General Assembly Distr.: General 18 September
2000
Fifty-Fifth session
Agenda item 60 (b)
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
[without reference to a Main Committee (A/55/L.2)]
55/2. United Nations Millennium Declaration
The General Assembly
Adopts the following Declaration:
United Nations Millennium Declaration
I. Values and principles
1. We, heads of State and Government, have gathered
at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 6 to 8 September
2000, at the dawn of a new millennium, to reaffirm our faith in
the Organization and its Charter as indispensable foundations of
a more peaceful, prosperous and just world.
2. We recognize that, in addition to our separate
responsibilities to our individual societies, we have a collective
responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality
and equity at the global level. As leaders we have a duty therefore
to all the worlds people, especially the most vulnerable and, in
particular, the children of the world, to whom the future belongs.
3. We reaffirm our commitment to the purposes and
principles of the Charter of the United Nations, which have proved
timeless and universal. Indeed, their relevance and capacity to
inspire have increased, as nations and peoples have become increasingly
interconnected and interdependent.
4. We are determined to establish a just and lasting
peace all over the world in accordance with the purposes and principles
of the Charter. We rededicate ourselves to support all efforts to
uphold the sovereign equality of all States, respect for their territorial
integrity and political independence, resolution of disputes by
peaceful means and in conformity with the principles of justice
and international law, the right to self-determination of peoples
which remain under colonial domination and foreign occupation, non-interference
in the internal affairs of States, respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms, respect for the equal rights of all without
distinction as to race, sex, language or religion and international
cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social,
cultural or humanitarian character.
5. We believe that the central challenge we face
today is to ensure that globalization becomes a positive force for
all the worlds people. For while globalization offers great opportunities,
at present its benefits are very unevenly shared, while its costs
are unevenly distributed. We recognize that developing countries
and countries with economies in transition face special difficulties
in responding to this central challenge. Thus, only through broad
and sustained efforts to create a shared future, based upon our
common humanity in all its diversity, can globalization be made
fully inclusive and equitable. These efforts must include policies
and measures, at the global level, which correspond to the needs
of developing countries and economies in transition and are formulated
and implemented with their effective participation.
6. We consider certain fundamental values to be
essential to international relations in the twenty-first century.
These include:
Freedom. Men and women have the right to live
their lives and raise their children in dignity, free from hunger
and from the fear of violence, oppression or injustice. Democratic
and participatory governance based on the will of the people best
assures these rights.
. Equality. No individual and no nation must be denied the opportunity
to benefit from development. The equal rights and opportunities
of women and men must be assured.
Solidarity. Global challenges must be managed in a way that distributes
the costs and burdens fairly in accordance with basic principles
of equity and social justice. Those who suffer or who benefit least
deserve help from those who benefit most.
Tolerance. Human beings must respect one other, in all their diversity
of belief, culture and language. Differences within and between
societies should be neither feared nor repressed, but cherished
as a precious asset of humanity. A culture of peace and dialogue
among all civilizations should be actively promoted.
Respect for nature. Prudence must be shown in the management of
all living species and natural resources, in accordance with the
precepts of sustainable development. Only in this way can the immeasurable
riches provided to us by nature be preserved and passed on to our
descendants. The current unsustainable patterns of production and
consumption must be changed in the interest of our future welfare
and that of our descendants.
Shared responsibility. Responsibility for managing worldwide economic
and social development, as well as threats to international peace
and security, must be shared among the nations of the world and
should be exercised multilaterally. As the most universal and most
representative organization in the world, the United Nations must
play the central role.
7. In order to translate these shared values into
actions, we have dentified key objectives to which we assign special
significance.
II. Peace, security and disarmament
8. We will spare no effort to free our peoples from
the scourge of war, whether within or between States, which has
claimed more than 5 million lives in the past decade. We will also
seek to eliminate the dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction.
9. We resolve therefore:
To strengthen respect for the rule of law in international
as in national affairs and, in particular, to ensure compliance
by Member States with the decisions of the International Court of
Justice, in compliance with the Charter of the United Nations, in
cases to which they are parties.
To make the United Nations more effective in maintaining peace
and security by giving it the resources and tools it needs for conflict
prevention, peaceful resolution of disputes, peacekeeping, post-conflict
peace-building and reconstruction. In this context, we take note
of the report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations and
request the General Assembly to consider its recommendations expeditiously.
To strengthen cooperation between the United Nations and regional
organizations, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter VIII
of the Charter.
To ensure the implementation, by States Parties, of treaties in
areas such as arms control and disarmament and of international
humanitarian law and human rights law, and call upon all States
to consider signing and ratifying the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court.
To take concerted action against international terrorism, and
to accede as soon as possible to all the relevant international
conventions.
To redouble our efforts to implement our commitment to counter
the world drug problem.
To intensify our efforts to fight transnational crime in all its
dimensions, including trafficking as well as smuggling in human
beings and money laundering.
