Prime
Minister Gordon Brown's Speech To The United Nations
Edited by GEKA from GDM
It is a pleasure to be here
in New York today.
Coming here six years after
September 11th I recall the
resilience and bravery shown in this city in the face of tragedy.
Indeed, America has shown by the actions of all its people that while
buildings can be destroyed, values are indestructible; and while lives
have been put at risk, the cause of liberty never dies.
And let me begin by thanking the
UN Secretary General warmly
for the work he is undertaking to bring peace to the troubled region of
Darfur.
For today is an important
decision day for Darfur - and for
change.
The situation in Darfur is the
greatest humanitarian disaster
the world faces today. Over 200,000 dead, 2 million displaced and
4 million on food aid. Following my meeting with President Bush, and I
thank him for his leadership on Darfur, the UK and the French have now,
with US support, agreed and tabled a UN Security Council resolution
that will mandate the deployment of the worlds largest peacekeeping
operation to protect the citizens of Darfur. And I hope this plan
- for a 19,000 African Union-UN force - wwill be adopted later
today. Immediately we will work hard to deploy this force
quickly. And the plan for Darfur from now on is to achieve a ceasefire,
including an end to aerial bombings of civilians; drive forward peace
talks starting in Arusha Tanzania this weekend on 3rd august; and as
peace is established, offer to and begin to invest in recovery and
reconstruction. But we must clear if any party blocks progress and the
killings continue, I and others will redouble our efforts to impose
further sanctions.
The message for Darfur is that it
is time for change. And I am
here to say that its also time for change so that we can meet the
worlds millennium development goals.
We do this best when we all join
together in common
cause. So I want to discuss with you how starting from the shared
needs, common interests and linked destinies of all countries across
the world - rich and poor - as well as private and voluntary sectors,
we can come together to forge a new global alliance for peace and
prosperity.
When one month ago I took office
as Prime Minister, one of my
first acts was to ask Ministers of the United Kingdom Government - from
International Development and Foreign Office to Business and Trade,
Treasury and the Environment - to report to me on what we must do to
meet the worlds Millennium Development Goals and to eradicate the great
evils of our time: illiteracy, disease, poverty, environmental
degradation and under-development.
Earlier this month, the UN
Secretary General launched the UNs
2007 progress report on the goals. He said there was a clear need
for urgent and concerted action. Now one month later I have come
to New York to the city where the world convenes - to support the
Secretary-Generals call and to tell the truth: the goals the world has
set are not being met and we face an emergency - a development
emergency - and we need emergency action if we are to meet them.
And I have come today to New York
because it was here seven
years ago in this United Nations conclave with the eyes of the whole
world upon us all that every world leader, every international body,
almost every single country signed a historic declaration for the new
millennium, pledging to set and then to meet by 2015 eight development
goals.
It was a remarkable moment ---
the whole world coming together
as one, the leadership of the poorest countries to be empowered by the
obligations accepted by the richest. All of us accepting our
shared responsibilities to work together for change.
But seven years on it is already
clear that our pace is too
slow; our direction too uncertain; our vision at risk.
The Millennium Development Goal
to be met in 2015, is to
reduce infant mortality by two thirds. But unless we act, it will not
be met by 2015, not even by 2030, not until 2050.
The Millennium Development Goal
of 2000, to be met in 2015, is
primary education for every child. Unless we act it will not be met by
2015, not even by 2050 but at best by 2100.
And unless we act, the planet
will by 2015 be suffering not
less but more environmental degradation and millions of people will
still be struggling on less than one dollar a day with millions of
children still hungry.
As the UN Secretary General said
earlier this month pointedly
and persuasively millions of lives quite literally hang in the
balance.
The calendar says we are half way
from 2000 to 2015. But the
reality is that we are we are a million miles away from success.
The world did not come together
in New York in 2000, come
together again in Doha in 2001, in Johannesburg and Monterrey in 2002,
in Gleneagles and New York in 2005 and Heiligendamm in 2007 to make,
re-make and reaffirm promises, for us then to break them.
We cannot allow our promises that
became pledges to descend
into just aspirations, and then wishful thinking, and then only words
that symbolise broken promises. We did not make the commitment
to the Millennium Development Goals only for us to be remembered as the
generation that betrayed promises rather than honoured them and
undermined trust that promises can ever be kept.
