The Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable DevelopmentJohannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development, A/CONF.199/20, Chapter 1, Resolution 1, Johannesburg, September 2002 was adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), at which the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable DevelopmentPlan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, A/CONF.199/20, Chapter 1, Resolution 2, Johannesburg, September 2002 was also agreed upon.

The Johannesburg Declaration builds on earlier declarations made at the United Nations Conference on the Human EnvironmentDeclaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, A/CONF.48/14/Rev.1, Chapter I, Stockholm, June 1972 at Stockholm in 1972, and the Earth SummitRio Declaration on Environment and Development, A/CONF.151/26 (Vol. I), Chapter I, Annex I, Rio de Janeiro, June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. While committing the nations of the world to sustainable development, it also includes substantial mention of multilateralism as the path forward.

In terms of the political commitment of parties, the Declaration is a more general statement than the Rio Declaration. It is an agreement to focus particularly on "the worldwide conditions that pose severe threats to the sustainable development of our people, which include: chronic hunger; malnutrition; foreign occupation; armed conflict; illicit drug problems; organized crime; corruption; natural disasters; illicit arms trafficking; trafficking in persons; terrorism; intolerance and incitement to racial, ethnic, religious and other hatreds; xenophobia; and endemic, communicable and chronic diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis."

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