Inaccurate Internet Reports Panic Conservatives on UN Millennium Summit

By Austin Ruse | 2000

     (NEW YORK – C-FAM)  The US based Evangelical group Focus on the Family has been inundated with worried phone calls. So has the Washington DC office of the Christian Coalition. The calls are the result of reports and rumors swirling around an upcoming UN meeting of 150 heads of state that have caused a rising panic among pro-life conservatives. The reports are circulating mostly on the Internet and are at least partially inaccurate.

     On September 6 the UN Secretary General convenes a two day UN Millennium Summit that is intended to advise the General Assembly about the future of the UN. The meeting will cover a wide range of topics including "the role and function of the UN," "towards a global society," "new challenges to multi-lateralism in the era of globalization," "international cooperation," and "promoting peace and sustainable development of mankind."

     Rumors about this meeting began with the reporting of veteran journalist Henry Lamb in Eco-Logic magazine. Lamb believes a number of radical ideas percolating through left leaning non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will eventually gain ascendancy at the UN. Lamb makes it clear, however, that these ideas, generally called "global governance," may get a boost at the Millennium Summit but will not materialize for years. Nonetheless, many Internet reports say these NGO wishes will come true at the Millennium Summit which convenes in a few weeks.

     Life Site News, the well respected Canadian pro-life news service, reported this week that the Millennium Summit "expects to achieve" placing the "UN in oversight of all international institutions, financial institutions, commerce, trade, labor relations, human rights and education." Their report says the Summit will "abolish the veto power and permanent status on the Security Council," "establish a permanent UN standing army," "make registration of all arms mandatory," "force countries to comply with 'human rights' treaties," and implement "a global tax to fund the UN."

     Last week the American Policy Center (APC) web site reported that "the assembled delegates will be asked "to endorse the UN's dangerous Charter for Global Democracy [reported in Friday Fax, Volume 3, Number 21], a document developed by different international special interest groups." APC makes similar charges as the Life Site report.

     The Life Site and APC reports, and others like them, have exaggerated the power of NGOs and have failed to make a distinction between the wishes of radical NGOs and the wishes of the General Assembly. It may be that some governments support these ideas. It is true that radical NGOs grow more powerful every day. Still these radical ideas remain only the wishes of NGOs, and not the agenda of the General Assembly or of governments. It is unlikely that heads of state at the Millennium Forum will even discuss these ideas.

     "These types of scare reports harm our credibility, and distract us from the real business at the UN. It is important to follow what powerful NGOs say, but it is even more important to follow and influence what governments do," said a UN pro-life leader.

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