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6 March 2012 | | |

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Uruguayan organizations identify priorities towards UN Summit Rio+20

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The First National Meeting of the Civil Society took place on Saturday, in Montevideo, capital city of Uruguay, in the preparatory process towards the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development which will take place in June, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The organizations that met in the headquarters of Uruguay’s main trade union, PIT-CNT, shared their rejection to green economy. As social organizations from all parts of the world warn, green economy will be highlighted as one of the main proposals at the UN conference. Real World Radio covered the event and interviewed feminist activist Lilián Celiberti, member of the Cotidiano Mujer group.

This was the first meeting of the Uruguayan civil society organizations in light of Rio+20 and the parallel (alternative) conference that will take place in the same city. The alternative summit is referred to by the Brazilian social groups as “the Peoples’ Summit”. The idea of the Uruguayan groups is to write a positioning document and have the draft ready for April to discuss it with the national government in May and talk about the priorities of the environmental agenda of the country and the issues raised for the UN meeting.

The initiative of this coordination stemmed from the Uruguayan government, but the social groups demanded an autonomous process to advance on their own agenda. President Mujica’s administration received the proposal in good manner.

Celiberti told Real World Radio what the Uruguayan social organizations share in terms of the environmental agenda of the country and the definitions towards Rio to discuss with the government. The organizations are worried about the advance of monoculture plantations in Uruguay, especially the advance of soy, the increase of the use of agrotoxics, the power of large companies, the weakness of the environmental control bodies, the state subsidies to capital investments and the lack of health policies to analyze the impacts of the new models of production.

Celiberti believes “the trend is to think of common goods as commodifiable natural resources”. In this context “the role of governments is the commodification of nature”, she regretted.

The feminist leader considered that social organizations and critical thinking are not strong today in Uruguay. "The visions that criticize this model of growth based on neo-extractivism and the use and commodification of common goods" are being cornered.

This is why this process of dialogue between the government and the civil society towards Rio+20 holds a special significance “beyond the drafting of a document”. One of the goals of the Uruguayan civil society is to strengthen the dialogue with the government. “I think that the aim of this process is to establish critical thinking and a network of joint work that allows us to discuss with the government about stronger positions held by the society”.

This vision has a strong political side aiming to reject the concept of "green economy". “I don’t want to rethink green economy, I want to reject the concept of green economy”, said Celiberti.

The Uruguayan activist talked about the lack of awareness and knowledge in some parts of the government about the implications of green economy. Nevertheless, she said that the same happens within some social organizations. “There are many organizations that are far away from this debate. I hope we can contribute with critical elements and be stronger after this process”, she said. According to Celiberti, the argument of green economy as a solution to poverty is no more than a “slogan” of the North, “to disguise the new path of international capital” in the context of a "deep civilization crisis".

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(CC) 2012 Real World Radio

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