So it is time to call it what it
is: a development emergency
which needs emergency action.
If 30,000 children died
needlessly and avoidably every day in
America or Britain we would call it an emergency. And an emergency is
what it is.
So when the need is pressing,
when it is our generation that
has made historic commitments, when the time to meet them is now short,
the simple questions that - to paraphrase the words of an American
president - we must ask are: If not now, when? If not us, who? If not
together, how?
And I believe the scale of the
challenge is such that we
cannot now leave it to some other time and some other people but must
act now, working together.
Yet despite all the failures,
success is not beyond our vision
or our grasp. And for all the measures of despair I have
mentioned, there can also be reason for hope.
For we know that when we act, and
act together, we can make
progress.
We have shown how we can address
polio, measles and
tuberculosis. The numbers of children out of school has fallen from 100
million to 77 million. 34 countries are now on track to meet the infant
mortality goal. 44 countries now on track to meet the poverty goal. 47
countries now on track to meet the education goal - because of aid and
debt relief. So let no one say aid and debt relief don't make a
difference and politics never works - what doesn't work is doing
nothing.
And with 130 million children
immunized in a life-giving
movement to eliminate polio and smallpox, we have also shown we can act
with boldness to vaccinate children. The International Finance Facility
for Immunization - backed by the Gates Foundation, six European
governments, Brazil and South Africa is frontloading 4 billion dollars
of funds and will enable, by 2015, 500 million children to be
vaccinated and at least 5 million lives saved.
And if this can be achieved by
one world-wide financial
facility in one sphere of healthcare, how much more can be achieved by
private and public sectors, and faith groups and NGOs working together
- not just in health but across educationn, economic development and
the
environment?
And so my argument is simple: the
greatest of evils that
touches the deepest places of conscience demands the greatest of
endeavour.
The greatest of challenges now
demands the boldest of
initiatives.
To address the worst of poverty
we urgently need to summon up
the best efforts of humanity. I want to summon into existence
the greatest coalition of conscience in pursuit of the greatest of
causes.
And I firmly believe that if we
can discover common purpose
there is no failing in todays world that cannot be addressed by
mobilising our strengths, no individual struggle that drags people down
that cannot benefit from a renewed public purpose that can lift people
up.
For you also know what I know:
that the world has the
technology to cure, the science to heal, the medicine to save lives.
Past generations had the old
excuse. They could say: If only
we had the knowledge If only we had the technology If only we had the
medicine If only we had the science If only we had the wealth.
Today we have the science,
technology, medicine and wealth:
what we now need is the unity and strength of purpose to employ the
ingenuity and resources we have and to employ them well - to help those
who need it.
And we need a compact the rich
accepting their
responsibilities to invest, to support, to end protectionism and to
deliver our promises; the developing countries accepting their
responsibilities to reform, to open up to trade, and to be transparent
and free of corruption.
But our objectives cannot be
achieved by governments alone,
however well intentioned; or private sector alone, however generous; or
NGOs or faith groups alone, however well meaning or determined it can
only be achieved in a genuine partnership together.
So it is time to call into action
the eighth of the Millennium
Goals so we can meet the first seven. Let us remember Millennium
Development Goal eight to call into being, beyond governments alone, a
global partnership for development, and together harness the energy,
the ideas and the talents of the private sector, consumers, NGOs and
faith groups, and citizens everywhere.
The sum of all the individual
actions working together to
achieve real change.
Some people call it the
mobilisation of soft powerI call it
people power. People power in support of the leadership of developing
countries.
So let me say to governments of
developing countries: you are
the leaders in charge of the destiny of your countries. And you have
told us that that destiny is not to be poor. The world has moved
from the age of colonialism to the age of political independence but
economic dependence, to what must become the new age of empowerment:
and our task is to support and empower you in the open, transparent
decision-making and reforms you need to make, and to keep our promises.
Let me say to business: you
know better than anyone that
in the long run you simply cannot succeed in places where the roads are
impassable, where people have no access to markets, where employees are
under-educated or under-fed, where the rule of law is poorly
established or poorly respected. Not only does business have the
technology, the skills, the expertise for wealth and job creation that
if fully mobilised for global purpose will help meet our goals, it is
also in your best business interest to help poor countries
develop.
