International Arms Trade Treaty essential for world peoples ─ UN tries again

Civilian populations trapped in armed violence in settings of crime and conflict, in conditions of poverty, deprivation, extreme inequality suffer most in a world of unregulated arms ─ ATT essential 

Editing, re-reporting, brief comment by Carolyn Bennett

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nfortunately, the United States of America together with its arms industry ─ while leading the world in global arms transfers (sales, exports, trafficking) ─ obstructs progress. As it tried to do with the cluster bomb treaty and the convention on the rights of the child, the United States is standing in the way of the United Nations international Arms Trade Treaty.

A March 2013 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs paper “The impact of poorly regulated Arms transfers on the work of the United Nations” lays out the essentiality of the treaty. The paper leads:

The poorly regulated arms trade has devastating, multifaceted effect.

These include fueling violence and armed conflict, hindering efforts to promote socioeconomic development and creating a permanent atmosphere of fear and instability in conflict settings.

While millions of civilians have paid the high price of the lack of legally binding rules in the area of arms trade, women and children are among the most vulnerable groups affected by this gap.

Flows of arms into conflict and post-conflict situations, not only impede the ability of the United Nations to discharge its mandates and assist the governments and populations that it is called to assist; but flows of arms also pose a direct threat to United Nations personnel and assets.

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he ready availability of weapons and ammunition in all parts of the world has led to human suffering, political repression, crime and terror among civilian populations. Irresponsible transfers of conventional weapons can destabilize security in (geographical or geopolitical) region(s); enable the violation of Security Council arms embargoes and contribute to human rights abuses. Investment is discouraged and development disrupted in countries experiencing conflict and high levels of violence. The situation also affects countries’ ability to attain the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Eight UN Millennium Development Goals for 2015

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

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any areas of world trade are covered by regulations that bind countries into agreed conduct. An eclectic set of national and regional control measures and a few global instruments on arms transfers exist. But there is no global set of rules governing the trade in conventional weapons; and the absence of a global framework regulating the international trade in all conventional arms has obscured transparency, comparability and accountability.

Contrary to propaganda, the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs notes, will not:

Interfere with the domestic arms trade and the way a country regulates civilian possession

Ban or prohibit the export of any type of weapons

Impair States’ legitimate right to self-defense

Lower arms regulation standards in countries where these are already at a high level

United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs

Why Arms Trade Treaty matters

The writers of the UNODA paper continue, “Most present-day international challenges—from global warming and the financial crisis to terrorism and underdevelopment— have complex origins. Similarly, there is no (single) relationship between the poorly regulated arms trade on the one hand, and conflict, crime and insecurity, armed violence and grave human rights abuses on the other. Often, however, connections can be established between the misuse of arms by national armed and security forces and the poor judgment ─ or lack of responsibility ─ on the part of the original providers of such arms.

Similarly, one can establish a link between massive amounts of illicit arms and ammunition in circulation and lax national controls.

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eapons are force multipliers and thus enable the user to enhance the ability to project power and to exercise coercive control within and across borders. With every transfer it authorizes, a government deciding on exporting weapons must realize the profound international responsibility of that decision. And, conversely, an importing government must ensure that it will use these weapons only to provide for the safety and security of its citizens and that it has the capacity to safeguard all weapons within its possession throughout their life cycle.

Working to improve lives and livelihoods around the world, the United Nations system is directly confronted with the consequences stemming from the often brutal repression of political dissent, armed conflict, rampant crime or armed violence and the widespread human suffering that they cause. 

Whether it is maintaining international peace and security, protecting human rights, providing humanitarian aid, promoting social and economic development, conducting peacekeeping, assisting in crime prevention and criminal justice, promoting women’s empowerment, protecting children, improving public health or building safer cities, all too often armed insecurity fueled by poorly regulated arms transfers prevents [the UN] from reaching the goals laid out by Member States. In these contexts, United Nations personnel also face security risks on an unprecedented scale—from drivers of trucks transporting food aid, peacekeepers on patrol, United Nations personnel running refugee camps to international and local staff working at United Nations compounds.

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ivil society organizations concerned about the misuse of weaponry around the world mobilized governments and parliamentarians to call for the global regulation of the conventional arms trade. Countries have discussed this matter within the UN since 2006. The UN Department for Disarmament Affairs extends as far back as the 1980s.

