NGO MG Statement Informal Consultations with Stakeholders on the Intergovernmental Process for the Declaration on Future Generations - 21st February , 2024

My name is Jyotsna Mohan and I am glad to speak on behalf of the NGO Major Group, that brings together many thousands of NGOs and CSOs, who serve millions of people around the world. Many groups are engaged in their national dialogues on the VNRs, at all the regional forums and the key meetings of HLPF.’

We Wish to share our perspectives on strengthening the declaration to fully uphold the indivisibility of human rights across present and future generations. I wish to bring your attention here over the #UNMute CSO Statement where over 315 organizations have backed up the Statement, and more are signing up every day to demand a more inclusive, trusting, and representative process at the Summit of the Future.

We demand an inclusive and participatory Process: We urge immediate actions to ensure the Summit of the Future process is genuinely inclusive, involving a wide range of civil society organizations in a meaningful dialogue. This includes establishing inclusive platforms for engagement and ensuring that civil society contributions are integrated into the Pact for the Future.

We call for enhanced civil society engagement mechanisms: We advocate for concrete steps to enhance civil society participation, such as designated seats for civil society representatives throughout the Summit process, and a comprehensive review to integrate civil society's diverse voices as a core element of the Summit's outcomes

Vision for a Transformative Declaration:

The rights and interests of future generations are fundamentally interconnected with the rights being fulfilled today. Any violations of human rights or deprivations faced by communities alive now shape the world and possibilities inherited by future generations. As the declaration affirms, “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

However, we must caution against notions of intergenerational equity that disregard existing inequalities. Efforts to secure the rights of those not yet born will fail if they do not simultaneously dismantle structures of oppression and discrimination that violate rights across class, race, caste, gender, geography and other dimensions. The declaration must explicitly recognize that intergenerational justice is bound to intra-generational justice - there can be no equality between generations without equity within generations.

This aspiration demands universality: a Declaration encompassing all facets of sustainable development, encompassing social, economic, environmental, and cultural dimensions. We cannot compartmentalize the future; neglecting any aspect jeopardizes the holistic well-being of generations to come.

Clear State Obligations, Not Just Aspirations

While framing broad rights, the current draft declaration contains few concrete State duties or accountability mechanisms. It extensively prescribes rights of future generations to environmental conservation, sustainable land use, clean water and air etc but without spelling out corresponding obligations of States as duty bearers. 

We recommend the declaration clearly enumerate legal responsibilities of States and non-state actors, particularly:

• Respecting planetary thresholds or boundaries on climate change, biodiversity loss, nitrogen cycles, chemical pollution, etc that threaten vital Earth systems. This includes phasing out fossil fuels, protecting forests, and transforming agriculture.

• Ensuring equitable access to resources, wealth, and opportunities for all people within ecological limits through redistributive fiscal policies, needs-based resource allocation and fair tenure rights.

• Building participatory, transparent and accountable institutions at all levels that empower civil society and rights holders to monitor implementation and hold duty bearers accountable.

• Advancing global partnership and international cooperation on managing global public goods, without undermining national policy space. Financing commitments must uphold CBDR.

• Enforcing non-discrimination so future generations regardless of attributes enjoy their rights. This precludes prenatal discrimination against potential disabled or female lives.

Our Future in Crisis: Why Urgent Action is Needed

We are the last generation that can change course before catastrophic climate disruption and irreversible biodiversity loss violate the rights of future generations.  At just 1.1°C warming to date, we already witness devastating climate impacts - fires, floods, droughts, sea level rise and extreme weather.  And the natural world is collapsing around us, with 1 million species at risk of extinction.

These crises result from rampant overexploitation of nature, high-carbon capitalist development, growing inequality, and unrestrained consumerism and waste underpinned by a logic of domination, accumulation and violence against our shared planet. This trajectory is eco-socially suicidal.

The enormous scale and urgency of the transition required to secure a just, rights-based future for generations to come is clear. This declaration must inspire States, markets, communities and individuals to act now across all fronts before time runs out. It must promote the interdependent goals of climate stabilization, biodiversity flourishing, universal realization of human rights, and liberation from systems of oppression. Nothing less will protect the heritage we pass on.

Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment

A cardinal principle this declaration must enshrine is the fundamental right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment for present and future generations.  All other rights - to life, health, food, water, culture and development - depend on the stable functioning of biophysical Earth systems that sustain human societies.

Therefore, we call on States to recognize the right to the environment in national constitutions and legal frameworks, in line with the proposed Global Pact for the Environment. Further, transformative environmental action is essential now, by legally recognizing ecocide as a punishable international crime when corporate or State actions knowingly cause large-scale damage to territories essential for future flourishing.

Indigenous Knowledge and Worldviews for Future Generations

The declaration must acknowledge, promote and protect indigenous knowledge systems, governance models and relationships with lands, territories and resources that enable intergenerational stewardship.  Indigenous peoples protect 80% of remaining biodiversity globally by inhabiting regions of high ecological value.

Accountability and Action:

We suggest explicit mention of safeguarding against reprisals, especially for indigenous peoples. We also call for increased transparency, accountability, and the democratization of global governance structures.

Let us join hands and seize this chance to build a legacy worthy of those who will inherit the world we leave behind