DSG/SM/69

TRUE PARTNERSHIP NECESSARY BETWEEN UNITED NATIONS, CIVIL SOCIETY SAYS DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL TO SEOUL CONFERENCE

8 October 1999


Press Release
DSG/SM/69


TRUE PARTNERSHIP NECESSARY BETWEEN UNITED NATIONS, CIVIL SOCIETY SAYS DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL TO SEOUL CONFERENCE

19991008

Following is the address of Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette to the Seoul International Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations, to be delivered in Seoul, Republic of Korea, on 10 October:

It is a pleasure indeed to be here with you for this important international conference. I would like to start by thanking the people of the Republic of Korea for welcoming us all into their midst. Once again, they are showing a well-developed sense of global citizenship.

Our host, Kyung Hee University, is a very good friend of the United Nations. Chancellor [Young Seek] Choue, I bring you and the Kyung Hee community warm regards from Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who remembers fondly his visit here one year ago, when the University awarded him an honorary degree.

The sight of so many non-governmental organizations in one room is an increasingly common one. Mind you, these days it does not necessarily take a room to bring together effective coalitions of the like-minded. Non-governmental organizations advocacy against anti- personnel land-mines, for the International Criminal Court and for debt relief for the poorest countries owes much of its success to e-mail -- to that conference room in cyberspace, those "virtual" halls of power. But whether we are together in the flesh or linked digitally by the new telecommunications technologies, what we are seeing is the "associational revolution" in action.

Traditionally, diplomacy has been an activity conducted exclusively by state actors and a subject debated exclusively by paid experts. When I first served in my country's delegation to the United Nations in the 1970s, the notion of non-State actors involving themselves in "our" business would have perplexed us all. Now, all the issues before us involve the active participation of civil society.

A scholar said recently that the growth of non-governmental organizations and civil society groups was "as important a development to the latter part of the 20th century" as the rise of the nation State itself had been in earlier centuries. This change is irreversible. Governments around the world have realized this. They have recognized

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that the State is the servant of its people, and not vice versa. They have redefined their roles and priorities accordingly.

So, too, has the United Nations. If the global agenda is to be properly addressed, a true partnership between civil society and the United Nations is not an option; it is a necessity.

Our cooperation with non-governmental organizations has already expanded remarkably. In 1948, 41 non-governmental organizations were granted consultative status by the Economic and Social Council. Today, more than 1,350 enjoy the right to participate in that body's proceedings. The agenda we are addressing together is as diverse as the non-governmental organizations community itself. From development to disarmament, environment to education, health to human rights and beyond, we have our work cut out for us.

As the Secretary-General told the General Assembly last month, we have no higher priority than to restore the United Nations to its rightful role in the pursuit of peace and security, and to bring it closer to the peoples it serves. As we stand at the brink of a new century, this mission continues.

But it continues in a world transformed by geopolitical, economic, technological and environmental changes whose lasting significance still eludes us. As we seek new ways to combat the ancient enemies of war and poverty, we will succeed only if we adapt our Organization to a world with new actors, new responsibilities and new possibilities for peace and progress.

You, too, have come together here in Seoul to assess human progress in the broadest sense; to consider the gains and setbacks of this century with an eye towards charting a more hopeful course for the next one, which begins just 82 days from now. And you have chosen to examine closely the remarkable cycle of world conferences held throughout the 1990s on some of the central issues of our times -- conferences in which thousands of non-governmental organizations played a crucial part.

I believe the role of the United Nations will be critical as we move ahead, and I would like to share with you some thoughts on how that role is evolving. At the world conferences, the United Nations played the harmonizing role envisaged in its founding Charter -- a forum where diverse points of view were aired, where proposals were debated and where, most importantly, political consensus was achieved. Indeed, by bringing together high-level political leaders with parliamentarians, women's groups, academics, business people and trade unions, a real sense of "stake-holding" was created, not only for the duration of the negotiating process, but with momentum for the essential follow-up work over the months and years.

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That role -- of forging new alliances and promoting deeper recognition of shared interests, even amongst unlikely partners -- will continue in the twenty-first century.

