Join the Statement of the Campaign for People’s Goals for Sustainable Development

We are grassroots organizations, labour unions, social movements,
non-governmental organizations and other institutions committed to forging new
pathways to the future we want – a future where the common good of all takes
precedence over the interests of a tiny elite; where the needs and rights of
all people are realized; where the environment is not sacrificed to benefit
only the few.

We are aware that the current development pathway, will not lead us to
the future we want.

The capitalist development model, in particular under the dominant
neoliberal policy regime, reduces development to growth in production and
consumption of material goods, and grants rights and liberties to capital over
the rights and freedoms of people and the protection of the environment. Under
this framework, transnational corporations and especially the largest financial
institutions based in the advanced countries have come to dominate the global
economy and have intensified labor exploitation, resource extraction and
speculative brigandage for the accumulation of profit.

This has led to greater hunger, inequality, landlessness, unemployment,
precarious employment conditions, indebtedness, loss of incomes and social
protections, deprivation of basic services, dispossession of communities,
forced migration, resource depletion, environmental degradation, and the
climate crisis. It has bred more wars, oppression, violations of human and
trade union rights, deaths and now threaten the very basis of life on this
planet. All sectors among the people of the Global South bear the brunt of
these injustices, including women, children, workers and peasant farmers.

Moreover, the majority of the people are either excluded or denied their
right to participate in the making, monitoring and implementation of decisions
that affect their lives and their future. Local and especially global elites
and powerful actors, on the other hand, are often left unchecked and
unaccountable for their actions that have severe negative impacts on society
and the environment.

We believe that addressing these challenges takes much more than new
strategies for rapidly achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Without addressing the structural roots of such trends, any gains will be
easily undermined. Indeed the window of opportunity to reverse these trends
before ecological and social catastrophe sets in is rapidly closing.

We need to embrace a new vision of development altogether, based on the
philosophy of “living well” in community with others and in harmony with
nature. This entails a profound social transformation which requires a radical
redistribution of ownership, access and control over productive resources so
that no one is denied the basis for living in dignity and freedom. It involves
the democratization of state and social institutions so that communities and
citizens, rather than markets can democratically set social goals and
priorities. It requires a reorientation of production and consumption to meet
people’s needs and human potentials within environmental limits rather than
maximizing short-term profits. It necessitates a deeper respect and
understanding of the symbiosis of people and the natural world instead of the
valorization and commercialization of nature as mere resources and sinks.

As part of this transformative agenda, we challenge our governments and
international institutions to break away from the current model of development
and undertake meaningful reforms that truly address the needs of present and
future generations. In this light we are committed to campaign for peoples’
goals for genuine sustainable development founded on the principles of human
rights, equality, self-determination, and social, gender and ecological
justice. We are also committed to an autonomous civil society process of
formulating and fighting for people’s goals and demands, grounded in grassroots
struggles, and challenging those in power.

We demand governments and the international community to adopt concrete
commitments and targets, consistent with the principle of common but
differentiated responsibilities and respective capacities, on the following
peoples’ priorities:

HUMAN RIGHTS

·
Adopt and enforce appropriate laws
and policies backed up by maximum available resources to protect, promote and
realize the full range of civil, political, social, cultural and economic
rights

·
Support realization of human rights
universally through international cooperation including the provision of
financial and technical resources

·
Respect the sovereign right of
nations to their own development and over their natural resources.

POVERTY AND INEQUALITY

·
Implement progressive and
redistributive taxation, public spending and social policies (in education,
health, wages and social protection) to minimize economic and social inequality

·
Provide support to small-scale
farmers, women producers, rural workers’ secure access to water, land, soils,
biodiversity, credit and infrastructure to end hunger and poverty.

·
Ensure access to energy services for
the poor and marginalized.

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY

·
Adopt food sovereignty as policy
framework towards adequate, safe, nutritious food for all, including policies
and investments to support small-scale farmers, women producers, workers and
secure access to (and protection of) the water, land, soils, biodiversity, and
other resources upon which food security depends.

·
Carry out agrarian reform in order to
secure worker’s, farmer’s and rural people’s democratic access to land, water
resources and seeds, as well as to finance and infrastructure in line with but
not limited to the recommendations of the 2006 International Conference on
Agrarian Reform and Rural Development.

FULL EMPLOYMENT AND DECENT WORK

·
Ensure full and productive
employment.

