11/2/2005
Challenges Of Poverty And Terror Demand Reformed UN Says Annan

Speaking in London this week the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that the present might be the most decisive moment for the international system since the UN was founded in 1945. . "We are living through a time of danger, but also of great opportunity," he said. "From terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) to hunger, disease and conflicts that reap a deadly toll of tsunami proportions every few months, the world is facing a confluence of threats that only a United Nations, reformed for the 21st century, can resolve."

"The question is, will governments muster the will to seize that opportunity, and decide on a package of reforms offering protection against threats of both kinds – from terrorism and WMD to poverty, hunger and disease. By tackling them all at once we can make sure that no one – North or South, rich or poor – will feel left out, and that everyone will feel an interest in implementing the whole package," he declared.

Mr Annan views the problems of security and poverty as intricately linked. He has already commissioned two extensive reports on what he perceives as the shared responsibility of achieving a more secure world, and on attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which if achieved will bring substantial improvements in the lives of the world's poorest people.

"The threats we face are threats to all of us. And they are linked to each other,” he said. “We will not defeat terrorism unless we also tackle the causes of conflict and misgovernment in developing countries. And we will not defeat poverty so long as trade and investment in any major part of the world are inhibited by fear of violence or instability."

Outlining the horrors of terrorism and WMDs, he added: “Many experts tell us the question is not whether, but how soon, the two will be combined – and we see, for example, a “dirty bomb” detonated in central London, or some other major capital. The loss of life would be shocking, but as nothing to the social and economic effects.”

Disruption would be felt around the world with millions in Asia, Africa and Latin America losing their livelihoods because of the impact on the global economy in parts of the world already confronting many other, more immediate threats such as hunger, disease, ecological degradation, corrupt and oppressive government and civil and ethnic conflicts.

"In some parts of Africa a combination of disease, starvation and deadly conflict is causing a disaster of tsunami proportions every few months,” he said referring to the December disaster which killed over 200,000 people. "In this age of global interdependence, you in London can no more afford to ignore such suffering than people in other parts of the world could ignore
it if Whitehall and the City had to be evacuated because of a terrorist attack."

Mr. Annan expressed confidence that September’s 60th anniversary summit at UN Headquarters in New York would offer a unique opportunity to bring all these issues together. Before then the Secretary-General will issue his own report on reforming the UN.

"The world does need a forum for collective decision-making and it needs an instrument of collective action. Our founders intended the United Nations to be both those things. Our task is to adapt and update it so that it can perform those functions in the 21st century," he declared.

"The time is ripe to bring economic and military security back into a common framework, as our founders did at San Francisco 60 years ago. They expressed their determination not only to ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’ but also ‘to promote social progress and better
standards of life in larger freedom.’ Until now, that aspiration has been at best only partly realised. Let’s resolve, this time, to do better," he concluded.