The Access Initiative and Rio 2012

The Access Initiative believes that:-

• There needs to be clear definitions of the themes to be discussed at Rio 2012 including the “Green Economy” and “Sustainable Development Governance” for civil society to engage in these issues.
• Public participation needs to be threaded into all topics for the next Earth Summit.   National governments need to engage civil society on these issues from now.
• There is confusion as to how civil society can effectively participate in international negotiations and at meetings. TAI partners believe that the UN systems should embrace the imperative of public participation and CSO’s need to be part of the dialogue for change.
• A review of the successes and failures of implementation of the Rio Declaration is needed.It is time to consider the development of a global convention on access to information,participation and justice (Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration) similar to the Aarhus Convention and agreement to begin this process should start at the next Earth Summit.