Draft national statement for the Declaration session:
Distinguished Co-facilitators – thank you for giving me the floor
The United Kingdom aligns with the statement by the European Union and I would like to underline a few key aspects…
I would like to start by thanking you for your “elements paper”, circulated to member states last week. There is a great deal in this paper that we agree our Declaration should draw on, both on structure and on substance, to help us craft a concise and visionary and ambitious Declaration.
I would like to start by taking a step back. Through our extensive discussion so far, we have already come a very long way on the detail of the post-2015 development agenda. Our challenge for the Declaration, as many of us agree, is to transcend the detail and find a clear and concise vision to communicate to the rest of the world what the post-2015 agenda is about. As the distinguished deputy permanent representative from the Netherlands said, “vision does not have to require many words”. The Declaration needs to be a tool to communicate to our citizens, inspire a generation and mobilise collective international action. It is essential that the core messages of the Declaration stand the test of time.
There are several key aspects to this:
First, as the centre piece of the “core vision”, the Declaration needs to explain, in a clear and simple way, what the post-2015 agenda is actually about. We need something that communicates a clear vision and that inspires action. In this regard, something like the Secretary-General’s six essential elements would be helpful to convey the key themes of our collective commitment and ambition, whilst preserving the balance of the OWG agenda, including our commitment to justice and peaceful societies. We would like you, co-facilitators, to consider how we can build on the Secretary General’s suggestion of the 6 essential elements to convey our core agenda through the Declaration. We agree that further work needs to be done to ensure that the three dimensions of sustainable development are well balanced and integrated across each element. Siloing issues under single word headings should be avoided.
Second, the Declaration should set out our guiding ambition for the next fifteen years to build on the MDGs, to eradicate extreme poverty within a generation, put the world on a pathway to sustainable and climate-resilient development and shared prosperity, and avert dangerous climate change (currently defined as limiting global average temperature rise to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels). We need to state this unequivocal ambition clearly and simply, noting that business as usual will not deliver the transformation we want to achieve.
Third, the Declaration should set out the firm intention to finish the job on the MDGs and, crucially, leave no one behind. The Declaration should state that no target will be considered achieved unless met for all relevant economic and social groups. This is a transformative and inspiring principle for the post-2015 Development Agenda and our commitment to it must be firm. To achieve this we must strive to build the capacity, expertise and will for all countries to disaggregate data by sex, age, income and social group, including people with physical and mental disabilities.
Fourth, as many have said, our declaration should underscore the principle of universality. The Declaration should set out that the agenda is owned in its entirety by all countries and that the final agreement should be implemented in its entirety, whilst taking into account and respecting countries’ differing national circumstances. It should not be an agenda from which we “pick and choose” commitments. We have a mutual responsibility to uphold its transformative ambition and must be clear that we are all 100% committed to all its aspects.
Fifth, the Declaration should emphasise our commitment to all human rights everywhere. And that rule of law, peace and security, strong and accountable institutions, dignity, equality, empowerment and democratic governance are universal values to which we all adhere. At the same time, and as we have been clear before, governance, peace, stability and justice are not only crucial enablers of development, but that they are development outcomes in their own right. As such, these issues must also be included in the final set of goals.
Sixth, the Declaration should reaffirm our commitment to a new global partnership that harnesses the dynamism and expertise of all sustainable development actors, including the private sector and civil society. It should be based on the spirit of cooperation, shared responsibility, and mutual accountability. It should underscore the importance of a robust and efficient accountability mechanism at all levels – particularly domestic, regional and international - to enable member states to deliver against the ambition we have set ourselves.
Finally, I would like to repeat our view on CBDR - that whilst we fully recognise and respect that countries have differing national circumstances, we believe the principle of CBDR has a specific meaning in the context of environmental degradation and does not apply as a holistic principle to the post-2015 development agenda.
