SECRETARY-GENERAL THANKS UNA-USA 'FOR COMMITTING YOUR ENERGIES, YOUR TALENTS, AND YOUR INSPIRED INITIATIVE' TO UNITED NATIONS VITAL CAUSES

8 March 1999

Press Release
SG/SM/6920

SECRETARY-GENERAL THANKS UNA-USA 'FOR COMMITTING YOUR ENERGIES, YOUR TALENTS, AND YOUR INSPIRED INITIATIVE' TO UNITED NATIONS VITAL CAUSES

19990308 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Kofi Annan Tells UNA-USA Convention Problem of United States Arrears Is Not with Citizens, but with Leaders and Politicians

Following is the address of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the National Convention of the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA), in New York on 9 March:

It is a special pleasure for me to welcome each and every one of you to the United Nations today. Welcome home.

Let me take this opportunity to offer my warmest congratulations to my friend Bill Luers on his appointment as Chairman and President of UNA-USA. The United Nations could not wish for a more able, more dynamic, more visionary partner as we enter a new century of challenges.

As Bill knows well, he has very big shoes to fill. It will not be easy to match the experience, the strength and the determination that John Whitehead and Dick Voell brought to their crucial mission.

But I know that both he and Dick -- particularly after the union of UNA-USA and the Business Council for the United Nations -- stand ready to help Bill in every way as he seeks an even greater, more influential role for UNA-USA in the years ahead.

I am also encouraged by the many new initiatives that have been launched over the last year, beginning with Ted Turner's historic gift. I know that you will be working closely with the Better World Fund to renew our cause and revive our support.

Friends, let me be clear. We have our work cut out for us. Whether it is the fallout from the Asian economic crisis, or Iraq's disarmament, or Africa's conflicts, or ensuring democratic peace in Kosovo and Bosnia, or the humanitarian needs that must be met every day, the world of 1999 is a world that needs the United Nations.

But it needs a United Nations that is working at full strength, a United Nations that is endowed with the resources, the power and the support necessary to the job.

This is where your work, your commitment, your passion and your civic duty can make the difference, in the future, as in the past.

Poll after poll shows that the better informed the American public is, the more willing it is to support global engagement, in general, and the work and cause of the United Nations, in particular.

Forty-five years ago, my distinguished predecessor Dag Hammarskjöld remarked that "one should never forget that the United Nations operates in a glass house". People who live in glass houses should not throw stones, they say. And I am not in the habit of throwing stones anyway.

But let me say one thing about the issue of the United States arrears. The problem, I believe, is not with the citizens, but with the leaders -- not with the people, but with politicians.

I have spent too much time with ordinary Americans -- in UNA chapters and elsewhere -- to blame them for their government's inability to honour its obligations to the United Nations. The problem is in Washington, and only Washington can solve it.

I understand that a new effort is under way, both in the Administration and in Congress, to resolve the arrears question this year. I very much welcome this and hope that it will succeed.

Let me also be clear on this issue. Over the last two years, I have sought to convince Washington of the need to put the issue of the United States arrears behind us, once and for all -- above all, for Washington's own sake.

But ultimately, it is not for me or any United Nations Secretary-General to convince a Member State to fulfil its obligations under the Charter. It is for each Member State's government, citizens and civil society to make this happen.

What I have done -- and done happily -- is to go to Washington, to San Francisco, to St. Paul, to Houston, to Cleveland, to Boston and many other cities around America and tell our story -- the story of the United Nations: what we do, what we seek, and where we are going.

What you can do, and have done effectively and energetically over the years, is to inform, educate and enlighten your fellow Americans about the promise and performance of the United Nations.

- 3 - Press Release SG/SM/6920 8 March 1999

When the Northern California Chapters of Marin County and Silicon Valley create a Resource Center on the United Nations at the Presidio in San Francisco -- a centre I had the privilege of visiting last year -- they are helping to inform their fellow citizens about the activities of the United Nations.

When the UNA of Iowa brings hundreds of high school students to the State Capital in Des Moines each United Nations Day for the Iowa Youth Symposium on the United Nations, they are educating the next generation about the United Nations challenges.

And when the UNA of Greater Boston publishes a high school curriculum on the United Nations, which has been used in Boston, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, they are enlightening future leaders about the promise of the United Nations.

These are but a few examples of your dedicated and noble efforts on behalf of the United Nations, from the smallest towns to the greatest cities.

Whenever you speak up and speak out for the United Nations, you are ensuring that America's role in the United Nations of the next century will be as vital as it has been in the century we are about to leave. You are honouring not only the ideals of the United Nations, but also the historic commitment of the United States to advancing freedom around the world.

You are making both your homes equally proud.

Let me thank you again for committing your energies, your talents and your inspired initiative to our vital cause. If there is one thought I would like to leave you with today it is this: that our successes are your successes, too.

With every girl we help educate; with every landmine we remove; with every conflict we prevent or peace we keep; with every community we lift out of poverty and every human wrong we defeat with human rights, we are making progress together.

As active and dynamic members of UNA-USA, you should take full and equal pride in these accomplishments. And as you enlighten your communities about the United Nations, tell them that it is their United Nations.

Tell them that our cause and our accomplishments alike belong to all Americans and every people of this world. Never forget that the first words of the Charter are "We, the peoples of the United Nations."

* *** *