The first round of UN negotiations on the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty held in July of 2012 produced no agreement on treaty text. The Final Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty is being held this week and next (March 18-28) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

In statements leading into this year’s conference, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recalled that armed violence every year in the world kills 66,000 women and girls, a total of more than half a million people.

The Arms Trade Treaty further complements and supplements existing international tools from the Program of Action on Small Arms to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms and beyond, he said; and it “will strengthen the rule of law by contributing to the development of an emerging network of international norms against trafficking, misuse, and the illicit proliferation of weapons and ammunition.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon(center)
Arms Trade Treaty Conference
 March 18-28, 2013

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ast year’s conference in New York, the Secretary-General said, “came close to reaching an agreement on a draft treaty text. 

We must now build on this work and conclude our historic journey over the next nine days.

Now is the time to overcome past setbacks and deliver.

Now is the time for the focus and political will to negotiate the final details of the treaty and arrive at a consensus outcome by the 28th March.

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Final Conference on
Arms Trade Treaty March 18-28
New York

NODA’s March paper concludes, “Unlike other areas of world trade, which are covered by rules that bind countries into agreed conduct, the transfer of weapons is currently not covered by binding global rules other than Security Council arms embargoes. The absence of a global framework regulating the international trade in conventional arms makes it easier for weapons and ammunition to fall into the wrong hands. 

“Those suffering most are civilian populations trapped in situations of armed violence in settings of both crime and conflict, often in conditions of poverty, deprivation and extreme inequality, where they are all too frequently on the receiving end of the misuse of arms by State armed and security forces, non-State armed groups and organized criminal groups, many of which are subject to United Nations Security Council sanctions. Small arms are the weapons of choice in modern-day intra-State armed conflict and armed violence.

 

“Civilian populations, including children, bear the brunt of armed conflict more than ever. But there is plenty of evidence of heavier categories of weapons being used against civilians as well. Therefore, the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) should cover all conventional arms. But regulation of the international arms trade should not be limited to regulating transfers of weapons.

“While arms can have a lifespan of decades and are often recycled from conflict to conflict, their value and the ability to sustain armed conflict or violence depend on the availability of an uninterrupted supply of ammunition. Thus, for the ATT to be effective, it should also regulate the international trade in ammunition.”

We in the United States of America must finally grow up. Cease in our self-inflicted crisis and attendant paranoia, and destructive self-centeredness. Courageously join the world in nonviolence, in cooperation, in mutual coexistence for the good of all. 

Sources and notes

UNODA Occasional Papers, No. 23, March 2013, THE IMPACT OF POORLY REGULATED

ARMS TRANSFERS ON THE WORK OF THE UNITED NATIONS, United Nations Coordinating Action on Small Arms (CASA) 2013,

http://www.un.org/disarmament/HomePage/ODAPublications/OccasionalPapers/PDF/OP23.pdf

This paper aims to develop a coherent United Nations approach to support the international community’s efforts to improve the regulation of international transfers of conventional arms. It records the United Nations Organization’s advocacy over the past years of a robust and comprehensive Arms Trade Treaty that covers the full array of conventional weapons as well as ammunition and that includes provisions that arms not be transferred where there is a clear risk that they will be used to commit violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law or seriously undermine development.

United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA)

The Department for Disarmament Affairs was originally established in 1982 upon the recommendation of the General Assembly’s second special session on disarmament (SSOD II). In 1992, its name was changed to Centre for Disarmament Affairs, under the Department of Political Affairs. At the end of 1997, it was renamed Department for Disarmament Affairs

In January 1998 UNODA was established as the Department for Disarmament Affairs, part of the Secretary-General’s program for reform in accordance with his report to the General Assembly (A/51/950), the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA). In 2007, it became the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs promotes:

Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation

Strengthening of the disarmament regimes in respect to other weapons of mass destruction, and chemical and biological weapons

Disarmament efforts in the area of conventional weapons, especially landmines and small arms, which are the weapons of choice in contemporary conflicts

“UNODA supports the development and implementation of practical disarmament measures after a conflict, such as disarming and demobilizing former combatants and helping them to reintegrate in civil society.”

http://www.un.org/disarmament/HomePage/about_us/aboutus.shtml

Secretary-General’s remarks to Final United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) (UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon), New York, March18, 2013 - http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=6662

