UNITED NATIONS CANNOT ACHIEVE GOALS WITHOUT 'RICH TAPESTRY' OF PARTNERSHIP, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL IN ADDRESS TO LIONS CLUBS
Press Release
SG/SM/6474
UNITED NATIONS CANNOT ACHIEVE GOALS WITHOUT 'RICH TAPESTRY' OF PARTNERSHIP, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL IN ADDRESS TO LIONS CLUBS
19980227 Following is Secretary-General Kofi Annan's address to the twentieth annual Lions Day with the United Nations, observed at Headquarters in New York on 27 February, delivered on his behalf by the Assistant Secretary-General for External Relations, Gillian Sorensen:It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the United Nations. This is the twentieth annual Lions Day here at Headquarters, but the ties between our organizations date back much further, to the conference in San Francisco in 1945, at which the United Nations was founded. There, the Lions themselves left an imprint on the Charter by making sure the drafters recognized the potential of close ties with non-governmental organizations.
Today, relations between the United Nations and civil society are more dynamic than ever. This is as it should be. The United Nations cannot hope to achieve its goals without partnerships involving the rich tapestry of environmental groups, private businesses, religious figures and humanitarian service organizations. Since taking office, I have tried to open the United Nations more fully to these forces.
I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to your own strong commitment to the United Nations. The Lions' programmes around the world are justifiably renowned. The World Health Organization estimates that without efforts such as the "Sightfirst" initiative, cases of preventable or reversible blindness would grow dramatically. And, thanks to your support of the "school-in-a-box" programme, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) brings low-cost educational materials to street children and others deprived of school because of violence and natural disasters.
This is a solid record of achievement. I look forward to your participation two years from now, when the United Nations convenes the Millennium Assembly and the non-governmental organization community stages a parallel Millennium Forum to discuss the challenges and priorities of the twenty-first century.
In the brief time that we have together today, I would like to direct your attention to three subjects: disarmament, human rights and drugs. Each
is an area in which civil society groups have distinguished themselves. And in each, the current year promises major steps forward.
Disarmament, of course, is the reason I undertook the mission to Iraq from which I have just returned. One might think that with the end of the cold war, we need no longer fear or focus on weapons of mass destruction. But the danger has not passed; it has simply changed its face.
That is why it is so important for the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) -- the Special Commission established after the Gulf War -- to continue its work in Iraq, with free and unfettered inspections. The UNSCOM, in partnership with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has advanced the cause of disarmament on several fronts. It has destroyed more weapons than were destroyed during the Gulf War. It has highlighted the dangers of dual-use technologies. And the experience has led the IAEA to review its guidelines for inspections in other countries.
I have great hope that the agreement I reached with Iraq will prevent tragedy, safeguard the United Nations achievements and enable the international inspectors to finish their work. Let me remind you that the United Nations has a peacekeeping operation along the Iraq-Kuwait border and also carries out a major programme of humanitarian assistance for the Iraqi people. The alternative to an agreement would have ended UNSCOM's work. The Memorandum of Understanding has strengthened it.
Iraq is far from the only target of the international community's efforts to control the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Last year saw a momentous act of peace: the entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans an entire category of weapons. The United Nations is also fighting the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. These have been the primary or sole tools of violence in almost every recent conflict dealt with by the United Nations.
Among the deadliest of small weapons are anti-personnel landmines. The awarding of last year's Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines shows just how powerful civil society can be. A world with less weapons and less spending on arms is necessarily one in which human rights can be more easily realized.
Human rights is the field in which civil society organizations are most visible, vocal and influential. I am thinking not only of well-established international organizations such as Amnesty International, but also of newly formed groups in places such as El Salvador and Mozambique. There, as part of peacekeeping efforts, the United Nations tried to foster an environment hospitable to the rights and freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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This year marks the Declaration's fiftieth anniversary. In half a century, we have made great progress in setting human rights standards for women, children, refugees, minorities, indigenous peoples and others. We have adopted legally binding treaties on torture, genocide and racial discrimination. We created the new position of High Commissioner for Human Rights, now occupied by Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland and a well-known expert in the field.
However, there is an enormous gap between laws on the books and facts on the ground. Every day, hundreds of millions of people experience some serious violation of human rights. This anniversary year must be dedicated to improving their daily lives and well-being. Human rights are inherent to all humans. They belong to every individual. They are not a subsidy to be taken away by governments or any other power.
I am pleased that in this anniversary year, and at the end of this bloody century, we are about to realize a long-held goal: the establishment of an International Criminal Court to deal with the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Such a Court has been called the missing link in the international legal system. Its promise is great indeed, for justice today and to deter the war criminals of tomorrow. I urge you to pay close attention in June when delegates gather in Rome for the culmination of negotiations.
The month of June will also see the General Assembly convene a special session on international drug control. I have been speaking to you about civil society. But there is also what I call "uncivil society" -- the drug traffickers, money launderers and other criminals who take advantage of open borders and open markets, and who thrive where laws and institutions are weak. They are a menace, and must be fought at every turn.
Drugs are tearing apart our societies, spawning crime, spreading diseases such as AIDS, and killing our youth, our future. Today, there are an estimated 190 million drug users around the world. Equally staggering is the size of the illegal drug trade. At an estimated $400 billion, it is larger than the oil and gas trade, larger than the chemical and pharmaceutical business and twice as big as the motor vehicle industry.
While the majority of illegal drugs are consumed in industrialized nations, drug addition is no longer a rich nation's problem or a poor man's affliction. It crosses national, ethnic, religious, class and gender lines. Addicts range from white-collar professionals to rural farmers and street children.
No country is immune. And alone, no country can hope to stem the drug trade within its borders. The globalization of the drug trade requires an
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international response. The United Nations Drug Control Programme is just that, established in 1991 to coordinate drug control strategies at the regional and global level. The renowned Italian crime fighter Pino Arlacchi is the programme's new Executive Director. Already, he has brought it new vitality and credibility. The upcoming special session should sustain that momentum: a large number of heads of State and government are expected to attend and voice their support for a renewed attack on the scourge of illegal drugs.
Friends, partnerships have been crucial to all we that have achieved and all we hope to achieve, in ridding the world of weapons of mass destruction, in securing for people their basic human rights and in battling drug abuse and drug trafficking.
What we are doing in these areas, we can do all across the United Nations diverse and urgent agenda. But I cannot do it alone. As I said earlier this week upon my return from Baghdad, when "we, the peoples" of the world pull together and work together to solve a problem, we can make a real difference.
So let me leave with you a plea, a message I hope you will take back to the heartland of the United States and to all the other nations, groups and affiliations represented here today. As I hope I have demonstrated, it is everyone's interest to be a committed, active, visible and constructive player at the United Nations. Lions Clubs around the world know this already. I look forward to working with all others who wish to join us in this mission. Thank you.
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