31 January 2012: A civil society workshop on “Alternatives and Peoples Struggles for Sustainability: Intensifying People’s Struggles in Defense of the Commons,” which was held alongside the Thematic Social Forum, has launched the Rights for Sustainability (R4S) initiative as a contribution towards the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20).

The workshop took place on 25 January 2012, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and was organized by IBON International, the Brazilian Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (ABONG) and the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty. The main objectives of the workshop were to: share perspectives, knowledge and practices on sustainable development while identifying enabling or disabling conditions for alternatives; assert people’s rights to common goods and explore cooperation among movements and civil society groups; and explore possible cooperation for the Peoples’ Summit on Rio+20, to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012 alongside the Conference.

The R4S initiative launched during the workshop aims to promote a rights-based approach to sustainable development, to ensure that equity and justice are central concerns in the Rio+20 reform agenda and beyond.

The workshop was attended by around 62 participants from various civil society organizations and social movements from Latin America, Africa, Asia, Middle East and North Africa, and Europe. It included panel sessions on: “Durban to Rio” and a critique of green capitalism and the green economy model; people’s resistance to resource grabs in defense of common goods; and development and system change as a fundamental challenge beyond Rio+20. [IBON International Press Release]