Hospitals & Asylums
Office of the President of the
General Assembly
United Nations,
Tel: (212) 963 2486, fax (212) 963 3301
2005 High Level Plenary Session of the General Assembly
Invitation 14-16
September 2005
HA-3-8-05
A/RES/59/291
HA-25-4-05
1. The 60th High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly will consist of a total of six meetings, on the basis of two meetings a day, as follows:
2.
The separate meeting on Financing for Development will be held from
3.
The chairpersons of the four round-table sessions will be from the
4. The President of the General Assembly will consult with representatives of non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, civil society organizations and the private sector, and with Member States, as appropriate, on the list of representatives of non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations and the private sector that may participate in the plenary
meetings of the High-level Plenary Meeting of September 2005.
A/RES/58/291 HA-17-5-05
The sixtieth session of the General Assembly, a high-level plenary meeting of the Assembly shall undertake a comprehensive review of the progress made in the fulfilment of all the commitments contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, including the internationally agreed development goals and the global partnership required for their achievement, and of the progress made in the integrated and coordinated implementation, at the national, regional and international levels, of the outcomes and commitments of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields, on the basis of a comprehensive report to be submitted by the Secretary-General;
The 2005 World Summit, to be held from 14 to 16 September
at United Nations Headquarters in
Freedom from Want: Proposals in the area of development
call for breakthroughs in debt relief and trade liberalization, and increases
in aid to revitalize infrastructure and improve health and education services,
in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),
including cutting extreme poverty in half by 2015 (www.un.org/millenniumgoals). Developing countries are being asked to devise national
strategies to meet the MDG targets and to facilitate transparent and
accountable governance, while developed countries are being urged to increase
aid and reduce trade barriers, debt and other burdens that hamper development.
It has been proposed to set up an International Financing Facility that would
make official development assistance (ODA) more predictable and accessible.
Many donors are on track to meet the target of dedicating 0.7 per cent of gross
national income to ODA by the year 2015. Others have promised to make
substantial increases in ODA over the next ten years. Leaders meeting at the
Group of 8 Summit in early July agreed to increase annual aid flows by at least
$50 billion as of 2010, with at least half of that increase to be directed at
Draft Outcome Document 13 September 2005
1. We, Heads of State and Government, have gathered at
United Nations Headquarters in
2. We reaffirm our faith in the United Nations and our
commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter and international law,
which are indispensable foundations of a more peaceful, prosperous, and just
world, and reiterate our determination to foster their strict respect.
3. We reaffirm the United Nations Mille nnium Declaration, which we adopted at the dawn of the twenty-first
century. We recognise the valuable role of the major
United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related
fields, including the Millennium Summit, in mobilizing the international
community at the local, national, regional and global levels and in guiding the
work of the United Nations.
4. We reaffirm that our common fundamental values,
including freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for all human
rights, respect for nature and shared responsibility, are essential to
international relations.
100. The Peacebuilding
Commission should meet in various configurations. Country-specific meetings of
the Commission, upon invitation of the Organizational Committee referred to in
paragraph [100] should include as members, in addition to members of the
Organizational Committee, representatives from:
a) the country under
consideration;
b) countries in the region
engaged in the post-conflict process, and other countries that are involved in
relief efforts and/or political dialogue, as well as relevant regional and subregional organisations;
c) the major financial, troop
and civilian police contributors involved in the recovery effort;
d) the senior United Nations
representative in the field and other relevant United Nations representatives;
e) such regional and
international financial institutions as may be relevant.
152. We reaffirm that Member States have conferred on
the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of
international peace and security, acting on their behalf, as provided by the
Charter of the United Nations.
153. We support early reform of the Security Council
as an essential element of our overall effort to reform the United Nations, in
order to make it more broadly representative, efficient and transparent, and
thus to further enhance its effectiveness and the legitimacy and implementation
of its decisions. We commit ourselves to continue our efforts to achieve a
decision to this end and request the General Assembly to review progress on the
reform set out above by the end of the year.
