South Bulletin (South Centre, Issue 61, 20 April 2012): The Battle for UNCTAD’s Future Mandate

This issue of South Bulletin focuses on two sets of negotiations at the United Nations -- the UNCTAD XIII which starts on 21 April in Doha, and the Rio+20 summit to be held in June.

UNCTAD conferences are held every four years. The last two sessions were quite tame affairs. But UNCTAD XIII (21-26 April in Doha) is expected to be difficult and even fiery, because the future mandate of UNCTAD to undertake work on key issues like the global financial crisis is being questioned. Pre-conference negotiations in Geneva hit an impasse. The developing countries are putting up a fight to preserve the mandate given at UNCTAD XII in 2008.

The South Bulletin focus on UNCTAD includes:

A preview of the UNCTAD XIII conference
The G77/China statement during the Geneva impasse
A statement by over 50 former UNCTAD senior officials expressing their serious concerns over the attempts to silence UNCTAD
How UNCTAD has been ahead of the curve in anticipating global problems and offering solutions.

The second focus is on the Rio Plus 20 negotiations. The latest round took place at the end of March, when the draft outcome document went through a first reading. There are several major issues under dispute, including the Green Economy, Sustainable Development Goals, the means of implementation (finance and technology) and the institutions to follow up on the results of Rio 2012. The Bulletin has these articles:

Rio plus 20 Summit issues hotly debated
North-South divide over Rio plus 20 outcome document.

Finally the Bulletin also carries an article on why there is need for a new treaty to promote a new R and D model to meet both goals of innovation and access to affordable medicines needed especially in developing countries. Such a treaty was also proposed by a WHO expert group report released on 5 April.

To access the whole South Bulletin, please icon click here