A/67/PV.42 General Assembly

I give the floor to the representative of Monaco to introduce draft resolution A/67/L.26.

In my capacity as co-Chair of the Group of Friends of Sport for Development and Peace and on behalf of my co-Chair Tunisia and the other sponsors of today’s draft resolution, I have the honour to introduce the draft resolution entitled “Sport as a means to promote education, health, development and peace”, contained in document A/67/L.26. On behalf of the Group of Friends, I would also like to welcome our new members, Japan and Denmark. The year 2011 marked the tenth anniversary of the mandate of the Special Adviser to the Secretary- General on Sport for Development and Peace and of that Office within the United Nations. The efforts led by the Special Advisers, Mr. Ogi and Mr. Lemke, during the past 10 years have helped to establish the recognition of sport as a tool for promoting the goals of peace and development, as enshrined in the ideals of the Charter of the United Nations. Sport has adopted values that tend to promote social inclusion, gender equality, tolerance, respect for rules and health through its striving to outdo itself. Support for such values is fundamental and should be encouraged in a world dealing with new challenges every day. In the context of the duty we bear to strive for a peaceful, better world, we must put to good use all of the means available to us, and sport is one of them. We can all use sport, collectively or individually, in many situations, as the report of the Secretary-General (A/67/282) emphasizes. That is because, where politics sometimes fail and life discriminates, sport can bring divided and devastated peoples and communities together and include everybody, regardless of social class, age, race and even disability. This year’s biennial draft resolution introduces a new programme oriented towards the work of the Office of the Special Adviser, to whom I would like to express our sincere congratulations on his leadership and the determination with which he has been working on the ground, both concretely and effectively, to further our goals. He has succeeded in meeting the challenge of integrating sport as an instrument capable of responding to a large number of cross-cutting issues relating to implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. In many situations he has shown that sport can contribute significantly to dealing with society’s problems. The draft resolution also highlights the crucial and growing importance of women in sport and how essential it is to empower them, if we are to achieve lasting development. Similarly, it seeks to encourage the full participation of developing countries, especially the least developed, in efforts to develop national sports institutions and capacities that will enable them to take advantage of economic opportunities. In the light of the success and enormous popularity of some of the great recent sporting events, the draft resolution seeks to acknowledge and strengthen private-public partnerships in sport, which can have very positive effects on the development of social and institutional infrastructures. The draft resolution also welcomes the numerous partnerships established between the United Nations system and the International Olympic Committee since its attainment of observer status in the General Assembly. It also affirms the contribution that the Olympic movement has made to establishing sport as a unique means of promoting peace and development, particularly through the Olympic Truce. In my national capacity, I would also like to recall the Principality of Monaco’s commitment to further strengthening the power of sport. Their Serene Highnesses Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene, themselves both Olympians, are determined to promote sport as a tool for development and peace. Both within the Group of Friends of Sport for Development and Peace, which we are pleased to say is mentioned in the text of the draft resolution for the first time, and in its general policies, Monaco seeks to promote dialogue and facilitate and encourage the integration of sport in order to achieve the goals of the United Nations. Sport’s unprecedented ability to mobilize people gives us this opportunity, now fully recognized, to defend our ideals and share our ambitions to fight poverty and achieve peace. It is in that spirit that the International University of Monaco and the University for Peace have formed a partnership, which, supported by Peace and Sport, a global initiative under the high patronage of Prince Albert II, enables students to take master’s degrees in innovative subjects such as lasting peace through sport. I would also like to recall the sixth Peace and Sport International Forum, which just took place in Sochi in the Russian Federation and which discussed the effectiveness of the Olympic Games as a diplomatic platform. I cannot close without offering the Government of Monaco’s hearty congratulations to the British authorities for the magic moments they gave us during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. On a technical point, I would also like to thank all the sponsors of the draft resolution and note, for those wishing to become sponsors, that the list will be open until the end of the debate on this agenda item.

I would first like to express my delegation’s satisfaction with the publication of the Secretary-General’s report entitled “Sport for development and peace: mainstreaming a versatile instrument” (A/67/282), and to welcome the activities undertaken during the past year within the United Nations system, particularly by the Office on Sport for Development and Peace. I would also like to emphasize my delegation’s appreciation for the untiring and continuing efforts of Mr. Wilfried Lemke, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace. We wish him every success in his worthy task and assure him of our full support in his efforts to maximize the success of programmes to promote sport around the world. Sport is a determining element in setting norms of good citizenship and therefore plays a special role in promoting the coherence of a healthy social fabric. We believe that access to sport is a fundamental social right and that sport is an important agent for social cohesion and development. It promotes high values and contributes to a solid education for our children and young people. Sport has become part of the United Nations value system — an effective tool to be included from now on as one of our Organization’s main themes. I reiterate Tunisia’s resolve to take steps to enlist sport’s capacity to promote communication and understanding and make it a powerful national and international agent for inclusion and development, as well as a means to promote solidarity, tolerance and cultural and personal diversity. I also welcome the interest shown in sport by the whole of our membership and the general belief in its worldwide utility as a tool for promoting peace, development, education and health. I take this opportunity to voice our warm congratulations to the United Kingdom on having organized the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. Those two events solidified the principle of the Olympic Truce and the ideals of the United Nations and the Olympic movement — friendship among peoples, harmony, non-violence and non-discrimination. They also clearly demonstrated sport’s ability to promote unity and friendship and the shared spirit of sportsmanship among athletes and fans, no matter what their origins, political leanings or faiths. I also want to congratulate the Russian Federation on its upcoming Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2014 in Sochi and the Brazilian Government for its selection to host two major sporting events, the 2014 International Federation of Association Football World Cup and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016. Given the potential of sport to inspire and its vital contribution in energizing new generations avid for physical and mental health, Tunisia urges Member States to take all measures necessary to address the dangerous phenomenon of doping, which threatens not only athletes’ health but also the image and credibility of sporting events. We welcome the growing number of Member States that have signed the International Convention against Doping in Sport. It is also important to ensure that education systems and civil society organizations educate young people about the ethics of sport and sportsmanship, so as to prevent sports arenas and events from being used to promulgate racist, xenophobic and exclusionary slogans. Zealous to nurture the tradition of sportsmanship and to utilize sport in the promotion of universal shared values for the benefit of future generations, my country joins Monaco in introducing draft resolution A/67/L.26, entitled “Sport as a means to promote education, health, development and peace”, on behalf of the Group of Friends of Sport for Development and Peace and the sponsors. The draft resolution urges all concerned parties to cooperate with the Special Adviser to the Secretary- General in expanding awareness of the importance of including sport in development programmes, and encourages Member States to name focal points on sport for development and peace, as well as to create innovative partnerships with the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace. I hope that the draft resolution will enjoy the support of all Member States, which would send a strong message to the men and women working nobly to promote the practice of sport and raise the cheer of all athletes.

The Charter of the United Nations, drafted in San Francisco, set out principles for what was to be a new system of international relations that would prevent a repetition of the horrific experiences of the twentieth century’s two World Wars. The primary challenge set out in the first sentence of the Preamble is “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” and to create a democratic, equitable world order based on equal respect for the dignity of all people. The Organization that we belong to today was created for those purposes, with the stated goal of maintaining international peace and security, based on the ideals of the sovereign equality of all Members, the peaceful settlement of international disputes, the non-use or threat of use of force and non-intervention in the internal affairs of States. The promise was also held out that all peoples would achieve economic and social progress. However, after more than six decades of the Organization’s existence, we are witness to a dismal economic and social picture, characterized simultaneously by the economic and financial crisis, the food and energy crises and the harmful impact of climate change, every day further endangering the human race. As a result of those problems, themselves the result of the current unjust and inequitable international order, the efforts of the countries of the South to achieve progress and development have been hampered. Today more than ever we must forge a climate of international peace, through solidarity, cooperation and multilateralism as our fundamental values. Sport is an important aspect of national and international development. Cuba believes that the practice of sport strengthens solidarity and friendship among nations — elements critical to peace, development and cooperation among nations. Following the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, sport ceased to be an exclusive activity in our country, becoming instead a right enjoyed by all. In order to exercise that right, we have promoted an educational system that includes physical education as an integral component of human development at all stages. That has led to resounding successes in regional and international competitions. An example is Cuba’s success in the 2012 London Olympic Games, in which our small developing country ranked sixteenth in the number of medals won. We are one of the first developing countries to rank that high. Similarly, Cuba ranked fifteenth in this year’s Paralympic Games, in its best performance to date, winning nine gold medals. We strive for early sports training for our children, allowing us to nurture unique talents destined to meet and raise the standards set by our country on the international sports stage. At the same time, we oppose an athletic spirit motivated purely by financial gain. We therefore condemn the theft of athletic talent, which negatively impacts developing countries. For years the Cuban sport movement, led by the Cuban Olympic Committee and the National Institute of Sport, Physical Education and Recreation, has provided impartial assistance to various countries of the South based on bilateral agreements, sending technicians, trainers and teachers, who, in their own modest way, have conveyed our training methods in the field of sport and have enhanced the success and increasing involvement in sport in those countries, thereby forging strong ties of brotherhood and friendship between peoples. We have also strengthened international cooperation by making available to countries of the South the Institute for Sports Medicine and the Anti-doping Laboratory, to help fight the scourge of drugs that is corrupting athletes and that impedes fair play and the education and culture of athletes and trainers. Furthermore, Cuba founded the International School of Physical Education and Sports, which is devoted to training professionals whose fundamental value is solidarity and who are able to transform physical education and sports in their countries. We would also like to highlight that the countries of the South also deserve to host the Olympic Games, a forum for brotherhood and solidarity in sports that is free from commercial interests. We are certain that the 2016 Olympic Games, to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will be a success for all the South. We shall further develop international cooperation and solidarity through the Olympic ideal. Let us invest in projects of education, culture, sports and health, instead of spending billions on weapons. Much could be done for the right to development of billions of people worldwide using relatively few resources, if all countries had the genuine political resolve to do so. For its part, Cuba reiterates its decision to keep sharing, to the best of our ability, our principal resource, namely, the human capital created by the Cuban Revolution and our best experiences.