UN chief voices support for arms trade treaty ahead of upcoming conference

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44410&Cr=arms+trade&Cr1=&Kw1=arms&Kw2=&Kw3=

The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) will not:

Interfere with the domestic arms trade and the way a country regulates civilian possession

Ban, or prohibit the export of, any type of weapons

Impair States’ legitimate right to self-defense

Lower arms regulation standards in countries where these are already at a high level

 An Arms Trade Treaty will aim to create a level playing field for international arms transfers by requiring all States to abide by a set of standards for transfer controls, which will ultimately benefit the safety and security of people everywhere in the world.

http://www.un.org/disarmament/ATT/

http://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/ArmsTrade/

The Millennium Development Goals

In September of the year 2000, leaders of 189 countries met at the United Nations in New York and endorsed the Millennium Declaration, a commitment to work together to build a safer, more prosperous and equitable world.

The Declaration was translated into a roadmap setting out eight time-bound and measurable goals to be reached by 2015, known as the Millennium Development Goals, http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgoverview.html

For more information, please visit: www.un.org/millenniumgoals

http://www.un.org/en/mdg/summit2010/pdf/List%20of%20MDGs%20English.pdf

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Spiraling harm affluent nations inflict on Middle East, Africa’s children must stop

Mali's people
Refugees

War-made witnesses to slaughter, wandering refugees

 Re-reporting, editing, comment by Carolyn Bennett

These are some of the regional crises created by officials of the United States, France and England in their endless wars against peoples, generations of the Middle East (South Central Asia) and Africa.

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t this rate, the people of these countries will NEVER advance. This is in essence the meaning of poverty (what indifference routinely dismisses as “the poor” and why the UN Millennium Goals will never be met) ─ poverty that is created and sustained by affluent, nuclear-powered,  consumerist, plundering nations such as the United States, Britain and France.

Syria's children
Refugees 

SYRIA (circa 1.1 million refugees)

children’s refugee crisis.

“Refugees pour across borders day and night,” says U.N. Refugee Agency regional coordinator Panos Moumtzis. “More than half of the refugees are children.

This is a children’s refugee crisis.

It is heartbreaking when we see these children arriving and particularly what we see in the days that follow.

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urkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt have been flooded with tens of thousands of refugees, says Moumtzis; 30 percent of these refugees are housed in camps, the rest are outside camps in villages and towns.

These children have experienced and witnessed some of the most horrific scenes, seeing their parents or loved ones killed, their homes destroyed, schools affected. Many are withdrawn. “We hear from the parents about bedwetting, Moumtzis told the press.

Endlessly homeless
crossing borders
wandering
refugees

“More than half the 642,000 refugees who have sought refuge from the Syrian conflict in neighboring countries are children and the number of people fleeing could almost double by June of this year.”

JORDAN (refugees)

An estimated 350,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Jordan from the fighting, with 36,000 coming since the beginning of 2013. These pressures are adding to already grievous social pressures in Jordan. In one of the harshest winters on record, the living conditions of these refugees are said to be “appalling.”

According to the International Rescue Committee ─

The majority of the refugees are living outside the refugee camps—in cities and towns where social services, schools and even trash and waste systems are not equipped to meet the needs of a suddenly inflated population.

Desperate, these people have come despite the [Jordanian] government’s strict rules on who can enter the country and controls on refugee movements outside the camps…

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 uring the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, King Abdullah of Jordan compared the militant threat in Syria with Afghanistan and acknowledged that the situation in the region would be “catastrophic and something that we would be reeling from for decades to come.”

The United States proxy war to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, financed and armed by Washington’s Sunni allies in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, and trained and supported with military intelligence by Jordan and Israel ─ is said to be “fraught with dangers” for the Jordanian king. An overthrow of Syria’s president “at the hands of the rival Islamist gangs now fighting in Syria could result in the fragmentation of the country, with consequences that would spill over into Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.”

MALI AND NIGER (refugees)

Since Friday January 11, Mauritania has received 4,208 Malians, Niger 1,300 refugees from Mali, and Burkina Faso 1,829. These numbers, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), brought the total number of Malian refugees in neighboring states to 147,000.

