Cuban News Agency

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During an exchange of views aimed on a document circulated prior to the
World Conference on Sustainable Development, to take place June 20-22 in
Rio de Janeiro, several professionals, who signed the document, stressed
the call issued by Fidel Castro that “A better distribution of wealth and
of the technologies available in the world could spare humanity such
devastation. Less luxury and waste in a few countries could bring about a
reduction of poverty and hunger in a large part of the planet…Let
selfishness and hegemonism cease, as well as callousness, recklessness and
deceit.”

Nobel Peace laureate Argentinean Adolfo Perez Esquivel underscored the
necessity of “a new social contract among our countries at the
international level” and he went on to suggest the setting up of a “penal
court on the environment” that judges those responsible ones for attempts
against nature.

Venezuelan Luis Britto Garcia, who was awarded the ALBA Arts Prize, called
for the full sovereignty of states as to the exploitation and protection
of their country’s natural resources. He also stressed the need for the
prevalence of public decisions democratically adopted over the interests
of private property and for the recognition of the Right to Environment
and the protection of nature as a fundamental human right.

Prestigious Brazilian personalities expressed their support of the message
launched by the Network in Defense of Humanity, including architect Oscar
Niemeyer; moviemaker Walter Salles; singer Beth Carvalho; Theologian
Leonardo Boff; writer Fernando Morais; poet Thiago de Mello, and artists
Leticia Spiller and Marco Rica.