CPAFFC Delegation Attends 58th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference

Invited by the Department of Public Information (DPI) of the United Nations, cpaffc Vice President Li Xiaolin led a CPAFFC delegation to attend the annual un dpi/ngo conference at the UN headquarters in New York from September 7 to 9, 2005.

1,800 delegates of 698 non-governmental organizations from 86 countries attended this annual conference entitled Our Challenge: Voices for Peace, Partnerships and Renewal. The conference which was opened at the same time of the Conference of Speakers of National Parliaments and just before the 2005 World Summit held 7 plenary sessions and 30 midday interactive workshops on the issues which would be discussed at the World Summit including Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), collective security, human rights and the reform of the UN. The conference set up a Webcast Discussion Forum so that people around the world could participate in the discussions through the Internet.

The UN attached great importance to the conference. General Assembly President Jean Ping, Secretary General Kofi Annan and Under Secretary General Shashi Tharoor attended and addressed the conference. The conference paid attention to letting representatives of different regions of the world have the opportunity to speak. Government and NGO representatives from the Asian, African and Arab developing countries all gave keynote speeches at the conference. For the first time in the 58-year history of the DPI/NGO annual conference, round-table conferences with participation by representatives of NGOs, governments of UN member states and the UN organizations, and speakers of national parliaments were held to discuss and review the resolutions that would be approved at the World Summit.

The conference fully affirmed and stressed the important role that NGOs had played in global affairs. General Assembly President Jean Ping said, NGOs play a key role in promoting study and solution of the problems that humankind is facing. Addressing the closing ceremony Secretary General Annan said that NGOs should supervise the reform of international institutions. The participants unanimously held that the UN, Member States, NGOs and private organizations should seek common grounds while reserving difference, cooperate and make joint efforts for the common goals so as to solve such problems as security and development that humankind is facing, and realize the MDGs.

The participants considered that the year 2005 should be a turning point and called on countries in the world to shift their focus from war against terrorism to the fulfillment of the MDGs, and resolutely opposed the proposal made by some countries that MDGs be deleted from the Outcome Document of the Summit. They held that any development should be carried out in the interests of the people and aimed at improving people’s livelihood, and that the developed countries should provide official assistance of 0.7 percent of their GDP to the developing countries, lay stress on the quality of aid instead of stressing only on quantity and exempt all the debts owed by poor countries. They deemed that in order to cope with various kinds of crises and disasters, it was necessary to establish an effective global humanitarian relief mechanism and increase input of funds in this aspect.

The participants held, the most serious threats to security in today’s world are economic and social threats that transcend traditional conflicts such as poverty, terrorist activities, genocide, drug and human trafficking, infectious diseases, etc. Without common consensus on them there would be no collective security. Multilateralism based on the cooperation among the UN member states, the UN and NGOs is the only way to solve the problem of security. Increasing mutual understanding and friendship can help reduce conflicts and confrontation. The UN should give a clear definition of terrorism. Many participants opposed the dual standard on the problem of nuclear weapons existing in the international community, and affirmed the positive role of the six-party talks on DPRK’s nuclear issue and the negotiations on the establishment of nuclear-free Middle East.

Through its active work, the CPAFFC delegation got a chance of making a speech at a midday workshop entitled the MDGs Through the Lens of Academia and Developing Country Experiences. CPAFFC Vice President Li Xiaolin made the keynote speech and answered the participants’ questions. In her speech, she gave a briefing on CPAFFC’ s work on poverty relief, education and environmental protection, saying that NGOs should give full play to their advantages, strengthen international cooperation and make concerted efforts to realize the MDGs. She also pointed out, China has not yet achieved a balanced development and its democracy and legal system need to be further improved. China’s NGOs are now playing greater roles in building a harmonious society. Li’s speech won appreciation from the participants who said China’s NGOs are fully capable of playing a greater role in the activities of the NGOs in the UN. In addition, through actively winning the organizer’s support, a member of the CPAFFC delegation got a chance to speak as one answering questions at the roundtable conference entitled Eradicating Poverty: Timelines and Lifelines participated by representatives of the governments of member states, the UN organizations and NGOs. In his speech he pointed out that through providing education and training the poor people learn skills and improve their ability in making a living. This is an effective way to help them shake off poverty.

In his keynote speech at the panel session entitled A Focus on Human Development: Implementing the MDGs, Liu Mingzu, chairman of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress, briefed about the Chinese Government’s work on implementing the MDGs. Representatives of other Chinese NGOs including the Chinese Association for International Understanding, the United Nations Association of China, China Society for Human Rights Studies, the Chinese Peoples’ Association for Peace and Disarmament, China Association of Women Entrepreneurs and China Association for Preservation and Development of Tibetan Culture were also present at the annual conference.