9/20/2010
6:48 PM
All I'm getting from this article is that starting today, there's a three-day-long summit meeting in New York between world leaders to discuss how the millennium development goals are not being met. "Last week the chairpersons of the UN human rights treaty bodies issued a statement noting that faster progress towards achieving the MDGs can be accomplished by adhering to international human rights standards." In an effort to achieve the goals quicker, the UN is adding more expectations? Don't misunderstand- I am in full support of the MDG's and what they stand for, but when this article states that the countries who have signed onto reaching these goals by 2015 have neglected their promises, it doesn't help to raise morale.
These were meant to be long term goals, and this article makes it seem like we have completely put off addressing the goals until now, giving the world's leaders 5 years to solve enormous problems instead of 15. Capitalism is rearing its ugly head and getting in the way of this-how are we expected to help the poorest countries when we need them to remain poor in order to maintain our comfortable lifestyles? That is the main barrier- people will sign papers, and voice their support, but the people with power are not willing to sacrifice their luxuries in order to allow others basic human rights.
This article did not do much in the way of news, besides reporting that there was a meeting going on. But it did bring up a good point that has been ignored and neglected for 10+ years. The thing about the UN though, is that it has no real power of enforcement. Five years from now, if the goals aren't met, nothing will happen. I hate to be a Debbie-downer but I don't see much progress happening. Where is the news report claiming a success in the name of global human rights? This article simply repeats an issue that has been around the block, and will continue to follow us.
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