Gloomy agenda as world leaders gather at UN
World leaders gathering at the United Nations confront a depressing global agenda dominated by new terrorist threats, a humanitarian disaster in Sudan, turmoil in Iraq, and a growing gap between the richest and poorest inhabitants of planet Earth.
President George Bush signalled that there will be a sharp shift in the US focus at this year’s ministerial meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York today – with Iraq sharing the spotlight with humanitarian issues, not dominating the two week session.
Bush said that in his speech he would “talk about the great possibilities of our time to improve health, expand prosperity and extend freedom in the world.”
But even before the meeting began, the US was criticised by French President Jacques Chirac for refusing to endorse a declaration backed by 110 countries to fight hunger and to increase funds to help millions escape the poverty trap.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says if there is one theme to the ministerial meeting of the 191 member General Assembly it is “the rule of law.”
A senior UN official, previewing Annan’s speech at today’s opening session, said it would focus, “very unhappily,” on those who break laws on the basic rules of human conduct, which include respect for innocent civilians, children and prisoners of war.
Daily examples are evident in Iraq where hostages are beheaded, Sudan’s Darfur region where the United States claims a genocide has occurred, northern Uganda, Israel and the Palestinian territories and just recently in Beslan, Russia, where a school was seized and hundreds of children were taken hostage.
“So this is a rather lawless world that we’re living in, and we all have to ask ourselves why is it that people don’t respect the rules?,” said the official.
The official said there is a feeling the rules are made ”by some bunch of very rich and powerful people, or rich and powerful states, who make them for their own convenience and don’t respect them when it’s not convenient.”
Annan will argue for the rule of law in every country – laws that all peoples are bound by and will obey.
The United Nations said 66 heads of state, 28 heads of government will address the General Assembly along with dozens of ministers.
