Assessing progress in fulfilling commitments - preparation for the United Nations Millenium Summit

UN Chronicle, Spring, 1999 by Rob Wheeler

The General Assembly is finalizing plans for a Millennium Summit, which will likely take place during the Millennium General Assembly in October or November of the year 2000. The Summit will "provide guidance to the United Nations for meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century". In preparation, the Secretariat is to host a series of consultations, which will be held principally at Regional UN Centres in the fall of 1999. In response to these consultations in which civil society has been assured a substantive role, the Secretary-General will draft a report containing specific recommendations for the Millennium Summit, which will then go to the Assembly for consideration.

Meanwhile, civil society and the non-governmental organization (NGO) community have engaged in a series of consultations and planning meetings over the past year. Efforts are well under way for a series of events, from the local to global level, culminating in a Millennium Forum, scheduled to be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York late in the spring of 2000. Cross-cutting and thematic issues have been identified, and convenors put in place to draft recommendations for the Secretary-General's report and to give input to the Millennium Summit itself.

Over the past decade, specific action plans have been agreed to by the nation States at each of the UN-sponsored global conferences. Much of the responsibility for implementation, however, has devolved to these States. While follow-up activities have gone forward, many people have been disappointed with the limited progress in fulfilling commitments.

For example, the target for developed countries of increasing official development assistance (ODA) to 0.7 per cent of gross national product has eluded us, as most of these countries have, in fact, committed less money rather than more for ODA.

A number of primary civil society conferences are being organized to specifically address this need for enhancing and increasing implementation. The Seoul International Conference of NGOs will meet in Korea from 10 to 16 October 1999, focusing on the plans and platforms of action of the major UN world conferences. Following this, the World Civil Society Conference will meet in Montreal, Canada from 8 to 11 December 1999 to develop concrete proposals for the year 2000 and beyond, build strategies and partnerships for improving global governance, and create public support for a stronger United Nations to meet the urgent needs of planet Earth for peace, sustainable development, gender equity, social justice and the rule of law.

The first of the primary global conferences, however, is the Hague Appeal for Peace, meeting at The Hague from 11 to 15 May 1999. Again, this is a coming together of the primary peace and disarmament organizations from around the world, to develop a very specific "Agenda for Peace and Justice through Law", which will be submitted to the General Assembly and nation States over the next several years. It is based on four strands, including disarmament, humanitarian law, non-violent conflict resolution and the root causes of war/culture of peace. It will include key presentations by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchu and Queen Noor of Jordan.