Istanbul Declaration calls for sustainable development worldwide

PanARMENIAN.Net - Delegates to the first Global Human Development Forum unanimously adopted on March 23 an Istanbul Declaration calling on the world community to take bold action against global social inequities and environmental deterioration at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio this June.

“It is time to reset the global development agenda,” the Istanbul Declaration states. “The world needs a renewed commitment to sustainable development and strong political leadership to implement it.”

The Istanbul Declaration was adopted by consensus at the conclusion of the two-day Global Human Development Forum, a gathering of more than 200 leading development experts, civil society activists, government ministers, private sector representatives and UN officials from all regions of the world.

The Forum was organized by UNDP’s Human Development Report Office and Bureau of Development Policy in partnership with the Government of Turkey’s Ministry of Development. The Istanbul Declaration was supported by the Government of Turkey as a key contribution to the UN debates and discussions leading up to the Rio + 20 conference in June. Negotiations on the conference agenda and proposed resolutions resumed this week at UN headquarters in New York.

The Declaration stresses the need for global and national development strategies to put “strong emphasis on social inclusion, social protection, and equity, in recognition of the fact that economic development has too often gone hand in hand with environmental degradation and increased inequality.”

Achieving those goals will require better-coordinated “mobilization of global capital and local resources,” good governance on the local and global level, and full empowerment of women “through access to education, health care, basic services and their participation in the labour force,” the Declaration says.

In a personal message to Forum participants, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “Sustainable development recognizes that our economic, social and environmental objectives are not competing goals that must be traded off against each other, but are interconnected objectives that are most effectively pursued together in a holistic manner. We need an outcome from Rio+20 that reflect this understanding and that relates to the concerns of all.”

More than 120 heads of state and government have confirmed their participation in the Rio conference, making it one of the largest such gatherings of world leaders in recent times.