Post by akida on Sept 16, 2005 7:49:09 GMT 3
New York, 14 September 2005 - Secretary-General's address to the 2005
World Summit
Majesties, Heads of State and Government, Excellencies, Ladies and
Gentlemen,
Two years ago, speaking from this podium, I said that we stood at a
fork in the road.
I did not mean that the United Nations, marking its sixtieth
anniversary this year, was in existential crisis. The Organization
remains fully engaged in conflict resolution, peacekeeping,
humanitarian assistance, defence of human rights, and development
around the world.
No, I meant that deep divisions among Member States, and the
underperformance of our collective institutions, were preventing us
from coming together to meet the threats we face and seize the
opportunities before us.
The clear danger was that States of all kinds might increasingly
resort to self-help, leading to a proliferation of ad hoc responses
that would be divisive, destabilizing, and dangerous.
To help you, the Member States, chart a more hopeful course, I
appointed the High-level Panel, and commissioned the Millennium
Project. Their reports set the agenda for reform.
Drawing on these reports and the early reactions of Member States, as
well as my own conviction that our work must be based on respect for
human rights, I put forward, six months ago, a balanced set of
proposals for decisions at this Summit.
Those proposals were ambitious. But I believed they were necessary,
given the era of peril and promise in which we live. And I believed
they were achievable, if the political will was there.
Since then, under the able leadership of President Ping, your
representatives have been negotiating an outcome document for this
Summit. They have worked hard, right up to the last minute, and
yesterday they produced the document that is now before you.
Even before they finished their work, this Summit served as a trigger
for progress on critical issues. In recent months, a Democracy Fund
has been created, and a convention against nuclear terrorism has been
finalized.
Most important of all, an additional $50 billion a year has been
unleashed to fight poverty by 2015. The 0.7 target has gained new
support; innovative sources of financing are now coming to fruition;
and there has been progress on debt relief.
By your agreement on the outcome document, these achievements will be
locked in. And progress on development will be matched by commitments
to good governance and national plans to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals by 2015.
Millions of lives, and the hopes of billions, rest on the
implementation of these and other pledges to fight poverty, disease,
illiteracy, inequality, and on development remaining at the centre of
trade negotiations in the year ahead.
Your adoption of the outcome document will achieve vital breakthroughs
in other areas as well.
You will condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,
committed by whomever, wherever, for whatever purpose. You will pledge
to seek agreement on a comprehensive anti-terrorism convention in the
coming year. And you will signal your support for a strategy to make
sure that we fight terrorism in a way that makes the international
community stronger and terrorists weaker, not the other way around.
For the first time, you will accept, clearly and unambiguously, that
you have a collective responsibility to protect populations from
genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
You will make clear your willingness to take timely and decisive
collective action through the Security Council, when peaceful means
prove inadequate and national authorities are manifestly failing to
protect their own populations. Excellencies, you will be pledged to
act if another Rwanda looms.
You will agree to establish a Peacebuilding Commission, backed by a
support office and a fund. This will mark a new level of strategic
commitment to one of the most important contributions the United
Nations makes to international peace and security. You will also agree
to create a standing police capacity for the United Nations
peacekeeping operations.
You will agree to double the budget of the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights and strengthen her office. You will also
agree that the failures of the Human Rights Commission must be
remedied by establishing a new Human Rights Council, the details of
which must now be worked out during the 60th General Assembly.
You will strengthen early humanitarian funding, to prevent hidden
emergencies remaining forgotten -- as we have seen happen too often,
particularly in Africa.
And you will put in place a framework for a far-reaching Secretariat
and management reform, which must be followed up and implemented. An
independent oversight committee and ethics office, on which I will be
giving you more details in the near future, will help ensure
accountability and integrity, while the review of old mandates, the
overhaul of rules on budget and human resources, and one-time buy-out
of staff, will help re-align the Secretariat to the priorities of the
Organization in the 21st century.
Taken together, this amounts to a far-reaching package of changes. But
let us be frank with each other, and with the peoples of the United
Nations. We have not yet achieved the sweeping and fundamental reform
that I and many others believe is required. Sharp differences, some of
them substantive and legitimate, have played their part in preventing
that.
Our biggest challenge, and our biggest failing, is on nuclear
non-proliferation and disarmament. Twice this year -- at the NPT
review conference, and now at this Summit -- we have allowed posturing
to get in the way of results. This is inexcusable. Weapons of mass
destruction pose a grave danger to us all, particularly in a world
threatened by terrorists with global ambitions and no inhibitions. We
must pick up the pieces in order to renew negotiations on this vital
issue, and we should support the efforts Norway has been making to
find a basis for doing so.
Likewise, Security Council reform has, for the moment, eluded us, even
though everyone broadly agrees that it is long overdue.
The fact that you have not reached agreement on these and other issues
does not render them any less urgent.
So this package is a good start. On some issues, we have real
breakthroughs. On others, we have narrowed our differences and made
progress. On others again, we remain worryingly far apart.
