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UN Chronicle - Volume 51, Issue 1, 2014
Volume 51, Issue 1, 2014
A must-read for every concerned world citizen, the United Nations Chronicle is a quarterly, easy-to-read report on the work of the United Nations and its agencies. Produced by the United Nations Department of Public Information, every issue covers a wide range of United Nations related activities: from fighting the drug war to fighting racial discrimination, from relief and development to nuclear disarmament, terrorism, and the worldwide environmental crisis.
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Message on the 50th anniversary of the group of 77 : Half a century of engagement and achievement
Author: Ban Ki-moonThe history of the Group of 77 is intertwined with that of the United Nations. The Group was founded in 1964 at the first session of the UN Conference on Trade and Development. The “Joint declaration of the seventy-seven developing countries” adopted on that occasion is infused with the goals and values found in the United Nations Charter: unity, solidarity, improved living standards, cooperation and an end to the “division of the world into areas of affluence and intolerable poverty”. Today, the Group of 77 and China encompasses well over half the global population and twothirds of the Organization’s Member States—including some of the world’s most dynamic economies—and is a major voice in world affairs.
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The G-77 An essential element of democratization
Author: Boutros Boutros-GhaliI was in my early forties when the Group of 77 (G-77) was established. Together with the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), it was a symbol of the aspiration of developing countries for emancipation, economic and political independence, and development. It was a collective means and undertaking to help attain these interrelated objectives, and to give a role in the world arena and international affairs to the newly emerged nations and the states on the world periphery. Today, fifty years later, I am in my early nineties, and I am happy to witness the fact that the original, underlying rationale and objectives which led to the formation of the G-77 retain their validity and continued relevance.
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The group of 77 at fifty
Author: Mourad AhmiaWhen it was established on 15 June 1964, the signing nations of the wellknown “Joint Declaration of Seventy-Seven Countries” formed the largest intergovernmental organization of developing countries in the United Nations to articulate and promote their collective interest and common development agenda.
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Fiftieth anniversary of the G-77
Author: Idriss JazairyThe commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Group of 77 (G-77) is an opportunity for its member nations to assess the progress achieved through their joint action to redress the injustices and inequities of a world order crafted by powerful actors in the developed world to serve their own perceived self-interest. It is also an occasion to inject new energy in our collective role at the multilateral level.
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The group of 77 at fifty congratulations!
Author: Johan GaltungFor one who has worked much on the theory and practice of change from systems of hierarchy to systems of equity, 15 June 1964 will never be forgotten. Those at the bottom of the world system of states, fragmented away from each other by colonial and imperial structures, marginalized, exploited, 77 of them came together and formed—not a very revolutionary word—a Group. In 1967 the Group was confirmed by the Charter of Algiers. They used the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) as their platform.
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Vignettes from my half a century : alongside the group of 77
Author: Branislav GosovicThe birth of the Group of 77 (G-77) was the decisive element that launched me on the course of my professional career and life mission devoted to development and the cause of the developing countries. In 1966, as a PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, I was in search of a topic for my dissertation. My advisor, Professor Ernst B. Haas, suggested that, while back home in Yugoslavia for the summer break, I contact and consult Leo Mates, a leading Yugoslav political figure and intellectual and one of the architects of the Non-Aligned Movement. Mates spoke to me about the establishment of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the birth of the G-77 and suggested that my thesis be on decision-making and the group system in UNCTAD.
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Financial Support to South-South cooperation
Author: Eduardo PraseljSouth-South cooperation has been a key initiative of the developing countries, aimed at contributing to the achievement of social and economic development of their nations and peoples by forging economic and technical ties between them.
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The historic importance of G-77
Author: Muchkund DubeyWhen the Group of 77 (G-77) emerged on the world economic scene at the end of the first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 1964, it was hailed in a front page headline of the prestigious Sunday Observer, a London weekly, as “the most important phenomenon of the Post-War period”. When the first UNCTAD convened, the Group was already functional, but it had 75 members, including Australia and New Zealand. By the end of the Conference, G-75 was transformed into G-77 with the exit of Australia and New Zealand and the entry of four more developing countries. The first substantive and authoritative document issued by G-77 was its Declaration containing an assessment of the outcome of the Conference and outlining the objectives to be pursued in the future, particularly through the UNCTAD forum. It was a seminal document in which the developing countries proclaimed for the first time their resolve to work for a new international order. This was a decade before the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Declaration and Plan of Action for the Establishment of a New International Order.
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The early days of the group of 77
Author: Karl P. SauvantIn December 1961, the United Nations General Assembly designated the 1960s as the “United Nations Development Decade”. At the same time, it also adopted a resolution on “International Trade as the Primary Instrument for Economic Development”, in which the United Nations Secretary-General was asked to consult governments on the advisability of holding an international conference on international trade problems. These resolutions led to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Their underlying developmental model—trade as the motor of development—shaped the outlook and approach of the new institution.
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A Southern renaissance?
Author: Vijay PrashadThe United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report 2013 bore the enthusiastic title, The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World. The Programme felt that the Global South had finally arrived in economic terms, and that in time it would make political inroads against a system that has been suborned to the needs of the Global North. It is certainly the case that China’s economy has a high growth rate and that various international agencies, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predict that within a decade or two it will have the world’s largest economy. What is often forgotten in these predictions is that while China might have the largest economy in terms of its GDP, its population size means that it will not have the highest per capita GDP. That honour will continue to belong elsewhere. This is the reason China continues to insist that it is a developing country, despite having the second largest GDP among the world’s states. There is no question that China and India have emerged as major economic powerhouses, but their own internal vulnerabilities are considerable, including poverty, unemployment and most dramatically, starvation rates. The South might be rising, but the questions that need to be raised are what kind of rise are we seeing, and what kind of political impact will this have?
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The values of the G-77 are more actual than ever
Author: Roberto SavioAs the founder of Inter Press Service, which is also celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year, let me share some reflections, which are of course my personal views, as I do not belong to the intergovernmental system. If I look at the enthusiasm and hope that marked 1964, when we all hoped to build a more balanced and just system of international relations, when solidarity was a key word, and at the sense of gloom and stagnation that marks international relations today, I cannot but reflect on what went wrong. The fact that millions of citizens today in various Gallup polls worldwide look to the world not as an element of stability, but as a serious factor of incertitude, must be an important consideration. I will, therefore, present my personal opinion on what went wrong, and why we are in the present global incertitude.
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The voice of the majority : The role of the group of 77 in the UN General Assembly
Author: Lydia SwartThe staying power of the United Nations is remarkable. For nearly 70 years, UN membership has grown rapidly after newly independent countries joined its ranks. It is encouraging too that no country has felt a strong enough urge to leave the organization in spite of its democratic deficiencies. The composition and working methods of the Security Council, in particular, are sources of discontent for many, as is the failure of the UN to implement certain General Assembly resolutions. Nevertheless, international decision-making has never been as inclusive as it has been in the last few decades, especially in the Assembly, thanks in no small part to the commanding role played by the Group of 77 (G-77), the largest bloc at the UN.
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2014 Fiftieth anniversary of the group of 77 From unity diversity celebrating
Author: Awni BehnamThe emergence of the Group of 77 (G-77) is now recognized as one of the most important political phenomena of the post-Second World War era especially within the evolution of the United Nations system. However, this statement still underestimates the significance of that enduring compact of the 77 developing countries in 1964 in terms of a singular achievement of our humanity that was to influence and reshape multilateral diplomacy and consequently the economic, social and ecological management of the relationship of the human race with our blue planet.
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