Uruguay

URUGUAY



INTERVENTION:
Ministro Cristina Carrion
Deputy Permanent Representative of Uruguay
to the United Nations



« Informal meetings of the plenary on the process of intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda – Second Session »





NEW York, 17 FEBRUARY 2015










_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Permanent Mission of Uruguay to the United Nations
866 UN Plaza * Suite 322 * Nueva York, NY 10017
Tel: [phone] * Fax: [phone] * [e-mail]



Dear Mr. Co-Facilitators,

Firstly, I would like to align my statement with that of South Africa on behalf of G77 and China, and the one stated by Ecuador on behalf of the Community of Latin-American and Caribbean States, CELAC.

Secondly, my delegation would like to thank the co-facilitators in their realized efforts in presenting their vision of a proposal with some of the possible elements that could make up the Political Declaration and incite discussion in the present session. In this sense, my delegation would like to bring up some concepts, adjustments and suggestions for further consideration.

Co-Facilitators,

Regarding the final Declaration, Uruguay reiterates that the document should be, preferably, brief, action-oriented, and that it renew the global commitment to the eradication of poverty and social inclusion, the respect and promotion of human rights of all, and environmental sustainability.

Preliminarily, Uruguay observes that, amongst the presented elements, in the section
1 – “A collective vision of the road to 2030”, which is in the present challenges, there has been an exclusion of more relevant topics such as: social inclusion and equality, gender equality, education, health, discrimination, technology transfer, capacity building in developing countries, sustainable consumption and production patterns, rights of children, amongst others.

Co-Facilitators, we must signal that since our political leaders must adopt the Political Declaration; we cannot exclude in any way topics regarding gender. If this were to happen, we would not be duly considering and viewing, appropriately, half of the human population; the SDGs would no longer be unbiased and objective “goals”, “development” would lose the quality in itself, to convert itself into partial, and “development” would lose its quality to become biased, and “sustainable” would just become a palliative. The political tone of the Declaration should be permeated and filled with sensitivity in regards to gender.

Likewise, co-facilitators, the correction of inequalities needs to be a central part of the Declaration. In a world where, like President José Mujica stated, there are people that should live to 230 years old and spend a million dollars daily to pay out their reimbursement, we cannot wager the perspective of this unjust and perpetual situation of abysmal differences between people.

Vulnerable groups and non-discrimination cannot be absent in the Declaration as well. If this were to happen, we would be accepting the existence of differing ways and injustices that affect people regarding their status: migratory, sexual orientation, religion, or any kind of group.
The necessity of inclusive and peaceful societies, a natural framework for sustainable development and harmonious for human beings needs to be mentioned, as it was agreed in the intergovernmental process, which concluded in the produced document of the Open Working Group.

After this concise conceptual focus, we would like plead for your permission, co-facilitators, to request some clarifications and make some specific comments.

In this regard, my delegation requests to the co-facilitators clarifications in turn of the inclusion and reach of the following concepts: “ institutional failures” and “economic/social/environmental shocks and challenges, including those undermining peaceful and just societies”.

Co-Facilitators,

In regards to the second part – “What we must do to get there?”, Uruguay considers the inclusion of “objectives” as part of the discussion on the declaration it is not considered appropriate, now that the inclusion in this context, could imply or even suggest the reopening of the negotiated intergovernmental document for the definition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which is a discussion that has already been settled and that we would strongly opposed to be reopened.

In regards to bullet 5 of part 2, more specifically to the 6 elements presented by the Secretary General for the structuration of the Post 2015 Agenda, my delegation would like to suggest that these aforementioned elements just be taken into account as an input of the process and not enabling them to condition from now the final format of it.

Furthermore, more specifications about the reference to the needs of countries in special situations is deemed necessary.

Co-Facilitators,

In part 3 – “How we will do this?” Means of Implementation is a priority that needs the strengthening of efforts. It is also deemed important to remind that solidarity in terms of cooperation is linked to South-South cooperation and not necessarily traditionally, in particular, Official Development Assistance, which is based in previous contracted commitments. In this regard, Uruguay understands that it is essential to include in this chapter, the revitalization of the traditional cooperation (North-South).

Furthermore, we would be grateful in receiving more information regarding the mandates/decisions that will be implemented for the strengthening of the United Nations to the effects of responding to the necessities of the new agenda, which refers to the presented proposal in bullet 3. My delegation, in effect, understands that actual institutionalization in regards to global governance and, in particularly, the international financial system deserves an important reform to be accommodated into the 2015 Sustainable Development Agenda, but it would be particularly relevant to know the co-facilitators vision on this matter.


Co-Facilitators,

Lastly, in regards to review and follow-up, part number 4, for Uruguay it is of the utmost important that the implementation mechanism be based in what has been established in the mandate of Rio +20 in regards to the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and in the subsequent relevant resolutions, which would play a key role in this respect.

Finally, it is not useless to signal one more time the importance of the Political Declaration for my country and for the process of post 2015 development, in being the element that will mark the tone and the political principles of this valuable process for a decade and a half. That is why we reiterate Uruguay’s support to work constructively towards the elaboration of a well-balanced Political Declaration that is also ambitious, coherent, comprehensive, and that ensures that the priorities and interests of developing countries be adequately reflected.


Thank you