Peoples of the world must unite in hope

Two years ago, the world's political leaders met at this place, the United Nations General Assembly, and through the historic United Nations Millennium Declaration "reaffirmed our faith in the (United Nations) Organisation and its Charter as indispensable foundations of a more peaceful, prosperous and just world".

That an unprecedented number of Heads of State and Government had gathered at the United Nations to make this commitment to cooperation among the peoples of the world, to peace, prosperity and justice throughout our universe gave hope to the billions throughout the world who know the painful meaning of oppression by another, of war and violent conflict, of poverty and injustice.

None of those who spoke from this podium knew that a year after they had pledged to use their energies and talents to provide a meaningful life for all, peace in this country and the rest of the world would be brutally challenged by the murderous terrorist attack of September 11.

We meet a day after the first anniversary of that fateful September 11. We have a collective duty to reaffirm our united resolve to create a world free of the fear of terrorism. We have a common task to ensure that this Organisation truly lives up to its obligations to do all the things that make for peace. We have a solemn obligation to give real meaning to the message of hope we proclaimed in the Millennium Declaration. It may be that future generations will say that if we have learnt anything at all from the horrendous events of September 11, it is to the accomplishment of these tasks that this General Assembly should dedicate its efforts.

In keeping with that perspective, we have come to the 57th General Assembly to report that the peoples of Africa have risen to these challenges by forming the African Union. Our Union is based on the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. It results from the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which championed the cause of unity and independence of Africa, for nearly 40 years.

The African Union (AU) is Africa's practical and determined response to its past and present, in favour of peace and stability, democracy and human rights, cooperation, development, prosperity and human dignity.

Its programme for the socio-economic revitalisation of our Continent is the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which must help us to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment throughout Africa and, within the context of the African Union, end Africa's humiliation as an object of charity.

Clearly, the objectives of the African Union and the programme enunciated in the New Partnership essentially and of necessity seek to advance the aims contained in the Millennium Development Goals.

Naturally, the United Nations as an organisation seized of the task to address the critical issues of peace, human rights and poverty eradication within the framework of sustainable development, will forever be central to the success of the African Union and the accomplishment of the goals of the New Partnership for Africa's Development.

Accordingly, on behalf of the united peoples of Africa, we are honoured and privileged to commend to this august Organisation both the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's Development. We are convinced that with your support, we will transform this into an African Century.

We are happy that there are encouraging peace processes in Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan, with the Comoros already having held successful elections. We are particularly pleased because these positive developments will create the possibility for millions of our fellow Africans to reaffirm the sanctity of human life and security, and to engage in the important tasks of rebuilding their countries to bring about a better life for all.

As part of our commitment to wage a sustained struggle to realise the long-deferred hopes of the peoples of Africa, we have agreed to the establishment of various institutions, including a peer-review mechanism, which must help us ensure that we honour our commitments democracy, human rights and good governance.

I am confident that the United Nations will work closely with the African Union, and that this premier organisation of the peoples of the world will use its vast and invaluable experience to ensure that the African Union delivers on the important and pressing duty of achieving sustainable development in each and every country on our continent.

Together, the UN agencies and the organs of the African Union must give priority to such matters as human resources development and capacity building, modernising Africa's economy, dealing decisively with the intolerable debt burden, ensuring access for our products in the markets of the developed world, speeding-up the emancipation and empowerment of women, combating communicable and other diseases, including AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and fighting against environmental degradation.

At the end of August and the beginning of this month, the people of South Africa and Africa were honoured to host the World Summit for Sustainable Development. A number of far-reaching decisions were taken at this important Summit to ensure that we will bequeath to the next generations a better, humane and equitable world based on what we agree are the inseparable pillars of sustainable development - economic development, social development and environmental protection.

Delegates from around the world enshrined the decisions they took in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development, to ensure that the billions of people who have placed their fate on our collective shoulders have a concrete programme of action to realise the goals contained in Agenda 21 and other documents adopted by the world community of nations during the last ten years.

The Johannesburg Summit confronted the stark reality that billions of people across the globe are poor, and, boldly confirmed the need for us to collaborate for a shared human prosperity through sustainable development. We agree that this goal can be achieved because we are inspired by the knowledge that the resources needed exist within the global community.

Indeed, Member States have already committed themselves to make available the means necessary for the implementation of our plans, especially finance, technology and capacity building. It is critically important that we implement everything we agreed, acting with the necessary sense of urgency.

Again, this we will do together, under the leadership of the United Nations while we continue to strengthen the multilateral system of global governance, as the only viable international response to all our challenges.

