The people of the world want to have faith in the United Nations and its original Charter, as well as its adopted declarations. Human rights, children's rights and environmental safety measures should strictly be adhered to under the wings of the United Nations. The Organization should make sure that States live together in harmony on the only globe we have. It should help to eradicate extreme poverty and develop health, education and other life-supporting and life-enhancing priorities.

From the view point of developing countries, especially Ghana and Africa, South of the Sahara as a whole, they hope the United Nations and its organs will create and maintain the right atmosphere for a speedy development in secure and safe surroundings. The people of the world want the eradication of poverty, fear and violence -- human and natural. That is what security entails.

The United Nations should provide security and safety, and the availability and accessibility of life-supporting and life-enhancing amenities for the whole world. Everybody should have a life worth living in peace, comfort and safety. A life without fear of violence. A life with education and health care for all, especially for children. An end to child soldiers and child labour. We expect the United Nations to usher in this state in the next century.

From the hazard and disaster perspective, we trust that the United Nations makes the world safer-safer for nations, regions, peoples and the world as a whole. Safer from natural hazards, safer from technical hazards, safer from man-made hazards and safer from environmental hazards. Safety on the globe, in the atmosphere and in space.

Some emergencies and disasters are unavoidable; the world expects the effects of natural, technical, environmental and socio-economic disasters will be minimized by mitigation and preparedness of all people, assisted and coordinated by the United Nations and its specialized organs such as the WHO, UNDP, UNICEF, the Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs, UNHCR and the World Meteorological Organization.

Where not preventable, the United Nations should make sure that all nations and regions are minimizing the impact of unavoidable hazards. It should encompass the preparedness and intervention of States and the emergency management organizations. The United Nations will still have to play a major role in requested intervention and aid with relief and rehabilitation. It would stress mitigation and preparedness, which is cheaper and more humane than relief and reconstruction. It should be unnecessary that some countries lose human beings and property to unmitigated disasters, natural or man-made, on a yearly basis. It should be avoidable that some countries have to face complete devastation by acts of men or nature. All human beings should be entitled to actively applied human rights. Recognition of safety as a human right for everybody should be stressed by all UN agencies. The United Nations is expected to help to create hazard- and-disaster-resistant nations and peoples. The global warning systems and organizations, such as the meteorological services, and the Tsunami and Cyclone Warning system, should be kept in prime form.

There should be global minimum living standards covering everybody, young and old, the sick and healthy, man or woman of any color, creed or political shade. The United Nations is the place of hope for our inescapable global future, and it should live up to this expectation.

All nations of the world, all weak groups should be able to act, deliberate and decide in concert with others on an equal, moral basis.

The United Nations, with the United Nations Environment Programme and Habitat, is expected to keep the environment as safe and prosperous as possible. It is expected to resolve conflicts of interest-protect the rights of all and live up to its Statutes. The Organization should be ready to keep our world livable in comfort for all. This is what the world expects from the United Nations in this new century.

The name "United Nations" should become a valid descriptive name for the world Organization. This name seems at the moment a misnomer with all the fighting, violence, insecurity and danger going on outside the United Nations. We expect a safer world for the children and the weak, safer for the minorities, and safer for everybody.

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