We must now turn to the next stages in the reform process.
First, we must implement what has been agreed. The coming session of
the General Assembly will be one of its most important, and we must
give our support to President Eliasson as he assumes his duties. We
must get the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council up
and running, conclude a comprehensive convention on terrorism, and
make sure the Democracy Fund starts working effectively. And the
coming years will test our resolve to halve extreme poverty by 2015,
to act if genocide looms again, and to improve our success rate in
building peace in war-torn countries.
These are the tests that really matter.
Second, we must keep working with determination on the tough issues on
which progress is urgent but has not yet been achieved. Because one
thing has emerged clearly from this process on which we embarked two
years ago: whatever our differences, in our interdependent world, we
stand or fall together.
Whether our challenge is peacemaking, nation-building, democratization
or responding to natural or man-made disasters, we have seen that even
the strongest amongst us cannot succeed alone.
At the same time, whether our task is fighting poverty, stemming the
spread of disease, or saving innocent lives from mass murder, we have
seen that we cannot succeed without the leadership of the strong, and
the engagement of all.
And we have been reminded, again and again, that to ignore basic
principles – of democracy, of human rights, of rule of law – for the
sake of expediency, undermines confidence in our collective
institutions, in building a world that is freer, fairer and safer for all.
That is why a healthy, effective United Nations is so vital. If
properly utilized, it can be a unique marriage of power and principle,
in the service of all the world's peoples.
And that is why this reform process matters, and must continue. No
matter how frustrating things are, no matter how difficult agreement
is, there is no escaping the fact that the challenges of our time must
be met by action – and today, more than ever, action must be
collective if it is to be effective.
For my part, I am ready to work with you on the challenges that remain
, on implementing what has been agreed, and on continuing to reform
the culture and practice of the Secretariat. We must restore
confidence in the Organization's integrity, impartiality, and ability
to deliver – for the sake of our dedicated staff, and those vulnerable
and needy people throughout the world who look to the United Nations
for support.
It is for their sake, not yours or mine, that this reform agenda
matters. It is to save their lives, to protect their rights, to ensure
their safety and freedom, that we simply must find effective
collective responses to the challenges of our time.
I urge you, as world leaders, individually and collectively, to keep
working on this reform agenda -- to have the patience to persevere,
and the vision needed to forge a real consensus.
We must find what President Franklin Roosevelt once called "the
courage to fulfil our responsibilities in an admittedly imperfect
world". I am not sure we have done that yet. But I believe all of us
now understand that we need to do it. Precisely because our world is
imperfect, we need the United Nations.
Thank you very much.
United Nations, New York
World Summit
Majesties, Heads of State and Government, Excellencies, Ladies and
Gentlemen,
Two years ago, speaking from this podium, I said that we stood at a
fork in the road.
I did not mean that the United Nations, marking its sixtieth
anniversary this year, was in existential crisis. The Organization
remains fully engaged in conflict resolution, peacekeeping,
humanitarian assistance, defence of human rights, and development
around the world.
No, I meant that deep divisions among Member States, and the
underperformance of our collective institutions, were preventing us
from coming together to meet the threats we face and seize the
opportunities before us.
The clear danger was that States of all kinds might increasingly
resort to self-help, leading to a proliferation of ad hoc responses
that would be divisive, destabilizing, and dangerous.
To help you, the Member States, chart a more hopeful course, I
appointed the High-level Panel, and commissioned the Millennium
Project. Their reports set the agenda for reform.
Drawing on these reports and the early reactions of Member States, as
well as my own conviction that our work must be based on respect for
human rights, I put forward, six months ago, a balanced set of
proposals for decisions at this Summit.
Those proposals were ambitious. But I believed they were necessary,
given the era of peril and promise in which we live. And I believed
they were achievable, if the political will was there.
Since then, under the able leadership of President Ping, your
representatives have been negotiating an outcome document for this
Summit. They have worked hard, right up to the last minute, and
yesterday they produced the document that is now before you.
Even before they finished their work, this Summit served as a trigger
for progress on critical issues. In recent months, a Democracy Fund
has been created, and a convention against nuclear terrorism has been
finalized.
Most important of all, an additional $50 billion a year has been
unleashed to fight poverty by 2015. The 0.7 target has gained new
support; innovative sources of financing are now coming to fruition;
and there has been progress on debt relief.
By your agreement on the outcome document, these achievements will be
locked in. And progress on development will be matched by commitments
to good governance and national plans to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals by 2015.
Millions of lives, and the hopes of billions, rest on the
implementation of these and other pledges to fight poverty, disease,
illiteracy, inequality, and on development remaining at the centre of
trade negotiations in the year ahead.
Your adoption of the outcome document will achieve vital breakthroughs
in other areas as well.
You will condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,
committed by whomever, wherever, for whatever purpose. You will pledge
to seek agreement on a comprehensive anti-terrorism convention in the
coming year. And you will signal your support for a strategy to make
sure that we fight terrorism in a way that makes the international
community stronger and terrorists weaker, not the other way around.
