DPI/NGO CONFERENCE CONCLUDES FOCUSING ON PEACE UNDER THEME 'LOOKING TO THE FUTURE'
Press Release
NGO/300
PI/1033
DPI/NGO CONFERENCE CONCLUDES FOCUSING ON PEACE UNDER THEME 'LOOKING TO THE FUTURE'
19970915 Fifty-two years after its creation, the United Nations had become increasingly peripheral to the concept of multilateralism, former United Nations Under-Secretary-General Sir Brian Urquhart told the concluding session of the fiftieth annual Department of Public Information (DPI)/NGO Conference Friday afternoon, 12 September.The failure of only three of 17 recent United Nations peacekeeping operations had produced a "disastrous mood swing" towards cautiousness among Member States, he said, enabling unfortunate concepts as "coalitions of the willing" and "the reluctant Sheriff" -- the United States -- to take hold at the Organization.
The 1996 Nobel Peace Prize co-Laureate, Jose Ramos-Horta, said that while the twentieth century had produced some of the worst barbarism in history, the international community had organized in a way unthinkable before the Second World War. As a new millennium approached, inter-State relations should be defined not only by trade advantage, but by independence, integrity and cooperation.
Mr. Urquhart and Mr. Ramos-Horta spoke at the second of two panel discussions on the topic "Looking to the Future". The first was entitled "Working for Peace", the second "NGOs and Civil Society: New Trends". The theme of the Conference was "Building Partnerships".
In concluding remarks, Leona Forman, Chief of the NGO Section, DPI, thanked participants for their attendance, which reinvigorated the Conference for its fiftieth anniversary. Claudia Strauss, Chair of the DPI/NGO Planning Committee, and Elaine Valdov, Chair of the DPI/NGO Executive Committee, thanked DPI staff for their contributions to the Conference.
More than 2,300 individuals representing 637 NGOs in 61 countries from all regions of the world registered for the Conference.
Working for Peace
The panel's moderator was CORA WEISS, Vice-President, International Peace Bureau. She said peace should have the last word "in this bloodiest of
all centuries". Participants were at the Conference to ask, What had wars produced, and what could participants do to promote peace? Since 1945, 20 million people were estimated to have been killed in wars. Eighty per cent of the world's refugees were women. Uncounted millions were physically and mentally scarred. More than 200,000 children under the age of 15 were victims of war. Did the international community want to bring war into the next century? Institutions such as slavery and apartheid were no longer legitimate; "wasn't it time to de-legitimize war?" she asked.
Last year, over $800 billion was spent worldwide in preparation for war, she said. There must be a dividend from savings on war expenditure, and it must be spent on the development of women. A petition entitled the Women's Peace Initiative, calling for a peace dividend to be spent on women's development, was being prepared for presentation to the General Assembly.
CLAUDIA FRITSCHE, Permanent Representative of Liechtenstein to the United Nations, said women had a particular role to play in preventive diplomacy and peacekeeping. Women contributed to preserving social order during times of war, and suffered disproportionately during war. The Secretary-General had recognized that women were notably absent at the "peace table", and should be called on to promote peace and stability. Governments at the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women had encouraged the participation of women in all forms of peacemaking. The NGOs had a particular role to play in selecting women for peacemaking roles. Many conflicts were now within States rather than between them. Solutions to war might be found in the principle of self-determination, a concept now studied by Liechtenstein. The Women's Peace Initiative would redirect military funds to women and children, and deserved support.
RUTH ENGO, Senior Economics Adviser, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), said that refugees from conflicts in the Great Lakes region of Africa, Mozambique and Angola reflected lives that were sad and undignified. Peace would restore their dignity. Peace must start from within before it "shows out". Peace was not merely the absence of armed forces, but the absence of social and economic brutalities which produced dissatisfaction and paralysis.
In work for peace, participants must also address mental violence, she said. Not only governments and arms dealers began wars: each participant could unconsciously hurt the process of peace. Women's peacemaking efforts should not focus exclusively on the victimization of women and children in war. Women must strategically position themselves as future leaders in peacemaking; they were better positioned to do so than men. Women in sub- Saharan Africa were consulted behind closed doors on many social matters, always in consideration of their countries at large. African women should not
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let ethnic parties and political groups destroy their unity. They should utilize their vote to affect change, and monitor their own abuses.
NINA SIBAL, Director, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), New York Office, said UNESCO had promoted a "culture of peace" since its inception and continued to do so. The Economic and Social Council had called for the year 2000 to be proclaimed international year for the culture of peace. Such movements called for unified actions. It was more humane and practical to address the roots of violence than its consequences. That attitude was at the heart of UNESCO's efforts. The establishment of the United Nations was itself an act towards the creation of a culture of peace. The UNESCO supported the Women's Peace Initiative and had documented its own support of women's efforts to secure peace.
In response to a participant's question about the efforts of the General Assembly's First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) to promote reductions in military spending, Ms. WEISS said such an initiative would probably find its way into the General Assembly plenary, depending on the identity of its sponsors. Asked how to disseminate concern for African women's peacekeeping efforts, Ms. ENGO said UNIFEM had worked impressively on the matter, and could provide such initiative. Asked about a "human right to peace", Ms. SIBAL said that was a matter of concern to UNESCO; in the next year UNESCO would "spearhead" a peaceful movement within the Organization specifically on that question.
To a question about how peace-related literature could be accessed, Ms. SIBAL said that UNESCO could provide a relevant report. Ms. ENGO directed participants' attention to the United Nations An Agenda for Peace.
