FACED WITH PROFOUND GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS UN CAN BE WORLD'S 'CONSCIENCE', SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL, IN ADDRESS TO FRENCH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Press Release
SG/SM/6823
FACED WITH PROFOUND GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS UN CAN BE WORLD'S 'CONSCIENCE', SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL, IN ADDRESS TO FRENCH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
19981208 Following is the text of the address delivered by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the French National Assembly in Paris on 8 December:Thank you for your kind words. It is a great pleasure and a great honour for me to be here, not only in view of the tremendous prestige of the French nation, but also because France plays a leading role on the world stage and an irreplaceable role in the United Nations. I am particularly honoured to be the first Secretary-General of the United Nations to take the floor before you.
It is with deep respect that I address this august assembly. In this symbolic year for human rights, we cannot but recall that it was the National Constituent Assembly that, in 1789, adopted the first Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen; and we cannot but pay tribute, through you, to those who first gave expression to the natural and imprescriptible rights of the individual.
We are indebted to the French Revolution for the idea of an assembly of representatives of a sovereign people. This idea is of special importance to the United Nations. Indeed, the opening words of its Charter, "We the peoples of the United Nations", clearly indicate that the Organization was intended to serve as an expression of popular sovereignty, on a global scale.
It is therefore understandable that I should attach such importance to the role of parliamentarians. As the direct representatives of peoples, they truly speak on the peoples' behalf, and are therefore prime interlocutors and allies of the United Nations. This role is all the more important in that the world in which we live is undergoing a sea change involving transformations so profound that they affect the very structure of our societies at the political, economic and social levels.
Faced with these transformations, we must take a hard look at the objectives of the United Nations and at its raison d'être in the new world order.
Clearly, we cannot take up the challenges of the new millennium with a tool conceived 50 years ago, in totally different circumstances, even though the validity of the fundamental principles on which it is based remains intact.
Since the end of the cold war, the international arena has radically changed. The balance of power has changed. The old bipolar structure has disappeared. Some tensions have eased, but new types of conflicts have spread. They are no longer between two rival States, but between different ethnic, religious or social groups within a single State. These conflicts, which rend the very fabric of society, are often the cause of dramatic humanitarian crises, and rarely fail to spill over into neighbouring countries.
The context for our reassessment must also be that of globalization. Markets have been liberalized. Capital, goods and services, as well as technologies and ideas, circulate more freely than ever before and the barriers of time and space have fallen.
But political structures have not evolved accordingly. While many aspects of our daily lives are influenced by global forces, political thinking and structures have retained, with few exceptions, a resolutely national character. This results in distortions which you, as parliamentarians, are responsible for trying to eliminate by opening up to international life, so that the people you represent can truly take part in building the world of tomorrow.
While it is undeniable that the phenomenon of globalization is irreversible and potentially beneficial to everyone, this phenomenon also brings about a whole series of economic and social, and therefore political, problems for those who do not have the means to adapt to these changes quickly. In other words, though we are witnessing the emergence of a global village, this village is still trying to organize itself, to define its rules of operation and to establish the mechanisms needed to ensure that its members can live in peace and security.
Today, it is understood that this security encompasses a whole set of interdependent elements. Obviously, in the traditional sense of the term, it means the absence of conflict. But, it also comprises economic and social aspects. Collective security is inseparable from individual security, and largely depends on respect for human rights. Not only civil rights, but also economic and social rights: the right to decent living conditions, to health, to education. It is clear that the denial and repeated violation of fundamental rights breed fanaticism, nationalism and terrorism, which are often the instigators of conflict.
In the circumstances I have just described, what role can the United Nations play? Above all, it can help create a climate that fosters concerted
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reflection, which will help us find global responses to global issues and thus to define the future international order.
In the political sphere, as it demonstrated again recently in the context of the Iraq crisis, the United Nations can act as a mediator, pending the establishment of a genuinely collective security system.