Fundamentally, this is the only credible response to the challenge of globalisation and the need to enhance human solidarity to meet our common needs.

It has been our privilege to chair the Non-Aligned Movement for the past four years. During this time, NAM has ensured constant dialogue between the countries of the North and South, which has advanced the commonality of interest between States, confirming the view that the future of all humanity is interlinked. We are pleased that the views of the Movement have helped to inform the advance towards a better life for all to which we have all committed ourselves by word and deed.

In February next year, Malaysia will assume the responsibility of guiding our Movement as it responds to the changed and changing global environment. I am certain that this will add new strength to the Non-Aligned Movement in the interests of all humanity, especially the poor of the world.

As before, the Non-Aligned Movement is committed to the peaceful resolution of all conflicts, including those pertaining to Palestine and Israel, as well as Iraq, in keeping with the resolutions of this United Nations Organisations. These are urgent tasks to which this Organisation must respond.

In conclusion, we will recall that two years ago in the Millennium Declaration more than 150 Heads of State and Government resolved that 'we believe that the central challenge we face today is to ensure that globalisation becomes a positive force for all the world's people'.

Through both our global and regional programmes we can and must ensure that globalisation indeed becomes a valuable process, which will bring about sustainable development and prosperity for all.

From this 57th Session of the General Assembly must issue the unequivocal message that the peoples of the world are united in their resolve to sustain the message of hope by advancing the goals of peace, democracy, prosperity and sustainable development.

Steve Biko

South Africa remembers

South Africans this week marked the 25th anniversary of the killing in police custody of black consciousness leader Steve Bantu Biko by remembering and honouring his significant contribution to the struggle against apartheid.

Only 30 years old when he died, Biko had a profound impact not only on the course of the struggle, but on the political thinking of a generation of activists. Biko's ideas helped forge the black consciousness movement at a moment when internal resistance to apartheid was being revived. The ideas and organising capacity of Steve Biko contributed much to that revival, helping to give it form and purpose.

Steve Biko's legacy lives on in many forms. The political work of Biko and his comrades in the 1970s, fuelled by the 1976 student uprisings, gave rise to a generation of young freedom fighters who took up the struggle within the country and outside - many of whom joined the ANC and Umkhonto we Sizwe. The subsequent intensification of the struggle on several fronts, which continued throughout the 1980s, led to the defeat of the apartheid state at the negotiating table.

The impact of Biko's thoughts on 'black pride' have also been profound. Like many African leaders before him, Biko recognised the need for blacks to be liberated from notions of inferiority and subservience. Like them, Biko worked through political organisation and social mobilisation to develop the collective confidence and assertiveness of black and African people. It was this confidence which made the democratic breakthrough of 1994 possible, and which - on a continental scale - is now fuelling efforts to regenerate Africa.

Like many of his compatriots, Steve Biko was engaged in struggle from early in life. Born in 1946 in King Williams Town, he was expelled from his first school, Lovedale, in the Eastern Cape for 'anti-establishment' behaviour. After completing his schooling in the then Natal, he enrolled as a student at the 'Black Section' of the University of Natal Medical School.

Whilst there, he became involved with the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). Frustrated that the union was dominated by white liberals and failed to represent the needs of black students, Biko and others resigned in 1969 and founded the South African Students' Organisation (SASO). SASO was involved in providing legal aid and medical clinics, as well as helping to develop cottage industries for disadvantaged black communities.

Biko was one of the founders, in 1972, of the Black Peoples Convention (BPC). The BPC effectively brought together roughly 70 different black consciousness groups and associations, such as the South African Student's Movement (SASM, the National Association of Youth Organisations (NAYO), and the Black Workers Project (BWP) which supported black workers whose unions were not recognised under the apartheid regime. Biko was elected as the first president of the BPC and was promptly expelled from medical school. He started working full time for the Black Community Programme (BCP) in Durban.

In 1973 Steve Biko was 'banned' by the apartheid government. Under the 'ban' Biko was restricted to Kings William's Town. He was able to continue working for the BPC, helping to set up the Zimele Trust Fund which assisted political prisoners and their families.

Biko was detained and interrogated four times between August 1975 and September 1977 under anti-terrorism legislation. On 21 August 1977 Biko was detained by the Eastern Cape security police and held in Port Elizabeth. From the Walmer police cells he was taken for interrogation at the security police headquarters. On 7 September "Biko sustained a head injury during interrogation, after which he acted strangely and was uncooperative. The doctors who examined him (naked, lying on a mat and manacled to a metal grille) initially disregarded overt signs of neurological injury."