·
Ensure enforcement of international
labour standards for all workers, including women, migrants and workers in the
informal economy, with reference to the Decent Work indicators as elaborated by
the International Labor Organization (ILO).

·
Promote green jobs and gender
equality at the workplace.

UNIVERSAL SOCIAL PROTECTION

·
Ensure universal access to basic
guarantees of social protection with affirmative action in favour of
disadvantaged groups in line with, but not limited to the recommendations set
in the “Bachelet Report” and ILO Recommendation 202.

·
Ensure income security for the
unemployed and those whose livelihoods depend on precarious work, the sick, the
disabled, pregnant women, children and the elderly as well as on access to
health care, education, housing and sanitation.

GENDER JUSTICE

·
Full implementation of international
commitments on gender equality, as enshrined in but not limited to, Convention
for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 1995 Beijing Declaration
and Platform for Action and Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace
and Security.

·
Ensure equal access and opportunities
in employment, land tenure, education, health, governance, and access to
sexual, reproductive health services.

·
Ensure systematic application of
effective affirmative action to prevent marginalisation and discrimination of
women, and to eliminate all forms of violence against women.

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

·
Limit global temperature rise to
under 1.5 degrees, consistent with the latest climate science, through drastic
emissions cuts and a fair sharing of the global carbon budget that takes into
account historical emissions without resort to offsets.

·
Provide adequate and appropriate
finance contributed by countries on the basis of historical responsibility for
global warming to make reparations to all affected peoples (in line with the
$100 billion per year promised in the 2010 Cancun Agreements).

·
Ensure sharing of safe, appropriate,
ecologically and socially sound technologies unhindered by intellectual
property rights.

·
Shift to and expand renewable energy
use.

·
Adopt ecologically and socially
sustainable production systems and technologies in manufacturing, agriculture,
transportation, mining.

·
Arrest deforestation, overfishing,
biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, pollution and protect livelihoods
of forest-dwellers and fishers.

NEW TRADE, MONETARY AND FINANCIAL
ARCHITECTURE

·
Reform trade relations to promote
equality among trade partners, uphold the special and differential treatment of
developing countries, and help economic development in poor countries.

·
Implement democratic and
pro-developing country reforms in the international monetary and financial
system, in line with those proposed in the 2009 UN Stiglitz Commission Report
(Report of the Commission of Experts of the President of the UNGA on Reforms of
the International Monetary and Financial System), including: improved
regulation of banks, financial flows and financial activities such as
derivatives trading; greater developing country voice in the Bretton Woods
Institutions; broadening the role of central banks beyond controlling
inflation; and establishing a mechanism for sovereign debt renegotiation.

DEMOCRACY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE

·
Institute measures for accountability
and transparency in governance.

·
Ensure people’s participation in
decision-making, access to information, and access to justice – three pillars
of the Aarhus Convention.

·
Ensure compliance of business and
industry with international human rights norms and environmental standards,
including mandatory reporting requirements.

·
Ensure access to remedies for victims
of human rights violations.

PEACE AND SECURITY BASED ON JUSTICE

·
Promote inclusive development
processes–respecting the rights of all socio-cultural groups, minorities,
indigenous peoples, religions, etc. over their cultural heritage and natural
resources and respecting their right to define and pursue their development
aspirations.

·
Adopt policy of eliminating nuclear
arms and other weapons of mass destruction and arms trading.

·
Rechannel military expenditure to
social expenditure.

The ongoing process of establishing a new set of sustainable development
goals and a post-2015 development framework should serve as an impetus for
governments to address these challenges. This process should recognize and
provide full mechanisms and opportunities not just for consultations but for
full participation of civil society in deliberations and decision-making at all
levels.

At the national level, multistakeholder bodies should be formed with
representatives from the government (including parliament and local
authorities), civil society and other stakeholders to decide on national
development strategy and priority targets based on local consultations with
experts’ inputs. At the international level, multistakeholder processes led by
Task Teams under the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals can be
set up where member governments and representatives of civil society and other
stakeholders can formally meet and work side-by-side to draft proposals for the
General Assembly.

These modalities should include providing adequate support for the
participation of those directly affected and most vulnerable to poverty,
inequality, injustice, ecological destruction and human rights violations,
especially from the Global South.

We urge all movements, peoples’ organizations, civil society groups and
all concerned citizens to join this campaign.

List of campaign
initiators