SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS VALUES SET OUT IN UN CHARTER ARE ALSO PILLAR OF GLOBAL ECONOMY
Press Release
SG/SM/6529
SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS VALUES SET OUT IN UN CHARTER ARE ALSO PILLAR OF GLOBAL ECONOMY
19980420 Speaking at Business Breakfast in San Francisco, Says UN Provides Agreed Set of Objectives within which Markets Are Able To FunctionFollowing is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's statement at a business breakfast hosted by the President of the Bank of America, David Coulter, in San Francisco today:
Thank you, Mr. [Tom] Clausen [former President of the World Bank], for that kind introduction. I am very happy to be here. It has been suggested that in my job as Secretary-General of the United Nations, I have much in common with a company's Chief Executive Officer. This is true -- up to a point. The Member States can be thought of as the board of directors. The world's people are the shareholders. Development programmes and peacekeeping operations are our main stock in trade, though we have many other less well-known products.
But the comparison ends there.
How would you react if your board members -- all 185 of them -- micro-managed your business, gave you conflicting instructions and denied you the resources needed to do your job? What would you do as head of a club whose leading members don't pay their dues? What would you think of corporate governance that does not permit borrowing to offset this funding crisis? So if you think of me as a chief executive officer, remember that I am as much a juggler and a mendicant.
When I go back to basics at times like these, I like to describe the United Nations as the world's biggest experiment in human cooperation. In the eloquent words of the Charter, signed in this great city more than half a century ago, the United Nations was founded to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in the first half of this century brought untold sorrow to humankind.
But even in 1945, our founders recognized the need to fight on two fronts to win the battle for enduring peace: on the security front, where victory spells freedom from fear; and on the economic and social front, where victory spells freedom from want.
That means preventing conflict where we can, and easing suffering where we cannot; it means fighting poverty, disease and inequality; it means improving our environment, and its ability to provide food, shelter and the resources necessary to generate employment; it means enabling humankind to turn the dynamics of change into social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.
We have not won on both fronts all of the time.
But what has never failed us is the commitment of men and women who have worked tirelessly and unstintingly to uphold the ideals of the United Nations Charter. We are undefeated only because we have continued trying.
In the past year, the most wide-ranging and far-reaching reform in the United Nations history has been approved by the General Assembly. The reform proposals stemmed from a conviction that, freed from the constraints of the cold war, the United Nations can for the first time act to its full potential.
We have revived peace processes in a number of long-unresolved conflicts. We have led successful refugee relief in several countries. We have established a new focus on fighting drug smuggling, organized crime and terrorism.
We are becoming better equipped to face the challenges of a new global era. And we are in a stronger position to work with business and industry.
If reform was the dominant theme of my first year in office, the role of the private sector in economic development was a strong sub-theme. A fundamental shift has occurred. Over the past 50 years, the relationship between the Organization and non-governmental players has changed beyond all recognition. Back then, the governments of United Nations Member States were virtually the sole actors in the international process; civil society was seen as providing supporters, allies, and mobilizers of public opinion in favour of the goals and values of the United Nations Charter.
Now we know that peace and prosperity cannot be achieved without partnerships involving governments, international organizations, civil society and, not least, the business community. In today's world, we depend on each other. The business of the United Nations involves the businesses of the world.
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And the businesses of the world have much to gain from the United Nations. The work of the Secretariat, its funds and programmes, and the specialized agencies around the world, contributes quietly but significantly -- in areas ranging from the environment to good governance -- to the smooth functioning of the global economy.
The United Nations approaches the challenges and problems of an interdependent world from a global perspective. Globalization has knit us together and helped generate a sustained period of economic expansion.
This changing world of open borders and new actors presents us with unprecedented challenges. Not all effects of globalization are positive; not all non-State actors are good. There has been an ominous growth in the activities of the drug-traffickers, gunrunners, money-launderers, exploiters of young people for prostitution. They can be combated only through global cooperation, with the help of civil society.
And while today market capitalism has no major ideological rival, it follows that its biggest threat is from within itself. If it cannot promote both prosperity and justice, it will not have succeeded.
This brings me to values. It is here that the United Nations is best known and most important.
Every society, from Asia to the Americas, is the product of values, of shared bonds and ideals. Global society, if it is to flourish, must also work from shared norms and objectives. Fortunately, the basis of that common understanding already exists; it is found in the United Nations Charter.
Freedom, justice and the peaceful resolution of disputes; social progress and better standards of living; equality, tolerance and dignity; these are the universal values set out in the Charter. They define the true human interest.
They are also a pillar of the global economy. That is because markets are also a reflection of values. Markets do not function in a vacuum. Rather, they arise from a framework of rules and laws, and they respond to signals set by governments and other institutions. Indeed, without rules governing property rights and contracts; without confidence based on the rule of law; without an overall sense of direction and a fair degree of equity and transparency, there could be no well-functioning markets, domestic or global.
The United Nations system provides an agreed set of standards and objectives that enjoy worldwide acceptance, and within which markets are able to function. Because we work to fulfil a broad vision of human security; because of the assistance that we -- and sometimes only we -- provide; and because we promote a value system of time-tested legitimacy, I have no
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hesitation in saying that a strong United Nations is good for business. We help create the environment within which you can function and succeed.
In today's global village, what happens in one country affects another, rich or poor, north or south, east or west. Hunger, disease and poverty are old foes of all people; pollution, drugs, organized crime and terrorism are new threats to all people. The environment, education, good governance and sustainable development are constant concerns of every nation; a society of healthy, free and literate individuals is the best hope of the world.
But while I have emphasized our priorities on the economic and social front, our obligations to peace and security are no less important.
Should any of you wish to discuss the nature, the demands and the promise of the agreement I reached recently with the government of Iraq, for instance, I would be happy to respond to your questions on that or any other topic.
Ours is an era of internationalism, not isolationism. I need you, national leaders and innovators in your fields, to bring this message back home to your elected representatives, your colleagues, your customers. Your voices can be especially influential among those who might still be looking inward.
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