SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
IHRO is keenly promoting link between Human Rights and Sustainable Development at the local, regional, national as well as globally:
- By cordially working with United Nations on Sustainable Development.
- IHRO participated in the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002 in South Africa.
- For the promotion of the great agenda of United Nations IHRO is into various projects of Sustainable Development in Pakistan as well as globally.
In November 2001, IHRO was present at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA) convened an International Forum on National Sustainable Development Strategies in Accra , Ghana . The meeting identified a list of key characteristics constituting sound national sustainable development strategy and provided a first international understanding of what constitutes such a strategy. A Guidance Document1, outlining key characteristics of an NSDS, was prepared based on the recommendations of the meeting. The meeting also agreed that an NSDS is a tool for informed decision-making that provides a framework for systematic thought across sectors and territory. It should not be seen as a new plan, or as a separate planning process outside existing ones, but rather as the adaptation of existing processes in compliance with sustainable development principles.
IHRO participated in “The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)”, held in August 2002, urged states in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) to take immediate steps to make progress in the formulation and elaboration of NSDS and begin their implementation by 2005. Furthermore, both the JPOI and the 11th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) re-affirmed the importance of indicators of sustainable development and encouraged further work on those indicators by countries at the national level, in line with national conditions and priorities.
NEXT STEPS
A number of activities to be carried out at the national level and by regional and international organizations that could support the process of developing national sustainable development strategies. Among these, attention was given in particular to undertaking the following, as appropriate:
* Country reviews of existing national strategies to determine whether or not they could be revised to conform to the principle les and characteristics of national sustainable development strategies;
* Revision of existing strategies or preparation of new NSDS, as appropriate, and establishment of the requisite institutional framework;
* Organizing meetings between representatives from countries with mature NSDS and those from countries that are just beginning the process. In this respect, Egypt invited representatives of the Arab States to participate in its upcoming meeting on environmental management, in Cairo , 7-9 February 2005;
* Comparative studies of country experiences with intergenerational funds;
* Compilation and comparison of examples of NSDS from countries around the world with an emphasis on elaboration of the elements that make them responsive to national needs and characteristics;
* Preparation of modular manuals for countries to guide them through the process of preparing NSDS;
* Preparation of a regional comprehensive study on both data availability and the action required for capacity-building in the area of data generation and collection, data quality and the development of indicators for sustainable development. In this regard, the meeting emphasized the importance of coordinating with the Abu Dhabi Environmental Data Initiative;
* Increased allocation of national resources to develop national data for sustainable development, with support from regional and international organizations, as appropriate.