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Section One: Issues from a Youth Perspective
Introduction
The idea of section one is to present issues related to sustainable development from a youth perspective as well as presenting information derived from different sources on the issues addressed in this section.
There are four chapters in this section: Sustainable Development, Women, Human Rights and Natural Resources. These do not represent an exhaustive list of the issues that can be discussed as parts of sustainable development, and as you will find, all four chapters are closely interrelated and in difficult to separate.
Chapter One, is called Sustainable Development. Rather than trying to define what sustainable development is, a general introduction to the term Sustainable Development is provided. There are many concepts and definitions of the words Sustainable Development, yet it was the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED) that through Agenda 21 tried to define some of the things that needed to be done in order to achieve it. Non Governmental Organizations also during the UNCED process tried to bring the world closer to defining what sustainable development needs to include through the NGO Treaties, documents that were drafted as a civil society response to Agenda 21. In this Chapter, the Youth Treaty; the Youth Earth Charter; and the Agenda 21 Youth Chapter are included. It is important that youth organizing around sustainable development issues use these documents that governments and organizations have signed on to, particularly on the issues of youth involvement at all levels of decision making. Although all of these documents are far from perfect, they represent a base from which youth can work from. Chapter One also includes a piece on education, peace and sustainable development; and an article called Embrace the World.
The relationship between human rights and sustainable development is presented in Chapter 2. In a similar fashion as in the previous chapter, key international documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are outlined. This section includes a diversity of youth perspectives on human rights, such as articles on Human Rights and Youth in Latin America; Human Rights in Asia; Environment and Disability; the Disappeared; Environmental Justice; Women's Rights as Human Rights; and Apartheid and its Environmental Legacy.
Chapter three, Women, is one that tries to outline the situation of women worldwide through an article on Women and Sustainable Development which touches upon education, the workforce, consumerism, population and health, and violence. A table "worth a thousand words" presents the situation of women in leadership worldwide, it presents a picture of how under-represented women are in the world's governments. This is something that has repercussions in decisions that are often made with little consideration as to how women will be affected.
Women at the World Environment and Development Organization developed the Women's Healthy Planet Report Cards, a useful tool that groups or individuals can use to measure the health of their communities, these cards are presented in this chapter. Women played a major role in the UNCED process, particularly through the World Women's Congress for a Healthy Planet, and some of the positions that women took regarding Environment and Development issues are outlined. Similarly to the previous chapters, United Nations documents such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women and the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women are summarized. The last part of this section deals with the effects of Structural Adjustment Policies on Women.
Natural Resources is the last chapter in this section. There are two main articles in this section, one on Tropical Deforestation which examines: deforesting for the hamburger habit, genetic resources, and Indigenous Peoples. The second chapter titled Biodiversity, Biotechnology and Indigenous Peoples tries to explain biodiversity; modern technology; loss of forests; indigenous peoples; northern and southern views of biodiversity; political transformation and debt and environment.
Section One is aimed at inspiring youth to ask questions about the issues presented here. We present a canvass with many different strokes, of all colors and by many artists, but it is by no means a complete painting. This painting may be completed by you, the reader, as you think about what we present and find out more about issues related to sustainable development that interest you and do something about it. Sustainable development is a picture that must be painted by many different artists. It is up to you to paint a few strokes.