The Women’s Major Group, comprising over 1,300 groups and networks from every region of the world, has called for joint efforts for the conservation, sustainability and fair use of our
ocean resources, a defence of the Commons, and careful attention to social, economic and ecological sustainability in all oceans-related decisions arising from the first-ever United Nations Ocean Conference (held 5-9 June 2017,
(https://oceanconference.un.org/), and in future processes.
The Women’s Major Group was created at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992, where governments recognized women as one of the nine important groups in society to achieve sustainable development. Since 1992, the Women’s Major Group has been recognized by the UN in the UN processes on Sustainable Development and, since 1996, in the processes of the United Nations Environment Programme.
The Women’s Major Group takes responsibility for facilitating women’s civil society input into the policy space provided by the UN (participation, speaking, submission of proposals, access to documents).
In a Position Paper, read by Vivienne Solis of CoopeSoliDar R.L., Costa Rica, at the Plenary Session of the UN General Assembly on 7 June 2017, the Women’s Major Group sought to clearly convey the rights and responsibility of the people of the seas and ocean, and called for respect of all cultures, diverse voices and ways of life, without placing economic interests as the central or sole concern.
In particular, the Women’s Major Group emphasized that Sustainable Development Goal 14 is indivisible from other SDG goals. Gender inequality (SDG 5) must be addressed in order to change one of the most pervasive inequalities evidenced by predominant extractive industrial agricultural and fisheries models that are not sustainable and favour large agribusinesses and distant-water fisheries, while pushing out small farmers and artisanal fisher people, a majority of whom are women who typically employ more sustainable practices.
The Women’s Major Group called for a quick and just transition towards true democratization and a human-rights-based approach to SDG 14 implementation that explicitly recognizes the human rights of small-scale fishing communities, including women, to participate in, and take responsibility for, integrated management of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture.
The Position Paper urged that conservation and truly sustainable management of the oceans, air and land be placed at the centre of all discussions at the Ocean Conference and be strongly reflected in all intergovernmental processes.
The Women’s Major Group called for concrete actions that will recuperate the ocean spirit for all, and especially for those who need it the most. Oceans are our common heritage and we have the common responsibility — within the options in all our hands — to save them for ourselves and future generations, the Position Paper concluded.
The full text of the Position Paper is given below:
As women from all over the world, and represented by the Women’s Major Group made up of over 1300 groups and networks from every region, we recognize the importance and timeliness
of this meeting. We must join efforts towards the conservation, sustainability and fair use of our ocean resources, defend the Commons, and ensure that we are paying careful attention to social, economic and ecological sustainability in all oceans-related decisions arising from this Conference, and in future processes.
This UN Ocean Conference process provides an important venue to broaden UN discussions on oceans through a transformative approach that is sufficient to the unprecedented challenges our planet faces in coming decades. Specifically, such Conferences must serve as a useful political space to raise issues such as ridge-to-reef approaches, global marine governance,
impacts of deep-sea mining and nuclear waste, impacts of economic partnership agreements and trade agreements on fisheries, the impact on distant-water fisheries on local communities, the need
to move quickly to fossil-free futures, gender justice and women’s human rights and universal human rights related to oceans, indigenous peoples’ rights to free prior and informed consent, and the need to protect long-agreed sustainable principles of common but differentiated responsibilities.
In fulfillment of a key Conference objective — to share experiences gained at the national, regional, and international levels in the implementation of Goal 14 — delegates must surely articulate linkages both between SDG 14 and other relevant goals, especially SDG5, on gender and also on health, economics, climate change, and means of implementation. We especially call for increased clarity on intergovernmental processe following this Conference and coherence with overall HLPF and other multilateral processes, with substantive engagement of civil society, major groups and other stakeholders, especially women and girls from all regions.
Humanity has today the potential of addressing the structural issues rooted in an inequitable world but we sadly do not yet see this clearly and strongly reflected in this first Conference. As
Women’s Major Group representatives, we continue to assert the importance of challenging structural barriers to really recognize the fulfillment of SDG 14 as a core part of Agenda 2030,
and work with all governments and stakeholders to ensure this occurs.
