Social Watch Report 2012

Growing inequalities and unregulated finances are expropriating people everywhere from their fair share in the benefits of global prosperity. The Social Watch Report 2012 concentrates on the effects of present mismangements and false recepies on the rights and well-being of future generations. “The ‘right to a future’ is the most urgent task of the present,” writes Roberto Bissio, coordinator of Social Watch, member of the Reflection Group and editor-in-chief of the study. “It is about nature, yes, but it is also about our grandchildren, and about our own dignity, the expectations of the 99% of the world’s 7 billion men and women, girls and boys that were promised sustainability two decades ago and have found instead their hopes and aspirations being melted into betting chips of a global financial casino beyond their control.”

The lengthy study, based on the contribution of citizens’ organizations in 66 countries from all over the world that produced their national reports, concludes that “growing inequalities and unregulated finances are expropiating people everywhere from their fair share in the benefits of global prosperity”. “Our children will inherit the burden of deforestation, desertification, erosion of biodiversity and climate change. To revert this trend, the promise of universal dignity brought by human rights has to be enforced and the rights of future generations need to be recognized and properly defended,” concludes this 16th edition of the Social Watch Report.

The thematic chapters

• The right to a future by Roberto Bissio

• Human rights should be at the core of economic recovery, Civil Society Statement

• Rio+20 and beyond: no future without justice by the Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development

• Rio+20: implementation is the key by Chee Yoke Ling, Third World Network

• Sustainable development and a renewed role for the State in the Arab region, Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND)

• Switching paradigms: the only way out by Alejandro Chanona, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)/Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectives

• Nigeria: keys for sustainable poverty reduction by Edward Oyugi, Social Development Network (SODNET)

• How to assess the sustainability of development: lines of European intervention by Gianfranco Bologna/Giulio Marco, Social Watch Italy

• Current practices are threatening our very existence, Eurostep

• Green and equal: financing for sustainable and equitable development by Kate McInturff, Feminist Alliance For International Action (FAFIA)

• From aid effectiveness to tax justice by Barbara Adams, Global Policy Forum

• Intergenerational justice: satisfying needs instead of greed by C.J. George, terre des hommes Germany

• The indignados are asking the right questions about Europe’s future by Mirjam van Reisen, Tilburg University/Simon Stocker and Georgina Carr, Eurostep

• Housing, land and sustainable development by Miloon Kothari/Shivani Chaudhry