'Articulate and Affirm an Animating Vision'.

The year 2000 constitutes a unique and symbolically compelling moment for Member States to articulate and affirm an animating vision for the United Nations in the new era. Accordingly, in his 1997 report entitled "Renewing the United Nations: a programme for reform", Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed that the session of the General Assembly in the year 2000 be designated "The Millennium Assembly", and that it include a summit segment that could be called "The Millennium Summit". The Summit will be a historic opportunity to agree on a process for fundamental review of the role of and challenges facing the United Nations in the new century. The General Assembly endorsed the Secretary-General's proposal in its resolution 53/202 of 17 December 1998.

The integration of the Millennium Summit into the regular session of the Assembly would facilitate the participation of Heads of State and Government, while maximizing continuity in the Assembly's normal programme of work. The Summit would be asked to provide guidance to the Organization for meeting the challenges of the new century. Fifty-five years after its founding, and in the context of a radically different world that existed just a mere decade earlier, what kind of United Nations do Member States desire? What substantive objectives are they prepared to support? In carrying out its missions, how should the United Nations relate to and interact with the increasingly densely populated universe of international institutions? An increasingly robust global civil society? Ever more integrated global markets and systems of production?

When Heads of State and/or Government assemble at UN Headquarters in New York to participate in the Millennium Summit, from 6 to 8 September, it is likely to be the largest single gathering of national leaders ever held. To facilitate focused discussions and concrete decisions at the Summit, the Secretary-General in April presented to Member States a report "We the Peoples" on the Millennium Assembly's theme, "The Role of the United Nations in the twenty-first century" (see UN Chronicle, issue 1, 2000).

In preparation for the Millennium Assembly and the Secretary-General's millennium report, five informal regional hearings were held in Beirut, Addis Ababa, Geneva, Santiago de Chile and Tokyo, to elicit views of civil society with respect to the commemoration. Civil society organizations also organized in May a "Millennium Forum", which has adopted the Millennium Forum Declaration and Agenda for Action (see issue 1, 2000). The United Nations University in Tokyo arranged a conference on global governance in January which brought high-level academic input to the preparations.

Special facilities are being provided at the Millennium Assembly for Heads of State or Government to add their signatures to any treaty or convention of which the Secretary-General is the depository. In a letter addressed to them by Mr. Annan in May, he attached a list of 25 core treaties representative of the key objectives of the United Nations. He expressed his hope that the opportunity presented by the Summit would inspire a renewed enthusiasm for participation in these treaties by more States. The "core" treaties are:

1. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crune of Genocide.

2. International Convention on the Elimination of All Form of Racial Discrmination.

3. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

4. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

5. Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

6. Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

7. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

8. Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

9. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

10. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

11. Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on involvement of children in armed conflicts.

12. Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

13. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.

14. Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

15. Convention on Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel.

16. International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorists Bombings.

17. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

18. Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which may be deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects (and Protocols).

19. Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices as amended on 3 May 1996 with amended Protocol II).

20. Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction.

21. Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

22. Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction.

23. Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

24. Convention on Biological Diversity.

25. United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, particularly in Africa.