To minimize the adverse effects of United Nations economic sanctions
on innocent populations, to subject such sanctions regimes to regular
reviews and to eliminate the adverse effects of sanctions on third
parties.
To strive for the elimination of weapons of mass destruction,
particularly nuclear weapons, and to keep all options open for achieving
this aim, including the possibility of convening an international
conference to identify ways of eliminating nuclear dangers.
To take concerted action to end illicit traffic in small arms
and light weapons, especially by making arms transfers more transparent
and supporting regional disarmament measures, taking account of
all the recommendations of the forthcoming United Nations Conference
on Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons.
To call on all States to consider acceding to the Convention on
the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer
of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, as well as the
amended mines protocol to the Convention on conventional weapons.
10. We urge Member States to observe the Olympic
Truce, individually and collectively, now and in the future, and
to support the International Olympic Committee in its efforts to
promote peace and human understanding through sport and the Olympic
Ideal.
III. Development and poverty eradication
11. We will spare no effort to free our fellow men,
women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of
extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently
subjected. We are committed to making the right to development a
reality for everyone and to freeing the entire human race from want.
12. We resolve therefore to create an environment
at the national and global levels alike which is conducive to
development and to the elimination of poverty.
13. Success in meeting these objectives depends,
inter alia, on good governance within each country. It also depends
on good governance at the international level and on transparency
in the financial, monetary and trading systems. We are committed
to an open, equitable, rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory
multilateral trading and financial system.
14. We are concerned about the obstacles developing
countries face in mobilizing the resources needed to finance their
sustained development. We will therefore make every effort to ensure
the success of the High-level International and Intergovernmental
Event on Financing for Development, to be held in 2001.
15. We also undertake to address the special needs
of the least developed countries. In this context, we welcome the
Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries
to be held in May 2001 and will endeavour to ensure its success.
We call on the industrialized countries:
To adopt, preferably by the time of that Conference,
a policy of duty- and quota-free access for essentially all exports
from the least developed countries;
To implement the enhanced programme of debt relief
for the heavily indebted poor countries without further delay and
to agree to cancel all official bilateral debts of those countries
in return for their making demonstrable commitments to poverty reduction;
and
To grant more generous development assistance,
especially to countries that are genuinely making an effort to apply
their resources to poverty reduction.
16. We are also determined to deal comprehensively
and effectively with the debt problems of low- and middle-income
developing countries, through various national and international
measures designed to make their debt sustainable in the long term.
17. We also resolve to address the special needs
of small island developing States, by implementing the Barbados
Programme of Action and the outcome of the twenty-second special
session of the General Assembly rapidly and in full. We urge the
international community to ensure that, in the development of a
vulnerability index, the special needs of small island developing
States are taken into account.
18. We recognize the special needs and problems
of the landlocked developing countries, and urge both bilateral
and multilateral donors to increase financial and technical assistance
to this group of countries to meet their special development needs
and to help them overcome the impediments of geography by improving
their transit transport systems.
19. We resolve further:
To halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the worlds people
whose income is less than one dollar a day and the proportion of
people who suffer from hunger and, by the same date, to halve the
proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking
water.
To ensure that, by the same date, children everywhere, boys and
girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
and that girls and boys will have equal access to all levels of
education.
By the same date, to have reduced maternal mortality by three
quarters, and under-five child mortality by two thirds, of their
current rates.
To have, by then, halted, and begun to reverse, the spread of
HIV/AIDS, the scourge of malaria and other major diseases that afflict
humanity.
To provide special assistance to children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives
of at least 100 million slum dwellers as proposed in the "Cities
Without Slums" initiative.
20. We also resolve: To promote gender equality
and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty,
hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable.
To develop and implement strategies that give young people everywhere
a real chance to find decent and productive work.
To encourage the pharmaceutical industry to make essential drugs
more widely available and affordable by all who need them in developing
countries.
To develop strong partnerships with the private sector and with
civil society organizations in pursuit of development and povertyeradication.
To ensure that the benefits of new technologies, especially information
and communication technologies, in conformity with recommendations
contained in the ECOSOC 2000 Ministerial Declaration, are available
to all.
IV. Protecting our common environment
21. We must spare no effort to free all of humanity,
and above all our children and grandchildren, from the threat of
living on a planet irredeemably spoilt by human activities, and
whose resources would no longer be sufficient for their needs.
22. We reaffirm our support for the principles of
sustainable development, including those set out in Agenda 21, agreed
upon at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.
23. We resolve therefore to adopt in all our environmental
actions a new ethic of conservation and stewardship and, as first
steps, we resolve:
To make every effort to ensure the entry into
force of the Kyoto Protocol, preferably by the tenth anniversary
of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
in 2002, and to embark on the required reduction in emissions of
greenhouse gases.
To intensify our collective efforts for the management, conservation
and sustainable development of all types of forests.
To press for the full implementation of the Convention on Biological
Diversity and the Convention to Combat Desertification in those
Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, particularly
in Africa.