Mr. President, I wish to thank you for convening today’s debate. I also thank the Secretary-General for his report (A/67/282). The practice of sports is deeply rooted in Brazilian culture and society. Access to sports constitutes a fundamental social right enshrined in our Constitution. The Brazilian Government firmly believes in the potential of sport as an important factor for social inclusiveness and development. We also consider it a tool for fostering role-model values concurrently with a solid upbringing for all our children and youth. Accordingly, sport in Brazil is traditionally regarded as being instrumental in forging good standards of citizenship, thereby playing a special role in maintaining a healthy social fabric It is therefore with the utmost satisfaction that Brazil welcomes the imminent adoption of draft resolution A/67/L.26 on sport as a means to promote education, health, development and peace, which we gladly co-sponsor. That effort seems to be in close harmony with chief initiatives and programmes undertaken by Member States and international organizations in relation to the advancement of sport in an integrated manner consistent with measures for equitable and inclusive social and economic development. The Brazilian Government envisages sport as part of a broader set of policy objectives that also encompasses access to education and health. We believe that dealing with sport in such an integrated and holistic way contributes to creating conditions conducive to peace and development. Bearing that in mind, the Brazilian Government has launched a series of initiatives that focus on multi-stake partnerships with representative institutions from across our civil society. For instance, we have undertaken a programme that employs 12,000 inmates from State prisons in manufacturing sports equipment, whose output is used in other educational sports programmes carried out by the Brazilian Government. In addition, the so-called Second Half programme, which benefits more than one million people, proposes part-time sports activities to children and youngsters enrolled in public schools. Likewise, pursuant to previous recommendations on the subject, Brazil develops international sports cooperation projects in partnership with other developing countries, such as Benin, Botswana, Kenya, Palestine, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. We remain engaged in increasing and expanding the scope of those programmes with other countries as well as in launching initiatives in cooperation with United Nations agencies and programmes. We find ourselves at the beginning of an exciting sport-centred decade. Over the next few years, Brazil will host three sports mega-events — the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) World Cup in 2013, next year, the FIFA World Cup in 2014, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016. In the coming years, sports will be at the top of the Brazilian social, political and economic agenda. We welcome all to the aforementioned events in Brazil. The decision to host these mega-events is consistent with the priority granted to the promotion of sustainable development and social inclusiveness. Hence the Brazilian Government remains committed to fostering and adopting public policies that ensure that hosting those events will help generate more jobs, improve our nationwide infrastructure and increase opportunities for Brazilian youth. Brazil also hopes that the mega- events will provide an opportunity for us to share experience in promoting sports as a means to achieve social inclusiveness and enhance the development of partnerships with other nations, especially developing ones.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin believed that building peace and a better world required providing young people with a sports education and opportunities to get involved with sports. Thus it would be possible to create a lifestyle based on the happiness that comes from effort, from the educational value of a good example and from respect for the fundamental ethical principles. That legacy remains in full force, as was demonstrated by the impeccable Olympic and Paralympic Games in London, where maximum effort, unity, friendship and fair and healthy competition filled our lives to overflowing and flourished as common values of humankind. Sport plays a relevant role in the promotion of social development and is a means par excellence for communication between peoples and for the maintenance of world peace. That is why Costa Rica welcomes the fact that the United Nations has included it on its agenda. Our country recognizes the potential of sport as a universal practice that contributes to educating people in the values of respect, diversity and tolerance. We also recognize the value of sport as a means to combat all forms of discrimination. Accordingly, we must make the necessary efforts to ensure that sport is fully included in our national development agendas. Sports and physical activity must not be omitted or sidelined from the challenges that a country faces, Quite the contrary, they should be part of the process of transformation for a country’s full development. The organizing committees of major international sports events have recognized the legacy that games can leave by raising awareness on matters such as social inclusion and human rights and by fostering opportunities to create and transform infrastructure with positive long- lasting effects. Last year, the General Assembly unanimously adopted resolution 66/5, entitled “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal”. Even more significant was the fact that it was the first time in history that a resolution was co-sponsored by the 193 States Members of the United Nations. Only sport has been able to achieve that feat. Sport is more than a luxury or a form of entertainment; it is more than just winning medals. Access to and participation in sport and in physical activity are essential to lead a full and healthy life. Moreover, sport has also proved to be an instrument for the most disadvantaged, for public health and for social inclusion, in particular when focused on education and prevention. It empowers minorities and enables them to have a dignified place in society, as the Paralympic movement and streetfootballworld have accomplished. Sport also has a strong impact on the global economy in the creation of employment, in the development of new undertakings and in public investment. The United Nations and other international entities, including the International Olympic Committee and the international sports federations, have begun to recognize, beyond elite sports, the enormous potential of widely participatory sports as a generator of social change. Athletes can be a valuable instrument in promoting social stability, reconciliation and dialogue. As models for behaviour, they can help raise awareness of matters such as participation, non-discrimination, gender equality and the rights of persons with disabilities. For the first time in its history, San José, the capital of Costa Rica, will host in February 2013 the Central American Games, which were established just a few years ago. The President of the Republic and the Mayor of San José have expressed their total commitment to the organization of those Games, as they are an excellent opportunity to use sports to promote the values of peace, human security and social development among the Central American family. In addition to that effort, our country continues to work shoulder to shoulder with various international organizations related to sport. Along with the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, Mr. Wilfried Lemke, and with other Member States, we are promoting the initiative to organize in Geneva a group of friends of sport for development and peace to replicate the group that already exists in New York. Together with the International Olympic Committee and the National Olympic Committee of Costa Rica, we are seeking opportunities for cooperation using sport as an instrument of social prevention. Together with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, we are promoting the organization of a programme for young people at social risk. Working with the Alianza A Ganar, we have developed a programme for training and employing youth through sport. With the non-governmental organization Peace and Sport, we are working to establish a regional forum for peace and sport in Costa Rica. With regard to gender matters, in 2011 we signed the Brighton Declaration on Women and Sport. We trust that the international community will continue on its steady path towards achieving the ideals that were outlined by Baron de Coubertin more than one hundred years ago for the benefit of humankind.

Australia is committed to the principles of sport for development and peace and to the role the United Nations can play in furthering those principles. We welcome the report of the Secretary- General on this subject introduced this morning (A/67/282) and would like to take this opportunity to thank the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, Mr. Wilfried Lemke, for his ongoing efforts to promote the United Nations work in this field. We would also like to thank Monaco for introducing draft resolution A/67/L.26, which is before us today. Australia is pleased to co-sponsor the draft resolution. Sport’s popularity, its capacity as a communication platform and its ability to connect people make it a tool that can be used to meet a range of development objectives, including contributing to the Millennium Development Goals. Australia, with a reputation as a sporting nation, is well placed to use sport as a vehicle to contribute to targeted development outcomes. The Australian Sports Outreach Programme supports major programmes in seven countries and provides grants for smaller activities in over 40 countries in Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. The Australian Government’s approach to using sport to meet development objectives identifies specific development outcomes in two key areas where we believe we can make a real difference and deliver real results. The first regards reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as heart disease, diabetes and stroke, which place a significant burden on health systems in developing countries already struggling to cope. They also reduce productivity and household income, keeping poor people poor. Sport can play a powerful role in addressing the risk factors causing NCDs, including physical inactivity, unhealthy diets and harmful tobacco and alcohol use. In March 2012, Australia, in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, convened a Healthy Islands Through Sport Forum in Brisbane. This regional meeting of senior officials of Pacific ministries of health and sport aimed to facilitate ongoing collaboration and multisectoral action to address the risk factors that cause non-communicable diseases. Secondly, the Australian Government programmes emphasize the role of sport in enhancing the lives of people with disabilities. Sport can foster the inclusion and well-being of persons with disabilities and facilitate social inclusion. For instance, Australian activities have been provided to increase community awareness about people with disability in Fiji, where the Inspiring Fijians rugby team – a combined rugby team from Fiji’s special schools — playing in front of large crowds and inclusive community sports festivals have helped promote more positive attitudes towards people with disability. Australia also has a number of programmes to address the involvement of women and girls in sport- related activities. These include the sport leadership grants for women, which provide opportunities for training and skills development to enable women to take on leadership and decision-making roles in sport. Australia recognizes the need for all parties around the world to be vigilant in protecting the integrity of sport. Issues such as doping in sports and illegal sports betting have great potential to undermine the ability of sport to be used as a vehicle for development.

