Foreword
F
rom the beginning, the guiding vision of the United Nations has been as broad as it has been profound: maintaining international peace and security; developing friendly relations among nations; and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights. In 2009, we met significant challenges on all fronts, as we worked to protect lives while safeguarding our planet. During the year, the United Nations addressed numerous conflict situations, mainly in Africa, as well as a major armed crisis in Gaza, while continuing to support post-conflict countries in sustaining peace and stability and rebuilding national institutions, as in Afghanistan and Iraq. Through Security Council resolution 1888(2009), which mandated peacekeeping missions to protect women and children from rampant sexual violence, the Organization deepened its commitment to mitigating the impact of armed conflict on civilians. Throughout the world, the continuing economic and food security crises contributed to unrest and political instability, and threatened the resources required for progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (mdg s), even as substantial advances were made in fighting aids, tuberculosis, malaria and vaccine-preventable diseases. We acted to facilitate more effective international coordination, including reform of the international monetary and financial system, and sought to meet development needs for agreed mdg targets in such lagging areas as primary education, maternal health and basic infrastructure. We also framed these crises as opportunities to make needed changes by encouraging green growth and clean technologies. The United Nations Climate Change Conference produced the Copenhagen Accord, in which Governments converged in defining the long-term goal of limiting the maximum global average temperature increase to no more than 2 degrees Celsius. There was no agreement, however, on how to achieve that goal in practical terms, leaving much work to be done. The coordinated United Nations response to the pandemic influenza A(H1N1) outbreak in 2009 testified to our success in improving national and international response to global health challenges. The commencement of the functioning of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon during the year marked yet another important effort to advance the rule of law. Overall, the United Nations continued its efforts to protect human rights worldwide, as 182 States adopted the outcome document of the anti-racism Durban Review Conference. In a significant development for the United Nations and the peoples it serves, the General Assembly supported the consolidation of four bodies working for the advancement of women into a new organization, UN-Women, and so further empowered the United Nations system to empower women everywhere. As documented in this Yearbook of the United Nations, I called in 2009 for a spirit of renewed multilateralism recognizing the interconnections among the challenges confronting us; privileging the most vulnerable people; establishing multi-stakeholder coalitions; and strengthening the existing global multilateral architecture. These needs remain. Like the volumes that have come before it, this Yearbook represents our work through what we have done, what we advocate, and what we ourselves are called to do. It is our own witness to the history that is shaped by the efforts of the United Nations.
Ban Ki-moon Secretary-General of the United Nations New York, October 2013