To stop the unsustainable exploitation of water resources by developing
water management strategies at the regional, national and local
levels, which promote both equitable access and adequate supplies.
To intensify cooperation to reduce the number and effects of natural
and man-made disasters.
To ensure free access to information on the human genome sequence.
V. Human rights, democracy and good governance
24. We will spare no effort to promote democracy
and strengthen the rule of law, as well as respect for all internationally
recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the
right to development.
25. We resolve therefore:
To respect fully and uphold the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
To strive for the full protection and promotion in all our countries
of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights for all.
To strengthen the capacity of all our countries to implement the
principles and practices of democracy and respect for human rights,
including minority rights.
To combat all forms of violence against women and to implement
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women.
To take measures to ensure respect for and protection of the human
rights of migrants, migrant workers and their families, to eliminate
the increasing acts of racism and xenophobia in many societies and
to promote greater harmony and tolerance in all societies.
To work collectively for more inclusive political processes, allowing
genuine participation by all citizens in all our countries.
To ensure the freedom of the media to perform their essential
role and the right of the public to have access to information.
VI. Protecting the vulnerable
26. We will spare no effort to ensure that children
and all civilian populations that suffer disproportionately the
consequences of natural disasters, genocide, armed conflicts and
other humanitarian emergencies are given every assistance and protection
so that they can resume normal life as soon as possible.
We resolve therefore:
To expand and strengthen the protection of civilians
in complex emergencies, in conformity with international humanitarian
law.
To strengthen international cooperation, including burden sharing
in, and the coordination of humanitarian assistance to, countries
hosting refugees and to help all refugees and displaced persons
to return voluntarily to their homes, in safety and dignity and
to be smoothly reintegrated into their societies.
To encourage the ratification and full implementation of the Convention
on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols on the involvement
of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child
prostitution and child pornography.
VII. Meeting the special needs of Africa
27. We will support the consolidation of democracy
in Africa and assist Africans in their struggle for lasting peace,
poverty eradication and sustainable development, thereby bringing
Africa into the mainstream of the world economy.
28. We resolve therefore:
To give full support to the political and institutional
structures of emerging democracies in Africa.
To encourage and sustain regional and subregional mechanisms for
preventing conflict and promoting political stability, and to ensure
a reliable flow of resources for peacekeeping operations on the
continent.
To take special measures to address the challenges of poverty
eradication and sustainable development in Africa, including debt
cancellation, improved market access, enhanced Official Development
Assistance and increased flows of Foreign Direct Investment, as
well as transfers of technology.
To help Africa build up its capacity to tackle the spread of the
HIV/AIDS pandemic and other infectious diseases.
VIII. Strengthening the United Nations
29. We will spare no effort to make the United Nations
a more effective instrument for pursuing all of these priorities:
the fight for development for all the peoples of the world, the
fight against poverty, ignorance and disease; the fight against
injustice; the fight against violence, terror and crime; and the
fight against the degradation and destruction of our common home.
30. We resolve therefore:
To reaffirm the central position of the General
Assembly as the chief deliberative, policy-making and representative
organ of the United Nations, and to enable it to play that role
effectively.
To intensify our efforts to achieve a comprehensive reform of
the Security Council in all its aspects.
To strengthen further the Economic and Social Council, building
on its recent achievements, to help it fulfil the role ascribed
to it in the Charter.
To strengthen the International Court of Justice, in order to
ensure justice and the rule of law in international affairs.
To encourage regular consultations and coordination among the
principal organs of the United Nations in pursuit of their functions.
To ensure that the Organization is provided on a timely and predictable
basis with the resources it needs to carry out its mandates.
To urge the Secretariat to make the best use of those resources,
in accordance with clear rules and procedures agreed by the General
Assembly, in the interests of all Member States, by adopting the
best management practices and technologies available and by concentrating
on those tasks that reflect the agreed priorities of Member States.
To promote adherence to the Convention on the Safety of United
Nations and Associated Personnel.
To ensure greater policy coherence and better cooperation between
the United Nations, its agencies, the Bretton Woods Institutions
and the World Trade Organization, as well as other multilateral
bodies, with a view to achieving a fully coordinated approach to
the problems of peace and development.
To strengthen further cooperation between the United Nations and
national parliaments through their world organization, the Inter-Parliamentary
Union, in various fields, including peace and security, economic
and social development, international law and human rights and democracy
and gender issues.
To give greater opportunities to the private sector, non-governmental
organizations and civil society, in general, to contribute to the
realization of the Organizations goals and programmes.
31. We request the General Assembly to review on
a regular basis the progress made in implementing the provisions
of this Declaration, and ask the Secretary-General to issue periodic
reports for consideration by the General Assembly and as a basis
for further action.
32. We solemnly reaffirm, on this historic occasion,
that the United Nations is the indispensable common house of the
entire human family, through which we will seek to realize our universal
aspirations for peace, cooperation and development. We therefore
pledge our unstinting support for these common objectives and our
determination to achieve them.
8th plenary meeting, 8 September 2000