154. We recommend that the Security Council continue
to adapt its working methods so as to increase the involvement of States not
members of the Council in its work, as appropriate, enhance its accountability
to the membership and increase the transparency of its work.
157. Pursuant to our commitment to further strengthen
the United Nations human rights machinery, we resolve to create a Human Rights
Council.
158. The Council will be responsible for promoting
universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental
freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal
manner.
159. The Council should address situations of
violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations and make
recommendations thereon. It should also promote effective coordination and the
mainstreaming of human rights within the UN system.
160. We request the President of the General Assembly to
conduct, open, transparent and inclusive negotiations to be completed as soon
as possible during the 60th session, with the aim of establishing the mandate,
modalities, functions, size, composition, membership, working methods and
procedures for the Council.
170. We support a stronger relationship between the
United Nations and regional and subregional
organizations, pursuant to Chapter VIII of the Charter, and therefore resolve
to:
a) Expand consultation and cooperation between the
United Nations and regional and subregional
organizations through formalized agreements between the respective
secretariats, and as appropriate, involvement of regional organizations in the
work of the Security Council.
b) Ensure that regional organizations that have a capacity
for the prevention of armed conflict or peacekeeping consider the option of
placing such capacities in the framework of the United Nations Standby
Arrangements System
c) Strengthen cooperation in the areas of economic,
social and cultural fields
171. We call for strengthened cooperation between the
United Nations and national and regional parliaments including in particular
through the Inter-Parliamentary Union with a view to furthering all aspects of
the Millennium Declaration, in all fields of the work of the United Nations,
and ensuring the effective implementation of United Nations reform.
176. Considering that the Trusteeship Council no
longer meets and has no remaining functions, we should delete Chapter XIII of
the Charter and references to the Council in Chapter XII.
177. Taking into account the General Assembly
Resolution 50/52 and recalling the related discussions conducted in the General
Assembly, bearing in mind the profound cause for founding
of the United Nations, and looking into our common
future, we resolve to delete references to “enemy States” in Articles 53, 77,
and 107 of the Charter of the United Nations.
178. We request the Security Council to consider the
composition, mandate and working methods of the Military Staff Committee.
Statement
of H.E. Hu Jintao, President of the
People’s Republic of
Throughout the long history, human communities have never been so closely interconnected in interests and destinies. Our common goals have put us all in the same boat, and the common challenges we face require that we get united. Let us join hands and work together to build a harmonious world with lasting peace and common prosperity.
A/59/HLPM/CRP.1/Rev.1 HA-22-7-05 Draft Outcome Document
The Human Rights Council will have the following mandate, size and composition:
(a) It will be the organ primarily responsible for promoting universal respect for and observance and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner, recognizing their indivisible, inalienable and interrelated character. To carry out this mandate, the Council shall assume and review all the functions of the Commission on Human
Rights and preserve its strengths, including the system of special procedures. In particular it will:
(i) Serve as a forum for dialogue on thematic issues relating to all human rights and fundamental freedoms and make recommendations to the General Assembly for the further development of international law in the field of human rights;
(ii) Promote international cooperation to enhance the abilities of Member States to implement human rights commitments, including international norms and standards, and the provision of assistance by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to Member States, at their request, through programmes of advisory services, technical cooperation and capacity-building;
(iii) Promote effective coordination and the mainstreaming of human rights within the United Nations system, including by making policy recommendations to the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and other United Nations bodies. The Council should also work in close cooperation with regional organizations in the field of human rights;
(iv) Evaluate the fulfilment by all States of all their human rights obligations, in particular under the Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This procedure will not duplicate the reporting procedures being carried out under the human rights treaties;
(v) Address any matters or situations related to the promotion and protection of human rights, including urgent human rights situations, and make recommendations thereon to the Member States and provide policy recommendations to the United Nations system;
(b) The Council shall comprise between 30 and 50 members, each serving for a period of three years, to be elected directly by the General Assembly, by a two thirds majority. In establishing the membership of the Council, due regard shall be given to the principle of equitable geographical distribution and the contribution of Member States to the promotion and protection of human rights;
(c) Those elected to the Council should undertake to abide by human rights standards in their respect for and protection and promotion of human rights, and will be evaluated during their term of membership under the review mechanism, unless they have been evaluated shortly before the start of their term in the Council;
(d) The arrangements made by the Economic and Social Council for consultations with non-governmental organizations under Article 71 of the Charter shall apply to the Council;
(e) The Council shall submit an annual report to the General Assembly.