For the first time, you will accept, clearly and unambiguously, that
you have a collective responsibility to protect populations from
genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
You will make clear your willingness to take timely and decisive
collective action through the Security Council, when peaceful means
prove inadequate and national authorities are manifestly failing to
protect their own populations. Excellencies, you will be pledged to
act if another Rwanda looms.
You will agree to establish a Peacebuilding Commission, backed by a
support office and a fund. This will mark a new level of strategic
commitment to one of the most important contributions the United
Nations makes to international peace and security. You will also agree
to create a standing police capacity for the United Nations
peacekeeping operations.
You will agree to double the budget of the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights and strengthen her office. You will also
agree that the failures of the Human Rights Commission must be
remedied by establishing a new Human Rights Council, the details of
which must now be worked out during the 60th General Assembly.
You will strengthen early humanitarian funding, to prevent hidden
emergencies remaining forgotten -- as we have seen happen too often,
particularly in Africa.
And you will put in place a framework for a far-reaching Secretariat
and management reform, which must be followed up and implemented. An
independent oversight committee and ethics office, on which I will be
giving you more details in the near future, will help ensure
accountability and integrity, while the review of old mandates, the
overhaul of rules on budget and human resources, and one-time buy-out
of staff, will help re-align the Secretariat to the priorities of the
Organization in the 21st century.
Taken together, this amounts to a far-reaching package of changes. But
let us be frank with each other, and with the peoples of the United
Nations. We have not yet achieved the sweeping and fundamental reform
that I and many others believe is required. Sharp differences, some of
them substantive and legitimate, have played their part in preventing
that.
Our biggest challenge, and our biggest failing, is on nuclear
non-proliferation and disarmament. Twice this year -- at the NPT
review conference, and now at this Summit -- we have allowed posturing
to get in the way of results. This is inexcusable. Weapons of mass
destruction pose a grave danger to us all, particularly in a world
threatened by terrorists with global ambitions and no inhibitions. We
must pick up the pieces in order to renew negotiations on this vital
issue, and we should support the efforts Norway has been making to
find a basis for doing so.
Likewise, Security Council reform has, for the moment, eluded us, even
though everyone broadly agrees that it is long overdue.
The fact that you have not reached agreement on these and other issues
does not render them any less urgent.
So this package is a good start. On some issues, we have real
breakthroughs. On others, we have narrowed our differences and made
progress. On others again, we remain worryingly far apart.
We must now turn to the next stages in the reform process.
First, we must implement what has been agreed. The coming session of
the General Assembly will be one of its most important, and we must
give our support to President Eliasson as he assumes his duties. We
must get the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council up
and running, conclude a comprehensive convention on terrorism, and
make sure the Democracy Fund starts working effectively. And the
coming years will test our resolve to halve extreme poverty by 2015,
to act if genocide looms again, and to improve our success rate in
building peace in war-torn countries.
These are the tests that really matter.
Second, we must keep working with determination on the tough issues on
which progress is urgent but has not yet been achieved. Because one
thing has emerged clearly from this process on which we embarked two
years ago: whatever our differences, in our interdependent world, we
stand or fall together.
Whether our challenge is peacemaking, nation-building, democratization
or responding to natural or man-made disasters, we have seen that even
the strongest amongst us cannot succeed alone.
At the same time, whether our task is fighting poverty, stemming the
spread of disease, or saving innocent lives from mass murder, we have
seen that we cannot succeed without the leadership of the strong, and
the engagement of all.
And we have been reminded, again and again, that to ignore basic
principles – of democracy, of human rights, of rule of law – for the
sake of expediency, undermines confidence in our collective
institutions, in building a world that is freer, fairer and safer for all.
That is why a healthy, effective United Nations is so vital. If
properly utilized, it can be a unique marriage of power and principle,
in the service of all the world's peoples.
And that is why this reform process matters, and must continue. No
matter how frustrating things are, no matter how difficult agreement
is, there is no escaping the fact that the challenges of our time must
be met by action – and today, more than ever, action must be
collective if it is to be effective.
For my part, I am ready to work with you on the challenges that remain
, on implementing what has been agreed, and on continuing to reform
the culture and practice of the Secretariat. We must restore
confidence in the Organization's integrity, impartiality, and ability
to deliver – for the sake of our dedicated staff, and those vulnerable
and needy people throughout the world who look to the United Nations
for support.
It is for their sake, not yours or mine, that this reform agenda
matters. It is to save their lives, to protect their rights, to ensure
their safety and freedom, that we simply must find effective
collective responses to the challenges of our time.
I urge you, as world leaders, individually and collectively, to keep
working on this reform agenda -- to have the patience to persevere,
and the vision needed to forge a real consensus.
We must find what President Franklin Roosevelt once called "the
courage to fulfil our responsibilities in an admittedly imperfect
world". I am not sure we have done that yet. But I believe all of us
now understand that we need to do it. Precisely because our world is
imperfect, we need the United Nations.
Thank you very much.
United Nations, New York