President Tarja Halonen will participate in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 14–21 June. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has invited her to join him to present the report prepared by the UN High-level Panel on Global Sustainability on 21 June.
President Tarja Halonen acted as co-chair of the High-level Panel and, in Rio she will continue her efforts for promotion of sustainable development. In a meeting to be held on 17 June, the members of the panel, Nobel Laureates and a group of global leaders (‘the Elders’) will draw up a declaration of sustainable development. A broad-based public debate on the declaration will be held the following day, and it will be introduced to the heads of states and governments participating in the Rio conference on 21 June.
In addition, President Halonen’s agenda during the conference will include several speeches and panel discussions, focusing on climate change, sustainable development, equality, as well as the status of women and population issues. She will participate, for example, in a panel discussion “Gender Equality is Sustainability”, organised by the Nordic Council of Ministers, and speak in the Women Leaders’ Summit on the subject “The Future Women Want”.
President Halonen has been invited to co-chair a High-level Task Force for promoting and advancing the sexual and reproductive health and right targets agreed upon at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994. The first informal meeting of this Task Force will be held in Rio. President Halonen and the other co-chair of the Task Force Joaquim Chissano, former President of Mozambique, will also discuss the future work of the Task Force with Babatunde Osotimehin, the Executive Director of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Additional information: Hannu Kyröläinen, Counsellor (sustainable development issues in particular), Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 6033; Petra Paasilinna, First Secretary (High-level Task Force in particular), Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 6469
- Press release: Prime Minister Katainen to lead the Finnish delegation to the Conference on Sustainable Development
- Additional information on the conference and Finland’s targets on the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ Rio+20 website (in Finnish)
- The website of the UN High-level Panel on Global Sustainability: http://www.un.org/gsp