A ‘CARIBBEAN Trakker’ news item reported that the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the fifth edition of the resolution entitled ‘The role of the United Nations in promoting a New Global Human Order’, sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Guyana to the United Nations.

The resolution was agreed by consensus after several rounds of informal consultations and raised more than 50 co-sponsors, including from CARICOM, CELAC, African, Asian and Arab countries.

The 2012 resolution builds on the previous resolution adopted by the General Assembly in 2010 and on the Secretary-General’s Report. The Secretary-General’s Report reviewed recent trends in inequality and their implications for economic and social development, drawing on analytical and empirical research into the causes of inequality.

The report concluded with a number of recommendations for addressing inequality at all levels, in particular within the United Nations framework, as a contribution to ongoing efforts to achieve the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.

At a session of the General Assembly, Mr George Talbot, Ambassador of Guyana to the UN, introduced the resolution, which had been updated and revised in the context of the current realities. The resolution emphasised the continued and growing importance of the need to address inequalities at the multilateral level and provides a platform for focused inter-governmental consideration of the question of inequality.

In that context, the resolution highlighted, inter alia, the need for mainstreaming inequality in the activities of the UN, agencies and programmes, and the progress in efforts of many Member States to address inequality.

It requested the convening of an informal thematic debate of the General Assembly to address the issue of inequality in 2013 and encouraged appropriate consideration to the need to reduce inequality in the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda.

After the introduction of the resolution, the distinguished representatives of Singapore, South Africa and Malaysia delivered statements supporting the adoption of the resolution, highlighting the increasing prominence of the issue of inequality and the need for addressing it.

The New Global Human Order is again taking centre stage at the United Nations and other world fora. Great ideas never die, because they are envisioned by great thinkers.