SECRETARY-GENERAL DELIVERS COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AT UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
Press Release
SG/SM/6266
SECRETARY-GENERAL DELIVERS COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AT UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
19970620 Stresses That Individual Can Make Difference, Urges Graduates to 'Help Protect Fragile Edifices of Peace'Following is the commencement address today by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the United Nations International School:
Congratulations to the class of '97. You have worked hard and you should be proud of what you have accomplished. Your diplomas are here and waiting for you, signed and sealed, your names printed front and centre in big, bold letters.
Congratulations, too, to all the parents and family members who have supported this fine group of students. You have been part of their years of hard work, and so belong here as we celebrate their achievement. But from this day forward, your sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, grandchildren, nieces and nephews will be increasingly on their own. Thus, this moment of great hope and expectation comes tinged with sadness.
It is wonderfully appropriate that the UNIS graduation ceremony is occurring yet again in the General Assembly Hall. For like the delegates who gather here to address the world's problems, the graduates we are honouring today are from many nations, backgrounds and points of view. In an international era, you have been privileged to start your lives in an international environment.
As a former Chairman of your Board of Trustees, I hope I will be forgiven for saying that you have been educated at one of the finest schools in the city, an institution whose core principles -- tolerance, understanding and cooperation -- emanate from the United Nations Charter, that visionary document of world peace and progress. As I know from first-hand experience -- and as I am sure some of you can testify -- the world suffers from a great lack of tolerance. Faced with the simple fact of human diversity, people all too often feel threatened.
You, on the other hand, have studied together, played together and been exposed to the great pageant of ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic
variety. You have learned early on, thanks in great part to UNIS, that there is no need to feel threatened, that everyone has something to contribute and that there is no single "right" way of doing things. As you embark on the next stage of your life, this knowledge -- this deep-seated understanding -- is a most formidable asset.
Six months ago, I myself "graduated" to the job of Secretary-General. Every graduation brings with it the assumption of new and more demanding responsibilities. One of my most critical challenges is to bring the United Nations closer to the world public -- closer to the "we, the peoples" in whose name the Organization was created.
I know you are well aware of the Organization's efforts to resolve conflicts and deliver humanitarian assistance. But it is quite possible that you do not realize just how extensively the United Nations and its family of agencies permeate your own daily lives. In an era of accelerating global interdependence, our work provides the very structure of international life.
Without the International Civil Aviation Organization, whose rules, for instance, stipulate that all pilots and air traffic controllers must speak the same language -- English -- international air travel would be chaotic and dangerous. Without the International Telecommunication Union, which allocates frequencies for international communications, the air waves would be an incomprehensible jumble of static and noise. United Nations agreements and experts also make possible such essentials as international mail delivery, customs formalities, the standardization of trade laws and investment codes and the collection and analysis of statistics at a global level.
Global society demands global institutions. There are so many problems that recognize no frontiers -- such as organized crime, drug trafficking, terrorism. Their solutions also require action across borders.
Perhaps more than any other issue, the environment underscores the centrality of the United Nations as a global forum and global actor. Next week, the General Assembly will be holding a special session to assess progress made since the Earth Summit five years ago in Rio de Janeiro. More than 50 Presidents and Prime Ministers will be here, along with dozens of environmental ministers and advisors -- an indication of the growing environmental consciousness of the world's people. The record of achievement since Rio is not bad, but it is not good enough. And I will be stressing to the assembled leaders that they must do more to honour the commitments they made in Rio on global warming, biodiversity, deforestation and a host of other urgent concerns.
Protection of the environment is one of the main pillars of human security. Our understanding of security -- perhaps the key concept in world
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affairs -- has broadened in recent years. Where once we talked primarily about state or military security, today we speak about individuals. And we talk not only about the environment, but about such things as economic development, social justice, democracy, disarmament and the observance of human rights. These are the true foundations of peace.
I urge you to follow closely next week's debate, which will likely touch on all of these issues. Listen as Heads of State and grass-roots leaders gather under this very roof to talk about their concerns and decide what action to take. I believe their dialogue -- even when they disagree -- is a very positive sign. In an age of ever-more-complex problems, peaceful, effective international diplomacy is more vital than ever.
Just last month I was in Vienna, a city with a long history of hosting important diplomatic conferences and meetings. I met with the Chancellor of Austria in a palace of great architectural distinction, but with one architectural peculiarity: a room with five grand doorways.
My hosts informed me that this was the room where, in 1814 and 1815, diplomats from all over Europe had gathered to make peace following the downfall of Napoleon. Among those attending the Congress of Vienna were the Emperor of Austria, the Tsar of Russia, the King of Prussia and other notables, such as the Duke of Wellington, Prince Metternich and Prince Talleyrand.
Originally, the room had had only two doors. But the five main powers present could not agree on who should enter the room first, or second, and so on. So three extra doors were created so that the rivals could enter simultaneously. This was admittedly a rather cumbersome way of finding compromise, but it did enable the parties to get on with their work.
Today we are still in the business of compromise, but we need not go to such extravagant lengths, at least architecturally. Look around you. The General Assembly Hall has many doors. There is a public gallery for viewers. In an increasingly wide-open world, the United Nations is an open organization -- open to ideas, to criticism, to contributions from all people of goodwill. Most of all, it is open to you -- the class of '97 -- and the classes that will follow you.
In addition to the threshold you step across today, another is fast approaching -- a new century and a new millennium. You will live most of your lives in the twenty-first century. You will be the leaders and actors who will set the international agenda and shape the world of tomorrow. Let me be the first to wish you the best for success with this enormous responsibility.
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Let me also urge you to contribute. You are people to whom much has been given. In return, the world needs your tremendous enthusiasm, devotion and ideas. I recalled asking myself earlier in life whether one person could make a difference. My answer now, many years later, is an emphatic yes. Please, become part of the global society, and help build and protect the fragile edifices of peace.
As you move forward with your lives, you will always remember your high school classmates and the United Nations International School. You have shared an intense period of growth, challenge and, yes -- I hope some fun as well. You richly deserve this day of celebration. So let it begin.
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