We
request the President of the General Assembly to conduct consultations with
Member States in order to adopt during its sixtieth session, before
A/RES/55/2 HA-18-9-2000
United
Nations Millennium Declaration
I.
Values and principles
1.
We, heads of State and Government, have gathered at United Nations Headquarters
in
2. We recognize that, in addition to our separate responsibilities to our individual societies, we have a collective responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level. As leaders we have a duty therefore to all the world’s people, especially the most vulnerable and, in particular, the children of the world, to whom the future belongs.
3. We reaffirm our commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, which have proved timeless and universal. Indeed, their relevance and capacity to inspire have increased, as nations and peoples have become increasingly interconnected and interdependent.
4. We are determined to establish a just and lasting peace all over the world in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter. We rededicate ourselves to support all efforts to uphold the sovereign equality of all States, respect for their territorial integrity and political independence, resolution of disputes by peaceful means and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, the right to self-determination of peoples which remain under colonial domination and foreign occupation, non-interference in the internal affairs of States, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, respect for the equal rights of all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion and international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character.
5. We believe that the central challenge we face today is to ensure that globalization becomes a positive force for all the world’s people. For while globalization offers great opportunities, at present its benefits are very unevenly shared, while its costs are unevenly distributed. We recognize that developing countries and countries with economies in transition face special
difficulties in responding to this central challenge. Thus, only through broad and sustained efforts to create a shared future, based upon our common humanity in all its diversity, can globalization be made fully inclusive and equitable. These efforts must include policies and measures, at the global level, which correspond to the needs of developing countries and economies in transition and are formulated and implemented with their effective participation.
6. We consider certain fundamental values to be essential to international relations in the twenty-first century. These include:
• Freedom. Men and women have the right to live their lives and raise their children in dignity, free from hunger and from the fear of violence, oppression or injustice. Democratic and participatory governance based on the will of the people best assures these rights.
•. Equality. No individual and no nation must be denied the opportunity to benefit from development. The equal rights and opportunities of women and men must be assured.
• Solidarity. Global challenges must be managed in a way that distributes the costs and burdens fairly in accordance with basic principles of equity and social justice. Those who suffer or who benefit least deserve help from those who benefit most.
• Tolerance. Human beings must respect one other, in all their diversity of belief, culture and language. Differences within and between societies should be neither feared nor repressed, but cherished as a precious asset of humanity. A culture of peace and dialogue among all civilizations should be actively promoted.
• Respect for nature. Prudence must be shown in the management of all living species and natural resources, in accordance with the precepts of sustainable development. Only in this way can the immeasurable riches provided to us by nature be preserved and passed on to our descendants. The current unsustainable patterns of production and consumption must be changed in the interest of our future welfare and that of our descendants.
• Shared responsibility. Responsibility for managing worldwide economic and social development, as well as threats to international peace and security, must be shared among the nations of the world and should be exercised multilaterally. As the most universal and most representative organization in the world, the United Nations must play the central role.
7. In order to translate these shared values into actions, we have identified key objectives to which we assign special significance.
II.
Peace, security and disarmament
8. We will spare no effort to free our peoples from the scourge of war, whether within or between States, which has claimed more than 5 million lives in the past decade. We will also seek to eliminate the dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction.
9. We resolve therefore:
• To strengthen respect for the rule of law in international as in national affairs and, in particular, to ensure compliance by Member States with the decisions of the International Court of Justice, in compliance with the Charter of the United Nations, in cases to which they are parties.
• To make the United Nations more effective in maintaining peace and security by giving it the resources and tools it needs for conflict prevention, peaceful resolution of disputes, peacekeeping, post-conflict peace-building and reconstruction. In this context, we take note of the report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations1 and request the General Assembly to consider its recommendations expeditiously.
