United Nations (UN) General Assembly (GA) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon outlined seven priorities for 2010, beginning with the urgent need for a renewed focus on sustainable development, including advancing efforts to achieve the globally agreed targets aimed at ending poverty, disease, and hunger.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – as the targets are known – are among the seven “strategic opportunities” to be realized within the next 12 months. Secretary General Ban told the representatives of the UN’s 192 member countries that “taken together, these MDGs can make the world safer, fairer, and more prosperous today and in the future.” He urged the UN member states to “join together to make 2010 a year of sustainable development.

Secretary-General Ban said he will convene the special MDG summit in September, 2010, in conjunction with the Assembly’s Annual General Debate. Prior to that, in March, he will present his own assessment on the gaps and needs on this first priority of the MDGs.

Negotiating a binding agreement on climate change, as well as to deliver on commitments made to date, was the second priority emphasized by the Secretary-General. Last month, countries sealed a political accord which seeks to jump-start action on climate change and guide negotiations for long-term action. They agreed to work towards curbing global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius, reducing emissions, and mobilizing $100 billion a year for developing countries to combat climate change.

The Secretary-General also called for empowering women in 2010, pointing to the need to work towards setting up the new gender entity to be established within the UN to step up efforts to prevent violence against women.

Secretary-General Ban’s fourth priority is working towards a nuclear-free world, a target that he hopes will be met after a series of meetings on the issue in Geneva, Paris, and Washington.

The fifth strategic opportunity is with regard to preventing and resolving deadly conflicts around the world. Among the challenges anticipated are critical elections in Iraq, Sudan, Cote d’lvoire, and Myanmar, and the situations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Guinea.

The sixth priority for the UN Secrertary-General is to advance on issues “at the heart of who we are – human rights and the rule of law.” In this regard, we urged the Assembly in the coming weeks to conduct a thorough and clear-eyed review of the Human Rights Council.

He also called for strengthening the International Criminal Court (ICC), the “centerpiece of our system of international criminal justice,” and urged all nations to become parties to the Court’s Statute. He cited the need to strengthen the UN system to realign the United Nations to make it more responsive to new global realities.

While these priorities are bound to be confronted with challenges, we share the optimism of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that collective action can be taken on all fronts and the results will be palpable by the end of 2010.