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10 February 2000
I wish to inform you that the President of the General Assembly, Dr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. on Monday, 14 February, here in room 226. The President will report on preparations for the Millennium Summit; on the Working Groups on Security Council reform and on the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa; as well as on the two upcoming special sessions, in June, on women and social development. Yesterday afternoon, the President chaired an informal meeting on preparations for the Millennium Summit. Participants at the brainstorming and consultative session discussed the chairmanship of the Summit, its duration, sub-themes and format, NGO participation and the Summit’s outcome. The President said afterwards that he had convened the meeting to impress upon delegations the need for focus, speed and urgency on some of the outstanding matters that needed to be resolved. They included clarity on the sub-themes for the Summit and their number. Agreement on the latter would help in the planning and management of the format for the Summit which, it had been suggested, should be structured around a plenary and interactive roundtables. The President urged delegations to reflect on ways to find solutions and to help illuminate the discussion. Copies of the readout from the meeting are available in room 378.
This afternoon, the President will open the organizational session of the Preparatory Committee for the High-level International Intergovernmental Event on Financing for Development. The Preparatory Committee will elect its Bureau and two Co-Chairmen. In opening remarks, the President will say that the election is all the more pressing because of the role all are expected to play in further consultations with all the relevant stakeholders regarding the modalities of their participation in both the preparatory process and the final event.
The Committee will discuss preparation for the substantive preparatory process and the high-level international event scheduled for 2001, and will have before it the report of the Secretary-General (A/AC.257/1). The provisional agenda for the organizational session appears in document A/AC.257/2.
Last month, the Assembly President met with the Chairmen of the five regional groups, to discuss setting up of the Bureau, as called for in resolution 54/196 of 22 December 1999. The President requested each of the five Chairmen to consult with their members and submit to him the names of three persons from each regional group to constitute the 15-member Bureau. It is that election which is taking place today.
In adopting resolution 54/196, the Assembly decided to convene, in 2001, a high-level intergovernmental event of political decision-makers on financing for development, which would address national, international and systemic issues relating to financing for development in a holistic manner in the context of globalization and interdependence, and, by so doing, address development through the perspective of finance. It decided to establish an intergovernmental Preparatory Committee, open to all States, to carry out the substantive preparations for the event. In that connection, it decided to constitute a Bureau of the Preparatory Committee, consisting of 15 representatives of Member States, selected according to the principle of equitable geographical representation, to be presided over by two Co-Chairmen.
Question: What has happened to the inclusion of human rights, the only interesting issue, as a sub-theme for the Millennium Summit?
Answer: Human rights is one of the sub-themes proposed by the Secretary-General in his report. However, there are those delegations who see human rights as a cross-cutting issue that will have to be discussed under whatever sub-themes are eventually agreed upon – whether they be peace, security and disarmament, development and poverty eradication, globalization or strengthening the role of the United Nations.
The President of the General Assembly President, Dr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, convened an informal brainstorming and consultative meeting this afternoon with a group of Heads of Mission and other delegates, to convey several important things to them relating to preparations for the Millennium Summit. Also attending the meeting was Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette and the Coordinator for Preparations for the Summit, Miles Stoby.
One of the essential themes to be resolved had to do with the chairmanship of the Summit, the President said. He believed that the principle of a joint chairmanship, by the current Presidency (Namibia) and the Presidency of the fifth-fifth session (expected to be Finland), had now been broadly accepted.
The President said he had convened the meeting to impress upon delegations the need for focus, speed and urgency on some of the outstanding matters that must be resolved. They included clarity on the sub-themes for the Summit: whether there would be two – peace, security and disarmament; and development and poverty eradication -- or whether, in addition, there should be other sub-themes, such as globalization, human rights and/or strengthening the institutions of the United Nations, for a total of four.
It was absolutely necessary now that delegations should agree on the number of sub-themes, the President said. In various exchanges with delegations, he had found that individual sub-themes could be grouped together under two headings – peace, security and disarmament; and development and poverty eradication – and he believed it was a question of reaching an understanding and seeing to it that the scope of the sub-themes was narrowed.
This, said the President, would help in the planning and management of the format for the Summit which, it has been suggested, should be structured around a plenary, where Heads of State and Government will deliver brief statements, and interactive roundtables. Clarity on the sub-themes would help in the matter of organizing the roundtables.
If delegations could agree early on such issues as the number of sub-themes, on how to manage the roundtables and who would chair them, then Member States’ capitals could provide guidance on the participation of Heads of State and Government at the Summit.
Also discussed was the duration of the Summit. All agreed that the dates should be 6 to 8 September, the President said. Concerning NGO participation, he said there was a growing consensus that the chairperson of the NGO Millennium Forum, to be held in May, and the chairperson of the session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which will take place just prior to the Summit, should be given the opportunity to report to the Summit on the outcome of their respective deliberations.
Delegations also discussed the outcome of the Summit. The President said there was general agreement that the final document should be a robust and concise political document. It is hoped that the elements contained in that document would reflect the following issues: strengthening of the United Nations; giving the Organization the high profile it deserved; promoting development and poverty eradication; reform and restructuring of the United Nations; attention to gender equality, children’s rights, environmental protection; and how to humanize globalization in a way that it would be an instrument for narrowing the gap between the haves and have-nots, which was ever widening.
The President urged delegations to reflect on ways to find solutions and to help illuminate the discussion. He said that he, too, would reflect further, aided by the two Coordinators of the Open-ended Working Group on the Millennium Summit, Ambassadors Michael John Powles of New Zealand and Gert Rosenthal of Guatemala. The President said he would communicate to all delegations, in a letter, his understanding of today’s discussion, so that at the next meeting they would have a basis for consultations.