UNITED
NATIONS 
GENERAL
ASSEMBLY
REMARKS BY
THE
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
H.E. MR. JULIAN R. HUNTE TO
THE
LONDON
SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND
THE UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION
SYMPOSIUM ON REFORM OF THE
UNITED NATIONS
LONDON, UK
18 JUNE 2004
ADDRESSING
POVERTY AND NEW SECURITY THREATS
Intra-state
conflict and war feature prominently in any assessment
of the serious challenges facing the United Nations
in recent years. While it is true that Europe has not
escaped the ruinous consequences of intra-state conflict
and war, a majority of these tragic occurrences continue
to take place in the developing world. The number and
severity may ebb and flow but together with the ongoing
situation in the Middle East, the impression is that
parts of the world, and particularly the developing
world, are in a constant state of crisis. Consequently,
the maintenance of international peace and security
appears to be at center stage on the global agenda.
Poverty
also features prominently on the global agenda - eradicating
extreme poverty and hunger finds expression in the Millennium
Declaration, and is goal number one of the United Nations
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Sometimes statistics
are so overwhelming that they become almost incomprehensible.
Poverty statistics are among those we regularly see,
without actually seeing. But if we focus on the fact
that about 1.2 billion people live on less than one
dollar a day, and on the converse, that the net worth
of ten billionaires (ten individuals) is greater than
the combined national income of the forty-eight poorest
countries, giving priority to poverty alleviation simply
follows logically.
I
believe I am not oversimplifying matters when I say
that today, we are more attuned to conflict and war
than we are to poverty. In fact, I would venture to
say that people around the world are probably more familiar
with the Security Council Chamber than they are with
the General Assembly Hall or the Economic and Social
Council. Indeed, media reports of the tragedies of war
and conflict often overshadow the tragedies of poverty
and hunger and give higher visibility to Security Council.
The
Security Council is given further prominence now that
it is dealing with a range of issues that it would have
been difficult to contemplate a little more than a decade
and a half ago - internal conflicts, ethnic clashes,
terrorism, humanitarian emergencies and human rights
abuses. By casting such a broad net, some contend, the
Council may at times be outside the scope of its responsibility
for maintaining international peace and security. The
examination of human rights issues, for example, is
considered best left to the General Assembly and the
Economic and Social Council. Further, it has been asserted
that the Security Council takes up some wars and conflict,
but not others.
It
has been argued - I believe persuasively - that conditions
of poverty and underdevelopment can lead to violence
and conflict. This sets up a direct correlation between
poverty on the one hand and peace and security on the
other. No matter what conclusion is drawn, I hold the
view that conflict prevention and peace-building do
not begin when a conflict is inevitable. My experience
as Representative of the Prime Minister of St Lucia
responsible for CARICOM initiatives on the situation
in Haiti, has borne this out.
It
is also my view that the international community has
everything to gain by taking action to alleviate poverty,
where such action may lead to the prevention of conflict
and war. We need only look at escalating United Nations
peacekeeping budgets to appreciate that indeed making,
building and keeping the peace is a costly proposition.
Add to this the costs of bringing perpetrators who breach
national and international law to justice and it becomes
clear: it costs less to prevent fires than to put them
out. Global poverty is a raging fire, which we must
put out in the interest not only of conventional security,
but human security as well. Moreover, poverty alleviation
can yield dividends.
It is opportune, I believe to point out that for an
increasing number of countries, including developing
countries, security has come to have a broader meaning.
It does, indeed, encompass protection of national borders,
military, political and other conventional forms of
security. And of course it includes action required
in respect of terrorism. However, if we go beyond the
conventional concept and view security as an elaborate
set of inter-connected issues impacting human security,
the picture becomes clearer.
For
those with this broader view of security, which include
the countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM),
security is multidimensional, having military, political,
economic and social development and other dimensions.
As Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur puts it, "It
would be a fundamental error on our part to limit security
concerns to any one area while the scourge of HIV/AIDS,
illegal arms and drug trafficking, transnational crime,
ecological disasters and poverty continue to stare us
in the face".
The
seeds of a more secure world, therefore, must best be
sown in the space we make for growth and development,
particularly for the countries of the developing world;
they must be sown in our efforts to alleviate poverty
and promote sustainable development; they must be sown
in our efforts to make globalization and trade liberalization
deliver on the promises to create new opportunities
for growth and development, foreign direct investment,
increased market access and other undertakings; they
must be sown in greater accommodation in setting the
rules of trade in the World Trade Organization; they
must be sown in efforts to bring debt relief to heavily
indebted developing countries; and they must be sown
in our efforts to close the gap between rich and poor.
Coherence is one of those words that makes good sense,
but which could be taken for granted because it could
quickly become commonplace. Let me use it to say that
the more realistic view of security should help us bring
coherence to the initiatives we undertake within the
United Nations system for development. This includes
the enhancing a functional relationship between the
United Nations, the Bretton Woods Institutions, the
World Trade Organization and the United Nations Conference
on Trade and Development.
Coherence
should also direct our initiatives during the Sixtieth
Anniversary of the United Nations in 2005, when a High-level
Plenary will determine how well we have responded to
the challenges we took up, and commitments we have made,
to implement the outcomes of more than a decade of United
Nations summits and conferences in the economic and
social fields, including the Millennium Declaration
and the Millennium Development Goals. This is an essential
next step on our deliberate, and well considered road
to promoting development, an important aspect of which
is to alleviate poverty.
I
hope that 2005 will be the occasion when commitments
are reaffirmed at the highest level to active and continuing
support that would turn such commitments into concrete
action, and with deliberate speed. The developing countries,
and indeed the United Nations development agenda needs
this commitment, to ensure a balance between the organization's
responsibilities for international peace and security
and for development.
The
Secretary-General's report on the recommendations of
his High-level Plenary on Threats, Challenge and Change
is also to feature in the 2005 event. It is certainly
my hope that this report would shed light on the broad
range of issues that constitute challenges and threats,
particularly to the countries of the developing world,
which will help us to review afresh poverty and security
and the critical decisions we need to take to address
them.
When
we speak in the United Nations we speak in the names
of the peoples of the world. The people therefore have
the right to look to the United Nations to deliver on
the Charter promise, not only of peace and security,
but also to promote social progress and better standards
of life in larger freedom. Whatever we do, we do in
the best interest of the people. Getting it right puts
us in a win-win situation: ending poverty and ending
conflict.
