Civil society, decision-makers are currently gathering online for a preparatory meeting on the fifth session of the UN Environmental Assembly (UNEA5) that is expected to take place early next year, 2021, in Nairobi. UNEA is a UN policy process that specifically focus on the environmental aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030. We join other feminists advocates in the network “Women’s Major Group” to ensure gender equality is central to policies and actions. Read the civil society’s demands for the intersessional forum on UNEA5 here. In addition, a few days ago, civil society held a meeting, where 350 participants from all over the world gathered to discuss the post-pandemic recovery, and how to advance human development in harmony with nature. You can find more information and the recordings of the meeting here.

Key feminist demands

Tackling ocean pollution

• UNEA5 to adopt a mandate to negotiate a legally binding instrument to tackle plastic pollution that covers phase-out/reduction of plastic at the up-stream and middle-stream level, and addresses health impacts of plastic pollution;
• Address other kinds of ocean pollution such as geoengineering (i.e. synthetic micro-bubbles, ocean fertilisation, marine cloud brightening), deep-sea mining, chemicals/hazardous wastes dumping to the ocean;
• Proposals for implementation of the requests
• Include the impacted communities and vulnerable populations in the plastic negotiation process (i.e. fish-eaters, communities impacted by fracking activities, petrochemicals industry pollution).
• Meaningful engagement with the right-holders to assess new technologies.

Health and environment: What a post-pandemic recovery looks like

• Stop bailing out polluters (chemicals industry, airlines, agro-industry, etc.) and divesting from dirty technology/industry.
• Admit and emphasize the link between environmental pollution with human health (communicable diseases as well as non-communicable diseases) that affect all populations especially the vulnerable populations (women, children, people with underlying health problems).

Ecosystem restoration, biodiversity, and development: How can we have development in harmony with nature?

• End dirty business practices that destroyed the ecosystem and ecosystem services.
• Rethink the development paradigm, and development financing, stop funding false solutions. 
• Support interventions using a landscape approach to maintain high biodiversity mix in the ecosystem. 

Our collective feminist statement

Delivered to the Bureau of UN Environment and Bureau of the Committee of Permanent Representatives, 9 June 2020. You can download a copy of the statement here.

Thank you, Mr Chair.

I’m Yuyun Ismawati, from Nexus for Health, Environmental, and Development Foundation, speaking on behalf of Women’s Major Group.

Regarding the involvement and implementation

We would like to express our disappointment for not allowed to participate in the town halls consultation yesterday. We would like to see the more meaningful engagement of Major Groups in various consultation processes and have the opportunity to engage with higher delegates and not talking between ourselves.

We are the rights-holders. UNEA should recognise the devastating impact of the business sector on rights-holders and the environment. It must recognise the conflict of interest of UNEP’s partnership with polluters.

We are currently entering the digital era. UNEA should recognise that there is gender-digital divide where fewer women than men have access to the internet and are affected by the environmental and social impacts of digital technology production and development. We need to re-thinking, re-orient the meaning of development, including in the digital form of development and how we can reduce, eliminate harmful practices towards a meaningful ‘new normal’ worldwide. UNEA and government worldwide should provide more support for sustainable community-led solutions as well as facilitate rights-holders to engage in meaningful participation, including to assess the impact of new technologies.

Regarding tackling the ocean pollution

Women’s Major Group support the legally binding approach to tackling ocean pollution. We request UNEA5 to adopt a mandate to negotiate a legally binding instrument that covers phase-out/ reduction of plastic at the up-stream and middle-stream level and addresses the health impacts of plastic pollution. We also would like to see the new treaty address other kinds of ocean pollution such as geo-engineering, deep-sea mining, and chemicals hazardous wastes dumping to the ocean. For a meaningful engagement and participation of stakeholders, we would like to see the representatives of impacted communities and vulnerable populations in the plastic negotiation process, including a meaningful engagement with the right-holders to assess new technologies.

On environmental health

We need robust control and regulation to create a healthy environment for all, and it should be extended to planetary health. Corona pandemic shows that pollutions dropped drastically when strong regulations and control in place. Women’s Major Group call for UNEA to stop bailing out polluters, especially chemicals industry, agro-industry, etc. and divesting from dirty technology. We want UNEA to actively recognize and emphasize the strong link between environmental pollution with human health that affect all populations. The polluters-pay principle needs to be strengthened, no fiscal incentives/subsidies for polluters and dirty business. We need to replace agriculture and current food production system, with decentralised, localised, biodiverse peasant, and women-led agriculture system using agroecology approach. We also need to enforce existing environmental health conventions and agreements, phase-out harmful chemicals production and use in products and processes, replace with organic and nature-based materials that will not be jeopardising the food productions.