When peacekeeping operations become necessary, I wish to reaffirm that, while regional organizations undoubtedly have an important role to play, any military intervention by the international community must remain subject to the approval of the Security Council.
Dispensing with its assent, as some are tempted to do, would mean setting an unfortunate precedent. It would call in question the very first article of the Charter of the Organization, which provides for "effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace". We should then not be far from a return to the system of spheres of influence based on the individual interests of States, rather than on the principle of sharing of responsibilities.
In the economic sphere, the United Nations can help its Members put in place the new economic and financial architecture that will make it possible to prevent disruptions, avoid the gaps between rich and poor becoming still wider and ensure that all reap the benefits of globalization. It is ready in this respect to participate, together with International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, in the analysis that needs to be carried out in order to base the operation of markets on shared values.
Meanwhile, it has a duty to take specific action, without delay, where no safety net exists, in order to protect those who are already experiencing the negative impacts of globalization. This means, inter alia, promoting official development assistance in the form of grants and debt remission to the poorest countries, encouraging technical assistance and investment, and convincing the industrialized countries to open their markets to exports from the least developed countries.
The development of international law, too, will also largely determine the nature of future international relations.
By adopting legal norms and rules, members of the international community will equip themselves with a set of objective criteria, in the light of which to determine their position with respect to delinquent States. In addition, they will assume a series of moral and legal responsibilities that will determine the framework for their own actions.
The United Nations is already an effective instrument for this codification of international life, is contributing to the major educational task required in order for the codes adopted to have more chance of being
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applied effectively, and is providing the States that so request with the technical and legal cooperation that enables them to discharge the obligations they have entered into.
Just 50 years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted under United Nations auspices. The principles proclaimed in that instrument are perhaps not yet universally respected, but they constitute a benchmark code of ethics for the international community. This is already a vast step forward for mankind.
Much more recently, with the help of the United Nations, the international community established two special tribunals responsible for trying the perpetrators of the most heinous crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda. And last July, at the urging of an increasingly robust civil society, it took in Rome a new historic step forward by laying the foundations for a permanent jurisdiction, the International Criminal Court. The Statute of this Court constitutes what had long been considered a missing link in the international legal system.
All these examples have, I hope, shown that while the United Nations cannot and does not want to impose anything, it can seek to be a kind of "conscience of the world", to play a regulatory role, to create a climate conducive to the analysis I have already referred to. It can contribute to the establishment of a new system of norms, in the light of which the actions of States and their leaders can be judged objectively.
The scope of United Nations activities is enormous. Thus, I could have spoken to you at greater length about its campaign against hunger and illiteracy, or against the "problems without frontiers" of terrorism, the arms trade and drug trafficking. I could have also spoken to you about its campaign against AIDS, whose tragic effects will by the year 2000 have reduced the life expectancy of a large number of Africans to 47 years.
However, I should not like to conclude without referring briefly to another sphere in which the United Nations can have a beneficial influence, that of culture.
Unfortunately, globalization, which brings together and unites, also tends to erase identities, to lead to uniformity. Given the extraordinary cultural wealth of France and everything it can contribute to the intellectual heritage of mankind, you are right to be concerned about this and to do everything you can to prevent the emergence of a sadly homogeneous world.
Let me assure you that the United Nations, which is itself a model of cultural and linguistic diversity, fully supports the efforts being made by France to imbue La Francophonie in its expanded form with new vitality. And that it is grateful to you, in turn, for promoting multilingualism within it.
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France's strength lies in the fact that it has always been attached to its national identity, while remaining open to the rest of the world; proud of its individuality, while remaining creative; rational while remaining magnanimous. It is in this spirit that I ask you to continue supporting the United Nations.
In order to accomplish all the tasks it sets itself, the Organization needs to be able to count on the support of its strongest and most prosperous members. The interest you take in it and the faith you have in it are for me a real source of encouragement. But, they are also much more than that. They are the necessary condition for enabling the French people to make its voice heard and assume its responsibilities in the search for the new world order.
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