A view from the United Nations
July - August 2005
The World Summit : UN Reform will mean little unless poverty eradication tops the agenda
By Vicente García-Delgado, CIVICUS UN Representative (New York)
Citizens beware! The UN Word Summit, formerly known as the ‘Millennium+ 5 High-Level Meeting’, scheduled to convene in New York next week, is in grave danger of failing to adequately address the world’s most pressing challenge and it’s greatest injustice - global poverty. Only an unprecedented show of human solidarity on a global scale could favorably tip the outcome of the Summit. The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) had some limited success in achieving this during the G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland in July. Building on this limited but positive result, countless millions of concerned citizens are now playing a critical part in a much greater challenge - ensuring that the UN World Summit keeps its focus on poverty eradication.
The purpose of the UN World Summit, which is taking place five years after the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, is to review the progress made in implementing the Millennium Declaration unanimously adopted by UN Member States during the Millennium Summit, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs, which principally aim to halve extreme poverty by 2015, are generally considered a first, yet timid and minimalist step towards eliminating poverty entirely. They would make it possible for poor countries to achieve the essential conditions to getting on the ladder toward their own sustainable economic and social development.
The Summit’s basic framework is based on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s report ‘In Larger Freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all’ (www.un.org/largerfreedom/contents.htm ) and closely follows the report’s structure of four clusters of thematic issues: ‘Freedom from Want’ (Development);’Freedom from Fear’ (Peace and Collective Security);’Freedom to Live in Dignity’ (Human Rights and the Rule of Law) and ‘Strengthening the United Nations’.
While all four of the clusters are hugely significant and need to be addressed concurrently, ‘Freedom from Want’ is, justifiably, at the top of the list. The world is seeing an unprecedented accumulation of wealth in rich countries, with more than a 1000 million citizens subsisting in extreme poverty, and 50,000 people, 30,000 of which are children, dying every day through lack of access to the basic necessities they are entitled to under the UN Charter (www.un.org/aboutun/charter) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (www.un.org/Overview/rights.html).
Preparations for the UN World Summit have been underway for almost a year. These have included numerous multinational, regional and bilateral negotiations, as well as a wide range of consultations, not least being a historic two-day ‘UN General Assembly Hearings with Civil Society’ in June 2005 (www.un-ngls.org/GA-hearings.htm). This was the first time the UN General Assembly devoted two days to hearing the views and recommendations of civil society as part of its preparations for a summit.
The interventions by civil society speakers, many of which were GCAP members, were widely recognised as being well informed, forceful, articulate and convincing. This led to a set of civil society recommendations and demands that had a positive impact on later versions of the General Assembly President’s carefully crafted “Draft Outcome Document” (DOD).
The latest DOD (www.un.org/ga/59/hlpm_rev.2.pdf ) is dated 5 August, 2005. While the General Assembly President continues his consultations in earnest, such consultations are largely aimed at finding convergences of interests and opportunities to bridge gaps. A new DOD is now unlikely to emerge at this late date. While the current one does not fully satisfy anyone, there is a growing sense that something positive and meaningful has to come out of the World Summit. The current version has many limitations but it is politically within reach and, if implemented, will be a significant step forward toward achieving the Summit’s aims.
It can safely be said that NGOs and civil society at large find the current DOD to be too timid, and are displeased with their lack of full participation in the preparation process, along with a myriad of other issues. These range from gender inequity, providing insufficient aid to fulfil even the minimalist MDGs and failing to set targets for developed countries to reach the 30-year promise to devote 0.7% of their GNP to official development aid.
There is also controversy among the UN Member States around the specific thematic clusters. As UN Ambassadors and their staffs return to their missions in New York after their summer consultations in the capital cities, the pace of negotiations and consultations in the days leading up to the Summit have been stepped up. Civil society and NGOs at the UN are grabbing every opportunity to remind governments of their solemn commitments in 2000 - indeed their commitments since 1948.
Until a few weeks ago, it was felt that that while it would not be easy, the chances of adopting a generally acceptable ‘Outreach Document’ was still within reach. On 17 August, according to news agency Reuters, Western diplomats said that the US had launched a last-minute drive to scrap much of the current DOD and to start afresh with a line-by-line negotiation, or agree to a new three-page document that would leave less than a page to address each of the four thematic clusters (www.reformtheun.org/index.php/eupdate/1353).
This development is not totally unexpected. On 2 August, 2005, US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, Deputy US Permanent Representative to the UN, had already declared that, ‘if there is to be an Outcome Document, it must be transformed to have the substance and tone of an instrument appropriate for adoption at the level of Heads of State and Government.’ A follow-up statement was far more direct - the United States would seek ‘a major rewriting and drastic shortening of the section on Development.’ If this results in a ‘drastic shortening’ of the list of 50,000 unnecessary deaths taking place in the world every day, I would certainly support it. Indeed, no further solemn UN declarations on development would be needed.
It is now almost impossible for 191 countries to renegotiate, line-by-line, the many complex issues involved in the DOD’s four clusters, in time for the document to be adopted by the General Assembly on September 16. A cursory perusal of the US comments to the existing DOD, released on 25 August, should dispel any doubts about this (www.reformtheun.org/index.php/articles/1352). Any references to the MDGs have disappeared! Both the US State Department and UN Ambassador John Bolton must be aware of how impractical this is. What would happen if every Member State, now, in turn, submitted their own wish list?
GCAP members are working hard to encourage Member States, including the US, to embrace fully and decisively the solemn commitments adopted through the Millennium Declaration, and to carry out those commitments in a complete and transparent manner. All of us, whether within or outside GCAP, must resist efforts to roll back these commitments. Through our local, national, regional and global organisations, we can all make a difference.
If you haven’t done so already, please get involved. Visit GCAP’s website at www.whiteband.org and see the list of mobilisation events scheduled around the world in September. Please check the list of countries to see what is happening in yours.
In solidarity,
Vicente García-Delgado, CIVICUS´ UN Representative
Please send your comments to CIVICUSUN@aol.com
Below you will find all previous columns:
• Millions roar but the G8 whispers - Let the Millennium+5 Summit make up the difference
• “Global Justice - Northern citizens have a special responsibility to make it happen”
• Letting the United Nations be all that it can
• “Appointment with History: The world looks up to John Bolton to help achieve the MDGs”
• “We are rolling!: Civil society’s call for poverty eradication impacts the World Economic Forum and the Group of Seven”
• No more excuses!: The Tsunami must not be allowed to wash away the Millennium Development Goals
• A Call To Action 2005: Global Civil Society mobilizes to demand an end to poverty and the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals
• TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: Should civil society and the Global Compact live under the same UN roof?
• The UN Global Compact: A big red herring disguised in UN blue?
• Happening now: A global revolution of consciousness
• Lasting security for all: Shifting from state security to security of the people
• The UN – Permanently relevant or temporarily relevant?
