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2004 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, 2004: Reaching Out on AIDS
On 7 April, it will be 10 years since the beginning of the genocide in Rwanda; a decade that the world and the United Nations will have had to remember, reflect and resolve.
Remember—that a world which had the capacity to end the killings that claimed the lives of as many as 800,000 people did not act soon or forcefully enough, "forever sullying the collective conscience", as Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on 13 March (in a message to a symposium on the Media and the Rwanda Genocide, at the Carlton University School of Journalism and Communication in Ottawa, Canada). Reflect—on the lessons that "all humankind should have learned" from this and previous genocides. And resolve—"to sound the alarm about emerging crises and to help countries tackle the root causes of their problems" in the future. "But most of all", Mr. Annan said, "we must pledge, to ourselves as moral beings and to each other as a human community, to act boldly, including through military action when no other course will work, to ensure that such a denial of our common humanity is never allowed to happen again."
In the section "From the Secretary-General", Mr. Annan looks back at the genocides in both Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. "Those memories are especially painful for the United Nations", he notes. In Rwanda in 1994 and at Srebrenica in 1995, UN peacekeeping troops were on the ground "at the very place and time where genocidal acts were being committed. … But instead of reinforcing our troops, we withdrew them." While the withdrawals were the consequence of decisions taken by the Security Council, "all of us failed", he said.
With that in mind, Mr. Annan announced that he would appoint a United Nations special adviser on the prevention of genocide and had asked the States parties to the Genocide Convention to consider setting up a committee on the prevention of genocide to regularly meet, review and make recommendations for action. In addition, he suggested other possible steps to meet the responsibility of "the whole human race to protect our fellow human beings from extreme abuse wherever and whenever it occurs".
In this issue of the UN Chronicle, you will also find articles on other matters that are the responsibility of the entire human race: the millions across the globe who are dying of HIV/AIDS; children who need protection in time of war; or the fight to control malaria, a disease that causes more than 300 million acute illnesses and at least 1 million deaths each year, mostly children.
This issue also gives space to initiatives and people working to provide solutions and action-oriented responses to these, and many more, of our shared problems. Some solutions can be found in promoting and supporting partnerships when, as Amir Dossal writes, "no single sector has the resources and ability to manage". Other responses are seen in the extraordinary efforts of individuals, such as Christina Ann Riechers, of educators such as George Kent and of the non-governmental organizations working together in the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security. And some global solutions still need to be addressed in a universal forum, such as the United Nations General Assembly.
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Issue 2, 2004: How Do We See Others?
How do we see others? This deceptively simple question on our cover is posed, in a way, by the image itself, taken by French photographer Frédéric Brenner. Are we looking at Africans, a group of friends, or a village gathering? Who are they? The fact is, they are all that and more. They are Africans, friends, women from a village in the Simens Mountains of Ethiopia, and they are Jews. The photograph is part of an exhibition at UN Headquarters in New York that offers viewers a glimpse into the many variations of Jews and Judaism today.
The first in a series of seminars organized by the Department of Public Information [DPI], entitled “Unlearning Intolerance”, was held on 21 June. This seminar appropriately was on “Confronting anti-Semitism: Education for Tolerance and Understanding”. In his address to the more than 600 participants, Secretary-General Kofi Annan reminded us that throughout history, “anti-Semitism has flourished even in communities where Jews have never lived, and it has been a harbinger of discrimination against others. The rise of anti-Semitism anywhere is a threat to people everywhere”. Elie Wiesel, himself a Holocaust survivor, told the Seminar that disarming anti-Semitism would “serve the cause of humanity”, for “hatred was dangerous and contagious—a cancer that grew from limb to limb, from person to person, group to group. He or she who hated Jews hated all minorities and all those who were different.” And Shashi Tharoor, DPI Under-Secretary-General, summed up these judgements by stressing how, in the fight against racism and other forms of discrimination, anti-Semitism was “everyone’s responsibility”. This common plea, given voice also by panelists and those in the audience, comes at a time when conflicts, all too often caused by intolerance, continue to claim countless victims around the world.
The Chronicle also looks at how tolerance and common values can be learned through art. Art can transcend cultural, geographic, ethnic or religious differences. As does Mr. Brenner, so too do other artists challenge us to learn about the values, and value, of different cultures, be it through film, painting, photography or music. “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words” is a personal account of the importance of learning about cultures and customs through film. The article “Viewing 400 Years of Japanese Art” draws readers into the rich realm of Japanese art and culture, while “Andean Man” showcases sculptor Peruko Ccopacatty’s bold metallic figures, which tell the world the story of his ancient Aymara ancestors.
In this issue, we also focus on “10 Stories the World Should Hear More About”, a snapshot of ten of the most compelling stories that are in need of better coverage by the media, reminding us once again of the ties that bind all of us together.
