UN Millennium Summit

By Chiranjibi Paudyal

Important For Developing Nations

THE Millennium Assembly of the United Nations has once again expressed its firm determination to fulfil the commitment made by the Millennium Summit held in the UN headquarters last month. It is expected that the general assembly of the world body will bring out concrete recommendations based on the commitment made during the millennium summit.

Commitment

The heads of state and government of over 150 nations and the representatives of about 189 member countries of the United Nations have expressed their commitment to reduce poverty, protect the environment, promote democracy, respect for the human right, reserve the spread of AIDS, maintain peace and security and maintain fundamental values, including freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance and shared responsibility which are considered to be essential to international relations in the 21st century.

Though the words are not enough to resolve the burning problems of the world, the commitment made by the world leaders during the Millennium Summit, the biggest gathering in the history of the UN, seems to be very meaningful in the present context of the world where so many problems are cropping up even after the end of the Cold War.

The world has faced many problems, but poverty which is the root cause of many conflicts around the world, is the worst enemy of the mankind. The world leaders once again identified this serious problem and reiterated their commitment to reduce the poverty to at least half by 2015 which seems to be a ray of hope for ever a billion poverty stricken population of the world.

In spite of man’s efforts, world inequality has increased sharply over the past decades. According to the report of the UN agency, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the global inequality is worse now than before. The inequality has given rise to the conflicts around the world.

In 1950, the gap between the average income between the richest and poorest country was about 35 to one, while by 1992 the gap had widened to 72 to one. This is estimated to have widened further more. This is a very serious problem which needs to be addressed as soon as possible. The per capita income of the people of about 50 countries and most of them the countries of the sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, fell in the last decade. Famine, disease, civil war, terrorism, natural calamities, misuse of development aid and increasing number of corruption cases have made the situation worse in the developing countries and has left the number of absolute poverty at 1.2 billion people in 1998.

The developing countries, including Nepal, very strongly raised the issues of global problems including the poverty reduction. During the Millennium Summit, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala stated that the growing gap between the haves and have nots would be a greater threat to the global security than other conflicts and that the world body should play a lead role in addressing this challenge in the coming days. Appreciation of Nepalese Prime Minister’s remark by many leaders of the developing world as well as the developed countries is a very positive point for Nepal.

The 32 point Millennium Declaration has clearly stated that the freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature and shared responsibility are considered to be certain fundamental values to be essential to international relations in the twenty first century. The meeting of the world leaders have also stated that the democratic and participatory governance based on the will of the people best assures these rights.

Nepal is also one of the contributors to the UN peace keeping operations and the role of Nepal in the peace keeping operation is appreciated throughout the world. The world body is currently engaged in 14 peacekeeping operations most of them in the world’s poorest countries with more than 37,000 troops and civilian police deployed from East Timor to Cyprus and Sierra Leone at an annual cost of about $2.2 billion.

Nearly 1,000 UN civilian staffs are engaged in 14 other political and peace-building missions. Peacekeeping, security and disarmament also got priority in the summit. The UN members expressed their commitment to free the peoples from the scourge of war, whether within or between states which has claimed more than 5 million lives in the past decade and also seek to eliminate the dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction.

Nepal’s contribution to the United Nations specially in the UN peacekeeping force is highly appreciated throughout the world. Around 35,000 Nepalese soldiers have so far served in the various war torn regions of the world and around three dozen have laid down their lives for the cause of the world peace.

Safeguarding basic rights of the people, human rights and strengthening democracy, eradicating of poverty maintaining peace and security, preserving environment and promoting fundamental values and norms which are considered to be essential to international relations in the new millennium were some of the major concerns of the Millennium Summit.

The summit was a good forum for Nepal to explain Nepal’s position on various issues to the international community and shed light on Nepal’s commitment to democracy and human rights. Nepal’s Foreign Ministry believes that the visit of the Nepalese Prime Minister is expected to contribute to enhance Nepal’s identity and image in the international community and promote its larger national interests in the coming years.

Nepal also raised the issue of debt relief measures to the least developed countries and stressed the need to play a lead role by the United Nations. Most of the developing countries have sunk in debt and most of these developing nations are paying more back to the donors and aid institutions than they are spending on health and education.

The United Nations was established by 51 countries in 1945 with a view to creating peace in the world after the horrors of the Second World War. Even after half a century the world body has not been able to prevent the conflicts. When the UN was born, the world’s total population was 2.5 billion and now there are more than double that number-6 billion people - and the member nations of the UN have almost quadrupled to 189.

Adherence

The charter of the United Nations clearly enunciates the need and urgency to bring about world peace by halting the scourge of war and to put an end to the dangers of war is as vital as it was in 1945.

Nepal’s strong adherence to the policy of the United Nations and commitment to make significant contributions in the UN activities has undoubtedly enhanced Nepal’s identity and image throughout the world.

