UN Millenium Development Goals

What are the Millennium Development Goals?

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
-Reduce by half the proportion of the people living on less than a dollar a day
-Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

2. Achieve universal primary education
-Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling

3. Promote gender equality and empower women
-Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

4. Reduce child mortality
-Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five

5. Improve maternal health
-Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

6. Combat HIV/AIDS malaria and other diseases
-Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
-Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

7. Ensure Environmental sustainability
-Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources
-Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
-Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020

8. Develop a global partnership for development
-Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory, includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction— nationally and internationally
-Address the least developed countries' special needs. This includes tariff- and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction
-Address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States
-Deal comprehensively with developing countries' debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term
-In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decentand productive work for youth
-In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries
-In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies— especially information and communications technologies

THE FOURTEEN POINTS OF PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON IN RELATION TO DIPLOMACY

OUR REPORT FOR OUR CONSULAR AND DIPLOMATIC PRACTICES 1 UNDER AMBASSADOR ROSARIO MANALO. THIS PAPER WAS CO-WRITTEN BY MS. GIA BIANCA ALVAREZ. WE ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THE HELP OF MR. JERI REYES AND HIS GROUP.

The Fourteen Points were listed in a speech delivered by United States President Woodrow Wilson to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918. The address was intended to assure the country that the Great War was being fought for a moral cause and for postwar peace in Europe. The common people of Europe welcomed Wilson as a hero but his Allied colleagues (George Clemenceau, David Lloyd George, and Vittorio Emanuele Orlando) remained skeptical of the applicability of Wilsonian idealism. The speech was delivered over ten months before the armistice with the German Empire ended the Great War, but the Fourteen Points became the basis for the terms of the German surrender, as negotiated at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. The Treaty of Versailles, however, had little to do with the Fourteen Points and so was never ratified by the U.S. Senate.

Wilson tried to reform diplomacy. The new diplomacy is no longer a mere mean of diffusing the next conflict; it’s most important implication was, in fact, for the present pursuit of peace: “that it must be a peace without victory.” According to President Wilson, “only a peace between equals can last; only a peace the very principle of which is equality and a common participation in a common benefit”. Moreover, because states then treated each other as they treated their citizens; domestic government was the bedrock upon which a democratic international order must stand. This belief in the interdependence of domestic and international politics was reiterated in succinctly in Wilson’s war message: “The world must be made for democracy.” The Fourteen Points were formulated to ensure that justice would be done in the wake of its terrible contravention. As such all addressed the specific ills behind the European system’s degeneration and collapse into war. Yet not all points were created equal. In drafting and revising the speech with his adviser Colonel House, Woodrow Wilson determined on “placing the general terms first and territorial adjustments last.” The only exception was the call for a League of Nations, which Wilson felt “should come last [of all] because it would round out the message properly.

THE SIX OF THE FOURTEEN POINTS OF PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON:
1. Open diplomacy
2. Freedom of the seas
3. Removal of economic barriers
4. Reduction of armaments
5. Adjustment of colonial claims
6. Association of nations


To sum up, eight of the 14 points treated specific territorial issues among the combatant nations. Five of the other six concerned general principles for a peaceful world: open covenants (i.e., treaties or agreements), openly arrived at; freedom of the seas; free trade; reduction of armaments; and adjustment of colonial claims based on the principles of self-determination. The 14th point proposed what was to become the League of Nations to guarantee the "political independence and territorial integrity [of] great and small states alike". Six of these points will be the subject of discussion in this paper.

1. Open Diplomacy
The old system of secret diplomacy is tottering to its fall. President Wilson, who before entering the war had denounced secret diplomacy as the principal cause of the war, has now placed its abolition in the foremost place in his program for securing permanent peace. He has pronounced for:
“Open covenants of peace openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind, but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.”

This point was a condemnation of secret engagements which were not unveil, and the committing of a country by its government without the country being aware of what was being done or having an opportunity of expressing an opinion. Thus, a need for an open diplomacy would build greater honesty in international politics, and new legal constraints and the threat of collective sanctions would impede any reckless resort to force.

