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2003 Issues
Please click on the cover or the text link to view complete table of contents for each issue
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Issue 1, 2003: The Power of Water
Few phrases have seen as much citation as the resolve in the United Nations Charter to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war", and the Organization, from its inception, has legitimately been seen as a needed securer of the peace, whether through dialogue, diplomacy, sanctions or enforcement.
It is instructive to recall how, on 26 June 1775, exactly 170 years before the Charter was adopted, a statesman had written: "When we assumed the soldier we did not lay aside the citizen." George Washington had been a student at Virginia's College of William and Mary, where Secretary-General Kofi Annan recently observed that it is "by our success or failure in fulfilling (our) Millennium Goals, and not just in Iraq, that the role of the United Nations in the twenty-first century will be assessed". That success is not going to be easy; to quote our Chronicle interviewee: "The United Nations goes around the world talking of development. The World Bank goes around talking of development. But there are more poor people today in the world than ever."
That was something the 57th General Assembly noted as well. Its Economic and Financial Committee specified targets, set time frames and decided upon measures to evaluate achievements in the context of the many global conferences relating to development; these decisions, in the phrase of the Chairman of that Committee, "became a turning point for how the United Nations is doing business with the Bretton Woods institutions". Also, even as the United Nations commemorated the twentieth anniversary of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, one of its newer members-the Republic of Tajikistan-proposed that water should be seen as the common property of humanity. A million people are estimated to die each month as a result of water scarcity or water-borne disease; a special section in this issue brings together distinguished thinkers on the subject. It has been this publication's aim to help bridge the distance between sound theory and difficult practice, and we're encouraged by the thoughtful and, well, implementable ideas our invited experts continue to offer. They underscore, as two scholars put it, that "economic and political causes form not a pair of opposites but a continuum" and the solutions that emerge must necessarily subsume both. This at a time when, as Michel Rocard observes, "globalization is a fact", but its processes co-exist with the continuing "humiliation of millions of people", in the phrase of an assembly of Nobel Peace laureates.
There may well be an "absence of strong social and environmental pillars to balance the developed system of economic exchange"; equally, there may be an underestimation of "the importance of using the UN infrastructure to create spaces, where social, environmental and human rights issues can come to the fore of the international development agenda".
But eventually, as always, it's not about policies, or even about people. It's about a person and what all of this will mean for her or for him. It's humbling, and evocative, to share the thoughts of our anonymous HIV-positive contributor who writes: " I am grateful for the years ahead and I value them. So many people die … not having enjoyed the life they were granted." It was to that enjoyment that the ideals of the United Nations aspired, and this issue continues our exploration on how far we've reached on that voyage.
Read on! ... and write ...
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Issue 2, 2003: Education for Life
Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to education. But education is much more than just a basic human right. It can build not only mutual understanding among cultures at the individual level but also help us achieve progress at the global level.
In reality, education has the power to transform both the individual and the world for the better. Whether at its most fundamental level of teaching someone how to read and write, or in its developmental role of training scientists, engineers and teachers, education fuels the engine for global peace and progress.
The increasing reflection of UN activities and concerns on academic agendas and in curricula, from primary to graduate school, serves to highlight how the need for the United Nations to develop close partnerships with educational institutions at every level is growing increasingly important. The Educational Outreach Section (EOS), which publishes the UN Chronicle, intends to expand and invigorate the partnerships the UN Department of Public Information has with academic institutions, educators and students worldwide, opening up avenues and opportunities to utilize the Organization as a "living resource" for information, learning, ideas … and, indeed, scholarship, as some of our distinguished contributions amply reflect.
The UN Chronicle will resharpen its focus as a journal for such exchange of ideas that keeps pace with current thought, study and debate. One idea that has been suggested is that each issue—with a cluster of articles on a single theme—could be the basis upon which to facilitate discussions among students and encourage them to read further; where possible, our eminent authors will suggest such readings themselves.
This issue inaugurates our new thrust with a special section on education. Our premise is that there is no right "time" or "age" for education. It begins before school, continues beyond retirement and comprehends the many stages in between. In a word, education for life. We are privileged to have articles by experts in international education on issues running the wide gamut from universities as agents for social and economic progress to basic literacy as a window to other cultures, from connecting schools to the United Nations through videoconferencing to how colleges and universities can improve the teaching of international relations. Also included are special sections on small arms and the "weaponization" of society, such challenges facing us as SARS or access to medicines and the economic state of the world.
EOS encourages students, teachers and other educators to view the United Nations and the UN Chronicle as a resource for information and debate, learning and ideas … and to share with us their experiences, and their expectations of us. In that light, we encourage everyone to take a few minutes to fill out the inserted reader survey.
Read on! ... and write ...
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Issue 3, 2003: At Half Mast
The United Nations has lived through a senseless attack that in one instant, on 19 August, took the lives of 19 UN staff members, killed another 3 persons and injured scores more. They were all in Iraq to help its people regain their sovereignty, their independence and their dignity, as well as to provide immediate humanitarian aid to ease the worst aspects of the war's aftermath.
