NEW YORK (dpa) – When an international conference on climate change collapsed at The Hague in November over disagreements among developed countries, the U.N. secretary-general was quick to remark that those governments had failed to keep their promise.
Reducing the number of poor, stemming the HIV/AIDS epidemic and other pledges ranging from improving development in poor countries to child care and peace and security around the world were made by leaders of the 189 governments attending the U.N. Millennium Summit in September.
Kofi Annan said he was “disappointed” by the inconclusive outcome at The Hague where for two weeks the 175 attending governments tried to agree on details to implement the Kyoto Protocol, which was clearly mentioned in the Millennium Summit’s final declaration.
Developed countries have been blamed for the collapse at The Hague. Failure to conclude an accord will delay the coming into force of the Kyoto Protocol by 2002 on lowering emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to the warming of the atmosphere.
Implementing the Kyoto Protocol was one of promises with a target date attached, along with providing decent housing for millions of people by 2020. The declaration promises freedom and equality for all human beings, and respect for nature. But before reaching those goals governments have to agree on conventions and programmes in the coming years and to start implementing them.
The Millennium Summit, attended by 140 presidents and prime ministers and dozens of high-ranking delegations in September, was ranked as the top meeting in U.N. history.
It was preceded by the first ever summit of religious leaders and parliamentarian presidents, all to mark the new millennium with new declarations to transform the world.
Since those summits, other meetings have been held in conference rooms in the basement of the U.N. headquarters and in the U.N. General Assembly. All were trying to translate into action what heads of state and government had agreed at summits. However, developed countries have held onto their national interests and have been slow to deliver on promises as exemplified by the climate change conference at The Hague.
Harri Holkeri, president of the U.N. General Assembly, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that action on the environment, like many other issues, is difficult to agree on but there is a procedure of negotiations to follow.
“Most of the environmental questions are difficult to solve,” he said. “But a procedure is still going on even if one single meeting fails to achieve results. The procedure goes on and the negotiations continue.”
Holkeri said he expects U.N. members to carry out the promises they made. Participants of the Kyoto Protocol have called for a new round of negotiations next year to try to overcome their differences.
Holkeri believes that the Millennium Summit’s declaration is as important as the U.N. Charter, which is the constitution of the U.N. The 189-member assembly under Holkeri has adopted a resolution supporting the implementation of the declaration.
On other issues like reforming U.N. peacekeeping operations, squabbling among poor and rich countries, a perennial feature in international conferences, has marred recent discussions. The U.N. this year has suffered several setbacks in Africa, particularly in Sierra Leone.
While governments understand the need to have more effective and well-financed peace missions, poor countries have demanded that more money be given to development projects than to U.N. peace missions.
Poor countries have protested the planned formation of a special intelligence unit to gather information in order to improve the planning of peacekeeping missions. Objectors say this is a spying unit. Those countries believe powerful countries in the U.N. will use the unit to spy on them.
Among the major promises mentioned in the Millennium Declaration was improving the workings of the U.N. General Assembly and the Security Council, the latter being the highest political body whose decisions are binding.
But negotiations to reform the 15-nation council, which began seven years ago, have stalled because of division between countries that hold the power in the council and those, most of them developing countries, that have no say whatsover in U.N. programmes. Negotiations have never resolved the dispute over how many more countries should be allowed to join the council.
The five U.N. council permanent countries – the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain – have veto power over all U.N. resolutions and are not ready to share or allow curbs to be placed on that prerogative.
But Holkeri said council’s working methods have improved in several areas, including transparency, despite the lack of progress in the major issue, the body’s enlargement.
