SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES NGOS NOT TO UNDERESTIMATE THEIR ROLE
Press Release
SG/SM/5825
SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES NGOS NOT TO UNDERESTIMATE THEIR ROLE
19951129 Following is the text of the Secretary-General's statement to United Nations ngos in Ghana on 28 November:I am delighted, really delighted, to be here with you, the women and men of the United Nations Association of the Republic of Ghana, because the United Nations will not be able to fulfil its objectives unless it receives the support of the peoples all over the world. Government will not act unless there is pressure from the people. In other words, the problems of tomorrow we are taking to new actors, and among the new actors are the non-governmental organizations, the grassroots organizations and you are one of these organizations, so do not underestimate your role, your role is very important. During the last international conferences: the conference held in Rio de Janeiro dealing with environment; the one in Vienna, dealing with human rights; the conference in Cairo dealing with the impact of population on the demographic explosion on development; the conference held a few months ago in Copenhagen about social development; and finally the conference which was held in Beijing, in China, about the role of women and development, the non- governmental organizations were present. It will help to achieve the goal of the United Nations and I want to express my gratitude to all of you for what you gave done to celebrate the fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations, and hope that you will continue for the next fifty years, to celebrate the hundredth year of the United Nations.
The United Nations is not dealing only with the peaceful settlement of international disputes. This is the image that people have, that the United Nations is dealing only with peace-keeping operations. They mention the presence of the Blue Helmets in Monrovia, Mogadishu, Burundi, Rwanda, Angola - - where we have more than 6,000 Blue Helmets; but this is just one activity. The other activity -- and here you can play a very important role -- is development: political social, economic, technical assistance, how we can help each other to progress, how we can help each other to help our country to advance. And here your role is very important because unless you put pressure on your government, and unless your government puts pressure on the different agencies of the United Nations, the United Nations will not be able to help you or to contribute to working with you. Because the United Nations is a kind of clearing house. We need the pressure. Why we are paying attention to Bosnia and not to Afghanistan, is because there is pressure
-- "you must pay attention to Bosnia". So if you want to obtain more attention to African problems, and we are doing a lot for the African problems, you must put pressure on us.
And now they ask, what has the United Nations done in the last fifty years? I answer by saying, when the United Nations was created in 1945, there were only three African countries, Liberia, Egypt and Ethiopia. All the other countries were under foreign colonialists. The United Nations has helped the decolonisation. You have played your role in fighting decolonisation, but the United Nations was there to assist, to cooperate with you in accelerating the process of decolonisation. And today there is not a single African country which is under foreign colonialists. Fifty-three members of the Organization of African Unity are members of the United Nations, so we have jumped from three countries to 53. This was the first achievement of the United Nations, and I will say the most important one during the last fifty years. We have a second very important achievement. Just two or three years ago, we had a horrible system of racial discrimination in one African Country -- apartheid in South Africa. We have been able to eradicate apartheid; again it was the United Nations, and when Nelson Mandela asked the United Nations to send 2,300 observers in less that two weeks we were able to do so. Free elections took place and Nelson Mandela was elected. This again is a very important victory.
Thirdly, we have been afflicted by the multiplicity of wars in Africa. We have civil war in Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia, Angola and Mozambique. Here again the United Nations has been working very quietly. We have been able to provide a cease-fire in Mozambique, to participate by offering electoral assistance leading to the formation of a new Government, and Mozambique National Resistance Movement (RENAMO) becoming a political party. We were able to reconcile FRELIMO and RENAMO. You see, we are doing the same in Angola now, we have been able to obtain a cease-fire agreement which was concluded in Lusaka. We have been able to maintain the cease-fire and promote a reconciliation between President Dos Santos and Jonas Savimbi; and now the two armies will be integrated. We are also on the ground to do the reconstruction of this country which has been destroyed by many years of war. All their buildings have been destroyed and we there are mines all over. Their roads will have to be reconstructed completely. We have done, and we are doing and we have been very successful.
I plan to be in Monrovia, Liberia tomorrow. The last agreement which was concluded in Abuja, and the role of your President were very important in obtaining this peace agreement. We will send additional observers to Monrovia. We will try to help the reconstruction of Monrovia. We are doing so for peace to prevail in Liberia. So the United Nations is there to serve all the countries of the world. But I will say on a very emotional and personal basis, that on top of the list are the African countries, and it is only through your assistance though your demands will I be able to contain the
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indifference of certain contributing countries, obtain a mobilization in favour of Africa, and more technical assistance for Africa because we need this if we want to have our take-off in the economic field. So your role is very important. The civil society appears more and more to be the key to the solution of the problems of tomorrow. Unless the civil society will play a role -- non-governmental organizations, churches, universities, grassroots organizations -- we will not be able to obtain what we want from the United Nations.
So you are now playing the role of new actors. And I will tell you that the next century will be dominated by the role of the new actors, the grassroots organizations, the universities, schools, churches. Your group and others like you will play a role. This appeal has now been made clear in those international conferences. The non-governmental organizations contributed in the drafting of the resolution in Beijing. They added ideas, so your role is very important. This is why I want to thank you for what you have done, but I will ask a lot more from you all -- the young generation -- for the next year. The young generation is important because they do not know what problems were encountered in the decolonisation, so must know; they must be involved; they must be helped. And this is what you did during the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary. Pay attention to the children, because in the next twenty years they will be confronted with new problems and they must know what the United Nations is and how they can use the United Nations because the United Nations is an instrument. You either know how to use it or you will not be able to use it. You have your arms, which you can or cannot use. So you must use the United Nations and I am here to help you use the United Nations.
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