Launch of Commission’s Final Report
Tuesday, June 3rd
Conference Room 2, UN Headquarters, New York

WELCOMING REMARKS
Naresh Singh

Commission co-chairs Albright and de Soto, UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis, your excellencies, members of the diplomatic corps, distinguished country representatives, special guests, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen:

The event in which you are participating today is the end of the first step of a very long journey, one that must continue without delay and one in which very broad participation will be essential. But this first step we are completing today was not a baby step, it was more like a giant stride which was necessary to place our work on a platform high enough to provide a clear vision of  the way ahead.

I am pleased to welcome so many country representatives from both developed and developing countries. You will have important roles, if you care to join the journey, both in sharing information with your capitals, but also in helping to advance the agenda here in New York through the various country groupings to the General Assembly and other fora. Our report makes clear that the leadership role of governments in the process of legal empowerment of the poor is a sine qua non.

We welcome representatives from the private sector who will have important contributions generally in supporting the work on business and labor rights, but also in property rights and access to justice and the rule of law when they are in these areas of business.

We recognize that Legal Empowerment of the Poor must be both a top down and a bottom up process.  The bottom up process which advocates the rights of the poor and demands policy and institutional change will have to be led by civil society groups, and we welcome our friends from non-governmental organisations and from faith based organizations as well.

Much innovative thinking and many unorthodox experiments will be needed if we are to be successful in changing power relations, for legal empowerment sometimes has more to do with power and politics than with law and development.  Much of this will come from individuals not necessarily close to the agenda, but who recognize the material and moral necessity of what we are calling for.  And so our friends and special guests could play unexpectedly important roles as we move forward.

Let me give you a quick sense of the roll out of the events planned for the next few weeks.  On Friday 13th, June, we will have a launch for the Americas at the Organziation of American States,  on 30th June for Africa at the AU summit at Sharm el Sheik, on July 4th at ASEAN in Jakarta for Asia and on July 9th for Europe at the European Parliament in Strasbourg and sub-regionally for West Africa in Benin in September.  In addition there are events planned with several  institutions in Washington DC, Rome, Halifax, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, London, Paris etc…

Let me conclude by taking this opportunity to say what a privilege it was for me to work under the guidance of co -chairs Madeleine and Hernando in helping to bring the work of the commission through this first successful step. This would not have been possible without the support of so many of you, not least my hard working secretariat team. In addition I must pay special tribute to my friend and colleague Olav Kjorven, ASG and Director of BDP whose trust and leadership were critical in moments of despair, but of triumph as well.  I conclude my work with the commission, (though hopefully not with the agenda), older and maybe wiser, but of two things I am reassured: now more than ever, that given a chance, the poor will  take control over their own lives and work to get themselves out of poverty, and secondly there is no plan B, there never was.

Welcome to the launch of our report!