FRIDAY FILE: As the dust settles on the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), it is important to look at what was agreed on paper and to ask: what do the conference outcomes mean for the future of the planet and for women’s rights in particular? In this extended Friday File, AWID offers a women’s rights analysis of the most important Rio+20 outcomes and how they are shaping discussions in key development policy processes, including the post-2015 development agenda.

While governments were selling out on women’s reproductive rights at the official United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), women’s rights and feminist groups were organizing at the People’s Summit for Social and Environmental Justice to denounce the green economy and neoliberal development model and offer feminist proposals in relation to the future of the planet.

By Alejandra Scampini

FRIDAY FILE: Between January and February 2012, while demonstrating against the passing of a law violating their human and territorial rights, the Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous community from Panama suffered brutal repression. AWID spoke to Mariela Arce (1) about this situation.

By Gabriela De Cicco

FRIDAY FILE: The onslaught of transgenic food production, the advance of agro-business driven single-crop farming and the exploitative economic development model, are putting food sovereignty at risk. Those supporting and reinforcing these practices, including transnational corporations, are more focused on profit than caring for food and natural resources.

FRIDAY FILE: Twenty years after the first United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) that took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 it is clear that governments have failed to implement development models that are socially just and environmentally sustainable. It is in the context of revision of the of sustainable development framework that Rio+20 will take place.

FRIDAY FILE: In Africa land rights are critical to economic power. In recent history, there have been three waves of land grabs: colonization, post-independence and present-day land grabs for commercial and apparently environment preservation purposes . Governments and corporations continue to wield their power to the detriment of women in Africa

FRIDAY FILE: The 2012 AWID Forum aims to explore how economic power is impacting on women and planet, and to facilitate connections among diverse groups working on these issues from human rights and justice approaches so that together we contribute to stronger, more effective strategies to advance women’s rights and justice.

FRIDAY FILE: Resisting neoliberal approaches and presenting alternatives, Buen Vivir promotes life and balance among human beings and all living beings so that we co-exist in harmony with nature. AWID spoke to the economist Magdalena León T. from the Latin American Women’s Network for Transforming the Economy (REMTE) about the origins and development of Buen Vivir in Ecuador and what it means for women

By Gabriela De Cicco

FRIDAY FILE: Land, labour and livelihoods were the themes of the 2011 Gender Festival in the East African nation of Tanzania. Organized by the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), the Festival brought together about 4000 predominantly grassroots women’s rights and gender equality advocates over four days.

By Kathambi Kinoti

FRIDAY FILE: About 20 months ago, Chile was shaken by its worst catastrophe in 50 years. For the majority of those affected, reconstruction has been a very slow process and is another unresolved problem that the Sebastian Piñera government has.

AWID spoke to Natalia Flores González, Executive Secretary at Observatorio Género y Equidad (El Observatorio)(Gender and Equity Watch) about how the disaster affected women’s rights and their role in the response and reconstruction processes.

By Gabriela De Cicco