[WSIS CS-Plenary] UN OFFICIALS PREVIEW POSSIBLE OUTCOME OF SUMMIT ON DEVELOPMENT, UN REFORM

[Dr. Francis MUGUET]

FYI :

UN OFFICIALS PREVIEW POSSIBLE OUTCOME OF SUMMIT ON DEVELOPMENT, UN REFORM
New York, Aug  5 2005  7:00PM
With the General Assembly’s 2005 World Summit less than six weeks away, 
senior United Nations officials today presented an early look at what 
global leaders might adopt when they gather in September to mark the 
world body’s sixtieth anniversary and forge a new global consensus on 
development, security, human rights and UN reform.

“This is very much a work in progress. We have a long way to go and a 
very short time to get there,” said Ambassador Christopher Hackett of 
Barbados, one of Assembly President Jean Ping’s facilitators monitoring 
the negotiations at UN Headquarters in New York at a press briefing 
previewing the revised “draft outcome” for the Summit, set to run from 
14 to 16 September 2005.

Mr. Hackett, who was joined by Ambassador John Dauth of Australia, 
acting Assembly President in Mr. Ping’s absence, stressed that the 
revised text had been drafted following intense consultations among 
Member States in an attempt to incorporate their reactions to proposals 
for international action on a host of fronts outlined by 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the report “In Larger Freedom.”

That report was released in late March as a five-year update on the UN 
Millennium Declaration, in which world leaders pledged to build a better 
and safer planet for the new century.

In the report, Mr. Annan urged world leaders to take decisive action 
during the Summit on his "bold but achievable" blueprint for making the 
UN more efficient at tackling global problems, including by establishing 
new rules for the use of military force, adopting an anti-terrorism 
treaty, and reforming key UN organs and institutions, such as the 
Security Council and the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights.

Mr. Hackett said that the revised outcome document, the second update 
since June, is more focused on development issues, the concerns of 
indigenous people, as well as trade and market access. He added that 
some of the language had been changed slightly in the wake of the 
decisions taken in Gleneagles, Scotland, last month by the leaders of 
the “Group of Eight” (G8) most industrialized countries, particularly 
with regard to development assistance.

Although much work remained to be done before a document acceptable to 
all Member States was agreed, Mr. Hackett said it was clear that members 
were committed to making real progress during this “last push” before 
the Summit. Member States are expected to continue there negotiations on 
or about 22 August, when Assembly President Ping returned from his 
homeland, Gabon.

He said that although Member States were prepared to establish the 
Peacebuilding Commission proposed by Mr. Annan, the size and composition 
of that body was still under consideration. Discussions would also 
continue on matters related to dismantling the Commission on Human 
Rights and creating a more effective Human Rights Council.

He said that negotiations would also continue on finding agreeable 
language on a definition for terrorism, matters related to the 
responsibility to protect, Secretariat reform, and Security Council 
expansion.


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Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D

MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals
Associate Publisher
http://www.mdpi.org   http://www.mdpi.net
muguet at mdpi.org       muguet at mdpi.net

ENSTA   Paris, France
KNIS lab.  Director
"Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS)
muguet at ensta.fr   http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet

World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS)
Civil Society Working Groups
Scientific Information :  http://www.wsis-si.org  chair
Patents & Copyrights   :  http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair
Financing Mechanismns  :  http://www.wsis-finance.org web

UNMSP project : http://www.unmsp.org
WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org
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