The Earth Charter International Council, in collaboration with the Jacob Soetendorp Institute for Human Values, the Interfaith Consortium for Ecological Civilization and the Center for Ecozoic Societies, hosted a discussion on December 14 focused on strengthening ethical and spiritual input into Rio+20. 

Hundreds of organizations sent in their recommendations for the outcomes of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (also called Rio+20).  These recommendations have been put into a Compilation Document. You can review these submissions here. Around 75 of these contrbutions deal with values, ethics and the Earth Charter. 

In the meeting that was joined by around 50 representatives of different organizations and networks we shared our various organizations' input into the Compilation Document, identified common priorities, and strategized as to how we can work most effectively on the Road to Rio+20 to ensure that our policy priorities are included in the Zero Draft, and in the final outcome document.

The meeting began with a review of the recommendations from the 75 submissions to the Compilation document that discuss ethics, spirituality, the Earth Charter.  These affirm the need for a stronger, ethical and spiritual framework for sustainable development. They emphasize the adoption of specific policy mechanisms, such as ombudspersons for future generations, implementing the Precautionary Principle, new measures of GDP, and millennium consumption goals. 

We then explored how we can lobby effectively in the Rio+20 context, and collaborate to strengthen an effective civil society movement that affirms the need for an ethical framework for sustainable development. Attendees committed to work together in promoting a few key priorities and lobbying together through the next seven intergovernmental meetings on the road to Rio.

Another meeting is being planned in NYC for January 24, just before the initial negotiations on the Zero draft will be starting. For more information on this meeting, please contact Rick Clugston at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it