One of those killed was the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who had worked tirelessly in a difficult assignment to help Iraq return to a normal life among nations. It was not the first time Mr. Vieira de Mello and his colleagues had found themselves on a difficult mission; one was in East Timor, now known as Timor-Leste. Its President, Xanana Gusmao, whose country only recently achieved independence with the help of the United Nations, said of Sergio: "Our nation mourns the death of a unique and unforgettable friend. He fought tirelessly for democracy, human rights and sustainable justice for the people of East Timor." He would have continued to do the same for the people of Iraq.
Silent observances and candlelight vigils were organized in memory of family, colleagues and friends who lost their lives or were injured in the terrorist attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad. In New York on 26 August, Secretary-General Kofi Annan joined hundreds of marchers at a service at the Secretariat circle at UN Headquarters to honour them. Members of a number of permanent missions also joined in. In Geneva, hundreds marched from the Pregny Gate to Place des Nations and back. Similar scenes played out at UN offices around the world.
The attack was "a direct challenge to the vision of global solidarity and collective security rooted in the United Nations Charter"—a vision that inspired the Millennium Declaration, adopted at the Millennium Summit three years ago, Mr. Annan said. It is not always safe or easy to work for an organization whose assignments place staff in dangerous situations worldwide.
In 2001, at the beginning of a new century, the United Nations and its Secretary-General were awarded the eighth Nobel Peace Prize presented to the world Organization, its system and staff members "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world". The first for the UN, in 1950, fell at the midway point of the last century, when Ralph Bunche was honoured for his mediation of the 1949 armistice between warring parties in the Middle East—an assignment he took over following the assassination of his predecessor, Count Folke Bernadotte.
As Ralph Bunche said in accepting his Peace Prize, which he had at first wanted to turn down: "There are many who figuratively stand beside me today and who are also honoured here. I am but one of many cogs in the United Nations, the greatest peace organization ever dedicated to the salvation of mankind's future on earth. It is, indeed, itself an honour to be enabled to practise the arts of peace under the aegis of the United Nations."
In this issue, we pay homage not only to the pioneering efforts of Ralph Bunche on the centenary of his birth but also to all the "cogs" in the UN system who have worked, and sacrificed, to bring about a better world.
Read on, and write …
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Issue 4, 2003: and a new word runs between, whispering,'let us be one!'
Our cover quotes a poem, written barely more than a century ago, on the advent and significance for humankind of the laying of undersea telegraph cables. And it was 100 years ago, in 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, that the Wright brothers launched the first powered airplane with a human on board to achieve sustained flight. Soon, people were crossing oceans at swifter speeds than had ever been thought possible in the days when only ships spanned the seas. And it was just 13 years ago, in 1990, that Tim Berners-Lee, working with Robert Cailliau at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), proposed a distributed information system that came to be called the "World Wide Web".
Today, the global information society is evolving faster than could have been imagined in 1990. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are driving human commerce and human relations in new directions. A technology gap between those who can access information and those deprived of it restricts opportunities for economic growth in the poorest communities. This gap is what has come to be called the "digital divide", and it helped spur the holding of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva from 10 to 12 December 2003. A second phase will take place in Tunis from 16 to 18 November 2005.
ICTs benefit more than commerce. They can also deliver basic and advanced education services across geographical and personal limitations and do so more cheaply.
The efforts of the Educational Outreach Section (EOS) of the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI), of which the UN Chronicle is part, took centre stage at some of the most important educational activities in Geneva. In fact, the word "education" occurs some ten times in the WSIS Declaration of Principles, and even more in the Summit's Plan of Action.
EOS—its Cyberschoolbus and UN Chronicle—took the opportunity of the WSIS, with its World Electronic Media Forum and World Summit Event for Schools, to meet with hundreds of educators and ICT e-learning groups. At an all—day meeting, sponsored jointly with the European SchoolNet and opened by Mrs. Nane Annan, participants from ICT educational networks focused on partnerships for connecting schools to the Internet. Also in a live webcast, President Ion Iliescu of Romania, Carol Bellamy of UNICEF and Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor answered questions from students in Turkey, Uganda and Switzerland.
Students and youth from around the world sent some 1,500 drawings on how ICTs can improve their quality of life, for a poster competition organized by WSIS with the Cyberschoolbus. Displayed outside the hall where delegates adopted the Declaration and Action Plan were the winning posters, one of which is on our cover, and others in our centrespread on UN educational links.
In another event that EOS helped to organize, Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent an e-mail message from the first web server—like the Wright Flyer, a very unassuming piece of technology by today's standards. Mr. Annan told students: "I hope you will keep communicating with each other to build bridges of understanding between people and countries. By using technology in this way, you will bring us all closer to a more just and peaceful world, in which access to the Internet will be a right enjoyed by everyone."
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