Roza Aknazarova speaks at the OSCE PA Annual Session, Helsinki, 6 July 2015.COPENHAGEN, 28 September 2015 – Roza Aknazarova (MP, Kyrgyzstan), the Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment, today welcomed the adoption of the United Nations’ post-2015 development agenda and urged the OSCE’s participating States to pursue faithful implementation.
Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the UN General Assembly on 25 September, aim to eradicate poverty and hunger; provide quality education for all; achieve gender equality and reduce all forms of inequality; tackle climate change; ensure environmental sustainability; strengthen partnerships for implementation; and more by 2030.
“The key to realizing these goals will be both the will of individual countries and vigorous international co-operation, including through the OSCE and among its participating States. If we are not to be ashamed before future generations, we must align our priorities with these ambitious goals on the local, regional and global level,” Aknazarova said.
The Chairperson noted that the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Helsinki Declaration, adopted at the conclusion of the Assembly’s Annual Session in July, considers each of the issues behind the SDGs.
mong its recommendations and pronouncements, the Declaration “urges [OSCE] participating States to place climate change high on their political agendas, particularly within the framework of the G7 and G20 meetings, as well as of the United Nations General Assembly, and to support a low level carbon emission economy resilient to climate change and to disasters through development co-operation initiatives.”
The Declaration considers water an indispensable element of national, regional and international security and an essential strategic resource that should serve as a basis for co-operation rather than competition. It urges OSCE participating States, particularly those in Central Asia, to boost their efforts negotiate agreements on shared water-resource management and on regional energy policies.
The Helsinki Declaration also urges new efforts to advance food security, sustainable agriculture and the health of forests. It advocates more efforts toward gender equality, stresses the need for States to prioritize combating climate change, and calls on parliamentarians to “promote economic policies that invest in scientific research, renewable energy technologies, green-growth development, energy-saving technology [and] infrastructure improvements.”
It further promotes more inclusive societies and democratic institutions.
“The parliamentarians of the OSCE area have long voiced our support for the substance of the Sustainable Development Goals. We must now redouble our efforts to achieve them and support each other in doing so. Our common security depends on it,” Aknazarova said.