The United Kingdom delegation welcomes the report of the Secretary-General on sport for development and peace (A/67/282), as well as the latest draft resolution (A/67/L.26) on sport as a means to promote education, health, development and peace. The year 2012 has been special for the United Kingdom, as London played host to the summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. We were proud that the Games set many new records: sporting records and records for crowds, for television audiences and for unbridled spirit. Throughout our Olympic and Paralympic Games campaigning we hoped to ensure that the Games would leave a lasting legacy. We were proud and grateful to see parts of that legacy — specifically the International Inspiration sports legacy programme and General Assembly resolution 66/5 on the Olympic Truce — mentioned in the Secretary-General’s report. We would like to share some additional information about those actions and their follow-up. International Inspiration is London 2012’s international sports legacy programme. At the Singapore bidding event in 2005, we vowed to work towards reaching out to young people around the world to connect them to the inspirational power of the Games, in order to inspire them to choose sport. So far, International Inspiration has enriched the lives of at least 11 million children in 20 countries around the world, through high-quality and inclusive physical education, sport and play and is on course to reach its target of 12 million children by 2014. The United Kingdom is also proud to have had the opportunity to sponsor the 2011 resolution on the Olympic Truce. We were extremely grateful to all 193 Member States for their sponsorship. The United Kingdom’s aspiration has been to mobilize the Olympic Truce resolution around the world. We hope to show that there are many aspects of the resolution that can be developed to promote peace. With that in mind, we saw an opportunity to mobilize sport and the ideals of the Olympic Truce through the conflict prevention work of our diplomatic missions. Working in partnership with Member States, National Olympic Committees, parliamentarians and civil society, including faith groups and non-governmental organizations, we were able to deliver over 80 Olympic Truce activities on every continent. Examples include organizing a range of activities in collaboration with the Northern Uganda Youth Development Centre to celebrate the impact of peace on young people, including sporting events, a peace march and work within the community; and co-hosting a football tournament and clinic bringing people together from a diverse range of communities in the Philippines, in order to help bridge the gap between Christians and Muslims. However, none of that would have been possible without the participation and cooperation of many different partners. We would like to give special thanks to the Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly and Mr. Wilfried Lemke, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, for their support for the Olympic Truce work. The Secretary-General joined the British Foreign Secretary on the eve of the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Games, on 27 July, where both recognized the importance of the Olympic Truce. The United Kingdom would also like to extend our warm wishes to future Games hosts. This month, British Government ministers visited both Moscow and Rio for high-level meetings as part of my country’s Olympic handover and commitment to a long-term legacy. We welcome our agreements with Russia, Brazil and the International Olympic Committee to support promotion of the ideals of the Olympic Truce, and we remain ready and willing to continue that work into the future. We encourage all Member States to support and promote the ideals of the Olympic Truce internationally and domestically. Finally, we encourage all Member States to support Mr. Lemke’s mandate and his work.

The Russian Federation highly commends the work of the United Nations in promoting international sport cooperation and contributing to enhancing mutual understanding among peoples and achieving understanding among civilizations. We are witnessing a difficult period in international relations in terms of globalization and dealing with the consequences of the global financial and economic crisis, along with increasing social, intercultural and international conflicts and bouts of extremism. Given those issues, the international community must, more than ever before, continue its efforts aimed at ensuring that sport — with its massive potential to promote unity — becomes a motor for comprehensive economic and social development and a means for achieving solidarity, tolerance and cultural diversity. We believe that sport is a powerful tool for educating young people in mutual respect, tolerance, and rejection of xenophobia. Of particular importance today, it can protect young people from the influence of destructive forces that provoke negative phenomena, including terrorism. The Russian Federation supports the idea that sport should develop according to its own rules and independently of the political situation. In particular, it should not serve as a pretext for intrigues or blackmail. In that regard, we welcome draft resolution A/67/L.26, submitted by Monaco and Tunisia, the chairs of the Group of Friends of Sport for Development and Peace, on sport as a means to promote education, health, development and peace. In our view, the document refers to the efforts currently under way by Member States and international entities aimed at developing sport and enhancing its contribution in addressing many serious contemporary problems. The Russian Federation is pleased to have sponsored the draft resolution. The integration of sports ties into development efforts is an important priority in the Russian Federation’s foreign policy and is constantly borne in mind by the Russian Government. As is well known, the Russian city of Sochi has been selected as the site of the XXII Winter Olympic Games and the XI Winter Paralympic Games in 2014. We consider that selection to be a very positive assessment by the international community of the achievements of Russian sport and recognition of the Russian Federation’s successful social, economic and political development efforts in recent years. We hope that the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi will go down in history as one of the most innovative ever. Many of the preparation efforts are being carried out for the very first time, and whatever remains will become part of the legacy of the Olympic Games. One of the innovations is the close proximity of the sporting and infrastructure sites, which will facilitate movement and avoid transportation problems. We are building modern sporting installations in Sochi, especially for the 2014 Olympic Games, with the use of cutting-edge technology and construction aimed at protecting the environment. We remain hopeful that the Sochi Olympic Games will set new standards for the hosting of major international sporting events and will help to introduce cutting-edge technology in construction and environmental protection and in creating an inclusive environment. We are convinced that the upcoming Olympic Games will foster further economic growth in the region and enable Sochi to become a world- class resort and business centre. That, in turn, will ensure the improvement of the living conditions of the people throughout the entire region. The Olympic and Paralympic Games will serve to further positive change in Russian society. More attention will be provided to protecting the environment and integrating people with disabilities into the active life of society. Sport is a universal language of communication. Organized sport competitions bring together representatives from various countries, cultures and religions, which reveals the major unifying potential of sport as an effective channel for advancing the culture of peace and dialogue among civilizations, and we should take full advantage of that potential.

In October 2011, the General Assembly unanimously adopted resolution 66/5, “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal”, sponsored by 193 States. In adopting that resolution, the Member States affirmed their commitment to the Olympic ideals, one of the most important of which is non-discrimination. As it is set out in the Olympic Charter, any form of religious or political discrimination is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement. The resolution called for reconciliation during the Olympic Games through the establishment of peaceful conditions and safe travel and participation for the athletes and others taking part in the Games. In practice, the experience of the most recent Olympiad showed that not every State fulfilled its proper obligations as laid down by the General Assembly and the Olympic Movement. It is regrettable to note the trend, which was vividly apparent during the Olympic Games in London, of exploiting international sports events for the purposes of putting pressure on sovereign States. Such acts not only undermine the spirit and letter of the Olympic Charter and General Assembly resolutions, they also devalue the principles of the Olympics and of sport as a whole. It is also disturbing to see the trend that turned sport from being an expression of the great achievements and triumphant potential of the human body, will and mind to being a contest between sponsors and pharmacological giants. Partial judges, doping scandals and international Olympic officials who vote using double standards — all of that conspires to prevent sport’s greatest achievements from working for the harmonious development of humankind and the creation of a peaceful society concerned with preserving human dignity. We are convinced that the combined efforts of the international community, when it demonstrates the necessary political will, are capable of putting an end to such negative trends. We call for strengthening the role of the General Assembly and its leadership in the effort to develop the international Olympic Movement, combat such negative influences in sport and support initiatives to expand human development through sport. We believe that the time has come to create clear mechanisms for cooperation between the leadership of the United Nations, including the President of the General Assembly and the Secretary-General, and the International Olympic Committee, with the goal of working together to observe the Olympic Truce among Member States and enhancing international cooperation.

