Our vision is of a
world that is
human-centered and genuinely democratic, where all human beings are
full
participants and determine their own destinies. In our vision we
are one
human family, in all our diversity, living on one common homeland and
sharing a
just, sustainable and peaceful world, guided by universal principles of
democracy, equality, inclusion, voluntarism, non-discrimination and
participation by all persons, men and women, young and old, regardless
of race,
faith, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity or nationality.
It is a
world where peace and human security, as envisioned in the principles
of the United
Nations Charter, replace armaments, violent conflict and wars. It
is a
world where everyone lives in a clean environment with a fair
distribution of
the earth’s resources. Our vision includes a special role for the
dynamism of young people and the experience of the elderly and
reaffirms the
universality, indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights –
civil,
political, economic, social and cultural.[1]
It is in this holistic spirit that we present this report.
In September 2000, 189 UN Member States gathered to agree to a broad set of principles and goals for the United Nations at the beginning of a new millennium; the UN Millennium Declaration. Most notably, governments committed themselves to achieve by 2015 a specific set of development objectives entitled the “Millennium Development Goals.” The eight “MDGs” are:
In the closing statement of the Millennium Declaration, governments resolved to “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.”[3] It is from this line that we draw the title of this report “We Will Spare No Effort.”
In preparation for the Millennium Summit, a Millennium NGO Forum was held from May 22-26, 2000, gathering 1,350 representatives of civil society from around the world to discuss a range of issues confronting the international community. The ambitious conference was notable for being self-organized by civil society,[4] under the leadership of an NGO steering committee and with the support of CONGO and the NGO/DPI Executive Committee, while also being closely linked to the United Nations. Sitting in the General Assembly Hall with close to 1,500 of our civil society colleagues was a powerful demonstration of how far we have come.
As the main outcome of the Millennium NGO Forum, a joint statement was produced entitled “The Millennium NGO Forum Declaration and Agenda for Action: Strengthening the United Nations for the 21st Century.” The Declaration includes a comprehensive set of recommendations for concerted action, from developing country debt cancellation to nuclear disarmament, to Security Council reform. It is a formidable call to action, with shared responsibility among the United Nations, governments and civil society.
Five years after the Millennium Summit, civil society again gathered around the themes and concerns raised by the Summit and the Millennium Development Goals.
In May 2004, the two major networks of civil society organizations at the United Nations, the NGO/DPI Executive Committee[5] and the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations[6] (CONGO), came together to strategize on how to ensure effective and broad-based civil society input into the United Nations Millennium+5 process. Recognizing 2005 as an important year for the United Nations, as the organization’s sixtieth anniversary, the five year review of the UN Millennium Summit, as well as the ten-year review of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the World Summit for Social Development, it appeared likely that important issues of development, peace and security and UN reform would be on the General Assembly’s agenda.
The problem was that no provision had been made for civil society input into the “Millennium+5” process. For most major United Nations conferences and summits there are typically several rounds of Preparatory Committees (Prepcoms) and regional conferences that take place to prepare for the main conference, giving civil society organizations several opportunities to make their views and proposals known. However the Millennium+5 process had not planned any Prepcoms or regional meetings, with Member State negotiations likely to take place in closed sessions. Civil society organizations felt a real danger of not having their voices heard.
In response to this dismaying situation, CONGO and the NGO/DPI Executive Committee decided to convene the “Millennium+5 NGO Network” with the stated purpose of ensuring substantial and diverse civil society participation in the Millennium+5 process. From May 2004 until publication of this report, regular meetings of the network have brought together NGO representatives to discuss how to ensure the broadest possible civil society participation and to realize this goal.
This joint initiative of CONGO and the NGO/DPI Executive Committee has united the two major, broad-based networks of United Nations affiliated NGOs, whether accredited through the Economic and Social Council[7] and/or through the Department of Public Information.[8] CONGO and the NGO/DPI Executive Committee represent hundreds of organizations and networks focusing on all of the issues on the UN agenda. However, early on in the process, the Millennium+5 NGO Network realized that there were many other civil society actors involved in the Millennium process not represented within CONGO, the NGO/DPI Executive Committee nor even the entire community of UN-affiliated NGOs. It was felt strongly that grassroots organizations, community-based groups, NGOs in the global south, and many others were not aware of what was happening at the UN or how they could play a part.
The Network decided to convene parallel NGO consultations on the Millennium+5 Summit at every major UN Commission meeting from January to June 2005. Thus NGO consultations were held at the UN Commission for Social Development, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Human Rights, the Commission on Sustainable Development, the Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. All of these UN meetings brought together diverse communities of civil society representing a broad range of interests and constituencies. In addition, a number of other inputs were sent to the Network via the internet, widening our reach even further.
In order to further enhance civil society participation, organizations within the Network encouraged the United Nations and Member States to approve open and transparent modalities of participation. On April 15, 2005 the General Assembly approved a resolution calling for “informal interactive hearings to be held on June 23 and 24, 2005 with representatives of non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations and the private sector.”[9] Some 200 representatives of civil society and the private sector were invited to participate in the June hearings, which will be chaired by the UN General Assembly President and include representatives of Member States in dialogue with civil society and private sector representatives.
It was decided that these hearings be based around the March 2005 report of the UN Secretary-General on the occasion of the five year anniversary of the Millennium Summit entitled “In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All.”[10] This 62-page report calls for a number of specific measures and reforms organized around the broad clusters of:
The General Assembly will structure their own discussions and resolutions around these four cluster areas. Thus in the Millennium+5 NGO consultations we have sought to focus our colleagues’ input within the context of the Secretary General’s proposals. Embracing the visionary thinking that often emerges from civil society, we have put the emphasis on proposals that member states can implement at this, the sixtieth session of the UN General Assembly.
This report is the culmination of a six-month consultation process. It is divided into five sections. The first addresses issues pertaining to the Secretary-General’s “Freedom from Want” cluster. The second section reports on civil society views on peace and security issues, the “Freedom from Fear” cluster. The third section addresses human rights concerns, the Secretary-General “Freedom to Live in Dignity” cluster. The fourth section deals essentially with civil society participation at the UN, corresponding to the “Strengthening the United Nations” cluster. The final section draws the overall conclusions together, and makes strong recommendations for action.
Please
note that the recommendations and conclusions in this report have not
been
formally endorsed by the participants of the consultations, the
organizations
they represent, or by any of the members of the Millennium+5 NGO
Network. These
observations and recommendations are designed to capture the variety of
messages and ideas that were expressed at the consultations, but should
not be
read as a scientific poll or statistical analysis.
An annex of additional civil society resources includes other reports, statements, and websites relevant to the Millennium+5 process.
We are so very thankful to all those who have contributed to this effort.
[1] “Millennium NGO Forum Declaration and Agenda for Action: Strengthening the United Nations for the 21st Century” May 2000
[2] See the Millennium Campaign website for more information at http://www.millenniumcampaign.org
[3] UN symbol A/RES/55/2, paragraph 29.
[4] Note that in this report, non-governmental organization (NGO) and civil society organization (CSO) will be used somewhat interchangeably. For one in-depth discussion of the term “civil society” see the report of the Panel of Eminent Persons on UN-Civil Society Relations (2004).
[5] See http://www.ngodpiexecom.org/
[6] See http://www.ngocongo.org
[7] ECOSOC Resolution 1996/31
[8] ECOSOC Resolution 1297/XLIV
[9] A/RES/59/291