2. Freedom of the seas

 The second point that President Woodrow Wilson offered was this “Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants Today “freedom of the seas” was replaced by the so-called Law of the Sea Treaty. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is an international treaty governing the use and exploitation of the world’s oceans

This means that all nations no matter what their locations are must straighten out their national territories with giving due deliberation to their maritime boundaries. Also this second point emphasized the need to consider always peace in every dispute with respect to their nautical range. It also includes the principle that all waters beyond national boundaries are considered international waters, meaning it is free for all but belonging to none of them (the mare liberum principle promulgated by Hugo Grotius).

PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW OF THE SEA TREATY

 Navigational Freedom
 Exclusive Economic Zones
 Environmental Protection
 Dispute Settlement Provisions

3. Free Trade
Wilson, in his third point, calls for “The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance”.
Since the end of WWII until 1970’s, the use of tariffs and quotas dropped dramatically. The world started to accept the liberal philosophy of trade (that it should have few barriers) and to the policies adopted by GATT and the WTO. Political and Economic leaders drew the lesson from economic policies that limited free trade as chiefly responsible for both the Great Depression and World War II.

4. Reduction of armaments
The fourth point of President Woodrow Wilson states that “adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.”

One good example as a product of this point as a form of recommendation in the world up to date is the non-proliferation treaty (NPT). Proliferation as defined is the spread of weapons of mass destruction – nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and chemical or biological weapons into the hands of many actors. The Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 created a framework for controlling the spread of nuclear materials and expertise.


In view with this fourth point also, it can also be related to the creation of the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1992 to ban production and possession of chemical weapons, it has been signed by 167 states including all the great powers. This treaty includes strict verification provisions and the threat to sanctions against violators those who are not participants in the treaty.

From this point also rose the treaties regarding the banning, controlling and inspection of nuclear weapons, and other "war" related weapons.



5. Adjustment Of Colonial Claims Based On The Principles Of Self-Determination

“A free, open-minded and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty, the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined”.

The principle of self- determination was first applied to the modern international relations context by Woodrow Wilson in his Fourteen Points of January 1918, in which he set out a blueprint for a just and lasting peace in Europe after World War I. Currently, this principle is prominently embodied in Article I of the Charter of the United Nations which marks the universal recognition of this principle as fundamental to the maintenance of friendly relations and peace among states.

6. Association of Nations

The last point is this “A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.”

The last point of President Woodrow Wilson has the greatest impact today. The last point led to the creation of the League of Nations and eventually became the United Nations. Like the League, the UN was founded to increase international order and the rule of law to prevent another world war. The UN is the closest thing to a world government that has ever existed, but it is not a world government. The basic purpose of the UN is to provide a global institutional structure through which states can sometimes settle conflicts with less reliance on the use of force.

Its impact on diplomacy is like this, the UN is a symbol of international order in which diplomacy wants. It also brings about the global identity. It is also a forum where states promotes their views and bring their disputes. And it is a mechanism for conflict resolution in international security affairs. The UN also promotes and coordinates development assistance and that what trade diplomacy offers. Lastly, the UN is a coordinating system of information and planning by hundreds of internal and external agencies and programs, and for the publication of international data. (Goldstein, 2002).

WHY DID THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS FAIL?
• Weak – the League’s ‘powers’ were little more than going ‘tut-tut’. Sanctions did not work. It had no army.

• America – the strongest nation in the world never joined. Britain and France were not strong enough to impose pace on their own.

• Structure – the League was muddled, so it took ages to do anything. Members couldn’t agree – but decisions had to be unanimous. This paralyzed the League.


• Depression – the world-wide Depression made countries try to get more land and power. They were worried about themselves, not about world peace.

• Unsuccessful – the more the League failed, the less people trusted it. In the end, everybody just ignored it.

• Members – the League’s main members let it down. Italy and Japan betrayed the League. France and Britain did nothing to help it.

• Big bullies – in the 1920s, the League had dealt with weak countries. In the 1930s, powerful countries like Germany, Italy and Japan attacked weaker countries. They were too strong for the League to stop them.

Diplomacy, Democracy, Dead for CoC

I am a student of diplomacy. We study so many things that vary from foreign policies, international law to diplomatic protocols and so on and on. The major role that diplomats such as an ambassador plays could be slightly enumerated from acting as a representation of the government to another state, pushing forward the interest of the state, and the well-being of their nationals in a foreign country. Knowing these major roles, if ever I pursue such career, would always mean that my goal is to act at all time prim and proper to uphold the name and interest of my country – our country, a Democratic Philippines.

