Sustainable Tourism Law

76 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW To summarize, the road towards a Sustainable Tourism was not isolated, it was shared with other fields of human sciences. And, finally, it captured the attention of governments and public bodies. Environment and sustainability as a global concern. The Stockholm Conference From an international standpoint, we may say that the 1972 Conference on the HumanEnvironment held in Stockholm, Sweden, was one of the first Conferences devoted to environmental issues. A “turning point”, as has been noted 79 . The Stockholm Conference was attended by 113 states and representatives from 19 international organizations, and was concluded with a Common Declaration, articulated in 26 Principles, and focused on “ the need for a common outlook and for common principles to inspire and guide the peoples of the world in the preservation and enhancement of the human environment ” 80 . The assumption was that “ The protection and improvement of the human environment is a major issue which affects the well-being of peoples and economic development throughout the world; it is the urgent desire of the peoples of the whole world and the duty of all Governments ”. As a result of the conference a Report and an Action Plan were approved 81 . The “Brundtland Commission” and the Report “Our Common Future” Ten years later, in 1983, the UN General Assembly created the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), also known as the “Brundtland Commission”. The Commission was asked to formulate “ a global agenda for change ” and “ to propose long-term environmental strategies for achieving sustainable development by the year 2000 and beyond ”. The Commission published, in 1987, a Report, with the title “Our Common Future”, that contained a definition of sustainable development according to 79 We read in the UN website: “The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (also known as the Stockholm Conference) was an international conference convened under United Nations auspices held in Stockholm, Sweden from June 5-16, 1972. It was the UN’s first major conference on international environmental issues, and marked a turning point in the development of international environmental politics”. 80 As a result of the Conference, the UN established the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as the world’s principal international environmental organization. 81 Readable at http://www.un-documents.net/aconf48-14r1.pdf. To my knowledge, tourism as such is not mentioned in the Report. On page 54 of the Report, it reads as follow: “Concerning recommendation 114, Italy introduced an amendment calling for the insertion of the words: “and activities including those concerning the economic, sociological and tourism sectors” after the word “disciplines” in the fourth item of the second paragraph. The Conference adopted the amendment by 30 votes to 12”. This is the only reference on tourism that I found.