NEVER IN UN HISTORY HAVE BOLD DECISIONS BEEN MORE NEEDED –- AND POSSIBLE,

SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL, AS UN COMMEMORATES CHARTER SIGNING ANNIVERSARY

“Never in the history of the United Nations have bold decisions been more necessary, and never have they been more possible”, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the United Nations Member States at Headquarters this morning, as they gathered to commemorate the signing 60 years ago of the United Nations Charter.

Organized by the Department of Public Information, the ceremony included the reading by United Nations tour guides of the Charter’s preamble, to accompaniment of United Nations singers.  The Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Shashi Tharoor, moderated the event.

Mr. Annan recalled that, 60 years ago, 50 nations pledged to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war –- in words that were engraved on the collective memory of mankind.  They had reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women, and of nations large and small.  They had pledged to establish conditions under which justice and respect for law could be maintained.  They promised to promote social progress, and better standards of life, in larger freedom.

For more than 60 years, the United Nations had striven to redeem those pledges.  It had had many successes, and it had kept the peace in many places.  It had helped to banish smallpox and polio from almost every country.  It had given millions of children an education that their parents could not dream of.  It had helped organize elections, from Afghanistan to Burundi, and it had brought relief to victims of disasters like the Indian Ocean tsunami.

The United Nations had also had failures, he said.  The worst perhaps was the collective failure to prevent the genocide in Rwanda.  Today, in a new century, the world faced new threats and challenges, but also new opportunities.  Those better standards of life in larger freedom were now within reach.  To reach them, the world must advance on all three fronts at once -- development, security and human rights.  This September, at the 2005 World Summit, leaders from
191 nations had the chance to make those decisions.  With support and encouragement from Member States, the peoples of the world, he believed they would.

General Assembly President Jean Ping (Gabon) recalled that the signing had been the outcome of a long process commenced during the Second World War.  Sixty years later, the Charter had not lost its strength nor the relevance of its vision, and it still guided the United Nations, as it dealt with the threats and challenges before today’s world.  The commemoration was another opportunity to reaffirm the devotion to the aims and purity of the Charter by promoting development, rejecting war and by unreservedly condemning any violation of fundamental human rights.

He said that, at a time when the United Nations was committed to an ambitious reform process and was getting down to work to prepare for the high-level plenary in September, today’s event resonated with a special meaning -- it provided 191 Member States an opportunity to reaffirm their commitments to conclude ongoing consultations to reach a result in September that would reflect their ambitions and enhance the Charter.

The United Nation’s credibility was at stake.  Today, millions of people throughout the world suffered from destruction caused by war, terrorism, poverty and hunger and their echoes “rang far too loudly”.  The road ahead to securing the Charter’s aims was long.  Today’s celebration should serve to remind all of the commitment and the shared mission to construct a world free from the tribulations of war -- a world richer and freer and characterized by greater solidarity.

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