2005 World Summit: Should We Care?

The largest gathering of world leaders in history just ended Friday at the UN in New York. After 3 days of endless photo ops, handshakes, strained smiles, of barricades, guard dogs and snipers on rooftops, of national dress and national flags, presidential convoys and black-tie galas, these leaders leave having put their names to something that they and their governments agreed to abide by. That something is the summit's 'outcome document', the subject of much heated debate, round-the-clock negotiations and diplomatic wrangling over the last few months.

After the initial (and protracted) brouhaha around the content and wording of the document, its final form was approved, by consensus (yes, that almost impossible UN process), just hours before the summit was due to start. Rumours about cancelling the whole event and the Secretary-General resigning in a huff were all quelled immediately. The NYPD and East Side New Yorkers cursed, while hotels sighed with relief - the presidential suites would still be filled.

We've all read the media reports, perhaps kept up with the finagling of certain countries and finally figured out just what the 'Millennium Development Goals' actually mean. But there is still a sense I feel, as with all large meetings and conferences really, that it's all a bunch of bull. Just a group of men (and a few women) sitting around nodding, clapping and making grandious statements that don't really mean much for you or me watching it on TV or reading it in the paper. True...but also not true.

Is there any reason to bother?

One can argue (and many will) that the document that everybody signed on to is just another piece of paper, doomed to join all the other bits of signed paper hidden in libraries and sealed filing cabinets around the world. But it isn't...ie, not if you let it. What the Summit outcome document contains are commitments, and thankfully, numerous concrete commitments, that mean that the signers and their governments can be held accountable. By whom? By citizens of countries and the international community. Because when you say you're going to do something, whether it's giving more money to fight poverty, or removing laws that discriminate, you give people negotiating room - room to remind, pressure, demand, through civic action, international pressure, governmental nudging, through letters, demonstrations, the media.

Here are some of the commitments made, that you can be sure people will be paying attention to:

- An additional 50 billion a year by 2010 to combat poverty: This isn't too much considering the trillion dollar economies of the world's richest countries, but still at least it's something. 8 million people die of poverty every year, any effort to reduce this helps.

- Clear condemnation of terrorism 'in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes' - this is the first time ever that all governments have agreed on this. What remains now is to negotiate a clear definition of terrorism so we can all finally start coordinating, together, on the best ways to deal with this.

- Clear acceptance by all governments of the collective international responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, and the agreement to take timely and decisive collective action. This might sound like a given to many of us, but sadly it hasn't been - too many unclear definitions, lack of agreement on definitions, too many ifs and buts were what led to Kosovo and Rwanda. With the Abuja peacetalks underway on Darfur, we'll see if people now step up to the plate like they should have ages ago.

- Commitment to end pervasive gender discrimination, like inequalities in education and property ownership, violence against women and girls and an end to impunity for such violence. We really haven't evolved that much, when women are on average still paid (if they're lucky) 75% what men are paid for doing exactly the same job, when girls are gang raped in punishment for bad things that their fathers and brothers did, when sons beat up their own mothers for exposing more than just their eyes, when girls are aborted simply because they are girls, or married off to men 3 times their age in exchange for cash and a couple of donkeys. It's disgusting and sickening and wrong. And it casts an unfortunate shadow over all the great men out there, the fathers, brothers, boyfriends, husbands and sons who respect the women in their lives and treat them the way they want to be treated themselves...At the end of the day, it's not about men versus women, it's about everyone being treated equally, fairly, justly.

If you've made it this far on this blog, you're probably shaking your head pityingly and calling me an idealistic sucker. And maybe I am. But I think you need to be to stay sane. Without hope we are nothing.

PS - but just so you know that I'm not an out-of-control idealist and that I still try to maintain a healthy sense of cynicism to keep it real - check out what the UN Security Service issued to all staff last week...(needless to say, I left my meat cleaver and saber safely at home)

DIVISION OF SECURITY AND SAFETY SERVICE
SPECIAL SERVICES UNIT -
ITEMS THAT STAFF ARE NOT PERMITTED TO BRING ON UNITED NATIONS PREMISES

SHARP OBJECTS
Box Cutters
Ice Axes / Ice Picks
Knives (Pocket Knives with 3” blade or less excluded)
Meat Cleavers
Razor-type Blades
Sabers
Swords

SPORTING GOODS
Baseball bats
Bows and Arrows
Cricket Bats
Golf Clubs
Hockey Sticks
Lacrosse Sticks
Pool Cues
Spear Guns

GUNS AND FIREARMS
Ammunition
BB guns
Compressed Air Guns
Firearms
Flare Guns
Gun Lighters
Gun Powder
Parts of Guns and Firearms
Pellet Guns
Realistic Replicas of Firearms
Starter Pistols

TOOLS
Axes and Hatchets
Cattle Prods
Crowbars
Hammers
Drills
Saws
Screwdrivers
Tools
Wrenches and Pliers

MARTIAL ARTS / SELF DEFENSE ITEMS
Billy Clubs
Black Jacks
Brass Knuckles
Kubatons
Mace
Martial Arts Weapons
Night Sticks
Nunchakus
Stun Guns
Throwing Stars

EXPLOSIVE MATERIALS
Blasting Caps
Dynamite
Fireworks
Flares (in any form)
Hand Grenades
Plastic Explosives
Realistic Replicas of Explosives

FLAMMABLE ITEMS
Fuels
Gasoline
Gas Torches
Lighter Fluid
Turpentine and Pint Thinner
Realistic Replicas of Incendiaries

DISABLING CHEMICALS AND OTHER DANGEREOUS ITEMS
Chlorine for Pools and Spas
Compressed Gas Cylinders
Liquid Bleach
Spill-able Batteries
Spray Paint
Tear Gas