..Press Release................................ UNESCAP News Services

Date 8 July 2005
Press Release No: G/16/2005 (Reissued as received.)

EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES OF UN REGIONAL COMMISSIONS

TO DISCUSS UN SECRETARY-GENERAL’S REPORT

BEIRUT, 7 July (UN Information Service) -- Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Fouad Siniora will open a round table tomorrow organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) to discuss the report of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, “In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All”, at the United Nations House in Beirut.

This unprecedented meeting in Beirut comes on the eve of the Millennium Summit due to be held at UN Headquarters in New York this September. Participating in the meeting are Brigita Schmögnerová, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE); Kim Hak-Su, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP);Jose Luis Machinea, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA); and Mervat Tallawy, Executive Secretary of ESCWA. World-renowned figures, senior UN officials, and a host of political, diplomatic, economic, intellectual, cultural and media personalities will also attend the meeting.

Introducing his report, “In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All”, to the General Assembly on 21 March 2005, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, “The main message of that report is that the aims of the UN Millennium Declaration can be achieved, but only if the Member States are willing to adopt a package of specific, concrete decisions this year. Some of those decisions are so important that they need to be taken at the level of heads of State and government. It is, therefore, very fortunate that your heads of State and government have agreed to the summit meeting that will be held in the United Nations, New York, next September to review progress made since launching the Declaration in 2000.

In this framework, ESCWA is holding a round table on the “Report of the Secretary-General, In Larger Freedom: An In-depth Discussion and Analysis”, and will also feature presentations by Dr. George Corm, former Lebanese Minister of Finance, and Shafiq Masri, professor at the American University of Beirut, as well as the regional commissions executive secretaries.

In his report, the Secretary-General proposes a comprehensive strategy that gives equal weight and attention to the three great purposes of the United Nations: development, security and human rights. He argues that the threats that face the world are of equal concern to all. The UN Secretary-General called the report “In Larger Freedom” because he believes those words from the UN Charter convey the idea that development, security and human rights go hand in hand.

The report is divided into four main sections. The first three set out priorities for action in the fields of development, security and human rights, respectively, while the last deals with global institutions -– mainly the UN itself, which must be, as the Millennium Declaration says, “a more effective instrument” for pursuing those priorities.

The first part, entitled “Freedom from Want”, proposes specific decisions for implementing the bargain struck three years ago, in Monterrey, between developed and developing countries. In the second part of the report, entitled “Freedom from Fear”, the UN Secretary-General asks all States to agree on a new security consensus, by which they commit themselves to treat any threat to one of them as a threat to all, and to work together to prevent catastrophic terrorism, stop the proliferation of deadly weapons, end civil wars, and build lasting peace in war-torn countries. In the third part of the report, entitled “Freedom to Live in Dignity”, the Secretary-General urges all States to agree to strengthen the rule of law, human rights and democracy in concrete ways. In the final part of the report, on “Strengthening the United Nations”, he sets out proposals for making the UN the instrument through which all its Member States can agree on the strategies outlined in the first three parts, and help each other to implement them.

* *** *