The ocean and its coasts are givers of life, life that provides wealth and richness but, as the Ministry of Agriculture of Costa Rica (Minister Arauz) mentioned yesterday, we have both immense wealth in the oceans, and immense poverty on the coast. Ocean wealth is not translating into well-being for coastal communities. A few get most of the profit from the oceans, thus encouraging the overexploitation of the oceans by both large- and small-scale fisheries. This is occurring in a context where we have crossed several planetary boundaries, already severely damaged and dying coral reefs, sea-level rise and decline of water lens and waterways, major
pollution on land and in oceans, and with major changes already to marine biodiversity.
We must clearly convey the rights and responsibility of the people of the seas and ocean, respect all cultures, respect diverse voices and respect their ways of life without placing economic interests as the central or sole concern.
On this planet with one shared ocean nearly half of our population live in poverty and collectively hold the same wealth as just eight men. This horrific fact underpins our urgent demand to tackle systemic barriers and structural inequalities, including neoliberal capitalism, fundamentalisms, racism and patriarchy, that cause and exacerbate such unimaginable inequalities. It also requires addressing issues of militarism, corporatisation of governance and their influence of multilateral processes, consumption and production, inequalities within and between states, and shrinking civil society space.
We assert that SDG 14 is indivisible from other SDG goals. Gender inequality (SDG 5) must be addressed in order to change one of the most pervasive inequalities evidenced by predominant
extractive industrial agricultural and fisheries models that are not sustainable and favour large
agribusinesses and distant-water fisheries, while pushing out small farmers and artisanal fisher people, a majority of whom are women who typically employ more sustainable practices.
We need now a quick and just transition towards true democratization and a human-rights-based approach to SDG 14 implementation that explicitly recognizes the human rights of small-scale fishing communities, including women, to participate in, and take responsibility for, integrated
management of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture.
While we recognize the number of voluntary commitments coming into the Conference, we still see very little recognition by all stakeholders of the input of women of all ages into this SDG14 approach and few affirmative actions that will re-balance unequal power structures, and unfairly
gendered norms relating to oceans.
We urge you, in the name of future generations and buen vivir, to move on to accountability with strength by defining clear indicators that enable us to sail from today with speed, equity and fairness, and speaking the truth of where we are, and where we must go from here.
In the case of Costa Rica, CoopeSoliDar R.L, the local organization that I represent and as part of our global Women’s Major Group network, we recognize and call for more concrete initiatives, such as our adoption of the Guidelines for the Sustainability of Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) as a powerful instrument to advance issues related to human-rights approaches: governance, gender equality, climate change, food and water security and sovereignty, and more just markets.
We reiterate the need to:
? Recognize universal human rights and the rights and free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and women in all their diversity
? Ensure safety of environmental and women human-rights defenders
? Safeguard bodily autonomy, end violence against women, and enhance respect for girls and women of all ages, including by respecting, protecting and fulfilling sexual and
reproductive health and rights
? Mainstream gender equality and women’s human rights
? Recognize the importance of small-scale fisheries and associated coastal communities in integrated management and securing food security and other benefits from coastal areas,and fully implementing the intent of SDG target 14B
? Move urgently to those social, economic and ecological policies and practices, including no new fossil fuels leaving the ground, and end exploitative and extractivist agriculture and fisheries practices through a just transition to low-carbon and truly sustainable economies.
We need to ensure the strongest human-rights-based approach and that the conservation and truly sustainable management of the ocean, air and land is at the centre of all our discussions in this Conference and strongly reflected in all intergovernmental processes.
We call upon all of you to move on towards concrete actions that will recuperate the ocean spirit for all, and especially for those who need it the most. Oceans are our common heritage and we have the common responsibility — within the options in all our hands — to save them for ourselves and future generations.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide WMG vision and views to this first and urgent Ocean Conference.
2017 ICSF