With 17 months before the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reach their targets by the December 2015 deadline, the United Nations is trumpeting its limited successes – but with guarded optimism.

“Global poverty has been halved five years ahead of the 2015 time frame,” says Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the latest status report released Monday.

"Unfortunately, the trend in the U.N. secretary-general's office and many developed countries is to place hopes in private corporations and 'multi-stakeholder partnerships' that fudge the massive problems caused by many corporations." -- Yoke Ling Chee

Last week, human rights advocates had a reason to celebrate, as the United Nations Human Rights Council, meeting in Geneva, decided on June 26, 2014 to establish an open-ended intergovernmental working group whose mandate is to elaborate a legally binding instrument on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights.

Not only is the resolution a big achievement in itself. It is also a powerful message of hope to all those in the trenches of facing human rights abuses as a result of the unchecked growth of borderless corporate influence. It proves that people organized across borders, and their political action, still can make a difference. The resolution was achieved against big odds, and even as companies exerted pressure to knock it down, directly and through their influence on important governments. In fact, many governments did not withstand the pressure and voted against, such as the case of United States and many European countries in the Council, while others preferred to abstain.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted, through a vote, a historic and significant resolution to start a process for an international legally instrument on transnational corporations.

Officially entitled “Elaboration of an international legally binding instrument on Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises with respect to Human Rights” (A/HRC/26/L.22) the resolution was adopted on 26 June at the 26th session of the HRC.

The resolution was co-sponsored by Ecuador and South Africa, and also supported by Bolivia, Cuba and Nevezuela. In the vote on the resolution, 20 Members of the HRC supported the resolution, while 13 Members abstained, and 14 Members voted against it.

The Declaration of the G77 Summit, held in Santa Cruz on 14-15 June, has sections on three prominent issues that are presently the subject of negotiations at the United Nations - the  Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UN's Post-2015 Development Agenda.

The Declaration should thus have significant influence on the UN negotiations since it reflects the positions of the G77 and China, at the highest political level, and these positions can be expected to be maintained by the Group during the negotiations on these three issues.

A stand-alone goal on addressing inequality continues to see a serious divide between developing and developed countries.

Member States in the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that met at its 12th session on 16-20 June in New York are negotiating a set of goals and targets based on a "zero draft" prepared by the OWG Co-Chairs Ambassadors Macharia Kamau (Kenya) and Csaba Korosi (Hungary).

They met in "informal-informals" mode on 9-11 June with intense work on the first seven proposed goals as the July deadline for the OWG's work draws closer and continued in this mode into the week that was originally scheduled to be in a formal mode.