Hospitals & Asylums
1. Every year in September, the leaders of the world gather for two weeks in New York for the general debate, normally called the World Summit, which kicks off the United Nations General Assembly session. The 2006 debate begins on 19 September, and over the course of ten days, more than 80 Heads of State and Government will address the Assembly. Some of the themes to be debated include the issue of Darfur, the Middle East conflict, HIV/AIDS, climate change and development, as well as the selection of the next Secretary-General.
2. Sheikha HAYA RASHED AL
KHALIFA ( Bahrain), President of the General Assembly said that the world faced
changes that were unprecedented in their speed, scope and scale. All were
increasingly exposed to sharp social and economic inequalities. The world
was afflicted by violent armed conflicts, hunger and disease, international
terrorism, organized crime and the proliferation of all types of weapons.
While the world had been brought closer together by the forces of
globalization, it was divided by ethnic strife and a growing technological
gap. The enjoyment of human rights was still an unrealized dream for
millions of people…Development should continue to be the central goal of the
United Nations. Together, we have an urgent moral imperative to eradicate
abject poverty.
3. Sheikha Haya
Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain was unanimously elected President of the
sixty-first session of the United Nations General Assembly on 8 June 2006,
taking over from Jan Eliasson of Sweden when the Assembly opened on 12
September. She is the first female to hold such position since 1969, when Angie
Elisabeth Brooks of Liberia was appointed to the presidency, and one of only
three women to ever serve as Assembly President-the first was Vijaya Lakshmi
Pandit of India in 1953.
4. Jan Eliasson
was unanimously elected President of the sixtieth session of the United Nations
General Assembly on 13 June 2005. Mr.
Eliasson has had a long and illustrious career in Swedish politics and
international diplomacy, dedicating much of his international career to
strengthening the role of the United Nations.
He took over the presidency from Jean Ping of Gabon when the Assembly
opened on 13 September and has led its work during the session when UN reform
is at the centre of debate.
5. The United
Nations needs to engage not only with Governments but with people. Security and development are interdependent
and that neither can be long sustained without respect for human rights and the
rule of law. The Global Compact, to
which the international business community has responded with such enthusiasm
that it is now the world’s leading corporate citizenship initiative, involving
more that 2,400 companies in nearly 90 countries.
6. The Outcome
document of the 2005 World Summit was the moving force behind negotiations at
the sixtieth session of the General Assembly. Representing a consensus
agreement by all 191 Member States of the United Nations on all major issues on
the agenda, the document outlined very clear goals for the Organization,
including the establishment of a peacebuilding commission and a human rights
council, as well as management and secretariat reform, and reiterated support
for worldwide efforts on development and humanitarian relief.
7. On 20 December
2005, the General Assembly and the Security Council jointly established the
Peacebuilding Commission, designed to prevent post-conflict countries from
slipping back into violence and conflict. “This resolution would, for the first
time in the history of the United Nations, create a mechanism which ensures
that for countries emerging from conflict, post-conflict does not mean
post-engagement of the international community”, said Assembly President Jan
Eliasson. He pointed out that 50 per cent of conflicts of the past 20 years
have recurred within five years of peace agreements.
8. Concerning the
Human Rights Council, one of the goals was to create a body that would not just
address situations where human rights violations were taking place, but
establish a dialogue of cooperation between all Member States to prevent such
violations from taking place at all. One key function of the Council, which
would be a subsidiary body of the General Assembly, would be a periodic review,
where each country’s compliance to human rights obligations would be examined.
This would encourage all countries to honour human rights, “no matter if they
are big or small, rich or poor”.
9. The world must
advance the causes of security, development and human rights together,
otherwise none will succeed. The cause
of larger freedom can only be advanced by broad, deep and sustained global
cooperation among States. The world needs strong and capable States, effective
partnerships with civil society and the private sector, and agile and effective
regional and global intergovernmental institutions to mobilize and coordinate
collective action.
10. The last 25
years have seen the most dramatic reduction in extreme poverty the world has
ever experienced. Yet dozens of countries have become poorer. More than a billion
people still live on less than a dollar a day. Each year, 3 million people die
from HIV/AIDS and 11 million children die before reaching their fifth birthday. There is a shared vision of development. The
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which range from halving extreme poverty
to putting all children into primary school and stemming the spread of
infectious diseases by 2015. The MDGs can be met by 2015—but only if all
involved break with business as usual and dramatically accelerate and scale up
action now. Today’s is the first
generation with the resources and technology to make the right to development a
reality for everyone and to free the entire human race from want.
11. A “global
partnership for development”—one of the MDGs reaffirmed in 2002 at the
International Conference on Financing for Development at Monterrey, Mexico, and
the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa is
integral to the achievement of the Goals.
That partnership is grounded in mutual responsibility and
accountability—developing countries must strengthen governance, combat
corruption, promote private sector-led growth and maximize domestic resources
to fund national development strategies, while developed countries must support
these efforts through increased development assistance, a new
development-oriented trade round, and wider and deeper debt relief. Each
developed country that has not already done so should establish a timetable to
achieve the 0.7-per-cent target of gross national income for official
development assistance no later than 2015, starting with significant increases no
later than 2006, and reaching 0.5 per cent by 2009.
12. In the
Millennium Declaration, Member States said they would 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. And over the last
six decades, an impressive treaty-based normative framework has been advanced. But without implementation, these
declarations ring hollow. Without action, promises are meaningless. The international community should embrace
the “responsibility to protect” as a basis for collective action and democracy against
genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and other violations of
human rights.
13. At the 59th
General Assembly the Secretary-General told Member State delegations that “the
rule of law is at risk around the world” and called upon the international
community to do everything within their power to restore respect for the
fundamental principles of law. As violence and disaster swayed in many
countries across the globe, he said, “every nation that proclaims the rule of
law at home must respect it abroad, and every nation that insists on it abroad
must enforce it at home”. Countries
will only overcome the “three great challenges” of development, security and
human rights if they take action together, globally and coordinated through the
United Nations.
14. At the Millennium Summit you have said that your first
priority is the eradication of extreme poverty. You have set specific targets
related to that goal, and you have prescribed measures for achieving them. If
the measures are really taken, we all know the targets can be reached. You have also called for a more equitable
world economy, where all countries have a fair chance to compete, and where
those who have more will do more for those who have less. The United Nations should provide the
leadership within the community of multilateral organizations to help the
poorer nations develop the capacity to profit from globalization and the
knowledge revolution. Global developments reiterate the universal validity of
the need to respect human rights and personal freedoms of individuals as basic
prerequisites to the freedom of nations.
1. Rutsch, Horst; Witcher,
Pureterrah; Pont, Amy. UN Chronicle
Interview with Shiekha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, “Working for a Safer, More
Peaceful, More Prosperous World”. Is. 3 2006
2. Rutsch, Horst;
Kang, Nancy; Srivastava, Paritosh. UN Chronicle Interview: Jan Eliasson. Is. 3 2005
3. Annan, Koffi. From
the Secretary-General at the plenary session of the World Economic Forum: A New
Mindset for the United Nations. Is. 4 2005
4. Talwar,
Namrita; Hagen, Jonas; Bolton, Sally; DeLong, Arthur; Lloyd, Jane. UN
Chronicle. General Assembly: The World Summit, A Moving Force. Is. 4 2005
5. Annan, Koffi. In
Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All. Is. 1 2005
6. Talwar, Namrita.
UN Chronicle. No-one is above the law: 59th General Assembly High
Level Debate. Is.
4 2004
7. UN Chroncile. Reclaiming the Future: The Millennium Summit. Is 3. 2000