INTERNATIONAL – The world has embarked on a “crucial last stretch” to the post-2015 development agenda and towards securing a sustainable future for all, United Nations Deputy-Secretary-General Jan Eliasson declared, adding that the international community would finally have a chance to provide “a life of dignity” for millions of people.

“There are high expectations that the United Nations and its Member States will be a catalyst for setting the direction for transformative change,” Mr. Eliassonsaidthis at a High-Level Thematic Debate on Means of Implementation for a Transformative Post-2015 Development Agenda.

“You, the Member States, are on the final stretch of an historic journey to define the content of an ambitious post-2015 development agenda.”

Addressing the debate at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Eliasson reminded delegates that 2015 would witness the marking of “three major milestones” – the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in July; the post-2015 summit scheduled for New York, in September; and a critical UN climate conference set for December in Paris.

As momentum builds towards these events, he continued, Member States will be pressed to answer how they plan “to deliver on these ambitious goals.”

“It is clear that today’s financing and investment patterns will not deliver sustainable development – even though current global savings are actually sufficient to finance sustainable development needs,” Mr. Eliasson explained. “Intensified international cooperation on many fronts and in new ways is needed to change the way finance for development works.”

This year marks wrap up of the landmark UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which world leaders agreed on 15 years ago. There has been significant progress in meeting the targets. For example, global poverty has been halved well ahead of the 2015 deadline; in developing countries, 90 per cent of children now enjoy primary education; the number of people lacking access to improved drinking water has halved, and the fight against malaria and tuberculosis has shown results, according to the UN.

But challenges persist, and with the deadline of the MDGs set for the end of this year, the UN will craft a new set of targets known as the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Globally, 73 million young people are looking for work and many more are trapped in exploitative jobs. In recent years, more than two and a half million more children in affluent countries fell into poverty, bringing the total above 76 million.

Echoing the Deputy-Secretary-General’s appeal for better financing to satisfy the “ambition, breadth and scope” of the new UN development agenda, President of the General Assembly, Sam Kutesa,warnedthat the additional funding needed to eradicate extreme poverty ranged from $135 billion to $195 billion every two years, while investments required in critical infrastructure projects spanning transport, energy, water and sanitation are estimated to cost between $5 and $7 trillion per year. As a result, he said, it is clear that the resources required remained “enormous” and would have to be “mobilized from all sources” – domestic and external to public and private.

“The new universal development agenda represents our collective commitment to humankind and the planet,” affirmed Mr. Kutesa.

“Together, we must spare no effort to formulate and agree on a framework for development and international cooperation that improves the everyday lives of people worldwide, and protects the environment.”

INTERNATIONAL – Strongly condemning this weekend's attacks at a freedom of expression event near a synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark, United NationsSecretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon today stressed that there is no justification for attacks against civilians and reaffirmed the need for the world “stand strong” for tolerance and free expression.

In astatementissued by his spokesperson in New York, Mr. Ban strongly condemned the shooting attacks in Copenhagen, which took place on 14 and 15 February 2015, respectively.

According to press reports, the first of two shootings occurred Saturday evening when a gunman attacked a cultural center during a discussion on free expression. The gunman later fired shots near a synagogue before he was reportedly tracked down and killed by police. In all, two civilians reportedly died in the attacks Saturday and earlier today. Five police officers were wounded, according to Danish authorities.

In his statement, the Secretary-General says that his thoughts are with the victims and their families, and that the UN stands in solidarity with the people and authorities of Denmark.

“The Secretary-General reaffirms that there is no justification for attacks against civilians and reiterates the need to stand strong for freedom of expression and tolerance,” the statement goes on to say and emphasizes that there is no space for anti-Semitism or any form of racial, ethnic or religious discrimination in today's world.

INTERNATIONAL – Speaking via video message to the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit organized by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) of India, the United Nations Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon called for countries to take a low-carbon approach to development in the coming years.

“Over the next fifteen years, the world will make massive investments in new infrastructure for cities, energy and agriculture,” hesaid. “If this spending is directed towards low-carbon goods, technologies and services, we will be on our way towards a more sustainable, equitable future. But if we ignore the low-carbon pathway, we may fail to achieve the sustainable development goals,” he added referring to the targets currently being crafted by UN Member States to succeed the landmark, largely poverty-focused Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) after 2015.

