This page intentionally left blank Paragraphs Page .. 1-24 ............ 1 A . The challenges of a changing world ..... 6-11 ............4 B . Larger freedom: development. security and human rights ............. 12-17 ............5 C . The imperative of collective action ...... 18-22 ............6 D . Time to decide ...................... 23-24 ............7 ..................... 25-73 ............9 A . A shared vision of development ......... 28-32 ...........1 1 B . National strategies ................... 33-46 ........... 15 C . Making Goal 8 work: trade and financing for development ..... 47-56 .......... -20 D . Ensuring environmental sustainability .... 57-61 ...........2 3 E . Other priorities for global action ........ 62-71 ...........2 4 F. The implementation challenge ......... 72-73 ...........2 7 ...................... 74-126 ..........3 1 A . A vision of collective security ........... 76-86 ...........3 3 B . Preventing catastrophic terrorism ....... 87-96 ...........3 5 C . Nuclear, biological and chemical weapons .. 97-105 ...........3 7 D . Reducing the risk and prevalence of war .. 106-121 ...........3 9 E . Useofforce ........................ 122-126 ...........4 3 ................. 127-152 ...........4 5 A . Ruleoflaw ......................... 133-139 ...........4 8 B . Humanrights ....................... 140-147 ...........5 0 C . Democracy ......................... 148-152 ...........5 2 .......... 153-219 ...........5 5 A . GeneralAssembly ................... 158-164 ........... 58 B . The Councils ....................... 165-183 ........... 59 Paragraph Page C . The Secretariat ..................... 184-192 ........... 64 D . System coherence ................... 193-212 ........... 66 E . Regional organizations ............... 213-215 ........... 71 F. Updating the Charter of the United Nations .. 2 16-219 ........... 71 Annex For decision by Heads of State and Government ...................... 77 Notes ........................................................ 88 This page intentionally left blank 1. Five years into the new millennium, we have it in our power to pass on to our chil- dren a brighter inheritance than that bequeathed to any previous generation. We can halve global poverty and halt the spread of major known diseases in the next 10 years. We can reduce the prevalence of violent conflict and terrorism. We can increase respect for human dignity in every land. And we can forge a set of updated international institutions to help humanity achieve these noble goals. If we act boldly - and if we act together - we can make people everywhere more secure, more prosperous and better able to enjoy their fundamental human rights. 2. All the conditions are in place for us to do so. In an era of global interdependence, the glue of common interest, if properly perceived, should bind all States together in this cause, as should the impulses of our common humanity. In an era of global abundance, our world has the resources to reduce dramatically the massive divides that persist between rich and poor, if only those resources can be unleashed in the service of all peoples. After a period of difficulty in international affairs, in the face of both new threats and old ones in new guises, there is a yearning in many quar- ters for a new consensus on which to base collective action. And a desire exists to make the most far-reaching reforms in the history of the United Nations so as to equip and resource it to help advance this twenty-first-century agenda. 3. The year 2005 presents an opportunity to move decisively in this direction. In Sep- tember, world leaders will come together in New York to review progress made since the United Nations Millennium Declaration,' adopted by all Member States in 2000. In preparation for that summit, Member States have asked me to report comprehensively on the implementation of the Millennium Declaration. I respect- fully submit that report today. I annex to it a proposed agenda to be taken up, and acted upon, at the summit. 4. In preparing the present report, I have drawn on my eight years' experience as Secretary-General, on my own conscience and convictions, and on my understand- ing of the Charter of the United Nations whose principles and purposes it is my duty to promote. I have also drawn inspiration from two wide-ranging reviews of' our global challenges - one from the 16-member High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, whom I asked to make proposals to strengthen our col- lective security system (see A/59/565); the other from the 250 experts who undertook the Millennium Project, which required them to produce a plan of action to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. 5. In the present report, I have resisted the temptation to include all areas in which progress is important or desirable. I have limited myself to items on which I believe action is both vital and achievable in the coming months. These are reforms that are within reach -r eforms that are actionable if we can garner the necessary polit- ical will. With very few exceptions, this is an agenda of highest priorities for Sep- tember. Many other issues will need to be advanced in other forums and on other occasions. And, of course, none of the proposals advanced here obviate the need for urgent action this year to make progress in resolving protracted conflicts that threaten regional and global stability. 