The People's Red Line

This morning there was a protest by the courtyard of Riocentro. Members of civil society including youth, women, trade unions, indigenous people, scientific community and faith groups formed a "human red line*" of essential values for the earth and humanity. They were expressing their frustration with the text as it stands and claiming that it was “crossing their red line”.

*A red line is term used by negotiators when they are unwilling to compromise on an issue. 

Here is the message of the protestors:

“The future that is being negotiated for us and for the planet is not the future that we REALLY want. The draft outcome’s lack of ambition and failure to address the people’s most basic demands is unacceptable.

Our goal as members of civil society, is to draw our own peoples’ ‘red line.’ The peoples’ redline will echo the real-life red lines of communities outside the conference centre: those who are calling for a life of dignity but are being ignored.

We are calling on governments to make their decisions based on protecting and implementing  the following basic principles for life: Justice, Rights, Equity and the Earth’s integrity.

We are telling governments that if they cross this bottom line, we will regard Rio+20 as failure. We want our voices heard and well represented!

We will come together as active citizens, regardless of our ethnicity, gender, sexuality, affiliation, title, status or profession.

We will call in concert with the voices of the People Summit and they are calling-back by drawing their own red lines in the people's space on the same day.”

To read the full press release check out http://globalcommons.posterous.com/

Here is a short video of the protest with Nick Meynen, from ANPED Northern Alliance for Sustainability, giving a short description of the protest.