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STATEMENT The UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio+10) opens today in Johannesburg, South Africa. Ten years ago, the Conference in Rio de Janeiro adopted an historic document, the Rio Declaration, that for the first time ever linked the social development objectives with the environmental concerns, and defined the commitments to be taken by world states to that effect As follow-up to this Declaration, a Protocol on world climate change was signed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, setting the rules for reducing the emission of pollutants into the Earth's atmosphere. It is to be regretted that this document has not been ratified by a number of major states, including the USA, that are the worst polluters of the global environment. Many specialists tend to attribute this year's dramatic natural disasters to the so called "hot-house effect", or, in other words, to the global climate warming, which makes even more urgent the need to comply with the provisions of the world documents adopted at Rio de Janeiro and Kyoto. |
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The problems of the environment, and primarily the working environment, have long been of close concern for the international trade union movement. As far back as the 1970-ies, they were the subject of discussion at several European Trade Union Conferences in Geneva. The world, regional and national trade union centres approved the UN documents on sustainable development, and have ever since been consistently advocating urgent measures for their practical implementation. On the day of the opening of the Johannesburg Earth Summit, the General Confederation of Trade Unions (GCTU) reiterates its solidarity with the just demands by the world trade union movement that the financing of sustainable development projects should be increased at all levels, the discussion of this issue be put on a tripartite basis, and due regard be paid to the opinion of workers who are the main contingent interested in an improved workplace environment. The GCTU joins the efforts by the world trade union movement in its attempts to enhance its contribution to the activities of UN bodies dealing with sustainable development issues. |
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While emphasizing the importance of this problem for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and its workers and peoples, the General Confederation of Trade Unions urges the Governments of the CIS countries to take most earnest measures that would ensure full implementation of the international instruments on the protection of the natural and working environment within the context of social development. We also appeal to trade unions in the CIS countries to render active support to international trade union efforts that will be aimed at fulfilling the decisions to be adopted at Johannesburg and to promote successful sustainable development in their countries. General Confederation of Trade Unions Moscow, 26 August 2002 |