It is an honour and privilege for South Africa to participate in this important debate on sport as a means to promote education, health, development and peace, and we thank the Secretary-General for his latest report on sport for development and peace (A/67/282). We have noted the tremendous initiatives and national policies and strategies that some Member States have developed to enable sport to act as a catalyst for achieving many positive aspects of development. This debate comes just a few months after the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. As the Secretary-General’s report clearly states, the London Olympics, just as other sporting events have done, “brought together diverse communities affected by conflict to participate in sporting, cultural and educational activities to promote conflict prevention and peace” (A/67/282, para. 6). We are also meeting on the eve of the African Cup of Nations soccer tournament, to be held in South Africa in January 2013. We hope it will be an opportunity to foster greater understanding and tolerance among different peoples in the spirit of nurturing peace. It is worth mentioning that the legacy of the 2010 International Federation of Association Football World Cup stretches beyond the obvious tangibles such as the stadiums, roads, airports, new equipment acquired for the police, emergency medical services and other Government services. In South Africa we have experienced how sport can serve as an inspiring force for unity and peaceful change. Sport also supports local economic development and the creation of jobs through the numerous income-generating activities linked to its practice. Before the beginning of the World Cup, President Jacob Zuma initiated the 1Goal campaign, with a view to advancing efforts towards achieving education for all. South Africa views sport as an important part of education, and the campaign is part of a range of national activities aimed at achieving universal access to education. In recognition of that initiative and South Africa’s prioritization of education, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited President Zuma to be one of the 10 inaugural Member State Champions for the Education First Initiative, whose purpose is to provide support to the Secretary-General in ensuring that the initiative enjoys global visibility and success. As is clearly highlighted in the Secretary-General’s report, South Africa’s national sport and recreation plan emphasizes the health benefits of an active nation. Within the plan there is a special focus on youth, with the understanding that increased physical fitness can improve children’s resistance to some diseases and that sport can help reduce the rate of adolescent pregnancies, which bring with them higher risks. The programmes proposed in the plan can also be used to reduce stigma and increase the social and economic integration of people living with HIV and AIDS. In implementing our mass participation programme, Sport and Recreation South Africa, our experience has been that using sport to promote peace is extremely effective in programmes at the community level, since they directly involve those affected by conflict and social tension. Sport also offers a sense of normality, especially to young people, in times of instability. As an example, the programme Peace Players International used basketball to help with the positive development of the young people of KwaZulu-Natal. Trained coaches served as mentors, as well as educators, and used interactive games to reach children in discussing sensitive topics, such as HIV and AIDS prevention, gender roles and drugs and alcohol awareness. The South African Department of Sport and Recreation and the German Development Bank have begun to roll out the South Africa Sport for Change programme. It showcases sport as a catalyst for change with great potential for youth development, using sport as a medium to create positive behaviour and attitudes and to reduce the factors conducive to the social ills that afflict young people and society. Sport is an important tool for bringing people around the world together to share their talents, regardless of race. It has the power to help get young people and others off the streets and at the same time to promote health, education, development and peace. Sport has been recognized as a powerful tool through its contributions to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The Secretary- General has said that sport has a crucial role to play in the efforts of the United Nations to improve the lives of people around the world; it builds bridges between individuals and across communities, providing fertile ground for sowing the seeds of development and peace. In South Africa, sport has played a crucial role in the demise of the apartheid system and the creation of a new society since 1994. In conclusion, South Africa supports the adoption of the draft resolution entitled “Sport as a means to promote education, health, development and peace” (A/67/L.26) by the General Assembly.

It is indeed an honour for me speak on agenda item 12, “Sport for peace and development”. Jamaica has, in spite of its relatively small size, enjoyed a long tradition of excellence in sport, which predates the 1948 Olympics and the Helsinki Games of 1952, when our sprint relay team struck gold. The magnificent world-class performance of our athletes in 2008, which was repeated at this year’s London Olympics, truly showed the power of sport to unite the world and its potential for development. That significant achievement by our athletes takes on added significance as this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of our independence. It is with that history and tradition in mind that Jamaica decided to become, once again, a sponsor of the draft resolution on this agenda item (A/67/L.26). In that connection we have also become a member of the Group of Friends of Sport for Development and Peace. In spite of the limited resources in our region and the relatively small population groups, there is an urgent need to develop strategies throughout the region to maximize resources and ensure the greatest positive impact among the population. Notwithstanding those circumstances, it is critical that sport become the focal point around which to stage our development programme. It has tremendous potential for all members of society, in particular the youth. It is also important to ensure that Government policies are aligned with that objective and that the potential for the development benefits of sports is duly recognized. Sport has transcended the borders of the race tracks and indoor facilities. The reality is that it involves issues of health, tourism, social development and economic advancement, which are of common interest to us all. More importantly, sport provides a vehicle and a strategy, not only for Government but also for various other sectors of society, to systematically reduce poverty, build peace, reduce conflict and create wealth within communities. Much has been done to institutionalize and formalize successful initiatives in Jamaica over the years. To that end, sport for development has become a national priority, as demonstrated by the urgency being given by the Government in finalizing the revised National Sports Policy. The National Sports Policy for Jamaica highlights the critical importance of sport in the achievement of Jamaica’s development goals and national growth. Sport is viewed by the Government of Jamaica as a cross-cutting vehicle that will contribute to achieving national development and a healthy society. Sport is also considered a sustainable process that builds leadership and supports healthy behaviour and lifestyles as well as peaceful coexistence among communities. Women continue, of course, to excel in most sporting events. They are integrally involved in the decision-making process relating to sport policies and are included in a number of executive boards and coaching staffs. At the community level, sport has been used as a major vehicle for mobilizing residents for various community development programmes, and, in Jamaica, sport has become an ingrained component of our daily lives. Sport is included in the school curriculums in Jamaica, from the elementary level to the tertiary level. The University of the West Indies offers post-graduate programmes in sports medicine and other critical areas. The University of Technology now hosts the Caribbean School of Sport Sciences, which offers three bachelor of science electives, namely, coaching, sports management and athletic training, which focuses on physiology and physiotherapy. Our specialist institution, the G. C. Foster College of Physical Education and Sport, maintains a high standard of excellence in a wide-ranging set of programmes that seek to address the gaps that now exist in sport-related professions. It is clear that in order to maximize the potential of sport being used as a means to promote education, health, development and peace, there is a need to redesign the image and understanding of the term “sport”. It must address the means by which initiatives can be implemented through the provision of the necessary resources. That may be achieved through public- and private-sector partnership. In realization of the important role that sport plays in society, it is also imperative that its integrity be preserved. It is for that reason that the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission promotes the development and maintenance of a dope-free environment. Finally, Jamaica fully endorses the recommendation to strengthen the work in each State in the area of sport as a vehicle for the promotion of education, development and peace and pledges to work collaboratively with other countries in that regard.

The report of the Secretary- General entitled “Sport for development and peace: mainstreaming a versatile instrument” (A/67/282) underlines once again the important role that sport can play in the different areas of development and peacebuilding. Sport activities bring together people from different regional, cultural and religious backgrounds and help to overcome cultural, linguistic and other barriers. Sport plays a valuable role in contributing to social cohesiveness and rapprochement between cultures and peoples. Moreover, sport programmes can foster social inclusion and help overcome discrimination against, and the marginalization of, women and disabled persons. Sport can also help to promote the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals. Sport programmes can support social integration, especially after periods of conflict, and such programmes can, for example, play a major role in the rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers and other youths, an aspect that Germany follows closely as Chair of the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. We are grateful to the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, Mr. Wilfried Lemke, for bringing together and coordinating the various actors in the field of sport and development — multilateral actors such as the United Nations entities, national Governments, non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations. The Office on Sport for Development and Peace plays a key role in connecting people, promoting peace and mutual understanding and driving the Millennium Development Goals through sport. As a member of the Group of Friends for Sport for Development and Peace, we clearly see the added value of the Office’s work. That is the reason why the German Government decided to support the Special Adviser and the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace. As we know, the Special Adviser covers sport in all its dimensions, from major world sport events, such as the Olympic and Paralympic games in London, to the grass-roots activities and non-governmental organizations in many developing countries. The Youth Leadership Camps developed by the Office are, in our view, a showcase of what such cooperation between the various actors in achieving the common goal can look like, and it shows how important the work of the Office and the Special Adviser is for the development of programmes as well as the coordination of the various actors. Germany is proud to be one of the hosts of the Youth Leadership Camps in 2012. We have also been, as I said, one of the main supporters of the Office’s activities since 2008, and our clear intention is to continue with our support in the future. However, the predictability of funding is of utmost importance, and we would therefore like to take the opportunity of this debate to express our full support for Mr. Lemke’s approach, which he outlined in the main lines of action in the report, in order to broaden financial support for his Office. I think it is very important that many Member States, as we have seen in today’s debate, are very much interested in this topic and support sport. They also support the Office and the work of the Special Adviser. In May 2013 in Berlin Germany will organize a World Sport Minister Conference, where we would like to welcome all Member States. I would like to encourage Member States that share the same objectives as the Office for Sport for Development and Peace to consider becoming a member of the Group of Friends. I am convinced that a large and active group can contribute significantly to achieving our common goals. Let me finish by thanking the co-facilitators, Monaco and Tunisia, for preparing the draft resolution we will adopt today.

