Govts running to stand still at UN negotiations

Governments running to stand still at UN negotiations

Nicola Reindorp, head of Oxfam's New York office has been lobbying at the United Nations and speaking daily to the UN Ambassadors and diplomats who are negotiating the Summit outcome document:

“Less than 48 hours away from the Summit opening, on all major issues but one, negotiations seem set on the lowest common denominator.”

“The only ray of hope is that governments are on the brink of an historic endorsement of their responsibility to protect civilians from future genocides.”

“In the latest draft deal, only the agreement on government's responsibility to protect civilians from future genocides, ethnic cleansing, mass killings is a real step forward. On overseas aid, the draft simply repeats past agreements, delivering nothing new. All wording on small arms has been removed. The previous wording calling for increased humanitarian aid has been dropped.”

“On all issues but stopping genocide, Governments appear to be on their biggest ever recycling drive - hours of negotiations have resulted in a repetition of existing commitments at best.”

“UN ambassadors have been up all night negotiating just to stand still on previous commitments,” Oxam's Nicola Reindorp said.

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