Brundtland Commission

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The Brundtland Commission - formally the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), known by the name of its Chair Gro Harlem Brundtland, was convened by the United Nations in response to the 1983 General Assembly Resolution A/38/161 - "Process of preparation of the Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond" welcoming the establishment of such a Commission. In A/38/161, the General Assembly:

"8. Suggests that the Special Commission, when established, should focus mainly on the following terms of reference for its work:

(a) To propose long-term environmental strategies for achieving sustainable development to the year 2000 and beyond;

(b) To recommend ways in which concern for the environment may be translated into greater co-operation among developing countries and between countries at different stages of economic and social development and lead to the achievement of common and mutually supportive objectives which take account of the interrelationships between people, resources, environment and development;

(c) To consider ways and means by which the international community can deal more effectively with environmental concerns, in the light of the other recommendations in its report;

(d) To help to define shared perceptions of long-term environmental issues and of the appropriate efforts needed to deal successfully with the problems of protecting and enhancing the environment, a long-term agenda for action during the coming decades, and aspirational goals for the world community, taking into account the relevant resolutions of the session of a special character of the Governing Council in 1982;"

[edit] Brundtland Report

The Report of the Brundtland Commission, Our Common Future, was published by Oxford University Press in 1987. The full text of the Brundtland Report can be downloaded as a scanned copy of the UN General Assembly document A/42/427 - a 16 Mbyte [pdf] file.

The report deals with sustainable development and the change of politics needed for achieving that. The definition of this term in the report is quite well known and often cited:

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."