Norway
Zero draft –comments by Norway on declaration June:
Held by Ambassador Marianne Loe
• First of all, I would like to thank you the co-facilitators for your
continous efforts and for producing a zero draft that has been well
received and will be a good basis for our deliberations. I will focus my
comments this morning on the declaration.
• The draft declaration is well written and inspiring. It communicates the
vision and the “why” of the agenda, and urges us all to take action.
• The declaration is clear in communicating the key values and principles
on which the agenda is built. The principle of leaving no one behind
remains- and should continue to remain – our yard stick for the agenda.
• To underline this, the declaration should have a strong human rights
foundation. We support having a clear reconfirmation that the agenda
is grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In our view however, the declaration could be further improved.
• The draft declaration stresses that today’s challenges are interdependent and
call for integrated solutions. The three dimensions of sustainable development
are equally crucial for the agenda and should be reflected in a balanced
manner. There is, however, room for reflecting this better throughout the
declaration.
• We have great sympathy with your objective of presenting a neat and easily
communicable synopsis of the agenda, and you have proposed to do this
through a preamble. We might end up needing such a preamble, but we believe
that our first priority should be to draft a short, crisp and visionary declaration
of, say 2-3 pages. We therefore suggest that we revert to the issue and content
of a preamble at a later stage. The current draft preamble has certain
shortcomings, as has been pointed out by many, while some interesting
alternative ideas have been put on the table.
• One concern we have is that the draft declaration is too long. The
declaration shouldn’t need to describe the contents of the agenda.
Currently, it goes far in paraphrasing what some of the goals and targets
are all about. This can be a slippery slope. Partly because we may end
up reformulating the goals, partly because a number of goal themes are
not covered. We think it is better to refrain from paraphrasing some
than having to include them all. The Goals and Targets speak for
themselves. As do the MoIs and Follow Up. They therefore do not have
to be elaborated in the declaration.
• We have stated earlier that we don’t think the so-called “4 P’s” reflect
the balanced, integrated and comprehensive nature of our agenda.
Adding a fifth P for Peace does not really solve the problem. The fact
that Justice starts with a “J” does not make it less important. Substance
must come first. The P’s will also lose their communicative effect when
translated into many languages.
• On climate change, pointing to the COP21 is short-sighted as the declaration
shall speak to the next 15 years. We share the EUs view that we should include
a reference to the 2-degree target and better integrate the text on climate
change with other parts of the agenda.
• In paragraph 43 we would like to also include a reference to the UN
development system, as a key enabler to achieving the goals.
• Finally, we would want to see a more specific reference in the
declaration to the fact that we have set out to eradicate extreme poverty
by 2030. This is a historic and ambitious objective that should come out
more clearly, for example in para 3.
• We will comment on the other sections as we discuss them during the
coming days.
Thank you
Held by Ambassador Marianne Loe
• First of all, I would like to thank you the co-facilitators for your
continous efforts and for producing a zero draft that has been well
received and will be a good basis for our deliberations. I will focus my
comments this morning on the declaration.
• The draft declaration is well written and inspiring. It communicates the
vision and the “why” of the agenda, and urges us all to take action.
• The declaration is clear in communicating the key values and principles
on which the agenda is built. The principle of leaving no one behind
remains- and should continue to remain – our yard stick for the agenda.
• To underline this, the declaration should have a strong human rights
foundation. We support having a clear reconfirmation that the agenda
is grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In our view however, the declaration could be further improved.
• The draft declaration stresses that today’s challenges are interdependent and
call for integrated solutions. The three dimensions of sustainable development
are equally crucial for the agenda and should be reflected in a balanced
manner. There is, however, room for reflecting this better throughout the
declaration.
• We have great sympathy with your objective of presenting a neat and easily
communicable synopsis of the agenda, and you have proposed to do this
through a preamble. We might end up needing such a preamble, but we believe
that our first priority should be to draft a short, crisp and visionary declaration
of, say 2-3 pages. We therefore suggest that we revert to the issue and content
of a preamble at a later stage. The current draft preamble has certain
shortcomings, as has been pointed out by many, while some interesting
alternative ideas have been put on the table.
• One concern we have is that the draft declaration is too long. The
declaration shouldn’t need to describe the contents of the agenda.
Currently, it goes far in paraphrasing what some of the goals and targets
are all about. This can be a slippery slope. Partly because we may end
up reformulating the goals, partly because a number of goal themes are
not covered. We think it is better to refrain from paraphrasing some
than having to include them all. The Goals and Targets speak for
themselves. As do the MoIs and Follow Up. They therefore do not have
to be elaborated in the declaration.
• We have stated earlier that we don’t think the so-called “4 P’s” reflect
the balanced, integrated and comprehensive nature of our agenda.
Adding a fifth P for Peace does not really solve the problem. The fact
that Justice starts with a “J” does not make it less important. Substance
must come first. The P’s will also lose their communicative effect when
translated into many languages.
• On climate change, pointing to the COP21 is short-sighted as the declaration
shall speak to the next 15 years. We share the EUs view that we should include
a reference to the 2-degree target and better integrate the text on climate
change with other parts of the agenda.
• In paragraph 43 we would like to also include a reference to the UN
development system, as a key enabler to achieving the goals.
• Finally, we would want to see a more specific reference in the
declaration to the fact that we have set out to eradicate extreme poverty
by 2030. This is a historic and ambitious objective that should come out
more clearly, for example in para 3.
• We will comment on the other sections as we discuss them during the
coming days.
Thank you
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