Multilateralism indispensable in tackling global crises, stresses Migiro

The significant hurdles the world faces today can only be addressed through global solutions, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said today.

“An effective multilateral system that delivers results has never been more important” in tackling the simultaneous food, energy, financial and climate change crises, she told a high-level meeting on the United Nations and the European Union (EU) in the Spanish city of Barcelona.

More than 50 million people have been pushed into poverty, 50 million are losing their livelihoods and 40 million are going hungry, the official said at the gathering.

“The numbers are startling enough, but there are other effects that are not easy to quantify,” such as human frustration, she pointed out.

Ms. Migiro commended the EU’s support of the three main pillars of the UN’s work: peace, human rights and development. The EU’s financial assistance is also invaluable to the world body, she added.

But its most valuable contribution to the UN lies in its political will, since EU nations “share the UN’s universal values,” she said.

The EU is one of the Organization’s most significant partners in peacekeeping, the Deputy Secretary-General said, and “these interventions help development, which is critical to cooling tensions before they flare and achieving lasting recovery after the guns fall silent.”

Thus, the EU-UN relationship serves as a model, and “all countries must join forces to respond to the challenges of our time,” she underscored.

“To succeed, we must build an effective multilateralism.”
Read More......

Assembly President calls for action to bring marginalized into mainstream

The President of the General Assembly today stressed the need to recognize the rights of the marginalized and boost their inclusion in local and global financial structures, during the launch at United Nations Headquarters in New York of the first-ever World Day of Social Justice.
In order to bring the poor, people with disabilities, older people, disaffected youth and other minorities into the mainstream, Miguel D’Escoto called for “policymaking that recognizes their human rights as full members of society” and “a financial system that includes those who are being excluded.”

He also spotlighted the “dominant economic system” which has favoured the wealthy while developing nations’ access to fair trade has been rejected.

“Poor, developing countries have been ordered by the Bretton Woods institutions to cut back on the social and economic programmes that ensure a decent standard of living for their citizens, perpetuating the murderous deprivation of their poorest people,” the President said.

The Assembly proclaimed 20 February as the World Day of Social Justice in November 2007, and this year marks the first time that it will be observed.

In the unanimously-adopted resolution designating the World Day, the 192-member body recognized “the need to consolidate further the efforts of the international community in poverty eradication and in promoting full employment and decent work, gender equality and access to social well-being and justice for all.”
Read More......