This is from the Guardian.

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Annan sets out UN targets 

Secretary general calls for overhaul of 'antiquated' security council 

Ewen MacAskill, Diplomatic editor 
Tuesday April 4, 2000 

The secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, set targets for the 
organisation for the 21st century yesterday in a wide-ranging speech in which 
he also called for the reform of the antiquated security council, on which 
Britain has a permanent seat. 
His 56-page speech, described by UN officials as the most important he has 
made, was to prepare the ground for a special UN millennium conference in New 
York from September 6 to 8 which he hopes will provide a platform for 
fundamental reforms. 

He said the composition of the security council, on which Britain, France, 
the United States, Russia and China have permanent seats and vetoes, was 
based on the distribution of power and alignments in 1945 and "does not fully 
represent ei ther the character or the needs of our globalised world". 

He said: "The council must work effectively, but it must also enjoy 
unquestioned legitimacy. Those two criteria define the space within which a 
solution must be found. I urge member states to tackle this challenge without 
delay." 

The Foreign Office position is that it is prepared to accept reform but the 
problem is complex, with questions such as whether the European Union should 
have a seat and which countries would be chosen to represent Africa and Latin 
America. It is also to be decided whether the permanent members should retain 
a veto. 

The UN millennium meeting could turn out to be the biggest ever meeting of 
government leaders: between 130 and 150 are expected to attend. 

One of the main themes of Mr Annan's speech was to achieve a target of 
lifting 1bn people out of extreme poverty by 2015. 

Education was a key element in achieving this. He said: "I urge the 
millennium summit to endorse the objectives of demonstrably narrowing the 
gender gap in primary and secondary education by 2005 and of ensuring that by 
2015 all children complete a full course of primary education." 

He hoped that by the same date the HIV/Aids epidemic would be halted, and the 
percentage of people without access to safe water would be cut in half. 

With the world being transformed by a global economy and instant 
communications, Mr Annan said, "the central challenge we face today is to 
ensure that globalisation becomes a positive force for all the world's 
people, instead of leaving billions of them behind in squalor". 

Calling extreme poverty "an affront to our common humanity", he said that 
nearly half the world's 6bn people were now living on less than $2 a day, and 
about 1.2bn were struggling on less than $1 a day - including 500m in south 
Asia and 300m in Africa. 

He announced four new UN initiatives: to provide 10,000 hospitals and clinics 
in developing countries with access to up-to-date medical information; to 
have hi-tech volunteers give computer training to groups in developing 
countries; to provide mobile and satellite telephones for relief workers in 
disaster areas; and to explore new approaches to the problem of youth 
unemployment. 



 

  

   

  
 
 
         
  
  Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2000 


hkanteh

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