NGOs and Civil Society: New Trends
The panel's chair was CLAUDIA STRAUSS, Chair, DPI/NGO Planning Committee.
YOUNG SEEK CHOUE, President, GCS International, said that within three years the world would enter an unknown century. Many people today were indulging in sensory pleasures, threatening to become "ape men" in their societies. What type of societies should be constructed, and what role should NGOs play in their construction? Rights, such as freedom of the press and democratic principles, could easily be manipulated by people. A world which confused rights and duties was problematic. When democracy was abused, it produced many ill effects. It was the mission of NGOs to rectify such a situation.
In order to eliminate society's ills, participants must undertake a "social peace movement", he said. Today's problems also traced to changes in
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historical trends. By promoting a "second Renaissance", peoples could restore human dignity and ensure economic equality. Humans must be the masters of history, and material things must serve mankind. Nationalism must be eradicated, and a "global common society" sought. The world's peoples already lived in a system of cooperation. If the international community reflected on its past conflicts, it could prevent future problems. The fiftieth birthday of the United Nations NGOs should be saluted.
JOSE RAMOS-HORTA, 1996 Nobel Peace Prize co-Laureate, said the Conference theme -- "building partnerships" -- was particularly relevant to him, due to his long involvement with NGOs. The NGO community at the United Nations had shown him an example of solidarity. The past century of mankind revealed outstanding technological progress, but also mass destruction wrought of it. It had witnessed some of the worst barbarism in history, producing 100 million deaths. There had been genocides against Armenians and Jews, Stalinist purges and apartheid. Yet the international community had organized in a way unthinkable before the Second World War. The NGOs had contributed importantly to that process.
As the world became a smaller place due to technological progress, crimes such as genocide and slavery should no longer be possible, he said. The human rights debate was now a struggle between democracies and a few remaining dictatorships. There must be a strategic alliance between NGOs from the North and South. The NGO movement must be the "watchdog of the governments". Human rights were the only real guarantee of development and economic progress; countries without such rights were not good trade partners.
Inter-State relations should be defined not only by trade advantages, but by independence and integrity, as well as cooperation with other nations, he continued. The arms trade must be ended, as well. A group of Nobel Laureates had proposed a ban on weapons to regimes which were undemocratic; its adoption by international bodies would create a better climate for peace. It was difficult to comprehend how the five permanent members of the Security Council were precisely the ones which sold the most arms, which fuelled conflicts around the world. Notions of human rights and tolerance must be taught from early childhood. Yet hope would keep people going: consider the revival of the Armenian people, and the emergence of Presidents Vaclav Havel and President Nelson Mandela. Mandela was proof that nothing lasted forever.
CLOVIS MAKSOUD, Director, Center for Global South at American University, said people had associated democratization with the free market "in an organic manner". Globalization of information had occurred, but not a corresponding globalization of knowledge. The globalization of issues such as the environment, women's and human rights had occurred simultaneously with ethnic and nationalistic violence. Compassion seemed to have been removed from the collective consciousness. Yet notably, the recent deaths of Mother
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Teresa and Diana, Princess of Wales, had produced a global outpouring of compassion which countered trends towards materialism.
There was "something basically wrong with the human equation", given the divide between rich and poor, he said. That represented a challenge to the NGO community. "The basic bestiality within all of us had subordinated the basic good in all of us." Such a situation should be an aberration. The United Nations reform effort should be attuned to current international realities of inter-societal and inter-human relations.
JULIE RADOCCHIA, of Peace Ways, noted that many children worldwide led harsh, demanding lives. Developmental work should include elders, minorities, women and especially children in their work. Children represented one third of the world's population, and wanted their voices heard. Peace Ways had demonstrated children's particular resolve in its many conferences. It convened summits and organized post-summit activities, such as food aid programmes. It was planning a "Young Assembly", which would enact projects and young peoples' participation in their respective societies.
Sir BRIAN URQUHART, former United Nations Under-Secretary-General, said intergovernmental organizations were in a period of "back-pedalling" and lack of organization. The Secretary-General's attention to those problems was a "bright spot" in response, but a limited one. "Whatever happened to the idea of multilateralism, which marked the world of 1945?" he asked. Fifty-two years later, the United Nations was increasingly peripheral to such concerns, which had been replaced by concepts of "coalitions of the willing" and notions of the "reluctant Sheriff" -- the United States.
At the end of the cold war, the United Nations was projected into 17 peacekeeping operations, which was unfortunate, he said. Most operations were "unsuited to the job" and three had failed. It was remarkable that only three had failed, yet those failures produced a "disastrous" mood swing among Member States, which had become very cautious. That would not create an atmosphere of reform; consequently, Member States found it easier to blame the Secretariat and the Secretary-General for lack of reform. The United Nations had become like an "old family dog in the house: it had to be fed, but for God's sake, keep it off the furniture". That was a disastrous attitude. Risks facing the world were manifest: weapons of mass destruction, the "dark side" of globalization -- crime -- as well as widespread poverty. Also, the idea of a single super-Power would some day become an anachronism.
Ms. STRAUSS praised Leona Forman, Chief, NGO Section, DPI, and her staff for organizing the Conference, as well as members of the Planning Committee.
Ms. FORMAN thanked participants for their attendance, which reinvigorated the Conference for its fiftieth anniversary. She thanked the Accreditation Office, as well as her DPI staff, for its work.
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