'Together we can make a world of difference: Globalizing Responsibility for Human Security' was the title of the key note address given by Dr Cornelio Sommaruga, President of the Initiatives of Change International Association and former President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, at the Conference for Australia and the Asia Pacific Region convened by Initiatives of Change in Sydney, April 24, 2003. Extracts:
'Security means far more than the absence of conflict. Lasting peace requires a broader vision encompassing education and health, democracy and human rights, protection against environmental degradation and the proliferation of deadly weapons. We cannot build peace without alleviating poverty and we cannot build freedom on foundations of injustice. These pillars of the people-centered concept of human security are interrelated and mutually reinforcing'.
These are words of Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations. Should they not also be the expression of Initiatives of Change in its search and engagement for a greed free, fear free and hate free world?
During the cold war period the notion of security was in general understood in terms of the security of the State and the preservation of its territorial integrity and sovereignty against military attacks. But the UNDP Human Development Report 1993 was already indicating in an official document that 'the concept of security must change - from an exclusive stress on national security to a much greater stress on people's security, from security through armaments to security through human development, from territorial security to food, employment and environmental security'.
This calls for an increased cooperation between international organizations with an enhanced authority for the United Nations. In my view, the United Nations will even be reinforced by the Iraq crisis. Never before there has been such an intensive discussion at high level in the Security Council on war and its relevance in respect of the provisions of the Charter.
The security of a State needs the security of the individual. The security agenda and the development agenda are different sides of the same coin.
Why 'Globalizing Responsibility', could you ask? At the time when globalisation is on all minds, shared responsibility means that each individual person must be actively involved in the evolution of the Society, where moral principles have to prevail.
At the beginning of the XXI Century we have indeed to recognize that the world has become a dangerous place. 2.8 billion people living in this world are in abject poverty. When a hegemonic global system centralizes power, wealth and knowledge in the hands of a minority, when there are few avenues of action to ensure at least a certain degree of accountability on the part of superpowers, there is a widespread feeling of marginalization that can sometimes lead to disastrous consequences. The step to violence and terrorism is easy to make.
The world cannot afford to continue living one fifth rich, two fifths in abject poverty and another two fifths struggling for a decent life. In such circumstances the comprehensive approach is the only sensible approach to take. There can be no security without economic development, nor without effective agencies of law enforcement and border security, nor in the absence of a democratic state abiding by the rule of law.
All these aspects of security rely on a framework of laws which protect property and human rights, and which are properly and justly implemented by a well-functioning judiciary. There must be a good system of governance operating in a transparent manner, enabling civil society to participate fully in political life - including holding peaceful public protests - and to select their government in free and fair election.
Should any of these conditions not be fulfilled, a threat to security can, and invariably will, arise also in Western countries.
'We face the global tragedy of disease and poverty that take uncounted lives and leave whole nations vulnerable to oppression and terror'. One may be astonished, but this sentence is of President Bush from his address of May 23, 2002 in the Bundestag in Berlin. The President of the USA also stated there that 'to help developing nations, leaders of wealthy nations have a duty of conscience to share our wealth generously and wisely'. Let us monitor the implementation of these good words!
This Asia-Pacific Conference gives the occasion to underline what Australia and neighbouring large and small countries can and must do in the present circumstances. There are values that human beings share, irrespective of religion, nationality or ethnicity; they include sanctity of life, freedom, equality, respect for human rights and international humanitarian law, commitment to cultural and religious diversity, human dignity - of children, women and men, human development, democracy, the rule of law, equitable access to earth's resources and an equitable distribution of power. Wisdom calls us to humanise rather than demonise the 'other'.
We have to note that there can be no peace without justice as well as no peace without forgiveness and compassion, and that no true forgiveness is possible with mental reservations.
Let us finally work for a honest dialogue with active listening and true acceptance of the other side and acknowledge the other's pain.
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