He looked ahead to the upcoming summits on sustainable development and on climate change and he stressed that the two were complementary and interdependent, emphasising the contribution renewable energy could make to cleaner air and better health, and the potential of climate-smart agriculture to boost water and food security.

“Climate change threatens to undermine hard-earned development gains,” he said. “But combatting it is an opportunity for low-carbon growth that will benefit people and the planet.”

Mr. Ban pointed to India’s ‘development without destruction’ vision and described how it is apparent in the country’s rapid scale-up of solar power, the Ganga Rejuvenation project and the creation of smart cities.

“These solutions can reduce poverty, catalyse clean, sustainable growth, and increase resilience to climate change,” he said.

He underlined the need for Governments to build policy frameworks in order to build the momentum necessary to pursue the correct, sustainable course and said the private sector, civil society and the scientific community and think-tanks such as TERI also had important roles to play.

“We need all hands on deck to meet the climate challenge,” he said. “Now is the moment. It is time for action – time for a global agreement.”

INTERNATIONAL – World leaders too often choose to violate international law and set aside moral principles, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said, as he warned against “sinking into a state of paralysis” and called for a deeper form of education that equips people with moral courage to act toward one another with responsibility and care.

During his first visit to the United States in his capacity as the top UN human rights official, Mr. Zeid delivered a speech at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. – one week after the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – emphasizing that education devoid of a strong universal human rights component can be next to worthless, especially in a crisis.

“What good was it to humanity that…eight out of 15 people who planned the Holocaust at Wannsee in 1942 held PhDs?” he asked. “In the years after the Holocaust, specific treaties were negotiated to cement into law obligations to protect human rights. Countries the world over accepted them – and now alas, all too frequently, they ignore them in practice.”

While it has been 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz extermination camp, some of the processes used by the Nazis to carry out humanity’s largest organized destruction are being implemented again today by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), explained Mr. Zeid.

 “This logic is abundant around the world today: I torture because a war justifies it. I spy on my citizens because terrorism, repulsive as it is, requires it. I don’t want new immigrants, or I discriminate against minorities, because our communal identity or my way of life is being threatened as never before. I kill others, because others will kill me – and so it goes, on and on.”

Since the world cannot afford “sinking into a state of paralyzing shock…the task is to strengthen our ethics, clarity, openness of thought, and moral courage,” calling for new battle lines to combat extremism – based on the struggle for minds.

“Children need to learn what bigotry and chauvinism are…they need to learn that blind obedience can be exploited by authority figures for wicked ends. They should learn that they are not an exception because of where they were born, how they look, what passport they carry, or the social class, caste or creed of their parents; they should learn that no one is intrinsically superior to her or his fellow human beings,” said Mr. Zeid.

The world needs “profound and inspiring” leaders who fully observe human rights and humanitarian law and all the treaties drafted to end discrimination, poverty, war, “with no excuses.” Only then, can we help ourselves out of the “supply of crises that threatens to engulf us,” the UN rights chief emphasized.

It is obvious, Mr. Zeid continued, that forceful reprisals against atrocities – including “the savage burning of my compatriot the pilot Mu’ath al Kassassbeh” by ISIL – have had limited impact. Leaders must adopt a “battle-line based on ideas,” to speak out against Takfiri ideology (when one believer apostasies another believer and condemns them as impure). The movement to end that dangerous ideology must be waged by Muslim leaders and Muslim countries, he said.

“Just bombing them or choking off their financing has clearly not worked…for these groups have only proliferated and grown in strength,” he said. “The space for dissent in many countries is collapsing under the weight of either poorly-thought out, or indeed, exploitative, counter-terrorism strategies.”

Few crises erupt without warning, he continued. Extremist ideas and violence manifest from years of tyranny, inequalities, fear and bad governance. They build up over years – even decades – of human rights grievances and the denial of basic economic and social rights.

He insisted that atrocities can be prevented and extremism curbed through better, human rights-based global leadership and a fundamental rethink of education. “Surely we now know, from bitter experience, that human rights are the only meaningful rampart against barbarity.”