Page 481 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

Bringing the Concept to Life

The universal acceptance — if not full implementation — of fundamental
human rights norms; a dense network of conventional and nuclear
disarmament and arms regulation agreements; the establishment of an
International Criminal Court to bring to justice perpetrators of the most
heinous crimes against humanity; the elaboration of environmentally and
socially sensitive strategies for sustainable development, and the adoption of
explicit policies for conflict prevention, peacemaking, peace-keeping, and
peace-building are all significant and lasting results of continuous negotiation
and discussion within the framework of the United Nations. Sustained by an
unfailing commitment to the human dimension, the United Nations
have managed to place the individual at the centre of international politics
while respecting the sovereignty of’ States. That is why the Norwegian
Nobel Committee in its centenary year chose to proclaim that ’the only
negotiable route to global peace and cooperation goes by way of the United Nations”.

Delegates, the proposed draft resolutions that you will debate today and
tomorrow clearly indicate the preoccupations of the international community
at a time where a feeling of intense insecurity prevails in the aftermath of the
terrorist attacks on the United States on 11 September. They also reflect the
ever-changing nature of international relations and flexibility in the use of
diplomatic, political, legal and economic tools. International politics is no
longer the exclusive preserve of States.

Although states remain the major units of international relations, including
the UN, a multitude of new actors on the world scene are constructive
participants in an extensive democratic process. Even at the governmental
level, we have such active actors as parliaments and sub-national governmental
structures. The United Nations Office at Geneva, the largest European centre
of the Organization whose major preoccupations are norm-setting,
technical assistance and know-how-sharing at the highest political level, has
been at the forefront of these developments, encouraging and facilitating
the direct involvement of a multitude of actors.

As the United States entered the First World War, President Woodrow
Wilson — one of the founding fathers of the League of Nations — declared
that ‘the world must be made safe for democracy’. Maybe more importantly, as we
can appreciate in a historical perspective, the world must be made democratic
to be safe. But for the international community, democracy is not only a
political concept. It also has economic and social dimensions.

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