• To strengthen cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter VIII of the Charter.
• To ensure the implementation, by States Parties, of treaties in areas such as arms control and disarmament and of international humanitarian law and human rights law, and call upon all States to consider signing and ratifying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
10. We urge Member States to observe the Olympic Truce, individually and collectively, now and in the future, and to support the International Olympic Committee in its efforts to promote peace and human understanding through sport and the Olympic Ideal.
III.
Development and poverty eradication
11. We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected. We are committed to making the right to development a reality for everyone and to freeing the entire human race from want.
12. We resolve therefore to create an environment – at the national and global levels alike – which is conducive to development and to the elimination of poverty.
13. Success in meeting these objectives depends, inter alia, on good governance within each country. It also depends on good governance at the international level and on transparency in the financial, monetary and trading systems. We are committed to an open, equitable, rule-based, predictable and nondiscriminatory multilateral trading and financial system.
14. We are concerned about the obstacles developing countries face in mobilizing the resources needed to finance their sustained development. We will therefore make every effort to ensure the success of the High-level International and Intergovernmental Event on Financing for Development, to be held in 2001.
15. We also undertake to address the special needs of the least developed countries.
16. We are also determined to deal comprehensively and effectively with the debt problems of low- and middle-income developing countries, through various national and international measures designed to make their debt sustainable in the long term.
17. We also resolve to address the special needs of small island developing States, by implementing the Barbados Programme of Action5 and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General Assembly rapidly and in full. We urge the international community to ensure that, in the development of a vulnerability index, the special needs of small island developing States are taken into account.
18. We recognize the special needs and problems of the landlocked developing countries, and urge both bilateral and multilateral donors to increase financial and technical assistance to this group of countries to meet their special development needs and to help them overcome the impediments of geography by improving their transit transport systems.
19. We resolve further:
• To halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than one dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and, by the same date, to halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water.
• To ensure that, by the same date, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling and that girls and
boys will have equal access to all levels of education.
• By the same date, to have reduced maternal mortality by three quarters, and under-five child mortality by two thirds, of their current rates.
• To have, by then, halted, and begun to reverse, the spread of HIV/AIDS, the scourge of malaria and other major diseases that afflict humanity.
• To provide special assistance to children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
• By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers as proposed in the “Cities Without Slums” initiative.
20. We also resolve:
• To promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable.
• To develop and implement strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work.
• To encourage the pharmaceutical industry to make essential drugs more widely available and affordable by all who need them in developing countries.
• To develop strong partnerships with the private sector and with civil society organizations in pursuit of development and poverty eradication.
IV.
Protecting our common environment
21. We must spare no effort to free all of humanity, and above all our children and grandchildren, from the threat of living on a planet irredeemably spoilt by human activities, and whose resources would no longer be sufficient for their needs.
22. We reaffirm our support for the principles of sustainable development, including those set out in Agenda 21,7 agreed upon at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.
23. We resolve therefore to adopt in all our environmental actions a new ethic of conservation and stewardship and, as first steps, we resolve:
• To make every effort to ensure the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol, preferably by the tenth anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 2002, and to embark on the required reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases.
• To intensify our collective efforts for the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests.
• To
press for the full implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and
the Convention to Combat Desertification in those Countries Experiencing
Serious Drought and/or Desertification, particularly in
• To stop the unsustainable exploitation of water resources by developing water management strategies at the regional, national and local levels, which promote both equitable access and adequate supplies.
• To intensify cooperation to reduce the number and effects of natural and manmade disasters.
• To ensure free access to information on the human genome sequence.
V.
Human rights, democracy and good governance
24. We will spare no effort to promote democracy and strengthen the rule of law, as well as respect for all internationally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development.
25. We resolve therefore:
• To respect fully and uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• To strive for the full protection and promotion in all our countries of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights for all.
• To strengthen the capacity of all our countries to implement the principles and practices of democracy and respect for human rights, including minority rights.
• To combat all forms of violence against women and to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women.
