Russian, Spanish