UN Millennium Summit
A Strong Commitment For Action

By Laxmi Bahadur Vaidya

THE United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, on April 3rd, 2000, offered the UN General Assembly his ambitious 58 page detailed report of the 21st Century as a conference agenda for action plan to the UN Millennium Summit.

Threat

In his report the Secretary General pin-pointed threats to mankind from poverty, disease, nuclear proliferation and environmental degradation. That is why he called on all—member nations to rethink their approach with a continuous focus on the deeper roots of conflict such as poverty, rapid population growth, environmental degradation and lack of economic opportunity. He appealed to the World leaders to free mankind from the scourge of war, abject poverty, HIV/AIDS and the threat of environmental disaster as well as to promote democracy and to strengthen the rule of law.

The Secretary General said in his report the United Nations is a universal forum where all the world’s people are represented. Due to this very fact more than 150 Heads of State and Government attended the UN Millennium Summit. It is the largest gathering of World leaders in history to reconsider the role of the United Nations in the 21st century.

New times call for new ideas. Moreover, after the dis-solution of the Soviet Union, now the growing threat to the world peace and security is the great division between the North (representing the developed World) and South (the developing as the least developed countries which are in majority and called "Third World"). The gulf between North (the rich countries) and South (the poor countries) is mounting increasingly, giving rise to serious consequences such as extreme poverty and mass migration. The changing forms, methods and objectives of international crime and global terrorism, as well as growing proliferation of small arms including enormous nuclear potentials and the huge quantities of land mines of the post-Cold War era serve as a great threat to peace and security in the world. In addition, there are a number of anomalies and deformities such as drug addiction and trafficking and girl trafficking and prostitution, child labour, as well as HIV/AIDS taking deep root and spreading like a wild fire across national frontiers. The most alarming and dangerous problem in the planet is the deterioration of the environment with multiple threats such as climate change, water shortages, soil erosion and the destruction of forests, wild animals, fisheries and biodiversity.

In the modern world none of these problems can be solved in isolation by individual state, association of states or even continents because they are interdependent. The problems are not restricted to a individual state or even to a single continent but it is world wide. And, in a dramatic form. Virtually, the developing world is not able to implement adequate solutions of these problems due to lack of funds and expertise.

The technological revolution has brought an unimaginable change in the World. Its most visible expression is to be found in the advancement of a total communication and information society. There are other changes in a global scale due to integration of financial markets and the globalisation of business activity with unique opportunities and challenges for nations and people alike. The world is increasingly becoming a more unified entity due to globalisation and integration processes in all areas of life. Globalisation is potentially beneficial to all only if nations work together to offer its benefits within reach of all their people. Without that common effort, billions of people will be left in poverty and squalor.

The urgent need is to release poor countries from their burden of debt. In addition the industrialised countries should provide facilities and opportunities for free access to products of the least developed countries within the markets of the developed countries by adopting a duty-free and quota-free access, thereby contributing their mite in reducing the poverty of the poor countries.

The end of the Cold War has offered an opportunity for a new partnership between all nations and continents. Unfortunately, contrary to people’s expectations, the world has not become a more peaceful place to live despite the end of the World War. Unrest and conflicts are prevailing in many parts of the world in new and varied forms, particularly in poor countries.

Today, the main challenges and problems are how the UN can deal more effectively with emerging dangerous situations among and within nations. The UN is still the focal point of multilateralism. It is the indispensable instrument for tackling our common problems. But it must be done effectively and efficiently to address the challenges of our time, and also in finding solutions to global problems, such as poverty eradication, the population explosion, environmental degradation and elimination of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.

It is for this reason the world organisation itself must be reformed through radical changes of the Security Council to strengthen the United Nations. If people anywhere in the world are threatened with mass destruction the United Nations should be able to take effective preventive action to solve conflicts between the member states. This can be achieved by peaceful means for example, through attempts at mediation diplomacy, good advice, and economic sanction or pressure as well as other appropriate measures against a country which breaks the peace.

Herein, it is heartening to note that on the occasion of the Millennium Summit the leaders of the Security Council vowed to strengthen the central role of the United Nations peace keeping operations so that troops can be responded more quickly and robustly to world trouble spots.

In 1996, the Security Council deployed an average of 30,000 troops including soldiers, police and military observers to 16 countries. Today, the world body is engaged in 14 peacekeeping operations—most of them in the world’s poorest countries— with 37,000 troops and civilian police deployed from East Timor to Cyprus and Sierra-Leone at an annual cost of the about 2.2 billion dollars. In addition to that about 1000 UN civilian staff are engaged in 14 other political and peacekeeping missions from Afghanistan to Burundi and Guatemala.

The United Nations peacekeeping costs are increasing enormously to provide proper training and equipment for troops as well as for relief measures in many countries hit by natural disasters.

The largest gathering of world leaders in history ended recently with a commitment to modernise the 55-year old United Nations with a remarkable convergence of views.

Peace

The 32-point text of the Millennium Declaration describes the UN as the "indispensable common house of the entire human family". That is why the world leaders stressed the need to strengthen and to make more effective as well as active the World Organisation itself to establish peace and security in the world which is the ultimate goal of humankind.

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