The UN Summit Outcomes

In September, 2005, at the UN World Summit, the world’s leaders, meeting at the UN’s New York headquarters, agreed to take action on a range of global challenges, including:

Peacebuilding, peacekeeping and peacemaking

§         Decided to create a Peacebuilding Commission, backed by a Peacebuilding Support Office and a Peacebuilding Fund, to address the special needs of countries emerging from conflict and in transition from war to peace. The Commission will serve as an intergovernmental advisory body, advising the Security Council and ECOSOC, and will bring together relevant actors to marshal resources for post-conflict peacebuilding and recovery. [1]

§         New standing police capacity for UN peacekeeping operations.

§         Agreed to strengthen the Secretary-General’s office and its mediation capacity.

Human rights, democracy and the rule of law

§         Agreed to establish UN Human Rights Council in 2006 responsible for promoting and protecting all human rights. It will address violations of human rights, promote effective coordination and mainstream human rights within the UN system. Negotiations are being held to decide upon its modalities, mandate, functions, size, composition, membership, working methods and procedure.

§         Doubled the budget of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights[2] (OHCHR) to implement its plan of action for protection and empowerment.

§         Reaffirmed democracy as a universal value, and welcomed the new Democracy Fund, which has already received pledges of $32 million from 13 countries.

Responsibility to protect

§         Clear and unambiguous acceptance by all governments of the collective international responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Willingness to take timely and decisive collective action for this purpose, via the Security Council, when peaceful means prove inadequate and national authorities are manifestly failing to do it.

§         Commitment to eliminate pervasive gender discrimination, such as inequalities in education and ownership of property, violence against women and girls and to end impunity for such violence.

Internally Displaced Persons

§         recognised the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement as the basic international norm for IDP protection, endorsed the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s ‘cluster approach’, which assigns lead agency status to UN agencies in relation to different clusters of IDP needs and agreed to expand UNHCR’s mandate for this work provided sufficient resources are made available and it does not detract from its core mandate to protect refugees (see pages 17 & 22).

Humanitarian assistance

§         Improved Central Emergency Revolving Fund (CERF) to ensure that relief arrives reliably and immediately when disasters happen.

Development

§         Donor and developing nations alike reaffirmed their commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 (see pages 24-28)

§         Agreed to provide an additional $50 billion a year by 2010 to fight poverty.

§         All developing countries committed to adopt national plans by 2006 for achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

§         Australia subsequently announced it would increase its aid from $AUD 2.5 to 4 billion by 2010.

Human Security - stressed the right of people to live in freedom and dignity, free from poverty and despair and recognized that all individuals, in particular vulnerable people, are entitled to freedom from fear and freedom from want, with an equal opportunity to enjoy all their rights and fully develop their human potential. States committed to further discuss and define the notion of ‘human security’ in the General Assembly. 

Terrorism - Clear and unqualified condemnation by all governments, for the first time, of terrorism “in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes” and a strong push for a comprehensive antiterrorism convention in a year and for states to join and implement it and the 12 other antiterrorism conventions.

International health - Agreed to scale up responses to HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria, through prevention, care, treatment and support, and the mobilization of additional resources from national, bilateral, multilateral and private sources.

Environment - Recognised the serious challenge posed by climate change and a commitment to take action through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Assistance will be provided to vulnerable small-island developing states.

Opportunities for Aust engagement

These outcomes, if fully implemented, are likely to have a dramatic effect on both the root causes of displacement and on the lives of refugees, IDPs and other vulnerable groups. They will also provide numerous opportunities for Australian engagement, particularly with the formation of the Human Rights Council and the Peacebuilding Commission. The NCCA supports these initiatives and, together with the World Council of Churches (WCC), looks forward to consultations with the Australian government and working with the new peacebuilding commission and human rights council through the WCC.