[vnforum] UN Millennium Summit (summary)

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

[ Viet Search Engine on VietGATE http://www.vietgate.net ]

[vnforum] - Mesg from Tran Dinh Hoanh <hoa...@erols.com>

Dear all,

The following excerpt is from Global Futures Bulletin #116. FYI.

Have a great day!

Hoanh
_______

UN MILLENNIUM SUMMIT

The UN Millennium Summit 6-8 Sept 2000, constituted the largest
gathering of heads of state (~152) in history. It was also the highest
level meeting on reform and new directions for the UN since its
inception in 1945.

Parallel events included the State of the World Forum, and the
Religious Leaders Summit.

The Millennium Declaration which was adopted at the UN
Millennium Summit commits participants to a number of goals by
2015 including:

- Reduce number of people living in extreme poverty (less than
US$1/day) by 50% (1.6b to 0.8b)

- Reduce the number of people without access to clean drinking water
by 50% (currently ~1.3 billion people, 22% of total, lack access to
clean water [1], and therefore would need to be reduced to 650m, or
820m if calculated as % of world population).

- Reduce women deaths in childbirth by 75% (currently 600,000/an
childbirth-related deaths of women [2], and would therefore need to
be reduced to 150,000/an by 2015, or possibly up to 180,000 if
calculated as deaths per 1000 births).

- Reduce child mortality by 67% (currently 58 deaths per 1000 births
global average [3], and therefore would have to be reduced to ~20 per
1000 births)

- Reverse the spread of AIDS.

- To ensure the implementation of treaties in areas such as arms
control and disarmament and of international humanitarian and human
rights law; to take action against international terrorism.

- To call on states to accede to the international landmines ban and the

Rome Statute authorizing establishment of the International Criminal
Court.

But, like many previous failed commitments by the UN members,
there is no certainty these goals will be realised. For example, no
country has yet ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and most Annex B
countries are not on track to achieve even these modest reduction
targets [4]. The UN is calling for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to be
ratified by 2002.

The Millennium Declaration has a paragraph requesting the General
Assembly to make periodic reviews of progress in implementing the
goals, and for periodic reports by the Secretary-General.

Peacekeeping
There have been 53 peacekeeping missions 1948-2000, 40 of those
1988-2000. Spending on peacekeeping peaked in 1994 at $3.2b, and
is estimated at $2.2b for 2000.

Successful peacekeeping missions include El Salvador, Namibia, and
East Timor. Less successful include Somalia and Bosnia where there
was less local support for their presence.

A major report to the UN Millennium Summit calls for changes in the
way peacekeeping operations are organised and financed. It also
recommends they do not remain neutral when one side initiates
aggression.

Since 1980, the number of people earning less than US$1 per day in
China has fallen from 260m to 100m (the Chinese govt. puts the
current total at 42m). Poverty reduction was enabled by rapid
economic growth at almost 10%/an as well a rural economic reform
[5].
*
[1] UNDP Human Development Report 1998 - overview
'Changing today's consumption patterns - for tomorrow's human
development' <www.undp.org/hdro/e98over.htm>
[2] UN Division for the Advancement of Women, cited in
'Advancement of women - Beijing +5' Global Futures Bulletin #112
15 July 2000.
[3] World Population Profile: 1998 US Agency for International
Development (USAID) p3 cited in 'Women and population' Global
Futures Bulletin #114 14 Aug 2000
[4] Eileen Clausen, Pew Centre for Climate Change is quoted as
saying only the UK is on track to meet its targets. Christian Science
Monitor 14 Sept 2000.
<www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/09/14/fp11s1-csm.shtml>
Another source says that the EU is on track. Reuters 20 Sept 2000
<www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=8239> US
emissions are currently 11% above 1990 levels.
[5] BBC new service <www.news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/
newsid_906000/906238.stm>
*
{34. world summits}
*

---------------------------
VNForum Archive at
http://tin.le.org/archive/

To SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE to vnforum, send email to majo...@saigon.com
with one of the following text lines:

subscribe vnforum
or
unsubscribe vnforum

in the BODY of your message.