Issue 63 March 1998
New Zealand Forum for UN Renewal
New Zealand Forum for UN Renewal
In the September 1997 issue of Many to Many we printed a report on the first meeting of the New Zealand Forum of UN Renewal, July 1997. Since then the Forum has been organising a survey to gauge the interest in a Millennium People's Assembly as proposed by Kofi Annan and also the eventual establishment of a permanent UN People's Assembly. The following is a summary and comments on the results of this survey presented at the Forum meeting held 12 December 1997.
Ever since the inaugural meeting of the NZ Forum for UN Renewal, it has been repeatedly emphasised that the main aim of the Forum is to "develop a close working relationship between central government, local government and civil society – academics, NGOs, media and interested people – with a view to this concept being reflected within a reformed United Nations". And when the Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his July report to the General Assembly on UN Reform, made the proposal that the General Assembly in the Year 2000 should be a Millennium Assembly – accompanied by a companion Millennium People's Assembly – the Forum boldly decided to embark upon a Survey to help clarify how best to prepare for such an event. Why? Because in his address to the 1997 NGO Conference in New York the UN Secretary-General asked that we, members of civil society, examine and give thought to his proposal. He also said: "I, for my part, stand ready to receive your ideas and suggestions about the form and nature of our future partnership."
Although our survey is a modest one, we need not, I think, be too apologetic about it. Kofi Annan, in the same address, significantly reminded us that together "we are staking out new territory". Therefore, surely, it is wise to make haste slowly.
A total of 120 questionnaires were sent out to people within each of the sectors of the community that the Forum seeks to reach, and 62 were returned; a wonderful 51.7%. These figures compare well, I think, with those of a UK Survey, August 1997, where 845 questionnaires re 'a Civil Society Forum linked with the UN'; were sent out, with 121 responses.
Although our survey did include a question re the desirability of th eventual establishment of a UN 2nd, people's assembly, the main aim of the survey was, as mentioned before, how to prepare for NZ people-participation in the Millennium People's Assembly as well as for its content, its format and funding.
50 out of the 62 responders answered YES to the question of a future UN people's assembly (with 3 NO and 9 Don't Know); and 58 supported the idea of a People's Millennium Assembly (4 Don't Know).
While most of the responses for this Assembly's Agenda (question 4) gave priority to Peace and Security, Social Justice and Human Rights, there was general agreement that all the mentioned topics (eight in all, including Environmental Protection and Restoration, Sustainable Development, Economic Prosperity and Equity, Population Growth and Women's Issues) were so inter-related and overlapping that is was – as some responders remarked – more a question of establishing right human relations. Among other suggested topics were: education on (what was called) 'inter-religion and inter-nationalism'; confronting the issue of human greed; moral development, especially of leaders; emphasis on the need for a world without weapons; the enhancement of public participation in decision-making processes and that the People's Millennium Assembly give priority to UN Renewal achieving results.
The answers to question number five, regarding personal commitment to sponsoring or arranging local meetings in preparation for the Millennium People's Assembly, were a little more cautious and less forthcoming. There were 30 YES responses, 19 NO and 12 Don't Know. But these figures could of course be changing over the next two years.
The last question regarding the funding for the Millennium People's Assembly had a fairly evenly divided response. many felt the funding should come from all of the mentioned sources, namely the UN, the member states, as well as individual or corporate sponsors. Among the comments were the suggestion that a special UN fund be set up for delegates from the poorest countries, or that the UN be the trustee for a Fund receiving money from various sources to be shared by all selected delegates. Suggestions were made that Airlines, Hotel Chains, American owners of New Zealand companies, Media/Telecommunication, Power/Energy Corporations etc. be contacted and the NGOs themselves should be willing to contribute. There were several notes of caution and signs of fatigue: some said that one should guard against 'capture by delegates'; by corporations or governments; and others asked: do we really need more resolutions, action plans and declarations? Isn't the road to hell already being paved with enough good intentions?
In one questionnaire concern was expressed that many people throughout the world would not, although deeply interested, be able to participate in the Millennium People's Assembly and the suggestion was made that a worthwhile consideration might be to have a global telecommunication conference through which the communication gaps of our global village could be bridged. This proposal was followed with a commitment to help works towards making the necessary networking preparations.
In summarising, could I say that although this is a survey of a modest kind, there can in my view be no doubt that it shows significant support for Kofi Annan's proposal for a Millennium People's Assembly and also for the idea of the eventual establishment of a permanent UN people's assembly, an idea, which, as one responder pointed out, needs much thorough discussion and careful consideration.
Of particular interest is, I think, the overriding response to question 4 regarding priority topics for the Agenda of the Millennium People's Assembly; many expressed there frustration with having to try to give emphasis to one issue over another, seeing them all as intrinsically linked and therefore only possible to tackle and find lasting solutions to, separately, if al all times taking the whole into account. Such wholistic thinking seems now even more vital than ever in our irrevocably globalising world community.
The degree to which this Millennium People's Assembly in the Year 2000 will become a people participatory event will indeed depend on us people and the work and effort we are willing to put into making it so. The opportunity has been offered – now awaits our response.
OPTU would be particularly interested in hearing from those groups and individuals who would like to work towards developing a network through the internet within our global village, enabling people everywhere to participate in this proposed peopleÕs assembly. This network, once establish, could play an important communicative role in the future. If you are interested please let us know: , or see our address below.
Many to Many
a quarterly publication issued by
Operation Peace through Unity
An accredited NGO in association with the UN Dept of Public Information
Anthony Brooke and Gita Brooke, co-founders
Te Rangi, 4 Allison Street, Wanganui 5001, New Zealand
phone/fax: +64-6-345-5714 ~ e-mail: Many to Many
under the aegis of
Operation Peace Through Unity
is a communicating link between
'we, the peoples' of all nations, races, creeds and ideologies offering in the spirit of the preamble of the United Nations Charter an instrument for the furthering of better relationships based on deepening mutual understanding and the aspiration to promote unity and cooperation beyond all differences.