HUMAN RIGHTS 'MUST BE PURSUED TO THE VERY END', SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS AT GENEVA FORUM
Press Release
SG/SM/6492
HR/4356
HUMAN RIGHTS 'MUST BE PURSUED TO THE VERY END', SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS AT GENEVA FORUM
19980317 Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's statement delivered at the opening of the Forum on Mainstreaming Human Rights in the United Nations in Geneva on Monday, 16 March:I am very pleased to chair this important forum on mainstreaming human rights in the United Nations. When I was elected Secretary-General some 15 months ago, I was determined to raise the standard of human rights to a new and more visible level in all that the United Nations strives for, in peace and development. I believe we have made a very good start.
In September, Mary Robinson assumed the leadership of our human rights mission. She has pursued that mission with the vision, vigour and courage that we expected from her. I am confident, however, that the best is yet to come.
Human rights are not only a catalyst for lasting peace and sustainable development. They are a cause in their own right. They must be pursued till the very end, till they become a reality not just for the strong and the privileged, but for the weak and the threatened -- the peoples of the world for whom the United Nations exists. That is why my reform plan has reinforced the role of human rights as a central, cross-cutting concern throughout the United Nations system.
All of us must now work toward truly integrating human rights into every mission of peace and programme for development that we pursue. Whether it is in peacekeeping, the fights against poverty or the campaign for good governance, we know that if human rights are respected, if they are advanced, all else will follow.
I look forward to this discussion and hope that it will give us all inspiration to seize on this new beginning for human rights in all the work of the United Nations, and make them count for those who need them most.
* *** *