POVERTY ERADICATION MEASURES MUST RESPECT PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN RIGHTS, ECONOMIC COMMITTEE IS TOLD
Press Release
GA/EF/2845
POVERTY ERADICATION MEASURES MUST RESPECT PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN RIGHTS, ECONOMIC COMMITTEE IS TOLD
19981103Respect for the principles of human rights was essential in efforts to eradicate poverty, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) was told this morning as it ended its general discussion on the implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006).
The representative of Swaziland said the international community could not successfully implement programmes of poverty eradication without including a human rights approach to development. In considering the basic link between development and human rights, it must be understood that all human rights were universal, interdependent and equally important for the eradication of poverty.
The problem of poverty called for a prompt and collective response by the international community, said the representative of Benin. The world had been complacent on this problem for too long. The time had come for action. Poverty in Africa remained a major challenge that the United Nations must face.
Speaking on microcredit programmes, a representative of the International Labour Organization (ILO) said those looking to create micro- enterprises often lacked the capital as well as access to financial services to create and expand small and medium-sized enterprises. Such enterprises assisted in employment creation, self-employment and enterprise development, and those were all important elements in the eradication of poverty.
Statements were also made by the representatives of Viet Nam, Nigeria, and Bahrain.
The next meeting of the Second Committee will be announced in the Journal at a later date.
Committee Work Programme
The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met this morning to consider implementation of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006). (For background information see Press Release GA/EF/2843 of 2 November.)
The Committee was also to hear the introduction of a draft resolution on the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the 1990s (A/C.2/53/L.23), sponsored by Indonesia on behalf of the Group of 77 developing states and China.
By that draft the General Assembly would decide to convene the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries in the first semester of the year 2001 for a duration of seven days, at a venue and time to be determined by the Secretary-General of the Conference in consultation with the European Union.
The Assembly would request the Secretary-General of the Conference to organize the intergovernmental preparatory committee (in two parts) and three expert-level preparatory meetings. It would also request the Secretary-General of the Conference, in consultation with Member States and in cooperation with relevant organizations and agencies, to organize well-focused sectoral and thematic or, where appropriate, country-specific round-table meetings during the Conference to contribute to the work of the Conference.
Also by the draft, the Assembly would call upon the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank to link the forthcoming round table and consultative group meetings to the preparatory process of the Conference, and to ensure that they make substantive contributions to the Conference. It would also request the Administrator of UNDP, in his capacity as Convenor of the United Nations Development Group, to ensure the full involvement in the preparations for the Conference of United Nations resident coordinators and country teams in the least developed countries.
The Assembly would call upon the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in consultation with the Secretary-General of the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, to convene an inter-agency meeting to ensure the full mobilization and coordination of all relevant organs, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, as well as other relevant institutions, for the purpose of preparations for and follow-up to the Conference.
The Assembly would invite the Secretary-General of the Conference to make arrangements, on the basis of consultations with Member States, to facilitate the involvement of civil society, including non-governmental organizations and the private sector, in the preparatory process and the
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Conference. It would decide to defray the cost of participation of two government representatives from each least developed country in the work of the intergovernmental preparatory committee meetings and the Conference itself through the use of extrabudgetary resources, and should those resources prove to be insufficient, to consider all other options.
The Committee was also to hear the introduction of a draft resolution on the United Nations University (A/C.2/53/L.24). It is sponsored by: Algeria, Australia, Benin, Brazil, Ethiopia, Iceland, Japan, Jordan, Lesotho, Micronesia, Monaco, Nicaragua, Peru, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
By the text, the General Assembly would request the University Council and the Rector to continue intensifying their efforts to improve the University's interaction and communication with other bodies of the United Nations system, and to continue their efforts to avoid unnecessary duplication of work within the system. It would also request the Council and the Rector to enhance further coordination and complementarity between the University's research and training centres and its programmes.
The Assembly would ask the Secretary-General to continue his consideration of innovative measures to improve the interaction and communication between the University and other bodies of the United Nations system and to ensure the integration of the work of the University into all relevant activities of the system. It would also request the Secretary-General to encourage the further participation of the University in the work of the United Nations, and to report to the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth session on the further participation of the University in the activities of the Administrative Committee on Coordination and its subsidiary machinery.
Also by the text, the Assembly would request the Council and the Rector to continue to make further efforts to ensure the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the activities of the University, as well as its financial transparency and accountability, and to intensify efforts to augment its Endowment Fund and to find innovative ways to mobilize operating contributions and other programme and project support. It would also appeal to the international community to make voluntary contributions to the University, in particular to the Endowment Fund.