6. In the Millennium Declaration, world leaders were confident that humanity could, in the years ahead, make measurable progress towards peace, security, disarmament, human rights, democracy and good governance. They called for a global partnership for development to achieve agreed goals by 2015. They vowed to protect the vul- nerable and meet the special needs of Afi-ica. And they agreed that the United Nations needed to become more, not less, actively engaged in shaping our common future. 7. Five years later, a point-by-point report on the implementation of the Millennium Declaration would, I feel, miss the larger point, namely, that new circumstances demand that we revitalize consensus on key challenges and priorities and convert that consensus into collective action. 8. Much has happened since the adoption of the Millennium Declaration to compel such an approach. Small networks of non-State actors - terrorists - have, since the horrendous attacks of 11 September 2001, made even the most powerfd States feel vulnerable. At the same time, many States have begun to feel that the sheer imbalance of power in the world is a source of instability. Divisions between major powers on key issues have revealed a lack of consensus about goals and methods. Meanwhile, over 40 countries have been scarred by violent conflict. Today, the num- ber of internally displaced people stands at roughly 25 million, nearly one third of whom are beyond the reach of United Nations assistance, in addition to the global refugee population of 11-12 million, and some of them have been the victims ofwar crimes and crimes against humanity, 9. Many countries have been torn apart and hollowed out by violence of a different sort. HIV/AIDS, the plague of the modern world, has killed over 20 million men, women and children and the number of people infected has surged to over 40 mil- lion. The promise of the Millennium Development Goals still remains distant for many More than one billion people still live below the extreme poverty line of one dollar per day, and 20,000 die from poverty each day Overall global wealth has grown but is less and less evenly distributed within countries, within regions and in the world as a whole. While there has been real progress towards some of the Goals in some countries, too few Governments -f rom both the developed and the devel- oping world - have taken sufficient action to reach the targets by 2015. And while important work has been done on issues as diverse as migration and climate change, the scale of such long-term challenges is far greater than our collective action to date to meet them. 10. Events in recent years have also led to declining public confidence in the United Nations itself, even if for opposite reasons. For instance, both sides of the debate on the Iraq war feel let down by the Organization - for failing, as one side saw it, to enforce its own resolutions, or, as the other side saw it, for not being able to prevent a premature or unnecessary war. Yet most people who criticize the United Nations do so precisely because they think the Organization is vitally important to our world. Declining confidence in the institution is matched by a growing belief in the importance of effective multilateralism. 11. I do not suggest that there has been no good news in the last five years. On the con- trary, there is plenty we can point to which demonstrates that collective action can produce real results, from the impressive unity of the world after 11 September 2001 to the resolution of a number of civil conflicts, and from the appreciable increase of resources for development to the steady progress achieved in building peace and democracy in some war-torn lands. We should never despair. Our problems are not beyond our power to meet them. But we cannot be content with incomplete suc- cesses and we cannot make do with incremental responses to the shortcomings that have been revealed. Instead, we must come together to bring about far-reaching change. 12. Our guiding light must be the needs and hopes of peoples everywhere. In my Mil- lennium Report, "We the peoples" (A/54/2000), I drew on the opening words of the Charter of the United Nations to point out that the United Nations, while it is an organization of sovereign States, exists for and must ultimately serve those needs. To do so, we must aim, as I said when first elected eight years ago, "to perfect the triangle of development, freedom and peace". 13. The framers of the Charter saw this very clearly. In setting out to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, they understood that this enterprise could not succeed if it was narrowly based. They therefore decided to create an organization to ensure respect for fundamental human rights, establish conditions under which justice and the rule of law could be maintained, and "promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom". 14. I have named the present report "In larger freedom7t>o stress the enduring relevance of the Charter of the United Nations and to emphasize that its purposes must be advanced in the lives of individual men and women. The notion of larger freedom also encapsulates the idea that development, security and human rights go hand in hand.