UIHJ took part in the 57th general assembly of the UNO (8-10 Sept. 2004)

Fight poverty
“There was no time to lose in ending extreme poverty and putting the world on a more human and just path”, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today addressing the audience by video conference upon the opening of the fifty-seventh Annual Conference of NGOs, this year aimed at mobilizing broader public support for the global anti-poverty goals, agreed at the 2000 Millennium Summit for which the UIHJ was also present.
“People everywhere wanted a fair chance for themselves and their children”, the Secretary-General said, adding that: ”If the Goals were not met, we will all be poorer”. The Goals were different from other bold, yet unmet, pledges - the Goals were measurable, had garnered unprecedented political support, and were achievable. For their part, NGO's could be proud of their contributions. They had put pressure on governments to deliver on their commitments and had brought real change into people's lives.

Transforming the face of global development cooperation
Asserting that without civil society there would have been no Millennium Development Goals in the first place, the Secretary-General's Executive Coordinator for the Millennium Development Goals Campaign, Eveline Herfkens, said that civil society had insisted on a rights-based approach, demanding government action and claiming participation. The Goals had transformed the face of global development cooperation worldwide. Country after country, it had been civil society spurring action. After all, it was not at the United Nations that the Goals would be achieved, but in each country through the efforts of the governments and the people.
Chairing the opening session, the Under-Secretary-General for Communication and Public Information, Mr. Shashi Tharoor, told participants to have no doubt about their positive impact on the work of the United Nations. Although, there was still some way to go before the real problems the Goals were designed to address had been resolved, there had been genuine improvements, including in reducing extreme poverty and extending access to primary education in many regions of the world. If the Goals were to be more than a mere possibility, however, greater resources were needed from both domestic and external sources, and governments, the private sector and civil society would have to maintain their focus and increase their efforts.

UIHJ takes action
Let us finish by specifying that the UIHJ, country by country and in its specific sphere, also largely helps several countries to achieve their goals by carrying out its duties by the exchange of ideas, establishment and cooperation of law school, seminars and specific conferences thus developing their processual civil law and of execution rights proper to each democracy and who on a daily basis regularizes the citizens actions in and within each of them, the whole the most harmoniously possible. Thus, by these contributions the UIHJ takes part for a greater development inside the civil society.