(2 September 2011) On 7, 8 and 9 September, the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting Preparatory to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, will be held at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile. During this meeting, the countries of the region will define a joint stance which will be presented at the global event to take place in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The meeting will be opened by the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, Alicia Bárcena, the Director-General elect and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Chile, Fernando Schmidt, and the Assistant Secretary-General for Environment, Science and Technology of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, Luiz Alberto Figueiredo.
Other participants will include the Deputy Regional Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Mara Murillo, the Executive Coordinator for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Elizabeth Thompson, and Co-Chair of the Bureau for the Preparatory Process of the conference Rio+20, John Ashe.
The Regional Meeting Preparatory for the Rio+20 Conference will comprise two segments. A plenary session will be held on 7 September between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. All ECLAC member countries and representatives of international organizations and the civil society are invited to the session.
This will be followed by the meeting of the member countries of the Rio de Janeiro Platform for Action on the Road to Johannesburg 2002, whose membership includes the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. This meeting will examine the progress and remaining gaps in the fulfilment of several sustainable development commitments adopted at international level.
An inter-agency document, which was compiled by 19 organizations, agencies and United Nations programmes, and coordinated by ECLAC, will also be presented. It assesses the regional situation and suggests strategic guidelines for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean to progress towards sustainable development.
At the end of the meeting, it is hoped that the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean will adopt the declaration towards Rio de Janeiro 2012.
Some of the other participating authorities include the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, Haroldo Rodas Melgar, the Minister of Housing, Regional Planning and Environment of Uruguay, Graciela Muslera, the Minister of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications of Costa Rica, René Castro, the Minister of the Environment and Drainage of Barbados, Dennis S. Lowe, and the Minister of Coordination for Cultural and Natural Heritage for Ecuador, María Fernanda Espinosa.
The Deputy Minister for Multilateral Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Patti Londoño, will also attend, as will the Vice Minister of the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources of the Dominican Republic, José Rafael Almonte, the Vice Minister of the Environment of Chile, Ricardo Irarrázabal, the Director-General of the Office of Integration and Multilateral Affairs of the Ministry of People's Power for Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, Rubén Darío Molina, and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Jamaica, Evadne Coye.
Presentations will be made by the Head of Multilateral Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Anayansi Rodríguez, and the Deputy Director-General of Multilateral Environmental Agreements of the International Affairs Coordination Unit of the Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico, Santiago Lorenzo Alonso.
Media representatives are invited to attend the meeting which will take place at ECLAC headquarters (Av. Dag Hammarskjöld 3477, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile).
Any queries should be addressed to the ECLAC Public Information and Web Services Section. E-mail: dpisantiago@cepal.org; Telephone: (56 2) 210 2040.
