14/12/2001
At Oslo, Kofi Annan Challenges the World to Democracy

The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, delivered a powerful and compelling speech at the Nobel Peace Prize Awards Ceremony in Oslo this week. He used the occasion to spell out his vision of what the United Nations should be in the twenty first century and where he was seeking to take it. Building on other speeches he has made in the past which, gradually and by degrees, have changed the perception and expectation of the world body among international society, and going further than any of his predecessors, he threw a gauntlet at the feet the world's non-democratic states.

Kofi Annan is a visionary. He does not want to be UN Secretary-General for the fancy title but in order to do something construct and beneficial. This was the context in which this week he placed his radical message. "Throughout my term as Secretary-General, I have sought to place human beings at the centre of everything we do," he said, "from conflict prevention to development to human rights. Securing real and lasting improvement in the lives of individual men and women is the measure of all we do at the United Nations."

It is Kofi Annan's style to sugar coat the pill. The velvet glove conceals a lead weight in the fist. One moment he is radiating goodwill, preaching tolerance, advocating an end to conflict, espousing human rights - all worthy, all unexceptionable. Then when you are not noticing he slips in…..

"From this vision of the role of the United Nations in the next century flow three key priorities for the future: eradicating poverty, preventing conflict, and promoting democracy. Only in a world that is rid of poverty can all men and women make the most of their abilities. Only where individual rights are respected can differences be channelled politically and resolved peacefully. Only in a democratic environment, based on respect for diversity and dialogue, can individual self-expression and self-government be secured, and freedom of association be upheld."

The words 'democracy' and 'democratic' occur twice in this paragraph but the coating of sugar is still thick. No one is really going to worry over much over 'promoting democracy' or even that diversity and dialogue should take place in a 'democratic environment.' All the world's states - even the worst human rights abusers - can manage to twist the meaning of language to embrace this kind of reference to democracy. We have passed stage one - now, on with stage two.

"People of different religions and cultures live side by side in almost every part of the world, and most of us have overlapping identities which unite us with very different groups. We can love what we are, without hating what - and who - we are not. We can thrive in our own tradition, even as we learn from others, and come to respect their teachings." Again, which world leader would beg to disagree? But now comes the punch.

"This will not be possible, however, without freedom of religion, of expression, of assembly, and basic equality under the law. Indeed, the lesson of the past century has been that where the dignity of the individual has been trampled or threatened - where citizens have not enjoyed the basic right to choose their government, or the right to change it regularly - conflict has too often followed, with innocent civilians paying the price, in lives cut short and communities destroyed."

What's this? "where citizens have not enjoyed the basic right to choose their government, or the right to change it regularly…….." Is this the universally respected Secretary-General of the UN, a third or so of whose states are not democratic, whose leaders cling disgracefully to power like limpets to a rock and who expect the right to participate in world affairs, while claiming sovereign independence to do whatever they like to their own people in the own backyards?

Was this not a drafting error, a slip of the tongue? And surely, Mr Secretary-General you are not referring to those countries who claim that God rather than Caesar should direct their affairs?

I am afraid he was. By now, the sugar coating has worn away.

"The obstacles to democracy have little to do with culture or religion, and much more to do with the desire of those in power to maintain their position at any cost……"

This is tough stuff - the man who speaks softly is now waving a big stick..

"When States undermine the rule of law and violate the rights of their individual citizens, they become a menace not only to their own people, but also to their neighbours, and indeed the world. What we need today is better governance -- legitimate, democratic governance that allows each individual to flourish, and each State to thrive."

There, the boil is lanced. The message is clear, unambiguous. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, in the process of accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, is telling the people of the world that peace and prosperity on both individual and collective levels are best promoted and advanced by legitimate, democratic governance.

Of course, for the European Union, the United States and many other peoples besides, the democratic message is probably the most central tenet of their political beliefs. But it requires exceptional courage and leadership as the representative of 189 countries, many of whom take a very different view, to say that this is the way forward for all. In this speech, Kofi Annan has thrown down a gauntlet, not only to the international pariah states, but clearly to that wide swathe of respectable but non-democratic governments. He has challenged the very doctrine of sovereign independence in internal affairs and added a new chapter to mankind's universal principles.

This is a message that perhaps could never have been put forward so starkly and so directly if the terrible events of September 11th 2001 had not shaken the world to its very foundations. It's a rare wind that blows nobody any good. A beacon of hope has been lit.
Kofi, we salute you.