"I really do hope that the Millennium Summit gives new impetus to the work of the United Nations"
About this Quote
Harri Holkeri, the Finnish statesman who served as President of the UN General Assembly in 2000, voiced a pragmatic wish as world leaders gathered in New York for the Millennium Summit. He wanted the spectacle of heads of state convening under UN auspices to translate into real political will, fresh resources, and practical reform. The late 1990s had exposed the organization’s limits, with tragedies in Rwanda and Srebrenica undermining confidence and chronic funding disputes hampering its operations. Holkeri’s words acknowledge that the UN’s effectiveness depends less on bureaucratic aspiration than on the concrete commitments of its member states.
The Millennium Summit was designed to reset the agenda. It produced the Millennium Declaration, which crystallized into the Millennium Development Goals, a compact that focused global attention on poverty reduction, education, health, gender equality, and environmental stewardship. In parallel, the Brahimi Report, released weeks earlier, urged stronger peace operations with clearer mandates and better logistics. New impetus, in this context, meant aligning high-level rhetoric with measurable targets, sharper tools, and sustained financing.
Holkeri’s background helps explain his emphasis. A veteran of Finland’s consensus-driven politics and a contributor to the Northern Ireland peace process, he believed that careful negotiation and shared frameworks can move entrenched conflicts. His hope was not naive. The phrasing really do hope signals awareness of the distance between summits and sustained action, and of the UN’s structural reality: it can only do what its members empower it to do.
Looking back, that gathering did inject momentum. The MDGs shaped development work for the next decade and a half, driving tangible gains in child mortality, primary education, and disease control, and spurring new partnerships between states, NGOs, and the private sector. Holkeri’s appeal endures as a test for every grand convening: the value of a summit lies not in its communiques but in the capacity it builds for steady, collective work long after the cameras leave.
The Millennium Summit was designed to reset the agenda. It produced the Millennium Declaration, which crystallized into the Millennium Development Goals, a compact that focused global attention on poverty reduction, education, health, gender equality, and environmental stewardship. In parallel, the Brahimi Report, released weeks earlier, urged stronger peace operations with clearer mandates and better logistics. New impetus, in this context, meant aligning high-level rhetoric with measurable targets, sharper tools, and sustained financing.
Holkeri’s background helps explain his emphasis. A veteran of Finland’s consensus-driven politics and a contributor to the Northern Ireland peace process, he believed that careful negotiation and shared frameworks can move entrenched conflicts. His hope was not naive. The phrasing really do hope signals awareness of the distance between summits and sustained action, and of the UN’s structural reality: it can only do what its members empower it to do.
Looking back, that gathering did inject momentum. The MDGs shaped development work for the next decade and a half, driving tangible gains in child mortality, primary education, and disease control, and spurring new partnerships between states, NGOs, and the private sector. Holkeri’s appeal endures as a test for every grand convening: the value of a summit lies not in its communiques but in the capacity it builds for steady, collective work long after the cameras leave.
Quote Details
| Topic | Peace |
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