The State of Israel strongly supports promoting sport to advance education, health, development and peace, and we are a proud sponsor of the draft resolution to be adopted today. My delegation appreciates the report of the Secretary-General on this important subject (A/67/282) and welcomes the new Action Plan on Sport for Development and Peace proposed therein. Throughout history, sport has played a vital role in the lives of people around the world. Sport acts as a platform for engaging youth, women and people with disabilities, promoting dialogue and coexistence and fostering development. Sport promotes universal values such as honour, teamwork and tolerance. It helps us transcend our differences and reminds us of our commonalities. Sport has also been a powerful tool for progress and development. It has played an important role in advancing the Millennium Development Goals, including the promotion of gender equality. Sport fosters empowerment and self-esteem; it provides women with a chance to come together, learn new skills and develop leadership abilities. Israel welcomes the Thematic Working Group on Sport and Gender, of the Sport for Development and Peace International Working Group, which highlights best practices and contributes to advancing gender equality around the world. Israel deeply recognizes the value of sport. In 2009, the Israeli Government created the Culture and Sports Ministry in order to better harness the benefits of sport for Israeli society. In 2011, Israel, together with the Government of Germany, hosted the first international conference on “Sport as a mediator between Cultures”, with the support of UNESCO and other organizing partners, including Football for Peace International. The United Nations Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, Mr. Wilfried Lemke, attended, as did ministers, academics, and representatives of civil society and the private sector from around the world. It was an important platform to develop an understanding of how sport can contribute to education, social development, peacebuilding and cross-culture reconciliation. It was also an important opportunity to bring and devise strategies for using sport in those fields. The Sports Authority within the Culture and Sports Ministry operates multicultural sport activities in line with the Ministry’s vision, which regards sport as an important cultural stimulus that minimizes differences while stressing commonalties. In that spirit, the Office regularly organizes activities that bring together Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians. Two successful programmes are Football 4 Peace and Ultimate Peace Frisbee. Israeli civil society also prides itself on its sport- for-peace accomplishments. The Twinned Peace Sport Schools programme at the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv is the longest-running coexistence sport project in the Middle East. Every year, it hosts sports leagues for nearly 2,000 children from twinned communities across Israel and the Palestinian Authority to foster coexistence and mutual respect. The Israeli non-governmental organization Mifalot oversees more than 300 programmes that use football to foster peace and tolerance across our region. Mifalot’s annual sporting event brings together 20,000 youths from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan as part of an effort to change perceptions and stereotypes. On the heels of its remarkable success in Israel, the programme has expanded to Cameroon, Rwanda, Haiti and many other countries. In Israel, Mifalot also promotes gender equality in minority communities. For example, in Bedouin villages in southern Israel, initiatives aimed at empowering young girls have enjoyed significant success. Maryam Abu-Ghanem, a resident of Tel Sheva, became Israel’s first female Bedouin sports coach this year. Finally, on behalf of my country, I would like to thank the Special Adviser on Sport, Mr. Wilfried Lemke, for his continuing dedication to the noble ideal of using sport to promote tolerance and mutual understanding. Israel continues to value the importance of sport in promoting awareness, mutual understanding and a culture of peace. As our President, Shimon Peres, once said, “You do not wait for peace in order to use sport for peace; you can use sport to achieve peace”.

We have heard the last speaker in the debate on agenda item 12. The Assembly will now take a decision on draft resolution A/67/L.26, entitled “Sports as a means to promote education, health, development and peace”. I now give the floor to the representative of the Secretariat.

I should like to announce that since the submission of the draft resolution, the following countries have also become sponsors of the draft resolution: Andorra, Argentina, the Bahamas, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Canada, China, Croatia, Egypt, Eritrea, Granada, Guinea, Haiti, Jamaica, Japan, Lithuania, Madagascar, Mongolia, Montenegro, Norway, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Viet Nam.

May I take it that the Assembly decides to adopt A/67/L.26?

May I take it that it is the wish of the General Assembly to conclude its consideration of agenda item 12?

I now give the floor to the representative of Mongolia to introduce draft resolution A/67/L.25.

It is my honour to present to the General Assembly draft resolution A/67/L.25, entitled “Education for Democracy”. The list of sponsors is long, but let me quickly read out all of them. Their names are worthy of being announced loudly and proudly, as if we were still at the unforgettable and grandiose opening of the outstanding Olympic Games in Beijing and London. They are Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, the United States of America, Uruguay and, of course, my own country, Mongolia. Mongolia extends its sincere thanks to all the sponsors for their unwavering support. I am also grateful to China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, South Africa, Venezuela and other Member States for their strong interest, active participation and substantive contributions to disseminating and improving the draft during consultations. As the former Chair of the International Conference of New or Restored Democracies and as the current Chair of the Community of Democracies, Mongolia has made education for democracy the top priority during its chairmanship. In line with that priority, we have submitted the draft resolution on the subject and conducted numerous informal consultations with Member Governments in order to seek their views and improve the text so that it could become a consensus resolution. All delegations that took part in those consultations expressed their support. The text before us is not ideal, and I know that the sponsors and other participating countries are not fully satisfied. Nevertheless, a flexible reading of the current text should reveal that all concepts and interpretations with respect to education for democracy that Members wanted to include from their perspective are present, although some explicit language may be missing. We therefore consider that the text is balanced and meets the basic needs of all countries. We have substantially scaled back our own initial ambitions in order to accommodate the interests of all. The importance of the subject under consideration is well known. As Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has noted, developing a culture of democracy and fostering global citizenship are becoming part of the most pressing priorities of the international community. All that embraces education for democracy. The sponsors strongly believe that the main outcome of the draft resolution will be to launch a focused discussion on how to help educate our people in the culture of peace and democracy and a culture of tolerance of and respect for different civilizations and religions, as well as in upholding the values of freedom and human rights. The draft resolution, once adopted, will contribute to fostering global citizenship, with all Members equally playing a proactive role and globally sharing their own national best practices in education for democracy through a common platform. On behalf of the sponsors, I ask the General Assembly to adopt the draft resolution without a vote.

I give the floor to the observer of the European Union.

I will address the follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit, and then I will add a few words on the note by the Secretary-General in A/67/373. With regard to the Millennium Summit outcome, I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union (EU) and its member States. The acceding country Croatia; the candidate countries the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Iceland and Serbia; the countries of the Stabilization and Association Process and potential candidates Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina; as well as the Republic of Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, align themselves with this declaration. We welcome the Secretary-General’s report entitled “Accelerating progress towards the Millennium Development Goals: options for sustained and inclusive growth and issues for advancing the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015” (A/67/257) and are grateful for the opportunity to exchange views on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We believe that our first priority must be to increase the impact of our development cooperation in order to make as much progress as possible on the MDGs before 2015. There has been encouraging progress. However, it has varied significantly both among MDG targets and among regions. With developing countries in the lead, we must continue our common efforts towards that end, focusing on the MDGs that are the most off-track and the most vulnerable. The MDGs are central to EU development efforts. The €1 billion EU MDG Initiative, designed specifically to increase impact and boost tangible progress on the most off-track MDG targets, has now been implemented. The new EU Agenda for Change development framework aims to ensure the most effective and long-lasting impact by concentrating our actions where they bring added value and can be a catalyst for more sustainable and inclusive growth in developing countries. Secondly, looking beyond 2015, we recognize the power that the MDG framework has had in catalysing worldwide action on development. We should build on that achievement. A solid assessment of the current MDGs needs to be undertaken in view of the September 2013 special event to follow up on efforts made towards achieving the MDGs. We believe that the Millennium Declaration (resolution 55/2) and the set of related United Nations documents, as well as the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (resolution 66/288, annex), provide a comprehensive and ambitious foundation for the post-2015 period. The post-2015 development agenda could build on and improve the MDG framework, modernizing it and strengthening weak or missing issues. In that context, without diverting efforts from the achievement of the MDGs, we would like to stress the importance of developing SDGs — sustainable development goals — that are coherent with and integrated into the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015, with a view to an overarching framework for the post-2015 period. They need to address the key global challenges in the years to come and fully encompass the three dimensions of sustainable development in a balanced and synergistic way. They should be linked to possible concrete targets and indicators and be universal and applicable to all countries, while allowing for differentiated approaches among countries. We also consider it very important that the upcoming process to design the sustainable development goals be inclusive, with the full contribution and engagement of all relevant stakeholders. Improving the current framework while keeping it simple will be our common challenge. I think that we can all agree that goals are useful only if limited in number, action-oriented and easily communicable, and if they can operationalize agreed principles and shared objectives on the ground. Let me close my statement by saying that the European Union and its member States look forward to continued and constructive discussions and dialogue with all partners in the run-up to September 2013. I would also like to say a few words with regard to the note by the Secretary-General in A/67/373. The EU and its member States thank the Secretary-General for the note, which transmits the report of the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) on options for strengthening and facilitating multisectoral action for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases through effective partnership. We believe that, before being considered in the General Assembly plenary in New York, those options should be discussed further in Geneva in the context of the development of the WHO global action plan on non-communicable diseases. In addition, that is where the relevant public-health expertise resides. The Director-General’s report presents six necessary functions relating to collaboration and partnerships. However, rather than an analysis of them, we are presented with a number of questions that have a wider scope. Furthermore, those functions seem to be based on a vertical, disease- or treatment-based approach. We think that more emphasis should be put on health determinants and preventive public policy measures, which can be developed in consultation with targeted stakeholders, including civil society. We also wish to stress the need for a broader scope of research for public health interventions, policies and capacities — not only research and development efforts for specific products. However, we appreciate that the report addresses the necessity of coordination. We could not agree more. We would like to see the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases taking a more strategic, systemic and global approach, driven by policies across all relevant sectors, under WHO leadership and guidance and as articulated through the global action plan to be adopted at the World Health Assembly in May next year. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the role of the WHO as the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. The challenges posed by non-communicable diseases are complex and multifaceted. The key is to strengthen both international and multi-stakeholder collaboration and to ensure a coordinated, system-wide response through a health-in-all-policies approach. We believe that that response should be delivered within the existing resources, and we consider that WHO is uniquely placed to provide leadership on that critical challenge for global health and development.

