SECRETARY-GENERAL ACCEPTS WORLD PEACE AWARD AT KYUNG HEE UNIVERSITY
Press Release
SG/SM/5940
SECRETARY-GENERAL ACCEPTS WORLD PEACE AWARD AT KYUNG HEE UNIVERSITY
19960329 Following is the text of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's address upon receipt of the Great World Peace Award of the Oughtopia Peace Foundation at Kyung Hee University, in Seoul, Republic of Korea, 29 March:I am particularly pleased to be here today, as a guest of Kyung Hee University, and of my good friend Chancellor Young Seek Choue. For many years, Chancellor Choue has followed the work of the United Nations. He has written extensively about the achievements of our Organization and the challenges before it.
Indeed, the Chancellor founded this great university on the ideals and principles of the United Nations. It is reflected in the design of the university emblem which is based on the United Nations logo. I also note with pride that it was Chancellor Choue who helped initiate "the Year of Peace" that was observed around the world 10 years ago.
On my last visit to Seoul, Chancellor Choue presented me with a translation into Korean of An Agenda for Peace. Today, Chancellor Choue honours me once more with the peace award. I proudly accept it from a friend and colleague. I accept the award on behalf of the whole United Nations Organization. I dedicate this award to different humanitarian organizations inside and outside the Republic of Korea.
There are many roads to peace, but the destination is the same. We are all engaged in a historic enterprise, to realize the goals of the Charter, and the dreams of the founders of the United Nations. In this enterprise the United Nations cannot act alone. It can only act, through the cooperation of Member States such as the Republic of Korea. But we need more than the cooperation of Member States. Today, with the globalization of international affairs, we cannot succeed in this venture unless we have the support of the myriad of non-State actors who have emerged as new players on the international scene.
I have thus strengthened the links between the United Nations and non- State actors. Last year, for the first time ever, the Inter-Parliamentary Union held its conference at the United Nations. During the cycle of conferences and summit meetings held under the auspices of the United Nations since 1992, non-governmental organizations have become active participants in the search for, and definition of, a new approach to development as a
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cooperative venture. I have multiplied my contacts with religious leaders to ensure that our work for peace, for development and for democracy includes a strong moral and ethical dimension, without which no project can succeed. And, in all countries I have visited, I have sought to obtain the cooperation and support of the academic and business communities.
This is the meaning of my presence today at Kyung Hee University. This is the meaning I wish to stress at today's ceremony. The United Nations must be open to all currents of opinion, to the views and opinions of all parts of civil society, to the good will and cooperation of all States and non-State actors.
You are here, at this great university, engaged in nothing less than the great endeavour of the closing years of this century -- the development of a new United Nations, capable of responding with flexibility and imagination to the challenges and the opportunities of the future. It is in this sense that I wish to accept the peace award, as a testimony of your commitment to the United Nations and to its values.
Allow me to end with a few words from the Seoul Appeal for Tolerance, Restoration of Morality and Humanity:
"Those of us who are assembled in this Conference reconfirm our determination to promote individually and collectively, through individuals and communities, through the United Nations, through governments, through intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, through religious leaders, the media, education, business and the professions, but above all through a revalidation of each individual as to his/her sense of morality in terms of conscience and exercise of freedom -- reconfirm our determination to promote vigorous efforts for the full restoration of tolerance, morality and humanity."
You have my support for this lofty aim. You have my gratitude for your support to your United Nations. You have my thanks for the great honour you have done me today.
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