SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF GOOD GOVERNANCE, IN REMARKS TO YOUTH IN BEIRUT
Press Release
SG/SM/6499
SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF GOOD GOVERNANCE, IN REMARKS TO YOUTH IN BEIRUT
19980323 Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's remarks to youth and students at Beirut on 21 March:Thank you all for being here. I am delighted to see so many young faces here before me today. Wherever I go as Secretary-General, I find one of the most rewarding kind of encounters to be those with young people like yourselves.
Only two months ago, I spoke to students at the University of Tehran. The occasion coincided with the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As I spoke to them about the truly universal nature of human rights that know no barriers, no borders, no boundaries, I was gratified to see the keen interest in the faces, both male and female.
We later enjoyed a lively and open exchange on all kinds of issues, a discussion along the same lines as the one we will have here today.
When I returned from my recent mission to Baghdad, I said that when we pull together from across the world and work together, whether to avert a war or to solve a problem, we will almost always succeed. I believe we will see more of this over the coming year. As we celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration, we are drawing on people and governments alike to get across the message that human rights are not something to be given or taken by a government like a subsidy. They are not something to be explained away by cultural specificity. They are intrinsic to humanity.
You may have heard it said that, as young people, you are the future of Lebanon. That implies a burden of responsibility, I know. But as young people, you are also the future membership of the United Nations, and we, on our side, have a responsibility to listen to you. That is one reason why I am here today. We also have a responsibility to show you how the United Nations agenda is also your agenda, that the issues that concern the United Nations concern us all as human beings.
As we look to the twenty-first century, it is clear that all countries are increasingly affected by the same difficulties and challenges.
Environmental degradation, organized crime, terrorism, drug smuggling, the effects of globalization as seen most recently in the financial contagion
in the Far East -- these are just some examples of the issues facing nations today.
And they are issues that no government, however powerful, can take on alone.
New technology and access to information have made the world a smaller place. No country is immune any more from the actions taken or not taken in another country. The problems that face one nation faces them all -- they are problems without passports. That is why every country needs the United Nations.
It is really only since the end of the cold war that the international community has agreed on the virtues of international action.
But with such dramatic changes in the external political development, the United Nations itself has to change.
That is why, on taking office last year, I launched a quiet revolution to reform the United Nations.
That reform was to make the Organization more effective, more able to meet the challenges of the real world. One important part of the reform was to bring development to the top of our agenda, development that is people- centred and sustainable.
The vital challenge of sustainable development requires us to fight battles on many fronts. We will not win all of them, but we must try.
I would like to talk to you a bit about one of the fronts where the United Nations is active and which will interest you as the laders of a future society: the strengthening of tomorrow's institutions and the development of good governance.
Good governance is already a central activity of the United Nations. We are trying to bring the stability, the trust, the legitimacy and the accountability of good governance to all parts of the world. We are seizing on this as a tool to ensure that development is lasting and equitable.
We believe that effective, transparent, accountable and responsive government, subject to the rule of law, is a condition for sustainable development, not a result of it.
Without good governance, without the rule of law, predictable administration, legitimate power and responsive regulation, no amount of funding, no short-term economic miracle will set the developing world on the path to prosperity. Without good governance, the foundations of society, both national and international, are built on sand.
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Member States have increasingly recognized that good governance is indispensable for building peaceful, prosperous and democratic societies. They are turning to the United Nations because, since the end of the cold war, our knowledge and our experience in this field have expanded greatly.
Our programmes now target virtually all the key elements of good governance. United Nations legal officers help some nations build sound legal frameworks and reliable judicial systems. United Nations police experts train police forces in the basics of police work and human rights. United Nations field operations help build national and non-governmental institutions for the protection and promotion of human rights. The United Nations has given electoral assistance to dozens of countries. We have fostered investments and promoted good business values. We have promoted clean administration.
After decades of destruction, Lebanon is building a nation. The reconstruction of your physical infrastructure is there for any visitor to see, admire and wonder at. You are now making strides in social reconstruction, to better people's lives.
The United Nations is helping you through operational activities, from improved living conditions to reproductive health to education.
The United Nations will help you in any way we can to build the future of this country. You can be sure of that.
But, ultimately, the best investment this country has in its future is what I see before me today. After so many lost decades, young people represent the best agent for change. After a period of institutional weakness, you represent the new source of strength. After so many social divisions, you represent the best hope of healing.
Your task is not only to build a future society -- it is to build a stronger society, one which older generations cannot even imagine, one fit for your children's children.
Dream of it, design it; build it. As Kahlil Gibran described it, and rightly so: "For your souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which the rest of cannot visit, not even in our dreams."
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