Statements
STEPHEN SHAFFER of the International Labour Organization (ILO) said that although his organization was not a funding agency, microfinance was vital to its work and the needs of its constituents. Constituents looking to create micro-enterprises often lacked the capital, as well as access to financial services, to create and expand small and medium-sized enterprises which may,
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in turn, assist in employment creation, self-employment and enterprise development. All of those were important in the eradication of poverty, but links to civil society and long-term sustainability were still needed.
When preparing the ILO institutional action plan for the microcredit summit meeting in June 1998, he said, the organization found that data on microcredit had not yet been systematically collected. Hence, to make the best information available in a large decentralized organisation, a new microfinance database had been set up, supplying cross-indexed information which would be widely available within the organization.
LAI XUAN CHIEU (Viet Nam) said it was his country's view that in order to achieve results in tackling the issue of poverty, national efforts must be accompanied by international cooperation and assistance. In this regard, his country was pleased to see the United Nations system playing an essential role. It was explicitly defined in the Charter of the United Nations that its overall mandate was to advance peace, international justice, human rights and economic and social development, in which area the single most important objective of all United Nations efforts had always been and remained poverty reduction.
He said Viet Nam had participated in major United Nations-sponsored world conferences and had translated relevant measures into national plans of action, such as those for child survival and for Vietnamese women, by the year 2000. Those and other plans provided both principal guidelines and relevant measures, in specific areas encompassed by the strategy of socio-economic development and poverty reduction.
FASSASSI YACOUBOU (Benin) said that despite economic growth and higher standards of living found around the world, poverty remained. It afflicted more than a quarter of the world's population and continued to grow. The problem called for a prompt and collective response by the international community. More than a billion people in the world were illiterate and one-third of the inhabitants of less developed countries would not live to be 40. In sub-Saharan Africa life expectancy was only 50 years. There was no sign of hope for improvement to this situation in the near future. The world had been complacent on the problem for too long. The time had come for action. Poverty in Africa remained a major challenge that the United Nations must face.
He said there was a need for more investment in education, health, food security, housing and drinking water. There was also a need for daring action by the international community in that regard. Access to markets, as well as technology, was crucial for breaking the cycle of poverty. The world could not eliminate poverty without promoting growth.
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A. P. ETANOMARE OSIO (Nigeria) said the number of people living in absolute poverty continued to increase, especially in developing countries where the majority of them were women. His country believed that any efforts to implement the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty must progressively involve a genuine partnership between the developing and developed countries on the one hand, and all multilateral financial institutions as well as the entire United Nations system on the other. Only such a broad-based multi-disciplinary and interdependent strategy would empower the developing countries enough, and thereby enable them to bring about a more equitable distribution of income and wealth and to increase opportunities for the poor to participate in the eradication of poverty.
The solution being formulated for the Decade must not only take account of the multi-dimensional nature of poverty, but should also include policies to enhance the social and economic integration of people living in poverty and the promotion of human rights, including the right to development.
SHUKRI MOHAMMED AL-QAISI (Bahrain) said the elimination of poverty was one of the great challenges to be faced by the international community in the next century. The percentage of people living in poverty was increasing in Latin American and Africa. The question of poverty had been an essential concern at the United Nations since its inception. His country had responded to that problem through programmes that were based on the rights of all people to freedom and equality. Poverty and unemployment were negative factors for development and that had been recognized by the United Nations in its major conferences. Cooperation was needed to make the hopes and plans to eradicate poverty a reality.
MOSES M. DLAMINI (Swaziland) said the international community must stay focused on the fact that the right to development should be recognized. It should be perceived from the point of view of the individuals participating in sustainable development. It was clear that the right to development was tied to all other rights.
The international community could not successfully implement programmes of poverty eradication without a human rights approach to development. He said Swaziland shared the view that the basic link between development and human rights required that all human rights be viewed as universal, interdependent and equally important for the eradication of poverty.
Poverty eradication needed planning and a multitude of strategies in both economic and social sectors, among them the implementation of programmes in the fields of primary health care, family planning, universal access to basic education, job creation and rural development.
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Introduction of Draft Resolutions
SUGENG WAHONO (Indonesia), on behalf of the Group of 77 developing states and China, introduced a draft resolution on the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the 1990s (A/C.2/53/L.23.
WATARU NISHIGAHIRO (Japan) introduced a draft resolution on the United Nations University (A/C.2/53/L.24).
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