On a substantive level, the conference cycle also showed a United Nations approaching issues in a comprehensive fashion. While each of the conferences was devoted to a single topic or cluster of topics, it quickly emerged that one cannot talk about the environment without talking about population; that one cannot speak of crime without tackling unemployment; and mass poverty is an obstacle to human progress of every sort. So this role of the United Nations, too -- as an agent of integration, connecting issues with one another as well as connecting peoples and nations to one another -- is one that will surely have to continue in the twenty-first century.

The great global conferences have also had important implications for the way we in the United Nations, and its system of specialized agencies, funds and programmes, go about our work. If the conference cycle had a single overriding theme, it was to give fresh impetus to international cooperation for development as a people-centred, gender- sensitive, sustainable enterprise.

The "quiet revolution" of reform at the United Nations flows from that conclusion. Just as the conference highlighted the links between participants and between issues, so too have all United Nations entities tried to come together more effectively. There has been unprecedented coordination and pooling of resources, and I believe the results are being felt on the ground.

Alas, we still have far to go before we realize the great promise of the conference cycle, which is to fulfil the most basic of needs and aspirations of the vast majority of the world's people: clean water; adequate shelter; a job; enough food for the family; schooling for the children; and a State which does not oppress its citizens, but rules with their consent.

Our moment is one of both promise and peril. Peace spreads in one region as hatred rages in another. Unprecedented wealth coexists with terrible deprivation, as 1.3 billion people are struggling to survive on less than a dollar a day. Globalization presents new opportunities for some, while for others it is a profoundly disruptive force, capable of destroying lives, jobs and traditions in the blink of an eye.

So even as the new millennium is upon us, the role of the United Nations must continue as much of the world already knows it: preventing conflict where we can, and protecting the victims of conflict where we cannot; fighting poverty, disease and inequality; improving our environment, and its ability to provide food, shelter and the resources necessary to generate employment; enabling humankind to

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turn the dynamics of change into social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.

At the same time, there is an additional role, less visible and less tangible, which is taking on greater importance the more the world’s people recognize our fundamental interdependence: the role of the United Nations as a purveyor of universal values.

Every society, from Asia to the Americas, is held together by common values. Global society also needs such a framework if it is to thrive. The universal values found in the United Nations Charter – values such as equality, tolerance and freedom – enjoy worldwide acceptance. Shared values form the pillars upon which markets rest, because laws cannot be separated from the expectations and aspirations of society. We know this when it comes to national economies. Indeed, the most successful are those underpinned by a rule of law that corresponds with the will of the people.

Without rules governing contracts and property rights, without confidence based on the rule of law, without trust and transparency – there could be no well-functioning markets. They provide a standard against which we can measure our work for peace, for human rights and for economic and social development. As we wrestle with new political uncertainties and new forces of societal change, these values provide an anchor, reminding of us of our common humanity.

As non-governmental organizations, you no doubt have your own ideas about what the role of the United Nations should be in the twenty-first century. Those ideas should be heard loud and clear. Next year’s events marking the millennium present you with a great opportunity. As you know, we will be inviting the world’s heads of State and government to New York for the Millennium Summit. But before that, in May 2000, you will hold a Millennium Forum at the United Nations to gather ideas from non-governmental organizations all over the world.

It is not a question of tearing up the Charter of the United Nations, nor of writing a new one. Nor can we produce a blueprint for Utopia. What we can and must do is focus on some of the world’s most pressing problems, and set ourselves a precise, achievable programme for dealing with them in a spirit of global solidarity. I would be extremely disappointed if you did not participate in this process with all your hearts and minds, with all your ideas and energies. As the new millennium arrives, you continue to be a key force in the international community and therefore a crucial presence at the United Nations.

Governments need non-governmental partners. We need civil society, non-governmental organizations and the private sector to reach the millions on the margins and to help us give global markets a human face. We at the United Nations, for our part, are committed to

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deepening our alliance with you. For the sake of humankind and to realize the great promise of a truly international community, I urge you to keep goading us, and to keep working with us.

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For information media. Not an official record.