UNGA Resolution on LEP

UNGA Resolution on LEP

On 21 December 2009, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted its second resolution on legal empowerment of the poor and eradication of poverty, with 69 co-sponsors from all regions of the world. The composition of co-sponsors includes 12 Least Development Countries, 20 G77 Members, 21 EU Members as well as 19 OECD-DAC member countries. As a follow-up to the procedural resolution 63/142 of 11 December 2008 and the report of the Secretary-General (A/64/133), this substantive resolution is a clear testimony of the priority that member states are attaching to this innovative agenda for development.

Through this resolution, the General Assembly:

• Takes note of the diversity of national experiences in legal empowerment of the poor, recognizes progress made in advancing legal empowerment of the poor in national strategies, stresses the importance of sharing of national best practices and welcomes the ongoing work of the UN funds and programmes (OP2 and OP3);

• Emphasizes the need to accord the highest priority to poverty eradication within the United Nations development agenda, while stressing the importance of addressing the causes and challenges of poverty through integrated, coordinated and coherent strategies at the national, intergovernmental and inter-agency levels (OP4);

• Encourages countries to continue their efforts in the area of legal empowerment of the poor, including access to justice and the realization of rights related to property, labour and business, addressing both formal and informal settings by taking into account those dimensions in their national policies and strategies (OP 9);

• Calls upon the international community to continue to give priority to the eradication of poverty and calls upon countries in a position to do so to support the national efforts of developing countries in promoting legal empowerment of the poor through provision of adequate, predictable financial resources or technical assistance (OP 11);

• Requests the Secretary-General to submit a report to the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session on the implementation of the resolution, as part of the follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit and to continue the consideration of legal empowerment of the poor (OP12).

The GA resolution provides a renewed impetus to UNDP's Initiative on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (LEP), as it firmly anchors the concept within the United Nations General Assembly, recognizing that it is essential, and an imperative, for effective eradication of poverty. The LEP core team in UNDP stands ready to engage with UNDP country offices, development partners and other stakeholders partners to support various local, national and regional initiatives to strengthen property and land rights, rule of law and access to justice, labor rights and rights to entrepreneurship for effective and meaningful empowerment of the poor.