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Issue 3, 2004: Grasping the Elusive
It is not really possible to fully discern the nature of human societies. At best, we can describe them in general terms that change with time and place. Our inability in this regard seems a consequence of the elusive essence of human interaction.
Today’s global society is one that we have only begun to build in earnest, starting with the establishment of the League of Nations in 1920 and followed by the setting-up of the United Nations in 1945. For thousands of years before that, we came together in shifting groups of city States, nations, kingdoms and empires. And for tens of thousands of years earlier, we more often than not lived in villages or tribes of a few dozen individuals. Is it any wonder that we are not always able to completely grasp the importance today of coming together for the common good, under common principles? In fact, we have been surprisingly successful, though we still have far to go.
In Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s phrase, “the rule of law starts at home. But in too many places it remains elusive.” At the international level, “all States—strong and weak, big and small—need a framework of fair rules, which each can be confident that others will obey. Fortunately, such a framework exists. From trade to terrorism, from the law of the sea to weapons of mass destruction, States have created an impressive body of norms and laws”.
The evolving global society and its institutions are addressed in a number of articles in this issue of the UN Chronicle. The fifty-ninth General Assembly President, Jean Ping of Gabon, notes that in continuing to adapt the United Nations system, “it is crucial to take into consideration the changes that have happened in the world”. Anda Filip of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, also touching upon the evolving nature of international society, suggests that the world Organization needs to reach out to new stakeholders, adding that parliaments were “a natural choice”. And in the Chronicle Essay, Luk Van Langenhove argues that we are witnessing a transition to a system of “multi-regionalism”, where the United Nations could be a forum for dialogue between regions.
Andrew Cooper makes an intriguing case that recent world conferences can be seen as a new form of global governance, in particular given the participation of civil society organizations. In our regular column, Working Together, John Richardson, as a representative from civil society, tells how European foundations are partnering with the United Nations system to achieve the eight UN Millennium Development Goals.
There are many issues that have global and regional dimensions, one of which is the environment. Rising sea levels, influenced by global warming, threaten the very survival of small island developing States; the legal regime of the Kyoto Protocol is one global effort to help halt and reverse climate change. No one can deny that HIV/AIDS is more than a global health issue of staggering proportions, affecting nearly all sectors of society, particularly in Africa. Or deny the fact that we still maintain enough nuclear weapons to destroy entirely the efforts of humanity over millennia to construct a fair—and humane—global society.
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Issue 4, 2004: A World Enabled
The cover of the Chronicle focuses on the active and full involvement of persons with disabilities across all sectors of society. As disability activist and award-winning independent film producer Victor Pineda points out, more than 600 million people have a disability of one kind or another. “A World Enabled” is a new social change media project that seeks to move beyond physical access questions and look at disability as a global human rights issue, and Amy Farkas tells of the International Paralympic Committee’s efforts in the context of “inclusion” in sport and recreation. Both are working to support the draft United Nations convention to promote these rights, and of dignity.
We also have food for thought on respecting and understanding our differences and similarities. On 7 December 2004, Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened at UN Headquarters the seminar on “Confronting Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and Understanding”, organized by the Educational Outreach Section of the UN Department of Public Information as part of its groundbreaking “Unlearning Intolerance” seminar series. He said that “any strategy to combat Islamophobia must depend heavily on education–not just about Islam but about all religions and traditions, so that myths and lies can be seen for what they are”. Our report on the seminar includes a debate that has implications beyond any specific religion or society. Glyn Ford, talking about a “tabloid diet of xenophobia”, points to efforts of the European Union to fight the re-emergence of the far-right. Mortimer Zuckerman argues in an article on anti-Semitism that “the intensity of anti-Jewish rhetoric today surpasses that of Nazi Germany in its heyday”, and Tariq Ramadan, stressing the need for Muslims and everyone to condemn anti-Semitism, writes of “the profound link between Islam and Judaism”.
We also cover the report of the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, “A more secure world: Our shared responsibility,” which presents a comprehensive vision of collective security. One of its key messages is that the globalization process has led to a world of “interconnected threats and mutual vulnerability”. According to Akmaral Arystanbekova, the main thrust of renewal for the UN “should be the regeneration of its paramount functions”, including that of an effective instrument for ensuring sustainable development”, a problem examined more closely in the Millennium Development Goals section.
In the Chronicle Essay, Vesselin Popovski supports a modern concept of sovereignty that involves “a duty to protect human rights”. Another article looks at the role of truth and reconciliation commissions as instruments for ending impunity. In the Chronicle Interview, Irene Khan discusses global human rights mechanisms and how they might be improved, while Edward Newman and Roland Rich probe how the UN can help build the foundations for democracy through different approaches. And, as always, the Chronicle reviews UN peacekeeping—from Canada’s contribution and sacrifice and the progress achieved by the UN in Guatemala, to the failures in Rwanda.
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