ENB:08:29
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RESUMED SESSION OF THE PREPCOM
The PrepCom met in a resumed session from 7-11 March 1994, at UN Headquarters in New York. Delegates spent most of the week in informal sessions where they painstakingly negotiated the remaining bracketed text in the Programme of Action. For the most part, delegates based their comments on a comprehensive informal paper prepared by the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), "Suggested Amendments to the Draft Action Programme for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States." This document contained the AOSIS/G-77 amendments and other comments and facilitated the work of the Committee. While delegates spent the most time on Chapter XV, "Implementation, Monitoring and Review," and the Preamble, they also removed some of the brackets in the other 14 chapters, and commented on the Barbados Declaration.
At the conclusion of the resumed PrepCom, most of the bracketed text remained in the Preamble and Chapter XV. Sections of the Preamble that remained in brackets included: human beings as the center of concern for sustainable development; reference to environmental destruction caused by external interventions; despite population density, the small population size of SIDS inhibits them from generating economies of scale; the vulnerability of the economic performance of SIDS; women"s critical contributions to sustainable development; the special situation and needs of the least developed countries; and references to the primary responsibility of national governments for implementing the Programme of Action.
In Chapter XV, issues that remained to be resolved included: reference to the international community"s commitment to meeting Agenda 21 agreements on implementation; the role of the public in decision-making; reordering of economic priorities in the use of resources and increased use of economic instruments; the role of the private sector and the rights of resources owners and intellectual property rights; increasing public awareness and information dissemination; sharing financing responsibilities for sustainable development in SIDS; the role of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in monitoring implementation of the Programme of Action; and other institutional follow-up to the Conference.