UNITED NATIONS: U.N. Head Opposes Ban on Mega-Conferences

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 5 1996 (IPS) - U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has denounced a Western proposal for a moratorium on all future U.N. mega-conferences.

“I wish to state in the strongest possible terms that I consider the conferences of the United Nations central to the work of the organisation, essential to the fulfillment of its mandate, and crucial for the determination of the future of life on this planet,” Boutros-Ghali said.

The Secretary-General made his defence in remarks at the U.N. Conference on Human Settlements currently taking place in Turkey. The conference, known as Habitat II, is the last in a scheduled series of major U.N. conferences that began with the World Summit on Children in New York in October 1990.

“These conferences have been criticised, for their cost. Some have criticised their lack of achievement,” he said.

But despite these perceived shortcomings, Boutros-Ghali said, U.N. conferences help decide development patterns for future generations.

Since the Children’s Summit, the United Nations has hosted at least six major conferences: on the environment in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992; human rights in Vienna in June 1993; small island developing states in Bridgetown, Trinidad, in April 1994; and population and development in Cairo in September 1994.

Additionally, the United Nations also hosted two major conferences last year, one on social development in Copenhagen in March and another on women in Beijing in September.

The United Nations also played host to the 50th anniversary summit in New York in October 1995, which was billed as the largest single gathering of world leaders ever.

According to the U.N.’s Department of Public Information, the cost of recent large-scale conferences “has been quite modest”, ranging between 1.8 million and 3.4 million dollars per conference.

The only exception was the Earth Summit, “whose extraordinarily complex agenda required special staffing and more extensive preparations”, costing the world body some 10 million dollars.

The bulk of the costs — for conference facilities, security, local staff, travel and hotels for U.N. staff– is met by the host country.

Both the 15-member European Union and the United States have criticised U.N. conferences for producing more talk than action.and less action.

Last September, Washington called for a moratorium on all major U.N. conferences until declarations adopted at these talk-fests have been implemented.

U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright said the world body should not host any new conferences “until we have absorbed and acted upon the results of the most recent series”. She said the moratorium should come into effect immediately after Habitat II which ends June 14.

A World Food Security Summit, sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), is scheduled to take place in Rome in November. But it is not categorised as a major U.N. conference.

The U.S. and the EU last year opposed Third World proposals for at least five new U.N. conferences to study South-South cooperation, migration, development, money and finance, and public administration.

Some of these proposals are expected to turn up on the agenda again during the next session of the General Assembly in September.

The EU already has cautioned against the holding of “further summits and ministerial conferences”. The EU says that such conferences “should not proliferate and distract from the implementation of results achieved”.

Wally N’Dow, Secretary-General of Habitat II, the last of the major U.N. conferences this century, said “people who think U.N. conference are merely talking opportunities do not understand what these conferences are about.”

“These conferences are serious negotiations– on global issues– between countries and between regions, ” he told IPS.

If you accept the concept of the world as a global village, he said, one cannot stop the world sitting down to discuss common problems such as the environment, health, migration, housing, and women’s issues.

“These are global problems. How else do you address them? Who organizes these conferences, if not the United Nations? The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation?. The Organisation of African Unity?,” he asked.

N’Dow said there is no organisation that can address global issues better than the United Nations — “the only global organisation we have known in human history”.

“And these are not just ordinary meetings merely to get people together. This is mankind negotiating to secure its own survival,” he said.

“If we do not address these question collectively, the net result will be to undermine our survival as human species,” he added.

Referring to Habitat II, he said, “this may be the last conference of the century but this certainly cannot be the last U.N. conference.”