Thousands more people of Mali have become refugees since France began military operations against “Islamic rebels in the north of the country.”

People are fleeing to neighboring countries already struggling to provide food and water for earlier waves of refugees.

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U.S. drone wars ─ an anonymous source has allegedly told Agence France Presse that U.S. officials plan “to consolidate the U.S. position in Africa with a new drone, robotic unmanned aircraft, outpost in Niger, on the eastern border of Mali” where French forces are engaged.

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ast week, Washington sent approximately 100 military trainers to nations that are prepared to or have already deployed troops to Mali. These nations include Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Togo, and Ghana.]

KENYA (refugees harassed)

AlertNet reports a refugee telling the group Refugees International ─

We left our homeland against our will. We thought we could save our lives by running to another country. We thought we would be protected. But now we face the same harassment here as we faced in our homeland, because of the Kenyan government’s directive. These past few weeks in Nairobi, we are feeling that the security forces are treating us like war captives rather than refugees.

“Refugees International (RI) is deeply concerned about Kenya’s recent decision to move 100,000 city-dwelling refugees into camps” and has called on the Government of Kenya “not to pursue this relocation plan and to ensure that the rights of all refugees are respected.”

The RI team in Nairobi had interviewed refugees who described conditions consequent to Kenya’s decision – violence, harassment, and extortion suffered at the hands of Kenyan security services.

CHAD (refugees, protracted humanitarian crisis)

Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked as number 183 out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index. 

Sixty-four percent of the population lives below the national poverty line. It is estimated that 4.4 million people will be in need of humanitarian assistance in Chad in 2013

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had has continued to host refugees from the Central African Republic and from the Darfur conflict in Sudan together with caring for its own internally displaced people (IDPs) resulting from internal conflict.

Refugees are dependent on humanitarian aid, former IDPs need support for better conditions for re-integration, and host communities are affected by the degradation of the environment caused by deforestation, over-exploitation of groundwater and pressure on scarce natural resources.

Millennium Development Goals

In September of the year 2000, leaders of 189 countries met at the United Nations in New York and endorsed the Millennium Declaration, a commitment to work together to build a safer, more prosperous and equitable world. The Declaration was translated into a road map setting out eight time-bound and measurable goals to be reached by 2015, known as the Millennium Development Goals: 

1. 1.    Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 

1. 2.    Achieve universal primary education 

1. 3.    Promote gender equality and empower women 

1. 4.    Reduce child mortality 

1. 5.    Improve maternal health 

1. 6.    Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases 

1. 7.    Ensure environmental sustainability 

1. 8.    Develop a global partnership for development

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hese goals are meaningless in the absence of nonviolence in international relations, an embrace of the original intent of the United Nations and a balance of power therein, and nonviolence in mediation and relations between, among and within individual and regional countries and nations

Sources and notes

“More than half Syria refugees are children, says UN” (By Michelle Nichols, Source: reuters // Reuters), January 17, 2013, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/more-than-half-syria-refugees-are-children-says-un/

Photo image AlertNet: An internally displaced child looks on as others watch cartoons in a classroom of a school in Kafranbel in Idlib province January 16, 2013. REUTERS/Giath Taha

  

“Jordan on the brink of disaster… Far from ushering in a period of reform, last week’s elections in Jordan resulted in a large majority for tribal leaders, pro-monarchy loyalists and businessmen …” [and] Jordan’s King Abdullah speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos “called for the major powers to come together ‘decisively’ to end the bloodshed and come up with a solution to the crisis in Syria, a thinly veiled demand for direct imperialist intervention” (By Jean Shaoul, RT), January 29, 2013,  http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/01/29/jord-j29.html

  

“Malian refugees face dire conditions in neighboring states” (Source: alertnet // Katie Nguyen), January 22, 2013, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/malian-refugees-face-dire-conditions-in-neighbouring-states/

Photo Image: Malian sisters Takia, 20, (L) and Fatimata Wallet Mohammed, 18, pose in their shelter at Mbera refugee camp in southern Mauritania, May 23, 2012. REUTERS/Joe Penney

“U.S. considering new drone base in Africa – report,” January 29, 2013, http://rt.com/news/us-drone-base-africa-945/

  

“Kenyan Plan to Force Refugees Into Camps Leads to Abuse, Violates International Law” (Source: member), January 23, 2013, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/kenyan-plan-to-force-refugees-into-camps-leads-to-abuse-violates-international-law/