UN : For World Peace & Security

By Ramesh Prasad Gautam

THE United Nations was established with the principle purpose of maintaining peace and security in the world. More than fifty five years ago, the United Nations was established with the main objectives of preventing further war, upholding human rights and conditions of equality and promoting international justices, social progress and better standards of life for the world’s people. Moreover, if peace becomes the dominant factor in the life, it becomes much easier for health and happiness to be attained. Without peace obstacles can be removed. The struggle within the world creates anxiety and stress to such an extent that health and happiness would be eroded.

None of us can depend upon ourselves either for the food we eat or the clothes we wear. It is therefore that cooperation and interdependence that differentiates the human life from the life of the animal. Hence it is clear that the progress of human civilisation through the ages depended on the measure in which men united and cooperated. The history of man’s progress and civilisation is indeed the history of growing cooperation and unity.

The two World Wars were great slip-backs. Perhaps the greatest slip-back in the history of man. As a result of the World Wars the world best tremendous discontent and unrest. So men need to be reminded of the great doctrine of unity, goodwill and cooperation in the interest of their own safety, comfort and happiness.

It is said more wars and acts of violence took place in the previous centuries. With the rapid advancement in science, technology and information, it is now possible to obtain a change from a culture of war and violence to a culture of peace and non-violence. The attainment of a lasting peace will depend on how much the individual is prepared to accept shortcomings and be dedicated to reform and change. A networking and information system has been designed to reflect the movement for world peace.

It is therefore heartening to note that among the people of every country the law of life is mutual dependence and cooperation and not mutual hatred and fear, and that in the atmosphere of unity and cooperation men can live more happily than in an atmosphere of constant ill-will, jealousy, fear and discord.

In the history of human civilisation, the beautiful qualities today are peace, friendship and cooperation. In present stage, we have bright and beautiful history and achievements in one side and instability, enmity and many other heart breaking results of wars are still in human memories on the other. Even today the poor are being suppressed by the rich. The gap between the rich and the poor is becoming wider and wider day by day. Though there are seminars and meetings held about disarmament, there is still a high competition in the production and sale of weapons among the developed and even developing countries. There is misunderstanding and misbehaviours among human beings.

To protect the future generation from heart-breaking causes of war, keep human value and prestige of a person, provide rights of citizens in all countries and to create a situation of law and order, U.N.O. was established on 24 October, 1945. Now, U.N.O. has been trying with great effort to establish and develop world peace, friendship and human value.

Peace is the priceless asset of all the human beings that serves as the prerequisite for progress in the sphere of human activity. One of the main purposes of the establishment of U.N.O. is to contribute to create conditions conducive to promote peace in order to save the human beings from the fear of any war in the future.

It is estimated that some 65 millions people died and 110 million of them were mutilated in the flames of the two World Wars. More than forty million people of the world became homeless. The total military spending since the Second World War has stood about at 500 billion dollars annually. The wars and their preparation caused enormous material damage to many countries of the world Human misery and growing poverty throughout the world is the ruinous consequence of the arm race and growing military expenditure of many countries of the world.

Coming to the question whether equality in wealth and status is necessary for the existence of peace, it is clear that such an equality is impossible. If people are not equal in their intellectual capacities, there can be no equality in position or wealth. So, lasting equality for wealth or position may be impossible. But there is a certain equality which is not only possible but essential for the establishment of peace. And this is the equality of opportunity.

We must have the courage to think globally to break aways from traditional paradigms and plunge boldly into the unknown. We must mobilise our inner and outer resources so that we begin consciously to build a new world based on peace and security. Hence every nation should understand that there could be no lasting peace or social development in the world without peace and security.

As Nepal has been an active member of U.N. and has shown her firm commitment to the principles and purposes of the U.N. charter Nepal has been consistently participating in this noble task since she became its member in 1955. Nepal’s participation in the UN peacekeeping operations began in 1958 when Nepal provide five Nepalese soldiers at the request of U.N.O. Similarly Nepal dispatched Nepalese army in 1965 to serve in UN peacekeeping mission. Larger involvement was called for in 1974 with participation of 570 army personnel in the United Nations Emergency force. Similarly, till now in more than 20 peacekeeping operations, Nepal has been involved. Participating in the U.N. peacekeeping operations, Nepal has shown her enthusiasm to create a peaceful and just world through U.N.

Need

In this context we must try to generate public awareness towards U.N. and its other agencies likewise we should support the U.N. programmes to bring about friendly relationship among the nations to establish world peace and cooperation. Towards this end cooperation between ideology and practice is the need of the hour to our democracy. As such, it is time that we accept that this is the era of democracy and humanism all over the world and contribute from our respective sides to attain U.N.O.

The lofty ideals and objectives of the UN that was specifically created to, among others, ensure world peace, cooperation and harmony.