Well, at least a few days ago that’s how I’ve one-sidedly seen things - lovely and rainbow colored schemed. But with the recent barbaric and inhumane Maguindanao massacre case, my outlook about our state of democracy has been altered. I have always felt a certain degree of pride living in a Christian dominated democratic country, that as a women, I feel that most of my rights are observed and more or less I can pretty much go out, cross the street wearing whatever clothes I want, be educated and even see myself directly equal of a man in both my vulnerabilities and my capabilities. But hearing of the massacre last Monday, I was both at shocked, a bit in denial, massively emotional and greatly frustrated. At the peak of the boldly printed words in newspapers and the gravity of scripts in the late night news, the very incident was rooted from the exercise of portraying democracy in the country – the filing of candidacy for election. To add up to the tragedy, it was not armed men prepared for a fight that were murdered, it was innocent people - women, lawyers and journalists… and I have always thought that we’re far better than most states currently engaged in war or under a strict dictatorship.

Theoretically, democracy is associated with freedom and rights of an individual. The first among the many steps in creating and exercising democracy is through the practice of a fair and just election. An election is a process on which an individual surrenders his/her absolute freedom and chooses a representative to carry the weight of responsibility to push through the interest of the people within the government. Government officials are supposed to represent their constituents and lobby for their well-being. Positions in the government are supposedly not something to be reigned upon by prominent and wealthy families for their own interest. It is a pro-people ideology that even our constitution and our governmental structure was rooted.

Ever wondered why there’s no specific college degree requirement before an individual could run for a position in the government? Did you know that the Executive branch is actually regarded equally with the Legislative and the Judiciary? That our constitution had them equal and gridlocked with one another? That our Executive and Legislative branch has a term limit in their ‘service’? All that and many more, because we are a Democratic country! We give equal political rights and opportunity to everyone rich or poor. The main branches in our government are independent, have several rights and hold of one another to create a balance distribution of power. But these are the things that we are - but not quite. Yes, debatable whether these principles are good or bad, yet in the end in practice we still fall off short to achieve a passable mark in demonstrating a democratic society.

Going back to the Maguindanao case, the “feudal lords” (lead suspects in the case) have their relatives at the high positions in the land; their own private army to command and hold. Their dominance in wealth, power and influence has been greatly demonstrated. The last time I checked we have a unitary form of government; we are not a federal state! I mean, even in a federal system local states have no private army to command and call as their own! To prepare and ambush a political rival, to send them to their deaths, with women at most with two of them pregnant… it is the embodiment of heartlessness and inhumanity.

What has our country become?

The Philippines has been one of the leaders in Southeast Asia that promotes the principle of Democracy. We have been strict and adamant about our views regarding states that does not exercise and practice democracy. During the forums and summits of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Philippines has been known to spearhead the implementation and importance of democracy, even acting all strong and stern on our stand regarding the military junta of Myanmar. We have been well-known with our peaceful struggle in achieving democracy through the People Power Revolution (1986), an act worldly recognized of its symbolic attribute for achieving freedom without violence, an act other states tried yet failed in doing so. We have been so proud that as one of the most well-known religious nation, we ought to carry out such nationwide protest to take back what was rightly ours – Freedom – Democracy.

But with one single yet massive (on its impact) inhumane act of cruelty, we have achieved the spotlight of being violators in the very principle of what we are advocating for – the Maguindanao case has shook our grounds so much that we are emotionally enraged and yet still helpless. Is this what we’ve become? True enough there is no perfect democracy, but we should never stop nor disregard its principles; too idealistic indeed but never to a point of insanity. It might be the only sane thing that holds a world war 3 at bay. I am a student of diplomacy, a woman of faith, a student leader, a youth, and guess what? I am a first time voter, a shame the election season opened with a bloody massacre. It makes me weary of how it will end. For goodness sake, we’re SUPPOSED to be a proud DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY!

Applelitical View: Inspiration

I've always want to have a blog dedicated to a political perspective.

I've created this blog in the idea of posting my notes, essays and quizzes partly from my different classes while taking A.B Consular and Diplomatic Affairs (AB CDA) and the rest just from my every-now-and-then compulsive writing syndrome.


I'll also post some guide in the field of "Diplomacy" and International Relations from my previous professors to help other AB CDA or other students of Diplomacy in some way or another.

Slowly, I'll try to make this blog really informative and reflective of all the things I've learned - so far.