On behalf of the 14 member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), I wish to deliver this statement on agenda item 113, “Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit”. At the outset, the Caribbean Community expresses its appreciation for the note by the Secretary-General (A/67/373), which transmitted, in a timely manner, the report of the Director-General of the World Health Organization on options for strengthening and facilitating multisectoral action for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases through effective partnership. While the Caribbean Community notes that the report does not emphasize the importance of regional coordination mechanisms and the efforts to address the fundamental challenges posed by non-communicable diseases (NCDs), we are of the view that the report is a good analysis of the experiences of using multisectoral mechanisms to address other health issues. The Caribbean Community strongly agrees that coordinating mechanisms are important at all levels for the effective implementation of national, regional and global multisectoral plans to address NCDs. In our subregion, for example, thus far two States have established national commissions and another has developed a partners forum with a view to addressing the incidence and prevalence of those diseases. CARICOM also avails itself of this opportunity to commend the World Health Organization (WHO) on the creation of the Global Non-communicable Disease Network, NCDnet. It recognizes that that mechanism is an excellent starting point for bringing together actors to raise awareness about, begin action towards and assist the implementation of the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases. With particular reference to the five options put forward in the report, the Caribbean Community is especially supportive of option 3, which relates to forming a coordinated network. We believe that that option is both the most appropriate and the most feasible in the short term, given the scope, scale and, most important, the urgency of the rising prevalence of NCDs. The option presents many features necessary for a successful partnership to promote multisectoral approaches to addressing the issue of NCDs. In that regard, CARICOM supports the key role that the WHO could and should play in such a global partnership as the technical lead on health. We also hold the view, however, that the technology of partnership requires resources, innovation and creativity in order to facilitate its effective functioning. Therefore, both resources and technical assistance would be required to ensure the effectiveness and desired impact of any partnership. Should adequate resources become available to support the required partnership, the Caribbean Community could also consider a centralized and formalized partnership, as presented as option 5 in the aforementioned report. The Caribbean Community also wishes to commend the WHO for the timely development of the second global action plan, for 2013 to 2020, as it will serve, along with the Political Declaration of the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases (resolution 66/2, annex), as the principal multisectoral compass for the global coordinating mechanism. We also applaud the WHO for identifying and promoting the “25 by 25” target — to reduce non-communicable diseases by 25 per cent by 2025 — and for the extensive process completed to develop a global monitoring framework. The Caribbean Community looks forward to the presentation of the elements of that framework to the General Assembly in the not-too-distant future. The Caribbean Community agrees that there is a need for multisectoral plans and policies, to be developed and implemented at the national level, and for a partnership to assist in that regard. We also share the view that they should be tailored in keeping with national settings as well as with political, technical and operational needs. At the same time, those efforts are to be complemented by a global partnership that will support and enhance the development and implementation of such policies nationally, regionally and globally. The Caribbean Community also wishes to recall the General Assembly’s request, in the previously mentioned Political Declaration, for a report to be submitted at its sixty-eighth session, in preparation for a comprehensive review and assessment in 2014 of the progress achieved in the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases. In that connection, CARICOM expresses its preference to receive the report during the sixty-eighth session, at the end of December 2013, in order to ensure that it contains the most current information and that there is sufficient time for its consideration and so that it can contribute to preparations for the comprehensive review of the progress achieved in the prevention and control of NCDs. We are aware that further discussions are required on this issue. CARICOM is therefore of the view that all Member States should have the opportunity to participate in discussions to determine the scope of, and further details related to, the partnership. Within this context, however, should there be overwhelming support for option 3, the Caribbean Community would encourage international solidarity with respect to obtaining the initial resources necessary for the commencement of the process by the WHO, in collaboration with other relevant United Nations agencies. As we conclude, the Caribbean Community urges delegations to recall that 60 per cent of deaths worldwide — 80 per cent of which are in developing countries — are due to non-communicable diseases. The percentage of deaths due to NCDs is also expected to increase in some parts of the world in the near future. NCDs can therefore be seen as a critical challenge to development and to health in general. Consequently, the Caribbean Community supports the inclusion of NCDs as one of the issues to be discussed in relation to the post-2015 development agenda in the context of global health challenges.

We realize that there are a number of important items being discussed today. Our comments will pertain only to agenda item 113 and the report of the World Health Organization Director-General on non-communicable diseases, transmitted in the note by the Secretary- General (A/67/373). The United States strongly believes that multisectoral action is critical to both preventing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and managing their long-term consequences. The United States is currently implementing its first multisectoral national prevention strategy. The National Prevention Council, led by our Surgeon General, works across the United States Government and with private and public partners to actively engage all sectors and levels of society in improving the health and well-being of our communities. The High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases and associated meetings were important opportunities for Member States to consider best practices for multisectoral action and to convene and collaborate with civil society and the private sector. Energy and momentum to follow through on the spirit of the Political Declaration of that meeting (resolution 66/2, annex) and to deliver on its major outcomes have been sustained through the engagement of the many stakeholders. The Political Declaration requested that the Secretary-General, in close collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), develop options to strengthen and facilitate multisectoral action. The United States welcomes the report’s exploration of those options, appropriately focused on national-level action and the leadership role of Governments in partnerships with civil society, the private sector and other stakeholders. Country-level implementation of evidence-based, cost-effective interventions will be central to reducing premature deaths from NCDs by 25 per cent by 2025, in concert with other voluntary global targets. To reach those targets, there is a need for greater dissemination among Member States of guidelines, best practices and lessons learned on practical, effective, sustainable and widely applicable approaches to multisectoral action at the national level. At all levels, partnerships should serve to foster an environment conducive to public health and to healthy choices. The United States fully endorses the leadership role of the WHO, as the primary specialized United Nations agency on health, in facilitating coordinated action among United Nations agencies, development banks and other regional or international organizations. The United States notes the various options for global collaboration to promote and accelerate country action. We agree with the report’s statement that a single, stand-alone partnership would not be sufficient to cover the scope and scale of NCDs. Rather, multiple innovative partnerships, collaborations and coordinated independent efforts are needed to address diverse aspects of the challenge and engage the landscape of actors inside and outside the health sector. Additionally, flexible options that allow for the evolution of the global response to NCDs should be pursued. Along with the recently finalized global monitoring framework, the updated WHO Global Action Plan on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases 2013-2020, to be adopted at the World Health Assembly in May 2013, is expected to provide guidance on key activities and to help elaborate how the global community can put into motion the multisectoral approaches highlighted by the Political Declaration. The WHO Action Plan will increase the impact and efficacy of existing global partnerships, alliances and results- oriented collaborative arrangements. More information is needed on the proposal for an inter-agency task force on NCDs, which would report to the Economic and Social Council, including the proposed terms of reference, function, role and responsibilities, and associated costs. We would again like to stress our support for WHO as the overall lead on NCDs, and would like to understand how the work of that inter-agency group would be harmonized under the auspices of WHO leadership. Again, the United States is committed to multisectoral action as an integral part of the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, and we appreciate the report of the Secretary-General.