By 11 September, Biko had slipped into a continual, semi-conscious state and the police physician recommended a transfer to hospital. Biko was, however, transported 1,200 km to Pretoria - a 12-hour journey which he made lying naked in the back of a Land Rover. A few hours later, on 12 September, alone and still naked, lying on the floor of a cell in the Pretoria Central Prison, Biko died from brain damage.

In a subsequent inquest, the magistrate failed to find anyone responsible, ruling that Biko had died as a result of injuries sustained during a scuffle with security police while in detention. The brutal circumstances of Biko's death caused a worldwide outcry. The apartheid government banned a number of individuals and organisations, especially those Black Consciousness groups closely associated with Biko. The United Nations Security Council responded by finally imposing an arms embargo against South Africa.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was established in 1996 by the democratic government, found that Biko's death in detention was a gross human rights violation. The police officers responsible for Biko's death applied for amnesty during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings which sat in Port Elizabeth in 1997. The applications were unsuccessful.

The political movement that Steve Biko forged belonged to a particular moment in South African history. His vision however remains timeless. In 1973, Biko wrote: "We have set out on a quest for true humanity, and somewhere on the distant horizon we can see the glittering prize. Let us march forth with courage and determination, drawing strength from our common plight and our brotherhood. In time we shall be in a position to bestow upon South Africa the greatest gift possible - a more human face."

More Information:

• Steve Biko Foundation
• Address by Nelson Mandela, September 1997

September 11 attacks

Shared grief, shared solutions

As memorials were held across the world this week on the first anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, the shared shock and grief with which the world greeted news of the attack has been joined by calls for a common response to terrorism.

This Wednesday, people across the globe gathered to remember the 3,000 or so lives lost when hijacked airliners crashed into New York's World Trade Centre, the Pentagon in Washington and rural Pennsylvania. From Japan to Australia, South Africa to France, the United Kingdom to the United States, the people's of the world were united in their grief and their determination to put an end to such attacks.

One of the most significant effects of the September 11 attacks was the virtual unanimity among the nations of the world that the attacks represented an assault on all humanity. They were roundly condemned as an abhorrent violation of human rights and dignity.

Writing at the time in ANC Today, President Thabo Mbeki said: "All human beings everywhere, including ourselves, will surely be engulfed by a deep sense of shame that human society is still capable of producing people who can deliberately plan and execute a crime as heinous as the crime that was perpetrated in the United States earlier this week."

"As we share the grief of the bereaved and seek to comfort those who are maimed, this we must say, that as a civilised people we condemn this act of terrorism unreservedly and will do everything we can, to ensure that our own society does not give birth to the ugly and repugnant formations that committed wilful mass murder in New York and Washington," he said.

It was a sentiment echoed around the world - that we each have a responsibility to work to prevent acts of terror and to act together to find common solutions to terrorism and the circumstances which give rise to them.

This matter, of how the world should respond to terrorism, is one of the issues addressed in a report of a policy working group on the United Nations and Terror published this month. Set up by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in October last year, the working group was tasked with making recommendations on how the UN should respond to terrorism.

The report notes that terrorism undermines and threatens the leading principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter: "Terrorism is, and is intended to be, an assault on the principles of law, order, human rights and peaceful settlement of disputes on which the world body was founded."
It suggests that the UN's activities should support global efforts to:

• dissuade disaffected groups from embracing terrorism;
• deny groups or individuals the means to carry out acts of terrorism;
• sustain broad-based international cooperation in the struggle against terrorism.

The report says the UN must place the protection of human rights as an essential concern: "Terrorism often thrives where human rights are violated, which adds to the need to strengthen action to combat violations of human rights. Terrorism itself should also be understood as an assault on basic rights. In all cases, the fight against terrorism must be respectful of international human rights obligations."

The report notes that terrorism is often related to armed conflict. While efforts to end armed conflict are not primarily 'anti-terrorist' activities, they can assist such activities by narrowing the space in which terrorists operate. The role of the UN in conflict-resolution is therefore an important part of its contribution to preventing terrorism.

The report notes that terrorism takes many forms and arises from a broad set of circumstances. It is therefore necessary that it be tackled across a number of fronts, seeking at all times maximum cooperation between and among the governments of the world and multi-lateral forums like the United Nations.

The overwhelming message from the nations of the world is that terrorism is a global problem that should be tackled globally, through cooperation and broad consensus, and through working towards the rule of law, respect for human rights and the achievement of peace and equitable human development.

More Information:

• UN Report on fighting terrorism, September 2002

Return to Index