Negotiations on the Johannesburg World Summit plan of action are complete and the document was on Tuesday afternoon being ”gavelled” by the so-called Vienna Group.
Negotiators reached agreement on the final major outstanding issue, that of renewable energy, on Monday night.
”The Vienna Group is currently meeting to gavel through all the agreed paragraphs and tonight (Tuesday) at 9pm the main committee will take up the consolidated document,” United Nations representative Susan Markham told reporters at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).
”There still remains one issue related to health and human rights but otherwise the draft implementation plan is complete… this is another sign that the summit is coming to a very successful conclusion.”
Delegates from more than 190 countries are expected to adopt the action plan, together with a political declaration, at the conclusion of the summit on Wednesday.
The last sticking point relates to paragraph 47 which could have a bearing on the controversial issue of female circumcision. The main committee of ministers will likely decide later on Tuesday whether to reopen the paragraph for negotiation.
WSSD Secretary-General Nitin Desai said the summit had achieved its main objectives; that of putting sustainable development back on the world agenda and creating a sense of urgency to protect the planet.
It had also produced scores of partnership initiatives across a wide range of sectors, but in particular on water and sanitation, and energy.
The summit has agreed to move to halve the number of people in the world without access to sanitation.
He acknowledged that the final wording of the action plan did not include targets for the introduction of renewable energy — one of the objectives of developing countries and the European Union — but stressed that the document was still strong on the use of alternative energy sources.
The document recognised the urgency in moving away from traditional sources of energy, while also making those sources ”greener”.
”On renewables there was a proposal to have a global goal, but the language (in the document) does provide a commitment to renewable energy and a sense of urgency… The hooks are there, perhaps we would have wanted them to be stronger, but they are there.”
Desai listed the partnerships announced; the timetables and targets on various issues, particularly in providing water and sanitation; the commitment to the Rio Principles such as ”common but differentiated”; and that significant common ground was found on trade, finance and globalisation as the main achievements of the conference.
The final outstanding issue, paragraph 47, states that the world should ”strengthen the capacity of health-care systems to deliver basic services to all… taking into account the reports of recent United Nations conferences and summits and of special sessions of the General Assembly, consistent with national laws and religious values…”
South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the conference had to deal with the procedural issue of whether the paragraph was closed or still open for negotiation.
”That’s one of the disputed things… If it’s open, the conference needs to debate and reach a conclusion on that.” She said South Africa could not, as president of the conference, comment on whether it wanted the paragraph changed or not.
”But as a South African minister I’m quite happy to answer that.” At the centre of the paragraph was whether health was a human right, Dlamini-Zuma said.
”That’s one part of the coin. The other part is whether women’s rights are human rights. As South Africa our position is that women’s rights are human rights and health rights are human rights,” she said.
”If that is the case then South Africa wants health to be controlled as a human right and not by religion or culture.” In the South African context, religion or culture did not determine whether a person got access to the health service, Dlamini-Zuma said.
”That is very clear and unambiguous,” she said. – Sapa