Let me say to faith groups and
NGOs -- your moral outrage at
avoidable poverty has led you to work for the greatest of causes, the
highest of ideals, and become the leaders of the campaign to make
poverty history. Imagine what more you can accomplish if the
energy to oppose and expose harnessed to the energy to
propose and inspire is given more support by the rest of usbusinesses,
citizens, and governments.
Let me say to individuals.I know
that many of you want to help
make a difference, want to be responsible consumers, want to make your
voices heard, want to be active citizens of the world. You can
play a part as individuals in ensuring that when the history books look
back on 2007 and 2008, they talk of a popular campaign for change so
big, broad, deep and wide that governments around the whole world had
to sit up, listen and act.
Let me say to all our global
institutions and international
financial institutions: We have been standing at the crossroads of
change for too long. It is time to implement the reforms needed,
prove your relevance for the global age, and make the difficult choices
that will give us an international system that is truly fit for the
21st century agenda ---- one that reflects new shared purpose for the
age of globalisation, delivering change to those who need it most.
And let me say to governments of
developed countries: We must
deliver on our previous promises --- on 0.7 per cent, on making our aid
more effective, on debt cancellation, on trade, on universal access to
AIDS treatment, on reducing carbon emissions. And let us not just
fulfil the commitments we have already made but work with everyone who
has a contribution to make. Not just more reports or more studies - for
we know what needs to be done - but action.
A programme of action on
education to end illiteracy and to
ensure opportunity for all. A programme of action on trade and economic
development to end poverty and ensure prosperity for all. A programme
of action to challenge degradation and to protect the environment, to
promote safety and security for all. And a programme of action to
eradicate disease to ensure decent health for all.
So today 12 world leaders and 20
top businessmen and women
have come together to sign up to a new commitment to action to meet
this development emergency.
I am delighted that the UN
Secretary General is here today to
witness and respond.
Together we are calling on
all not just governments but
also private sector, civil society and faith groups - to come together
in a worldwide initiative to form new partnerships to help accelerate
our progress.
I want us to come together as one
world public, private,
voluntary sectors including faith groups and international institutions
in education government, teachers, schools, universities,
business, NGOs and faith groups; in trade and wealth creation -
government, business, trade unions, cities, NGOs and faith groups; in
the environment - government, business, scientists, cities, NGOs and
faith groups; in health - governments, doctors, scientists, businesses,
NGOs and faith groups.
I want us to call an emergency
meeting next year at which we
report on where we are and what we have to do.
In the coming year we must turn
these renewed commitments into
immediate action. We must agree in the autumn a global trade deal
that delivers for the poor not just the rich; we must in Bali, in
December, agree the outline for a bold climate plan and at the G8 in
Japan in July 2008 we must deliver on the promises we made on aid and
debt.
And each year from 2008 in our
countdown to 2015 we must
mobilise action around detailed objectives: lives saved from killer
diseases like TB or polio, children in school, people with clean water,
people on anti-retrovirals, people in jobs, businesses created.
All the individual actions can be measured and aggregated as steps
towards our goals.
I welcome the work already being
done in the United Nations,
particularly the start this year of Annual Ministerial Reviews of the
Millennium Development Goals by the Economic and Social Council, and
the preparations for a major Financing for Development conference in
Doha next December.
And around them we must build a
consensus to support the
urgent actions we must all take, with everyone playing their part.
Education
Let me set out what I believe our
partnership for 2015 can
achieve for our first goal - to end illiteracy by ensuring schooling
for all.
Last year in Mozambique, under
the inspiration of Nelson
Mandelas leadership, the international community launched a new
Education For All initiative: the demand that the promise of free
education must be kept, school by school, class by class, and child by
child.
And I ask all NGOs, churches and
faith groups to demand of
every country that they support this great literacy initiative that
will help ensure that young children are given hope.
In Indonesia I have seen barefoot
children living above open
sewers; in India I have witnessed hundreds of children sleeping rough
in the streets; in Nigeria I met AIDS orphans who have AIDS and TB
themselves; and in Mozambique I heard from children being taught on the
floor with leaking roofs and four shifts a day.
Today in Africa governments,
local and national, provide the
majority of school places but up to one third of schooling is provided
by churches and faith groups, and hundreds of businesses and charity
foundations are involved in supporting schools.
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