UN has blueprint for change and member countries must act on it – Fréchette

United Nations Member States must act to implement the decisions of last month's historic World Summit, which produced major progress as well as plans for further advancement, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette has said.

Addressing Occidental College in New York, Ms. Fréchette said the Summit's final result, called the Outcome Document, included breakthrough agreements on protecting populations from genocide, boosting development financing, putting a Peacebuilding Commission in place by December, and replacing the Human Rights Commission with a new Human Rights Council.

The World Summit also resulted in a doubling of the budget for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, an unambiguous statement clearly opposing all forms of terrorism, and support for a range of management reform initiatives at the UN, she added.

Ms. Fréchette urged action to ensure that these results are further cemented. "The Secretary-General's first priority in the weeks and months ahead will be to work very closely with the Member States to make sure that each and every item on which agreement was reached is followed up – on time and in full."

It is now the responsibility of governments to come up with comprehensive national development strategies that will enable them to meet global anti-poverty targets, while developed countries must honour the pledges they made on aid and debt cancellation, she said.

In completing the reform process, the UN will need to review its management practices, look at its mandates, and come up with a framework for a one-time buyout of staff. The world body will also need to go through an independent, external evaluation of its management system, she added.

Ms. Fréchette also acknowledged that the Summit did not reach all of its objectives. No commitment was made to reform the Security Council, not a single sentence was included about nuclear disarmament in the Outcome Document, and little progress was made on the issue of using force, she said.

In these areas, she stressed, "we have not yet made the kind of decisive choices that the Secretary-General believes are required."

Yet, with further action, "the Summit may come to be seen as turning point for the United Nations," she added.