TO mark 70 years of the United Nations (UN)
Charter, which was drafted on June 26, 1945, the
Secretary General of the organisation, Ban Ki
Moon, has extolled the contribution of the body
to global peace, despite the recent gloom
brought about by extremism.
Ki Moon, who himself was a beneficiary of UN
gestures during the Korean War, said ever since
then, the body had occupied a special place in
his life.
“I was six years old when the Korean War broke
out. I have memories of my village in flames as
my family sought refuge in nearby mountains.
But another sight is even more lasting: the UN
flag. We were saved from hunger by UN food
relief operations; we received textbooks from the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation (UNESCO); and when we
wondered whether the outside world cared about
our suffering, the troops of many nations
sacrificed their lives to restore security and
peace,” he said.
As the world marked the 70th anniversary of the
adoption of the Organisation’s founding Charter
yesterday, Ki Moon expressed hope that the
human race would come together with greater
determination to work for a safer and more
sustainable future.
According to him, the UN is proud to have
worked with many partners to dismantle
colonialism, triumph over apartheid, keep the
peace in troubled places and articulate a body of
treaties and law to safeguard human rights.
He added: “Every day, the United Nations feeds
the hungry, shelters refugees and vaccinates
children against polio and other deadly diseases.
Our relief workers brave remote and dangerous
environments to deliver humanitarian assistance,
and our mediators strive to find common ground
between warring parties and peaceful solutions
to grievances and disputes. The United Nations
was founded to prevent another World War, and
it has succeeded in that corer mission; despite
grave setbacks, the past seven decades would
surely have been even bloodier without the
United Nations.
“Yet we are keenly aware that today’s landscape
is scarred by conflict, exploitation and despair.
At least 59.5 million people have fled their
homes – more refugees, displaced persons and
asylum seekers than at any time since the end of
the Second World War. Violence against women
blights all societies. At a time of pressing human
needs, huge amounts of money continue to be
squandered on nuclear weapons and other
destabilising military arsenals. The consequences
of climate change are ever more apparent—and
have only just begun. And although the world
said “never again” after the Holocaust, and again
after genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica, we
continue to witness atrocious crimes by violent
extremists and others.”
Pointing the world to goals that must be
achieved, the UN Secretary General said the goal
of the body would be transformation.
“We are the first generation that can erase
poverty from the earth – and the last that can
act to avoid the worst impacts of a warming
world.
“As the distinctions between the national and the
international continue to fall away, challenges
faced by one become challenges faced by all,
sometimes gradually but often suddenly. With our
fates ever more entwined, our future must be
one of ever deeper cooperation – nations united
by a spirit of global citizenship that lives up to
the promise of the Organisation’s name,” he
admonished.
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