Australia is committed to advancing the work on all agenda items discussed here this morning, and we thank the Secretary-General for his comprehensive reports and notes on those items. As the Secretary-General’s report in document A/67/257 clearly emphasizes, a comprehensive and coherent development effort is needed if we are make further progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Australia understands that aid is an important part of that effort, but we also know that policies to promote open trade and market access for developing countries, investment and private-sector growth, as well as opportunities for the sharing of ideas and experience through South-South and triangular cooperation, also play a vital role in helping to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable growth. As a co-chair of the MDG Advocacy Group and a champion of the Secretary-General’s Education First initiative, Australia’s Prime Minister is seized of the importance of ensuring continued international attention to the achievement of the current set of goals. As an international community, we cannot afford to take our eyes off that unfinished work while we also give attention to the development agenda that will follow. As we said during the debate a year ago (see A/66/PV.72), we must take the knowledge gained from the MDG successes in many countries and apply those lessons to support the countries and communities that still face a long and difficult road ahead in achieving the targets. Let us not lose sight of the fact that we have come a long way and made considerable progress at the global level on several of the MDGs, but let us learn from that progress and harness the knowledge for the benefit of all. For example, important gains in primary school enrolments and improvements in the enrolment of girls are to be celebrated, but we still have more to do to improve enrolments and focus on the quality of education to ensure that children are actually learning. We commend the Secretary-General’s Education First initiative for putting a clear focus on the need to put every child into school and to ensure that they are able to complete their education with strong learning outcomes. We must now focus on effectively implementing that initiative effectively. Commitments on HIV prevention and treatment, as well as on malaria, have yielded impressive results. But as important as those gains are, we cannot afford to be complacent on the health MDGs. As the Executive Director of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities highlighted during his visit to Australia earlier this week, promoting women’s and girls’ rights and empowerment, including through access to family planning, remains central to achieving the MDGs. As we prepare to mark World AIDS Day, we are reminded of the need to do more to reach the targets of zero new infections, zero AIDS-related deaths and zero discrimination by 2015. And we need to keep working to reduce the number of malaria cases, including by addressing the emergence of drug-resistant malaria in the Mekong region. That is why Australia recently convened a major international conference on malaria in Sydney. The MDGs provide the international community with a clear and vital development framework for the next three years. We urge Member States, the United Nations and international organizations, regional organizations, civil society and the private sector to work together to address inequalities and inequities in access to services and development opportunities. We must do more to accelerate progress on the MDGs in conflict-affected and fragile States, and we must increase and sustain a focus on the peacebuilding, security and development needs of those countries. And now, in the development of the post-2015 development agenda, we must do more to recognize the needs of women, girls and persons with disabilities. We would highlight the important work of UN-Women in strengthening the role of the United Nations in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, and the role of women in peace and security. We look forward to continuing our close engagement with UN-Women over the coming year, including as a member of the Executive Board. Australia is fully committed to making a strong contribution to the formulation of the post-2015 development agenda, but we will not deviate from our firm resolve to help accelerate efforts towards attaining the current MDGs over the next three years. We look forward to the special event in 2013, which will be a key opportunity for the international community to assess progress on the MDGs and to commit to strategies and actions that will help in the final push to 2015. We appreciate the ideas provided by the Secretary- General on the way forward with the post-2015 development agenda and we commend the steps already underway to ensure a strong consultative process with a wide range of stakeholders. It will be important for the process towards the development of the post-2015 agenda to be clear and coherent, and we welcome steps to ensure that the relevant processes converge onto a common track.

I wish to thank President Vuk Jeremić for convening this joint debate on the implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic and social fields and to the Millennium Summit, as well as on United Nations reform. I would also like to thank the Secretary-General for submitting all his reports and notes, which provide very useful inputs for our debate. The hard-won progress achieved in some of the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is heartening, especially if we consider the difficulties created by the financial and economic crisis. The decline in the number of people living in extreme poverty, the improvement in access to drinking water and in conditions for those living in slums, along with the advances in gender equality and the empowerment of women, should encourage us to move quickly and more decisively towards the achievement of all the MDGs and other internationally agreed development goals in the final stretch to 2015. As a Member State champion of the Secretary- General’s Global Education initiative, we believe that by raising education to the highest level on the international agenda we will be contributing to progress in virtually all other items and challenges we face in the twenty- first century. Universal access to quality education is key if we are to overcome poverty and inequality. The international community has the responsibility to make good on its commitments. Although we recognize the efforts made by some donor countries to meet their official development assistance (ODA) commitments, we note with concern that current overall ODA levels are well below half of 0.7 per cent of the gross national income of developed countries. We must take concrete steps to revamp the development-oriented Doha Round of trade negotiations and to promote the transfer of technology and the sharing of good practices, knowledge and experiences to support national capacity-building, especially for those that are lagging behind. We must also ensure access to affordable, effective, safe and quality medicine, including through the full use of the flexibilities of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), as recognized in the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health. In facing the dire consequences of the current crisis and struggling to make progress on our collective development goals, developing countries need policy space and flexibility to make use of macroeconomic tools, especially countercyclical fiscal policies and other stimulus measures. It is fundamental that we focus our economic recovery efforts on the promotion of a job-centred, socially inclusive economic model. The United Nations system must give particular attention to supporting the Global Jobs Pact and to the creation and strengthening of social protection floors, as called for in this year’s Ministerial Declaration of the Economic and Social Council. Based on our national experience and as indicated in report A/67/257, we believe that universal health systems can play an important role as an effective social protection policy by ensuring access to health services and medicine and reducing economic and social inequalities. Although limited in scope, the MDG framework represents a successful experience in mobilizing resources and focusing the international community’s attention on a number of key areas for human development. It has also helped to strengthen the relevant role of the United Nations as a priority partner in development cooperation. The unequivocal message from the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development is that we must incorporate and place the sustainability paradigm at the centre of our analysis when looking at the development agenda for the twenty-first century. Economic development, social inclusion and the rational use and conservation of natural resources have to be considered on an equal footing and cannot be disassociated from each other. The goals to be considered in the negotiations for the post-2015 development agenda must build on and be improved and enriched by the current MDGs. They should also aim at consolidating the achievements made under the MDGs by broadening the scope of the implementation to integrate the three pillars, with a view to fostering sustainable development. An inclusive, open and transparent Member State-driven process of consultations must be held in order to define which goals will be included in the post- 2015 agenda, how progress will be measured and what the means of implementation will be. We are following with interest the initiatives of the Secretary-General to launch preparations for the process of defining the post- 2015 agenda, especially the work of the task force led by the Department of Economic Affairs and the United Nations Development Programme, and the Secretary- General’s High-level Panel of Eminent Persons. We are of the view that all those initiatives must converge in the intergovernmental process, so as to allow for the adoption of a legitimate development agenda that embraces different views and priorities, but represents shared expectations and common aspirations. We need tools that provide a sense of direction to our common efforts while preserving the necessary flexibility for each country to pursue its own development path. Building on the success of the MDGs, we also believe that they can provide guidance to all relevant actors within and outside the United Nations system.

In contributing to the join debate, the delegation of Indonesia wishes to particularly focus on agenda item 113, “Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit”. We also thank the Secretary-General for the reports before us. The international community is committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, to addressing existing obstacles, gaps and challenges, and to taking advantage of opportunities. Indonesia is fully committed to meeting all its MDG targets. Indonesia recognizes that a concerted national effort is critical to ensuring the attainment of the MDG targets at the national and global levels. The MDGs framework, however, has been viewed as having certain constraints, including being too focused on human development while not giving adequate attention to the need to generate general economic growth and development. Today, it is increasingly recognized that countries that have not experienced sustained or inclusive growth will have difficulties in meeting their poverty reduction targets and the other MDGs by 2015. It is in this context that resolution 65/10 stressed that the promotion of sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth is necessary for accelerating progress towards achieving the MDGs, as well as promoting sustainable development. Greater emphasis on growth will help to create more jobs and provide social protection aimed at protecting and empowering people and communities, the most vulnerable groups in particular. The world will not stop in 2015, however. We must undertake further steps to advance the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015. Incorporating the development concept of sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth and development as an integral part of a post-2015 development framework could greatly contribute to achieving not only existing development goals, but also new goals that could be set post-2015. With regard to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), as projected by the World Health Organization, NCD-related deaths will increase by 17 per cent over the next decade. Three in five deaths in South-East Asia are caused by NCDs. An estimated 8 million people die of NCDs each year in the region, accounting for 22 per cent of global deaths caused by those diseases. Indonesia is grappling with the double threat of communicable and non-communicable diseases. We have given priority to minimizing the common risk factors: tobacco use, alcohol abuse, an unhealthy diet and physical inactivity. We established in 2006 a special unit in the Ministry of Health with the task of strengthening the legal framework and implementing our policy on NCDs. Indonesia also is committed to implementing the 2008-2013 Action Plan for the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases. The scale and virulence of non-communicable diseases require unprecedented political commitment at the highest political levels to address that global issue. That commitment must therefore be incorporated into the global agenda of the international community. The convening of the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases in September last year and the adoption of the Political Declaration on NCDs (resolution 66/2, annex) highlighted that commitment. The mobilization of resources and the building of a genuine global partnership with civil society, private sectors, philanthropies and even influential individuals are therefore essential. We also call on the international community to include progress in the fight against NCDs as a component of the post-2015 development agenda. Turning to women’s issues, Indonesia commends the efforts that UN-Women has made in Indonesia to date. Indonesia would like to reiterate its commitment to and support for the work of UN-Women, including its strategic plan 2011-2013. We urge UN-Women to continue providing appropriate and strategic support to middle-income countries, which, despite their recent economic achievements, still face challenges in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment. As a member of the Executive Board of UN- Women, Indonesia will continue its core contributions. At the same time, efforts to identify a sustainable predictable and innovative financing path for the entity are vital for the long term. We look forward to the result of the UN-Women’s comprehensive resource mobilization strategy to deepen and broaden the donor base. We urge UN-Women to continue to improve its role and contribution at the country level by developing its tool for the comprehensive assessment of the overall capacity of United Nations country teams. Indonesia appreciates and supports UN-Women’s new regional architecture initiative which is a reflection of the entity’s efforts aimed at carrying out its mandates and at making further progress in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. We are of the view that any proposal on regional architecture should include an impact assessment to help strengthen operational activities at the regional and country levels. Finally, Indonesia emphasizes the importance of a strong oversight and monitoring mechanism to sustain the coordination of and normative and operational linkages among all levels in order to strengthen unity within UN-Women.

