Page 452 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

91.

STATEMENT
BY VLADIMIR PETROVSKY
DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE AT GENEVA
SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT
AT THE PANEL OF HEADS OF AGENCIES
ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION

Geneva, 11 December 2000

A
t the time when after the Millennium Summit we are facing the
challenge to fortify the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to
concentrate on practical actions to promote human rights, this panel
can play a significant role as a source of novel, timely and practical ideas
relevant to the ongoing UN Decade on Human Rights Education.

Promotion of human rights needs not only a further strengthening but also
expansion of the infrastructure of support. Education plays a key role in this
context. I think that the education should fill all the system of coordinates of
international cooperation. Horizontally the education for human rights should
cut across all the sector lines of the UN activities, institutions and programmes.
Vertically all the layers of activities - global, regional, national.

Speaking about the horizontal line I think it would be very important to
incorporate the human rights education into the disarmament deliberations
and negotiations that we are undertaking today.

Indeed, the threats posed by modern weapons of war are so grave that they
jeopardize literally all our collective cultural, political and economic heritage.
In accordance with the concept of security in all aspects, adopted by the Gen-
eral Assembly at the end of the Cold War in 1988 (44/21), the disarmament is
inextricably linked to human security.

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