“ACT Alliance Alert: Towards sustainable recovery: Assistance to refugees, former IDPs and host communities in eastern and southern Chad” (Source: member // ACT Alliance – Switzerland), January 10, 2013,  http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/act-alliance-alert-towards-sustainable-recovery-assistance-to-refugees-former-idps-and-host-communities-in-eastern-and-southern-

The Millennium Development Goals

In September of the year 2000, leaders of 189 countries met at the United Nations in New York and endorsed the Millennium Declaration, a commitment to work together to build a safer, more prosperous and equitable world.

The Declaration was translated into a roadmap setting out eight time-bound and measurable goals to be reached by 2015, known as the Millennium Development Goals, namely: 

The Millennium Development Goals Eight Goals for 2015

9.       Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
10.   Achieve universal primary education
11.   Promote gender equality and empower women
12.  Reduce child mortality
13.   Improve maternal health
14.   Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
15.   Ensure environmental sustainability
16.   Develop a global partnership for development
 http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgoverview.html
For more information, please visit: www.un.org/millenniumgoals

http://www.un.org/en/mdg/summit2010/pdf/List%20of%20MDGs%20English.pdf

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Meet interconnected global challenges “collectively” ─ Annan

Give up “old mindset of national security/economic growth at the expense of other countries” Thoughts of Kofi Annan
Edited excerpt for Today’s Insight News by Carolyn Bennett

Five principles I believe are essential for the future

conduct of international relations:

Collective responsibility

Global solidarity

Rule of law

Mutual accountability

Multilateralism

Kofi Annan’s final address as

UN Secretary-General, December 2006 [excerpt]

Now former UN Secretary General heading the Kofi Annan Foundation, he offered an Indonesian audience his insight on five years’ global reality and more immediate issues out of Copenhagen and the global economic crisis.

“…The last five years have seen severe global food shortages, soaring energy costs and, of course, the gravest economic crisis in more than 60 years. No continent, no country or community has escaped the fall-out,” Annan said. “The challenges of our time are many, complex and interconnected” ─ challenges that “cannot be tackled by any one country acting alone” ─ no matter how wealthy or powerful that country might be.… “We all live in the same boat and nations need not fear the success of another.…

“Multiple crises ─ of extreme poverty, famine, conflict, disease, natural disasters ─ will be made worse by climate change. Global terrorism, nuclear proliferation, piracy and the collapse of governance in various parts of the world have brought home the reality of our common vulnerability and the need for collective action.”

Old certainties of the political and economic order are disappearing. A system of global governance shaped largely by powerful countries in the North has shifted towards the emerging economies in the South.

These developments have left countries struggling to adapt but they need to catch up fast. The scale and urgency of the challenges demand it. A new style of leadership is required ─ one that looks beyond narrow national interests and recognizes that durable solutions will only come through multilateral action based on shared values and agreed goals.

Improvement in the quality of governance at international and national levels is required to ensure the meeting of countries and citizens’ demands for voice and fair representation. Leaders at the national level should strive for good governance based on a democratic political system, respect for human rights, and the rule of law. At the global level, governments should ask themselves whether the existing architecture of international institutions is adequate for the tasks before them.

The G20’s collective commitments to stimulate, regulate, and restructure global economic activity helped to calm nerves and restore confidence. Recession has not led to global depression but we are not out of the woods yet.… Crucially, we have not taken the steps needed to ensure that the mistakes and misjudgments that led to this crisis are not repeated.

Measures are also needed to prevent imbalanced growth and to ensure that the major economies reduce their long-term deficits.

Lessons that should have been learned from the initial success of the global response are in danger of being quickly forgotten. While anxiety levels in boardrooms and stock markets may have come down, the daily drama of survival has worsened for many in the world’s least developed countries including much of Africa. We risk forgetting the damage that has been caused to countries and communities that played no part in provoking this crisis.

Jobs have gone, incomes and opportunities lost. Tens of millions more people have been added to the already scandalously high number living below the poverty line. Therefore, together with collective action to prevent any repeat of this crisis, we also have to consider how we are going to step up protection for the most vulnerable on our planet.

