The 2005 United Nations World Summit in New York on 14-16 September will be the largest gathering of world leaders that we have ever seen.
15/09/2005 :: Five years ago the UN Millennium Declaration was adopted by the General Assembly. The declaration sets out goals and targets for dealing with global challenges like poverty, disarmament, and environmental and human rights issues. At the summit world leaders will assess progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and make plans for further action.
Norway agrees with the UN Secretary-General’s view that the Millennium Goals can be reached, but only if the UN member countries are willing to take a number of concrete decisions before the end of the year. Norway also supports the broad approach taken in the Secretary-General’s report In Larger Freedom, which deals with the security, development and human rights challenges the world is facing.
Norway is giving priority to the following tasks: strengthening the UN’s peace-building capacity, improving the UN human rights system, support for the principle of the “responsibility to protect”, improving rapid response arrangements for immediate humanitarian relief and increasing development efforts, especially those for reaching the Millennium Goals.
Issues like gender equality, children, sustainable development, HIV/AIDS, and the role of civil society in forming new partnerships, should not only be reflected in the Millennium Goals, but also integrated in all relevant UN programmes. Norway considers that the summit should endorse this approach.
On 26 July Norway submitted a proposal on behalf of Australia, Chile, Indonesia, Romania, the UK, South Africa, to the President of the UN General Assembly. The countries propose closer international co-operation on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. The text of the proposal did not receive sufficient support from other countries in the drafting of the summit declaration.
An effective multilateral system is indispensable for arriving at common solutions to global challenges. As a strong supporter of the UN, Norway is working for reform in all the areas emphasised in the Secretary-General’s report. These reforms will enable the UN to act more effectively in dealing with peace and security issues, poverty reduction, human rights issues and other important areas.
The summit will also make specific proposals for reform of the Organisation’s structures and working methods in order to make it a more effective instrument for pursuing these priorities. Norway is advocating a balanced process in which development and security issues are given equal weight, and wishes to make sure that discussions on the reform of the Security Council do not overshadow the other items on the agenda. The need for fundamental reform has been obvious for a long time, and Norway is of the view that reform must be successful if the UN is to regain the necessary trust that will enable it to deal with the challenges we are all facing. Norway will therefore seek to ensure that the summit results in a declaration that provides a firm mandate for further reform.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs