SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF UN UNITING TO CONFRONT MASSIVE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY ON SCALE OF KOSOVO

Press Release
SG/SM/7035

SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF UN UNITING TO CONFRONT MASSIVE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY ON SCALE OF KOSOVO

Following is the text of remarks of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Annual Meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations (ACUNS), today in New York:

It is a great pleasure for me to join you in opening your annual meeting here at United Nations Headquarters. I had the opportunity last night to speak to some of you about issues of common concern. I did not, however, have a chance to pay tribute to you as an institution, as a vital part of our efforts to renew our thinking about the prospects and promise of the United Nations.

Let me also welcome the appointments of Ms. Charlotte Ku as Chairperson and Professor Jean Krasno as Executive Director of ACUNS, and offer my praise for the outstanding leadership provided by Professor Tom Weiss, who has served so ably as Executive Director. As the work of ACUNS grows in scope and significance, it is critically important that your leadership is up to the task. I know that it is.

As a long-standing member of ACUNS, I have always valued the contribution you make to every aspect of the United Nations mission. In my time as Secretary-General, I have sought to open our doors to an ever wider and ever greater circle of non-governmental organizations, private sector groups and academic institutions. Believe me, we needed it.

Over the last two-and-a-half years, we have engaged what I call "the new diplomacy" in issues from disarmament to development to human rights and peace and security. The energy and initiative that these groups and organizations provide have given all our efforts renewed inspiration.

Equally important, however, is the need for those energies to be rooted in real scholarship and hard thinking about how the United Nations can be active and assertive in our complex world. Where do we look for new ways to make peace and end wars? Who can provide us with new ideas for development, and new structures for disarmament? These are questions that we must answer together.

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The Academic Council fosters dialogue and cooperation between academia and various components of the United Nations system. I am pleased to note that ACUNS membership, once largely centred in the United States, has recently broadened its affiliation with universities and research institutes in Europe and Asia.

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to continue expanding the global network of your organization. This would enable the United Nations system to benefit from a wider range of contributions from individual scholars to United Nations projects and problem-solving.

The theme of your conference, "Rebuilding Torn Societies", could not have been more timely. In Kosovo -- after the ethnic cleansing, and the killings, after the devastation -- the task of rebuilding society will be immense. We need to rebuild not only the infrastructure, the homes, the mosques, the churches and the schools of Kosovo.

No less importantly, we need to help restore a sense of humanity to a place where inhuman acts went on for far too long. This is a task that requires patience and understanding, but also new ways of fostering reconciliation and understanding where hatred and suspicion have been sown.

Throughout the Kosovo conflict, I have maintained that the United Nations must find a way to unite behind the aim of confronting massive human rights violations and crimes against humanity on the scale of Kosovo. With the resolution authorizing the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, the United Nations Security Council has spoken with one voice -- in defence of peace with justice, in defence of human rights, and in defence of the values and principles enshrined in the Charter.

But as this audience knows only too well, Kosovo is the exception. In far too many conflicts in far too many parts of the world, abuses on a terrible scale take place day in and day out, with devastating consequences for those societies. They, too, need our help, our attention, our commitment. In particular, I think of conflicts that now have lasted decades, and show no sign of ending. Yes, the parties themselves are ultimately responsible for making peace. But we, too, must look at our own practices, our own policies, and rethink and renew our approach. Where can we be more effective? Where can me make a greater difference? And how?

These are questions that I look to you to answer. You may think it is a tall order, but if you don't do it for us, who will?

I wish you all success with your conference.

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