2005 GCSF & GC-23/GMEF DEBRIEFING
UNEP RONA (United Nations Environment Programme, Regional Office for N. America) and CIEL (Center for International Environmental Law) co-organized a debriefing from the 2005 Global Civil Society Forum (GCSF) and the 23rd Governing Council/ Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC-23/ GMEF). The event took place at the CIEL offices in Washington DC on March 8 th 2005.
Improved access and participation:
The
broad sense conveyed by the civil society participants at the GCSF and
the Governing Council was that the process and procedures had been more
inclusive of civil society participants in 2005 than in previous years.
In addition to the GCSF, CS participants were allowed to attend substantive
sessions of the GC-23 and GMEF and make interventions.
Global Civil Society Forum:
The GCSF broke out into working groups on International Environmental Governance, the Chemical Situation (including mercury) and the Programme of Work and the Budget. Additionally, a session was organized on the impact of the tsunami, and the environmental and health considerations involved in the recovery and rebuilding efforts.
The report of the GCSF is available at http://www.unep.org/DPDL/civil_society/PDF_docs/2005%20COMPLETE%20GCSF%20REPORT.pdf
NGO Statement on Chemicals:
Some NGOs (including NRDC, EEB, Greenpeace etc) drafted a joint statement on chemicals. The statement made an impact on the GC-23/GMEF proceedings, and some recommendations were incorporated in the final report.
Next steps:
During the discussions, the following items of interest were mentioned:
Accreditation with UNEP : NGOs who are accredited with UNEP will receive (i) a copy of the working documents of the GC/ GMEF process at the same time as the Committee of Permanent representatives and (ii) written statements on the working documents. This could be very helpful to NGOs who are engaged in UNEP's GC/ GMEF processes.
Details about accreditation is available at http://www.unep.org/DPDL/civil_society/About/accreditation.asp
The MDG + 5 Summit : The Summit will be held between September 14 -16 2005. Civil Society hearings will be held in June as a part of the lead up process to the September summit.
2006 GMEF/ GCSF: The next GCSF/ GMEF sessions will be held in February 2006, in Dubai. One issue of focus will be energy - in order to feed into the CSD-14 process.
N. American Civil Society Participation: We need to find avenues to fund N. American civil society participation at UNEP meetings, as travel funding is not readily available to NGOs from N. America and W. Europe. UNEP has offered to work with interested civil society organizations to help raise funds for this purpose.
- Veena
Ramani
Integrative Strategies Forum