Annan on UN World Summit outcome: glass at least half full

Having elicited “strong, unambiguous commitments” on issues ranging from development to human rights to United Nations reform, the 2005 World Summit that ended Friday evening achieved important results despite serious gaps in such areas as nuclear non-proliferation, according to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

In an op-ed appearing in The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Annan noted that the so-called outcome document of the Summit had been described as disappointing or watered down. “This is true in part – and I said as much in my own speech to the summit,” he wrote. “But taken as a whole, the document is still a remarkable expression of world unity on a wide range of issues.”

The greatest strides were made, in agreements on the precise steps needed to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the ambitious plans to reduce dire poverty and other ills by 2015, he adds. In addition, he pointed to agreements on strengthening the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, creating an early warning system and a funding mechanism for natural disasters, and mobilizing funds for HIV/AIDS.

He described as “most precious” the clear acceptance by all UN members of collective responsibility to protect civilian populations against genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity through the Security Council when local authorities are failing.

“I first advocated this in 1998, as the inescapable lesson of our failures in Bosnia and Rwanda,” he wrote. “I am glad to see it generally accepted at last – and I hope it will be acted upon when put to the test.”

Most of his detailed proposals on UN management reform were accepted, he said, though strong executive authority for the Secretary-General was not. Similarly, there was agreement on principle toward Security Council reform but not on particulars.

There were also mixed results on terrorism and a new Human Rights Council, he noted, but in both areas it was agreed that results must be produced within the next year. For the first time, in addition, there was an unqualified condemnation of terrorism “committed by whomever, whereever and for whatever purposes.”

He said that the biggest gap by far in the agreements was the failure to address nuclear proliferation, which he called “the most alarming threat we face in the immediate future, given the danger of such weapons being acquired by terrorists.”

He appealed to all leaders to make an urgent effort to find common ground on the issue. “Otherwise this summit may come to be remembered only for its failure to halt the unravelling of the non-proliferation regime – and its other real successes would then indeed be overwhelmed.”