2005 World Summit - World Summit Outcome

World Summit Outcome

At the end of the 2005 Summit the contents of a document, known as the World Summit Outcome Document, was agreed to by the delegations that attended.

It was brought before the United Nations General Assembly for adoption as a resolution on 16 September where ambassadors made last minute statements and reservations. For example, John Bolton said: "I do wish to make one point clear: the United States understands that reference to the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the use of the phrase 'reproductive health' in paragraphs 57 (g) and 58 (c) of the outcome document do not create any rights and cannot be interpreted to constitute support, endorsement or promotion of abortion."

The pressure group The United Nations Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UNA-UK) contend that:

Delegates to the UN Summit have been accused of producing a 'watered-down' outcome document which merely reiterates existing pledges. It is true that there is cause for disappointment, in particular the failure to make progress on Weapons of Mass Destruction. But the document also contains important steps forward including:

1. agreement on the responsibility to protect populations suffering gross human rights violations;
2. a blueprint for the establishment of a Peacebuilding Commission to prevent relapses into violence following the conclusion of peace agreements; and
3. agreement on equipping the UN with a new Human Rights Council to strengthen its ability to promote and protect human rights around the world.

— UNA-UK,

World leaders agreed on a compromise text, including the following notable items:

• the creation of a Peacebuilding Commission to provide a central mechanism to help countries emerging from conflict
• an agreement that the international community has a "responsibility to protect" - the duty to intervene in when national governments fail to fulfill their responsibility to protect their citizens from atrocious crimes
• a Human Rights Council (established in 2006)
• an agreement to devote more resources to UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS);
• several agreements to spend billions more on achieving the Millennium Development Goals
• a clear and unambiguous condemnation of terrorism "in all its forms and manifestations"
• a democracy fund
• an agreement to wind up the Trusteeship Council due to the completion of its mission