With preparations for the June United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) moving in higher gear, the importance of the meeting and the opportunities to put in place the actions and mechanisms needed to address the urgent challenges are being increasingly emphasized. The publication of the zero draft of the outcome document has been widely criticized for neither being sufficiently ambitious, nor stressing the urgent need to address the mounting challenges. In advance of the first meeting of UN member states in New York to consider the proposed outcome document Eurostep prepared its own initial response.

At a European Parliament hearing on ‘the Arab revolutions: One year later’, Bernardino León, the EU Special Representative for the South Mediterranean region argued that the EU, together with other partners, is actively engaging to change the paradigm in the region. Organized by the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs committee (AFET) the hearing involved representatives of national parliaments. The US Ambassador William Taylor, Special Coordinator for Middle East Transition, emphasized that it was crucial to strengthen institutions within the region, ensure respect for human and minority rights, as well as to strengthen justice and the rule of law.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the UN Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC) organized a workshop on 19 January on “The trade dimension of Rio+20: Unpacking the issues”.

The annual World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland took place last week and brought together around 2,600 business and political elites. Europe’s debt crisis and the slow down rich country economies were among the most prominent issues addressed by participants. During the forum, some of the world’s top CEOs claimed that although capitalism is worsening inequalities, there is no better alternative. “Capitalism may be the worst form of systems, except for every other system,” said David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, reminiscent of Winston Churchill’s infamous assessment of democracy.

As a preparatory activity for the Peoples' Summit of Rio+20, the World Social Forum (WSF) took place from 24-29 January 2012 in Porto Alegre, Brazil with the theme: “Capitalist Crisis — Social and Environmental Justice”. The context in which this year’s edition took place is a growing belief that capitalism is in crisis and that it must scrap the neoliberal policies of austerity, tax increases, wage freezes and unemployment driving measures.