We thank the Secretary-General for his informative report on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and recommendations for advancing the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015 (A/67/257). The report stresses support for gradual and comprehensive economic growth and job creation. The experience of recent years shows that the consequences of the global financial and economic crisis can be overcome at the lowest cost by those countries that implement development strategies aimed at ensuring social equality, full and productive employment, and dignified work for all. Unemployment, as is rightly pointed out by the Secretary-General, often becomes a key factor in political instability and armed conflict. We are convinced that the task of job creation and ensuring decent work environments should be one of the central elements of the global social and economic agenda for post-2015. Russia has significant practical experience in developing social and employment institutions. Much has been done in such areas as improving labour laws, regulating the labour market, reforming pension systems, and professional training and retraining, particularly for vulnerable population groups. We are ready to share our best practices with the international community, as they have clearly proven their effectiveness. On 11 and 12 December, upon the initiative of President Putin, an international high-level conference on the issue of decent work will be held in Moscow. We are convinced that this important event will give a powerful impulse to coordinating multilateral efforts to implement the International Labour Organization’s concepts of decent work and sustainable development based on wide-ranging and equitable economic growth. Russia ascribes particular importance to the global efforts to combat non-communicable diseases (NCDs). A key role in advancing international dialogue in that area was played by the first global ministerial conference on healthy lifestyles and non-communicable disease control held in Moscow, the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases, and the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of NCDs. We hope that there will be an agreement within WHO this year on common obligations on non-communicable diseases and that a new plan of action in that area will be drawn up for the 2014-2020 period. Russia continues to step up its participation in global health. Our contribution to the WHO non-communicable diseases project for 2012-2013 exceeds $7 million. We plan to contribute more than $36 million to programmes to help developing countries to combat non-communicable diseases. Our future plans include the opening in our country of a local WHO office on non-communicable diseases. We believe that the Russian national system being set up to monitor those diseases and related risk factors will in time become part of the global information system under WHO auspices. We welcome the efforts of the Secretary-General to pay consistent attention to the issue of reforming the management mechanisms of the United Nations in order to increase their effectiveness. At the same time, we note that reform is not an end in itself. Its implementation should be based on close consultation with Member States and meet their interests and those of the United Nations as a universal Organization. We are concerned to note the conclusions of the Board of Auditors that a number of substantive management reforms currently being implemented suffer from major shortcomings. I would refer to the introduction of the enterprise resource planning project (Umoja), the transition to the International Public Sector Accounting Standards, the global field support strategy and human resource reform. All of those projects suffer from the absence of a well-designed, long-term strategy, a vision of the final outcome and a deficit of any internal oversight. As we know, the Secretariat is preparing a series of other proposals for significant internal reforms. We are ready to consider proposals that we receive, in particular those that fully take into account the views and priorities of Member States on management processes at the United Nations, as well as the need not to allow any interruption in its effective work.

The Republic of Maldives gives sincere thanks for the work of the Secretariat and to the Secretary-General for his reports on the follow- up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit (A/67/257) and on strengthening the institutional arrangements for support of gender equality and the empowerment of women (A/67/201). Maldives believes that the United Nations holds an unquestionable and unique position in the multilateral system. There is no doubt that the world has in recent years entered a new era, with new challenges facing the global community. Economic instability, climate change, food and nutrition security are all issues that have gained a new-found prominence in today’s world. In the light of our growing interdependence, a collective and holistic approach is required and, whether the solution is political or socioeconomic, isolationism is no longer an option. Finding multilateral solutions to the aforementioned emerging challenges lies at the heart of global governance. The multilateral system should be inclusive, transparent and effective. It must have the capacity to respond and remain relevant and responsive to emerging challenges. Maldives believes that governance institutions should tackle global economic imbalances, promote sustained, inclusive and equitable growth, advance multilateral trade agreements, enhance food and energy security, provide social protection for the poor and the vulnerable, and strengthen mechanisms aimed at reducing inequalities. Effective global governance is essential for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals and the formulation and implementation of the post-2015 development agenda. Maldives notes with concern the infrastructure of global governance. Both decentralization and inequity remain present within its membership and voting patterns. Yet we have to understand that global governance goes beyond the United Nations to other institutions and agencies, including the World Trade Organization and the Bretton Woods institutions. My delegation believes that, in addition to regional groups, a particular emphasis needs to be given to non-State actors that have been ever-present in development and policy dialogues. The global governance system should be more capable of dealing with interconnected socioeconomic challenges, more coherent and coordinated, and supported by institutions that are representative, inclusive and effective. In view of the principle of common but differentiated treatment, Maldives believes that the multilateral framework should capture and respond to specific regional needs and demands, especially those of small vulnerable States. Smaller and poorer countries are often the most affected by global rules, yet we have the least amount of say in their design. Regional arrangements can help to provide better representation for smaller and least developed countries, promoting greater ownership and engagement with global policy. Maldives recognizes the universality of the United Nations and reaffirms its support and commitment to the ongoing efforts to strengthen the Assembly. In this regard, Maldives notes with satisfaction the continuing interaction of the General Assembly with international, regional and subregional forums, including groups dealing with global matters, to achieve and promote broader consensus. It is our hope that these interactions will ultimately lead to identifying and addressing the present deficiencies in global governance. It is our hope that the leadership of the United Nations shall be able to bring inclusive and effective responses to matters of global concern. It is through strengthened global governance that our visions for the future, including for the Millennium Development Goals and the post-2015 process, will be realized. As a nation, Maldives has had much success in meeting the Millennium Development Goal targets, having eradicated extreme poverty, achieved universal primary education, reduced child mortality and fought deadly diseases. We are now pioneering aggressive campaigns for equity, sustainability and development. It is with these existing frameworks that Maldives looks to the future — to both the framing and the eventual implementation of the sustainable development goals. As a member of the Executive Board of UN-Women for the upcoming term, Maldives looks forward to more efficient gender mainstreaming across United Nations entities. We also want to stress the importance of addressing women’s underrepresentation in governance structures and political participation. Maldives believes that the Entity’s presence in the field and coordination with Member States must be given priority, and that capacity and operations in the field must be increased to meet the ever-prevalent demand. Although the global community is faced with an era of new challenges, the United Nations has cultivated a global atmosphere for enhanced development, security and human rights, and these have coalesced into tangible results for more of the world’s population than ever before. Democracy and good governance are spreading. Commitments to reducing conflict, poverty, discrimination, economic isolation and economic vulnerability endure in the psyche of the larger community of nations. Yet the strides that have been made to bring forward the development situations of many countries cannot be allowed to be reversed. Though we face one of the worst financial crises of our time, principles of equitable globalization, with economic growth and sustained legal empowerment for vulnerable populations, including the poor, should be promoted while ensuring that there is greater coherence in achieving different but interrelated goals. Gone are the days when we could consider economic development as separate from social development, and gone are the days when national policies could be developed outside of global prerogatives. With the restructuring of our global governance systems through a focus on sustained and equitable betterment, we shall overcome the challenges we face today and those we will face in the future. Though the road is long, this is a journey worth making, and the principles of betterment and equity will be fructified on the tree of our common destiny. Programme of work

I should like to consult members regarding an extension of the work of the Second Committee. Members will recall that, at its second plenary meeting, on 21 September, the General Assembly approved the recommendation of the General Committee that the Second Committee should complete its work by Friday, 30 November. However, I have been informed by the Chair of the Second Committee that the Committee requests an extension of its work to Thursday, 13 December, which would facilitate reaching consensus on the draft resolutions pending before the Committee. May I therefore take it that the General Assembly agrees to extend the work of the Second Committee until Thursday, 13 December?