Kathmandu, June 14:

A team of civil society representatives on Thursday handed over a memorandum to Deependra Kshetry, vice-chair of National Planning Commission regarding the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN) Arjun Karki handed over a memorandum entitled "Defending Sustainable Development Agenda Nepal: Civil Society Concerns" to Kshetry.

The memorandum based on the outcome of the consultations, contains 19 different urgent calls to action to the Government of Nepal and the global Rio+20 process demanding pro-people and pro-poor sustainable development agenda within the broader framework of human rights.

The memorandum reads that the Rio+20 summit adopts people centric-development framework instead of the current profit-driven, market-let, capital-centric development framework and undermines human rights and social justice.

Accepting the memorandum, Kshetry said that the memorandum will be useful for the government to chart out its strategy towards sustainable development at the country.

Kshetry vowed his commitment to further present the memorandum to PM Baburam Bhattarai.

The conference is also known as Rio+20 summit will take place on 20-22 June in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.