• To take measures to ensure respect for and protection of the human rights of migrants, migrant workers and their families, to eliminate the increasing acts of racism and xenophobia in many societies and to promote greater harmony and tolerance in all societies.
• To work collectively for more inclusive political processes, allowing genuine participation by all citizens in all our countries.
• To ensure the freedom of the media to perform their essential role and the right of the public to have access to information.
VI.
Protecting the vulnerable
26. We will spare no effort to ensure that children and all civilian populations that suffer disproportionately the consequences of natural disasters, genocide, armed conflicts and other humanitarian emergencies are given every assistance and protection so that they can resume normal life as soon as possible. We resolve therefore:
• To expand and strengthen the protection of civilians in complex emergencies, in conformity with international humanitarian law.
• To strengthen international cooperation, including burden sharing in, and the coordination of humanitarian assistance to, countries hosting refugees and to help all refugees and displaced persons to return voluntarily to their homes, in safety and dignity and to be smoothly reintegrated into their societies.
• To encourage the ratification and full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
VII.
Meeting the special needs of
27.
We will support the consolidation of democracy in
28. We resolve therefore:
• To
give full support to the political and institutional structures of emerging
democracies in
• To encourage and sustain regional and subregional mechanisms for preventing conflict and promoting political stability, and to ensure a reliable flow of resources for peacekeeping operations on the continent.
• To
take special measures to address the challenges of poverty eradication and
sustainable development in
• To
help
VIII.
Strengthening the United Nations
29. We will spare no effort to make the United Nations a more effective instrument for pursuing all of these priorities: the fight for development for all the peoples of the world, the fight against poverty, ignorance and disease; the fight against injustice; the fight against violence, terror and crime; and the fight against the degradation and destruction of our common home.
30. We resolve therefore:
• To reaffirm the central position of the General Assembly as the chief deliberative, policy-making and representative organ of the United Nations,
and to enable it to play that role effectively.
• To intensify our efforts to achieve a comprehensive reform of the Security Council in all its aspects.
• To strengthen further the Economic and Social Council, building on its recent achievements, to help it fulfil the role ascribed to it in the Charter.
• To strengthen the International Court of Justice, in order to ensure justice and the rule of law in international affairs.
• To encourage regular consultations and coordination among the principal organs of the United Nations in pursuit of their functions.
• To ensure that the Organization is provided on a timely and predictable basis with the resources it needs to carry out its mandates.
• To urge the Secretariat to make the best use of those resources, in accordance with clear rules and procedures agreed by the General Assembly, in the interests of all Member States, by adopting the best management practices and technologies available and by concentrating on those tasks that reflect the agreed priorities of Member States.
• To promote adherence to the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel.14
• To ensure greater policy coherence and better cooperation between the United Nations, its agencies, the Bretton Woods Institutions and the World Trade
Organization, as well as other multilateral bodies, with a view to achieving a fully coordinated approach to the problems of peace and development.
• To strengthen further cooperation between the United Nations and national parliaments through their world organization, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, in various fields, including peace and security, economic and social development, international law and human rights and democracy and gender issues.
• To give greater opportunities to the private sector, non-governmental organizations and civil society, in general, to contribute to the realization of the Organization’s goals and programs.
31. We request the General Assembly to review on a regular basis the progress made in implementing the provisions of this Declaration, and ask the Secretary-General to issue periodic reports for consideration by the General Assembly and as a basis for further action.
32. We solemnly reaffirm, on this historic occasion, that the United Nations is the indispensable common house of the entire human family, through which we will seek to realize our universal aspirations for peace, cooperation and development. We therefore pledge our unstinting support for these common objectives and our determination to achieve them.
8th
plenary meeting
A/59/2005 HA-21-3-05 In larger Freedom: towards development, freedom and human rights for all
A/59/282
HA-27-8-04
The
alone, 600 million people were adversely affected by 700
natural occurrences, which caused economic losses exceeding US$ 65 billion.
Approximately 75,000 people perished in those disasters — 30,000 of them were
killed in seconds by the earthquakes in