Millennium Summit follow-up: UN convenes High Level meeting in New York in 2005

The UN General Assembly (GA) convened this morning and adopted a resolution deciding to convene a High Level Meeting in New York in 2005 as a follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit in 2000.

The major event in 2005 will be responsible for the following:

a) review of the progress made in the fulfillment of all commitments contained in the Millennium Declaration

b) review of progress made in fulfillment of the internationally agreed development goals and the global partnership required for their achievement

c) review of progress made in the integrated and coordinated implementation of the outcomes and commitments of the major UN conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields

The General Assembly has requested the Secretary General to submit to the next session of the GA (September 2004) a report on suggested modalities, format and organization of this major event. The President of the General Assembly is expected to carry out open-ended consultations in this regard.

A number of Member States took the floor before adopting this resolution, which has been the subject of intense negotiations for several months.

New Zealand, on behalf of Australia, Canada and New Zealand expressed concern that the event is not given the responsibility to reaffirm previously agreed outcomes. New Zealand said it was essential that the 2005 meeting focus squarely on the question of implementation and said the event should also take into account the findings of the Secretary General's High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change.

Ireland, on behalf of the European Union, said the EU was ready to make a substantive contribution to the event that will conduct a stocktaking of progress made in implementing the Millennium Declaration and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The EU said on 27 April EU Development Ministers invited the European Commission to take forward work on the preparation and coordination of a consolidated EU contribution to the international stocktaking of the MDGs. It is expected that a synthesis report prepared by the European Commission would be submitted to the EU Development Ministers no later than April 2005.

Japan said the event is the opportune moment to discuss UN reform matters, particularly reform of the Security Council. It is an important component of the Millennium Declaration, Japan said, and should be a legitimate focus of the discussion next year.

Switzerland, Croatia and Norway raised concerns over the inadequate level of transparency involved in these months long negotiations and urged that the process going forward should be truly open-ended to include all interested delegations.

Qatar, on behalf of the G-77 and China supported the resolution.

While no schedule has been set, it is expected that the President of the General Assembly will begin related consultations in the near future.

United Nations

A/58/L.8/Rev.1

General Assembly

Distr.: Limited

28 April 2004

Original English

Fifty-eighth session

Agenda items 50 and 60

Integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up

to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and

summits in the economic, social and related fields

Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit

Revised draft resolution submitted by the President of the General Assembly

Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit and integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic and social fields

            The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolutions 57/144 of 16 December 2002 on follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit and 57/270 A of 20 December 2002 and 57/270 B of 23 June 2003 on integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic and social fields,

1.         Decides to convene in New York in 2005, at the commencement of the sixtieth session of the General Assembly, a high-level plenary meeting of the Assembly with the participation of heads of State and Government, on dates to be decided by the Assembly at its fifty-ninth session;

2.         Also decides that this major event will undertake a comprehensive review of the progress made in the fulfilment of all the commitments contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration,[1] including the internationally agreed development goals and the global partnership required for their achievement, and of the progress made in the integrated and coordinated implementation, at the national, regional and international levels, of the outcomes and commitments of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields, on the basis of a comprehensive report to be submitted by the Secretary-General;

3.         Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session a report on suggested modalities, format and organization of this major event for consideration and a final decision by the Assembly, taking into account the open-ended consultations to be carried out by the President of the Assembly.

Note:

[1]See resolution 55/2.