Page 453 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

Bringing the Concept to Life

What makes disarmament so compelling in a strategy for peace and
promotion of human rights is that it would eliminate the gravest threats in
particular to the right for life and eliminate them more reliably than any
conceivable alternative. Of course, the moral imperative for disarmament is
combined with its self-evidently practical need in terms of economic and social
dividends.

Next year will be a year of disarmament:

• Conference on the illegal traffic of small arms,
• Conferences on Biological Weapons Convention,
• Conferences on the Convention on Prohibition or Restrictions on the
Use of Certain Conventional weapons, which may be deemed to be
excessively injurious or to have indiscriminate effects.

In process of preparation of these Conferences, those events should be
treated not only within the traditional arms regulation and disarmament
context, but in the broader context of the protection human rights.

To turn to the vertical line I would like to emphasize first of all further
involvement of regional structures in education for human rights.

Much has been done by many regional organizations.

What is very important today is to develop the exchange of experience.
Next year will provide a good opportunity for this.

In October there will be the 10th Anniversary of the three-cycle confer-
ences of OSCE on human dimension, which have established the criteria for
guaranteeing fundamental human rights on the vast territory from Vancouver
to Vladivostok, from Murmansk to Malta, from Dublin to Dushanbe.

Matters, relevant to culture, information and education are considered in
the documents of these Conferences to be of the major importance for
guaranteeing human rights.

It is very encouraging for actions in all the system of international
coordinates that the new century starts with new campaigns. It is particularly
fitting that the year 2001, which has been proclaimed as the International Year
of Mobilization against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
431