By Kofi Annan
Nearly 50 years ago, when I arrived in Minnesota as a student
fresh from Africa, I had much to learn starting with the fact that
there is nothing weird about wearing earmuffs when the temperature
is 15 below. All my life since has been a learning experience. Now
I want to pass on five lessons I have learnt during 10 years as UN
Secretary-General lessons that I believe the community of nations
needs to learn, as it confronts the challenges of the 21st
century.
First, in today's world we are all responsible for each other's
security. Against such threats as nuclear proliferation, climate
change, global pandemics, or terrorists operating from safe havens
in failed states, no nation can make itself secure by seeking
supremacy over all others. Only by working to make each other
secure can we hope to achieve lasting security for ourselves.
This responsibility includes our shared responsibility to
protect people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and
crimes against humanity. That was accepted by all nations at last
year's UN summit. But when we look at the murder, rape and
starvation still being inflicted on the people of Darfur, we
realize that such doctrines remain pure rhetoric unless those with
the power to intervene effectively by exerting political, economic
or, in the last resort, military muscle are prepared to take the
lead.
It also includes a responsibility to future generations to
preserve resources that belong to them as well as to us. Every day
that we do nothing, or too little, to prevent climate change
imposes higher costs on our children.
Second, we are also responsible for each other's welfare.
Without a measure of solidarity, no society can be truly stable.
It is not realistic to think that some people can go on deriving
great benefits from globalization while billions of others are left
in, or thrown into, abject poverty. We have to give all our fellow
human beings at least a chance to share in our prosperity.
Third, both security and prosperity depend on respect for human
rights and the rule of law.
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Throughout history human life has been enriched by diversity, and
different communities have learnt from each other. But if our
communities are to live in peace we must stress also what unites
us: Our common humanity, and the need for our human dignity and
rights to be protected by law.
That is vital for development, too. Both foreigners and a
country's own citizens are more likely to invest when their basic
rights are protected and they know they will be fairly treated
under the law. And policies that genuinely favor development are
more likely to be adopted if the people most in need of development
can make their voice heard.
States need to play by the rules towards each other, as well. No
community anywhere suffers from too much rule of law; many suffer
from too little and the international community is among them. This
we must change.
My fourth lesson, therefore, is that governments must be
accountable for their actions, in the international as well as the
domestic arena. Every state owes some account to other states on
which its actions have a decisive impact.
As things stand, poor and weak states are easily held to
account, because they need foreign aid. But large and powerful
states, whose actions have the greatest impact on others, can be
constrained only by their own people.
That gives the people and institutions of powerful states a
special responsibility to take account of global views and
interests. And today they need to take into account also what we
call "non-state actors." States can no longer if they ever could
confront global challenges alone. Increasingly, they need help from
the myriad types of association in which people come together
voluntarily, for profit or to think about, and change, the
world.
How can states hold each other to account? Only through
multilateral institutions. So my final lesson is that those
institutions must be organized in a fair and democratic way, giving
the poor and the weak some influence over the actions of the rich
and the strong.
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Developing countries should have a stronger voice in international
financial institutions, whose decisions can mean life or death for
their people. And new permanent or long-term members should be
added to the UN Security Council, whose current membership reflects
the reality of 1945, not of today's world.
No less important, all the Security Council's members must
accept the responsibility that comes with their privilege. The
Council is not a stage for acting out national interests. It is the
management committee of our fledgling global security system.
More than ever today humanity needs a functioning global system.
And experience has shown, time and again, that the system works
poorly when its member states are divided and lack leadership, but
much better when there is unity and far-sighted leadership and
engagement of all major actors. The world's leaders, of today and
tomorrow, have a great responsibility. The people of the world must
see that they live up to it.
(China Daily December 12, 2006)