Our common values and international solidarity require that we do more to tackle the inequalities in our world, not allow them to widen further; but we are actually seeing wealthier countries use this crisis to wriggle out of their development pledges.

Many African countries ─ who are not asking for charity but for stronger partnerships ─ fear their appeals may be rebuffed.…

• We need to see commitments met to mitigate the social impact of the crisis by ensuring that some of the enormous sums raised for global stimulus plans reach the least developed countries. 
• Reform of global financial institutions should also be stepped up to give a bigger voice not only to emerging economies but also to other developing countries.
•  Reform must be complemented by agreement on a timetable to tackle the unfairness in global economic rules and market distortions that heavily disadvantage developing countries.
•  Look again at the conditions so often attached to aid and loans, which unnecessarily constrain the policy autonomy of developing countries.
•  Measures to fix the immediate crisis and create greater stability in the long term will unravel if poor countries and poor people are left out or further disadvantaged.

These same lessons, based on shared values, must also guide us ─ and urgently ─ in tackling the crisis of climate change. As with the global economic crisis, those countries which have done least to cause global warming are paying the highest price. They are also, tragically, countries with the least resources to protect their people and adapt to the impact of climate change. “I believe climate change is the greatest challenge of modern times and the key test of leadership.…” Climate change must remain a top political priority for all countries. This means raising levels of ambition, educating publics, and rebuilding confidence in a multilateral process that delivers an agreement that is universal, effective and fair ─ with climate justice at its heart.

Fairness means that the industrialized countries responsible for the historic build up of emissions take the lead in cutting emissions dramatically and supporting mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. … The choice long-term is not a choice between being economically successful or environmentally sound; both areas of challenge are part of the same coin. The ability to look to the long-term is one of the qualities we need more than ever.

Political leaders will need to find the courage and vision to set aside special interests and ignore the tyranny of the electoral cycle. Focus instead on the implications of failure and the appalling burden this will place on future generations. However, leadership cannot be confined to politicians.… Governments alone cannot solve the world’s problems. We all need to accept our responsibility.

This responsibility imposes a heavy burden on our leaders but it also requires all sections of our communities ─ business, civil society, the media and the public ─ to call for collective action to find solutions for global challenges.

• The business sector must minimize the negative impacts of their operations and invest in clean energy and infrastructure at home and abroad.  
• Ensure that their pursuit of profit does not result in protectionism that prevents developing countries from accessing the knowledge and technology needed to shift to low carbon growth. 
• Civil society, academia, trade unions, professional associations, local authorities, youth and women’s groups have a contribution to make in education, in altering behavior, in pressing leaders to take sustained action.

We need to get out of the old mindset that the national security and economic growth of one country need come at the expense of another. In the modern inter-connected world, power and prosperity are not a zero-sum game. We all live in the same boat and nations need not fear the success of another.

It is cooperation … not competition that will lead to sustainable progress and durable peace.

Putting our common values of fairness and humanity into action will heal divisions, spread prosperity and bring stability.

Old certainties may be disappearing. The new multi-polar world in which we live may be more fluid and unpredictable; but if it leads to reformed institutions reflecting modern realities, more voices to help reach the right conclusions, and a consensus around shared values and goals ─ we should be confident. It is time to make further progress …. Our world depends upon it.

Sources and notes
“The Challenges for Leaders in a Multi-polar World” (speech by Kofi Annan, March 4, 2010 in
Jakarta, Indonesia), http://kofiannanfoundation.org/newsroom/speeches/2010/03/challenges-leaders-multipolar-world

While visiting Singapore former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sat for an interview with Al Jazeera’s Teymoor Nabili in discussions covering China-African relations, African land sales, eradication of poverty, the Millennium Development Goals, invasion of Iraq, Middle East peace process, the Goldstone report, Annan’s role as mediator and the future of Kenya. Annan had come to Singapore to lecture at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. The Al Jazeera program “Talk to Jazeera: Kofi Annan” began airing Wednesday, March 10, 2010. http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/talktojazeera/2010/03/201031163028606113.html

“The Kofi Annan Foundation supports Kofi Annan’s efforts to provide inspirational and catalytic leadership on critical global issues, particularly preserving and building peace and facilitating more equitable sharing of the benefits of globalization, by promoting poverty alleviation, good governance, human rights and the rule of law.” http://kofiannanfoundation.org/activities