UN set to sign historic millennium agreement http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/0009/09/A55775-2000Sep9.shtml Source: AFP|Published: Saturday September 9, 11:34 AM UNITED NATIONS, New York - The UN Millennium Declaration, due to be adopted today after the largest gathering of world leaders in history, contains pledges to fight global warming and AIDS as well as traditional evils of poverty and war. The 32-point text describes the United Nations as "the indispensable common house of the entire human family", but says the 55-year-old institution must be strengthened and made more effective. It reasserts "the sovereign equality of states", but says "the central challenge we face today is to ensure that globalisation becomes a positive force for all the world's people". The declaration is divided into seven operative sections, two of which give specific dates for action. On poverty, it resolves by the year 2015: - to halve the 20 per cent of the world's population currently without access to safe drinking water, and the 22 per cent living on less than $US1 ($A1.80) a day; - to ensure that all children complete primary education; - to reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters and infant mortality by two-thirds; - to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other major diseases; - to provide special assistance to AIDS orphans. It resolves, by 2020, "to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers". On the environment, it resolves by 2002 "to make every effort to ensure the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol", which sets limits on greenhouse gas emissions. It also resolves to intensify collective efforts to preserve forests, and to "stop the unsustainable exploitation of water resources". On peace, security and disarmament, it endorses a report calling for radical structural and policy reforms in peacekeeping. The UN Security Council, meeting on Thursday at head of government level, agreed to consider implementing the reforms "expeditiously". The declaration resolves to "take concerted action against international terrorism" and small arms trafficking, to intensify the fight against transnational crime and to redouble efforts to counter the global drug problem. It resolves to "keep all options open" for eliminating nuclear weapons. Pledging to "spare no effort to promote democracy and the strengthen the rule of law, it resolves to combat all forms of violence and discrimination against women, to "take measures to ensure respect" for the human rights of migrants, and to "eliminate increasing acts of racism and xenophobia in many societies". One section pledges to protect the vulnerable, notably children, refugees and people displaced by conflict and natural disasters. Another resolves to meet the special needs of Africa, by supporting emerging democracies and helping regional organisations to prevent conflict. It promises "a reliable flow of resources for peacekeeping on the continent." The final section says the UN must be made "a more effective instrument for pursuing all of these priorities." Specifically, it resolves to "intensify our efforts to achieve a comprehensive reform of the Security Council in all its aspects", and to strengthen the International Court of Justice, which arbitrates in disputes between states. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
